Isn't your argument basically that CFR doesn't pull any real strings, so therefore it should be considered harmless? Why do you rush to its defense when its ideas are so poisonous? It hardly matters whether the CFR can harm America directly or not. Its ideas deserve to be attacked either way. It hardly matters if its members are powerful or not, or if its associates are influential on the CFR itself or just using it on their curriculum vitae. Some ideas -- and the people who defend them, deserve to be described in the harshest of terms. It's just a thought for you. Good luck!
My argument is that there is no such thing as "its ideas". The CFR is not a policy making organization. It doesn't have ideas. It has members. Members with an incredibly wide divergence of opinion on almost every issue regarding foreign affairs. That this concept can be so impossible for so many to understand is a clear indication that most folks take their information from whackjob conspiracy sites and just assume it is true. Then, when presented with very clear and irrefutable facts to the contrary, they claim there is some sort of secret cover up of the truth. There is nothing secret about the CFR. It doesn't create or advocate any policy. It simply provides a forum for some of the world's foremost foreign affairs experts to publish their opinions. If you want to critique the ideas of some of its members, that is wonderful. And highly encouraged. (In fact, some of the most interesting articles found in the CFR's Foreign Affairs journal are articles from members who disagree with each other.) But to pummel any of its members for articles written by other members, or to claim the CFR pushes any policy or agenda is just gross ignorance. That is the point I am making, but it is just sailing right over the heads of people more interested in posting spam and Spanish obscenities than discussing facts.
Some aspiring student could do a behavioral thesis on this thread alone. What started out as a rather innocuous subject of immigration reform devolved to an arguement about a talk show host and his involvement with CFR. It has since transmogrified into a mud slinging contest about the merits of CFR with all the associated insults and arrows.
When all is said and done, noone is listening to anyone. FReepers...ya gotta love 'em.