Newshoggers Comments
Good catch Cernig
"When Gates was nominated, he was very much seen by pundits as Poppy Bush's man in Junior's administration - there to stop the Kid from ruining matters further and as a paleo foil to all the neo-WormTongues infesting the White House."
You are right, this was widely assumed but it appears not to have been the case. You may want to checkout Robert Parry's article about Gates and the Rumsfeld resignation. After Rumsfeld wrote a memo pushing for de-escalation of the Iraq war -- a memo kept secret by the White House for almost a month -- he was bumped the next day.
It was further widely assumed that because of Gates participation in the ISG, he was regarded as one who would reign in Bush. The ISG, after all, had recommended diplomacy with Iran and Syria and Gates appears to be still on board with that. But with Rumsfeld expressing doubts about Iraq and wanted to pull out, Gates was brought in, not by Poppy, but by W. himself. The two of them had a face to face meeting in Crawford, Tx two days before the election in Nov. 2006.
Bush wanted a surge and Gates gave it to him, something that Rumsfeld appeared to moving away from. Oddly, this was something that Fred Barnes nailed while everyone else appeared to miss what had actually happened.
Rumsfeld's Mysterious Resignation
Gates has a long history as an enabler, more interested in his career advancement than real, useful policy. For a concise treatment of Gates and his rise through the CIA, I highly recommend Roger Morris' three part series (haloscan is not letting me put links into all of these, so the first one is linked).
The Specialist
The CIA and the Politics of Counterrevolution
The Rise and Rise of Robert Gates
Nice cites, thebhc. I've been recently delving into the Gates files myself. And based on what I've read, it may be simplistic to cast Gates as an opponent to the attack on Iran.
Instead, he may be advocating an end to sabre-rattling so that an attack can occur without forewarning, to catch the Iranian government off guard.
Good cites, BHC. Shipman's been writing much of the lead stories about the Gates takeover from Rice as the voice of reason in the administration. Shipman is also, however, well connected in the Pentagon's neocon corners. Your misgivings are well worth consideration.
Regards, C
I agree with Kevin. This portrait of Gates as The Reasoner may just be a rope-a-dope. And even if it is not, what might also be at play here is pressure from the military side, which would rightly be worried about 160,000 targets right next door to Iran.
Voice of America and Fiasco at Persian Service.
There is no need to attack Iran IF the Bush administration pays attention:
Millions of dollars are spent in Persian Service of Voice of America but the end result is nothing but scandalous way of cockamamie management and programming.
It is hard to believe but the Persian Service which supposed to be an organization to convey the policy of the U.S. has become a free platform for hard-line terrorist group of communists who attack the United Sates!
I have the documents in writings to prove that these were done with the full knowledge of the management.
I used to work there and as I said before, I have all the documents in writings.
The manager is a woman called Sheila Gandji who can not read and write Persian. Therefore, in order to hide this shortcoming from the higher management, she has hired an eighty something man called Kambiz Mahmoudi who has a lengthy background as crook and in charlatanism.
You expect a doctor to be in charge of a medical clinic. You expect an engineer to be in charge of an engineering department. You expect a plumber to fix your plumbing.
So why do you expect a person who has no education in Iran and doesn't know the language of that country should be in charge of publicity, literature or politic for such position?
Sheila Gandji falsely pretended and presented herself as educated with background in journalism. These are absolute fabrications. Nobody in Iranian communities inside of the country or outside has any knowledge about her being a journalist, then and now.
Her partner, Kambiz Mahmoudi is a hateful and despicable person whose activities as crook are widely known through out Iran. Can't the U.S. government appoint somebody without such shameful background and baggage?
Don’t think that this is a personal vendetta.
Let me quote you a view from another media:
"The Iran Steering group concluded that much of the anti-American perspective that is broadcast is the result of decisions made by station managers in Washington D.C. and Prague. Sheila Gandji, the manager of Persian service has faced sharp criticism, particularly for her decision to stop VOA shortwave radio program in July, 2006 in order to focus on television broadcasts, which are more susceptible to censorship, since the government regularly confiscates satellites dishes in order to prevent the infiltration of foreign broadcasts."
And this is not the only one. The mismanagement at the Persian Service of Voice of America is the subject of hundreds of web sites and articles in newspapers indicative of disgusts and ridicules in the world about VOA.
The bizarre situation at the Persian Service of Voice of America caused even the Republican Senator Coburn to write a long letter to President Bush about the fiasco there.
It is only in America where the government pays to be insulted. Really, why Voice of America is doing this harm to our nation?
If Shipman is right - and there have been other reprots suggesting the same thing - then expect the neocon smear factory to start up on Gates anytime now..
I'm surprised that there hasn't been some grumbling about Adm. Fallon.
Good point Steve J. Fallon was Gates' pick - and the Admiral isn't a fan of Gen. Pet. if reports are correct.
Regards, C
There are other ways to deal with the situation in Iran. It doesn’t have to come to nuclear conflict. If an internal revolution was fomented a nuclear conflict may be able to be averted. This is not necessarily how it might play out, but something like Estonia’s Singing Revolution may be a way to deal with this. I just saw a website about it – http://singingrevolution.com
THE SLIMMEST CHANCE
Today within Iran, in the US
Right-wingers in belligerence will press
Despite an underlying amity
Between civilians seen: so it may be
Averting war stands almost slimmer chance
Than Christ redeeming these Americans.
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