Posted on 05/24/2004 7:23:03 PM PDT by SJackson
Senior Jewish Pentagon officials have come under attack from former special US envoy to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni, in a CBS "60 Minutes" interview to be broadcasted Monday night.
Although Israelis remember Zinni as Secretary of State Colin Powell's would-be broker of an Israeli-Palestinian ceasefire, he served before that as commander-in-chief of the US Central Command from 1997 to 2000 and was in charge of all US troops in the Middle East.
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Zinni has recently become a major critic of the Bush administration's Iraqi war, specifically the Pentagon's failure to advise the President properly.
"There has been poor strategic thinking in this," Zinni said. "There has been poor operational planning and execution on the ground. And to think that we are going to 'stay the course'; the course is headed over Niagara Falls. I think it's time to change course a little bit, or at least hold somebody responsible for putting you on this course. Because it's been a failure."
Zinni specifically aimed Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, Undersecretary of Defense Douglas Feith, Former Defense Policy Board member Richard Perle, National Security Council member Eliot Abrams, and Vice President Cheney's chief of staff, Lewis "Scooter" Libby - a group of policymakers within the administration known as "the neo-conservatives" whom he claims saw the invasion of Iraq as a way to stabilize American interests in the region and strengthen the position of Israel.
"I think it's the worst kept secret in Washington. That everybody - everybody I talk to in Washington - has known and fully knows what their agenda was and what they were trying to do," says Zinni.
"Because I mentioned the neo-conservatives, who describe themselves as neo-conservatives, I was called anti-Semitic. I mean, it's unbelievable that that's the kind of personal attacks that are run when you criticize a strategy and those who propose it. I certainly didn't criticize who they were. I certainly don't know what their ethnic religious backgrounds are. And I'm not interested."
Zinni said he believed their strategy was to change the Middle East and bring it into the 21st century.
"All sounds very good, all very noble. The trouble is the way they saw to go about this is unilateral aggressive intervention by the United States - the take down of Iraq as a priority," Zinni added. "And what we have become now in the United States, how we're viewed in this region is not an entity that's promising positive change. We are now being viewed as the modern crusaders, as the modern colonial power in that part of the world."
Zinni said Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and Paul Wolfowitz should accept responsibility for the Iraqi impasse and resign. "60 Minutes" said Rumsfeld and his deputy, Paul Wolfowitz had declined a request to respond to Zinni's remarks.
Several days ago, Senator Ernest Hollins accused President Bush of embarking on the Iraqi war to buy the Jewish vote. In a speech to the sentae last week, Hollins refused to retract his words and attacked the Jewish lobby AIPAC.
With Agencies
You're right, they're old terms, but unfortunately recent usage has made them imprecise, at best, in terms of defining political views.
Interestingly a search for neocon+Jewish from Jan 1, 1995 to Dec 31, 2000, six years, returns 21 hits, of a total 381 for neocon alone. The same search from Jan 1, 2004 to today, less than six months, results in 25,200 hits, of 88,200 for neocon.
Clearly, in 2004, neocon is not only far more commonly used, but the faith of the neocons is a vital issue to many.
That would not, strictly speaking, be self-identifying as a liberal Democrat. Scoop Jackson would be to the right of Zell Miller, Arlen Specter, John McCain and Chuck Hagel. That may be damning with faint praise, but it doesn't put Wolf as a man of the left by any means.
Last night Mark Levin was calling him "Zinni The Ninny". :)
The left and the Islamacists are the New Nazis, joined by hatred of capitalism and driven by hatred and jealousy.
A cursory look suggests that you're either lying thru your teeth or simply echoing certain Arab media - even a site such as lewrockwell references Perle as having impeccable clearances. Not that they (or you) would necessarily know much detail of what clearances are given out, to anyone.
Sooo.... think you can give us a source?
Sorry. I should have considered that. My apologies.
There are two reasons the term survives: (1) the neocons developed a distinct ideological strain that abandoned the isolationism that characterized conservatism, but had not been a factor in the larger movement because of the need for engagement in order to fight communism and (2) Bill Krisol emerged as a prominent commentator and he is often thought of as being an extension of his father.
Not everyone who uses the term neocon is using it as code for Jewish, but everyone who implies or states that neocons run the administration is.
The fact is, we are all neocons now: Reagan, Gingrich, W can be put, ideologically, in what is viewed as the neocon camp.
Source for what? It's no big secret that Perle could not obtain a high-level security clearance for the Pentagon. At the very least (in addition to the FBI investigation into his work as a member of Scoop Jackson's senate staff in the 1970s), his status as a dual citizen of the U.S. and Israel renders him incapable of obtaining such a clearance.
Lol. Gotcha. So, basically, all you can deliver is the fact that a dual Israeli/US citizenship will hold you from certain clearances. This is true, of course. It is a DoD policy that has nothing to do with Israel - you'll get the same result if you're a dual Irish/US citizen, for example.
But I take it that specifically a dual Israeli/US citizenship is what drove you into this convulsion:
If you really want to see how disgraceful this man's role in the Bush administration is, consider this
Just for a laugh: are you a US citizen, a Canadian citizen, or a dual?
The poster was implying that Christianity was not welcome. I saw Christians and Jews lving side by side, in Old City Jerusalem just fine.
Although paleocons had been talking sinisterly about neocons for years, it wasn't until Michael Lind wrote this article that the distinction had been pointed out to the Left.
Ann Archy, as far as I know is Christian. Let's ask her if she experienced any p[roblems.
I think you have this made up fantasy that Christians are not welcome in Israel. They are welcome. Proselytizing is not appreciated though. If you think being welcome means that Jews will run up to you begging to convert, then you have the wrong idea completely. If you think living side by side, with "live and let live" as an attitude, then yes, you would be welcome.
Criticizing individuals for their positions or policies does not qualify as racist. Attacking individuals or disqualifying them because of their race, religion, etc. would be racist.
Any notion that, simply because a group of individuals is associated with a certain religious or ethnic group, any critique of the group's individual members on their political views or job performances qualfies as racist is simply false.
Thank you. AFAIK, it's in the public domain - feel free to use it.
True!
God, that POS knows no limits. Thanks for the info.
Do we know Perle holds dual citizenship with Israel? Some nutcases occasionally attribute it to most Jews in government (or not in government), I've seen a reference that a Canadian paper accused him of being an Israeli citizen in 96, but with nothing to back it up.
Fwiw, I am worrying a bit about all this ant-semitism talk being tossed around.
Who might find advantage in dividing the republicans into separate camps? Who might gain advantage by painting a certain "category" of republicans as anti-semitic?
Just wondering if we aren't falling into some kind of trap here.
Yes. The one case I've seen that seems relevant was some Irishman with a double set of passports, who didn't declare his double set of passports. This was found to be in violation of thee DoD policy, and the clearance he sought was not granted.
Note that there is no "must not issue" here, an applicant can apply for approval for his foreign passport, which this applicant had not done.
Do we know Perle holds dual citizenship with Israel?
Not really. To be a dual citizen, in this sense, requires two valid passports. And yes, many nutcases take the Israeli right to citizenship for Jews to be dual citizenship.
In any case, Perle had clearances up his nose until he retired. And his retirement had nothing to do with impropriety, but rather that he was writing a book and preparing other publicity - in short, he wanted to be free to speak his mind. Which, incidentally, is also why Franks retired.
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