Despite Joint Statement on Mideast, Strains Emerge as U.S. Supports Israel

[seafan]

Despite Joint Statement on Mideast, Strains Emerge as U.S. Supports Israel’s Campaign

By JIM RUTENBERG
Published: July 17, 2006



Pablo Martinez Monsivais/Associated Press
President Bush seemed to struggle to calibrate his comments, alternating between strong support of Israel’s response and warning it to avoid civilian casualties and the destruction of Lebanon’s infrastructure.

STRELNA, Russia, July 16 — The Bush administration on Sunday appeared to give Israel tacit approval to cripple Hezbollah, casting the widening conflict in the Middle East in terms of a wider war on terrorism.

That was a central theme of both public and private statements from senior United States officials, even as President Bush and his aides issued a statement that included a call for restraint in Israel’s attacks on Lebanon. They were trying their best to minimize differences with European nations and their Russian hosts at the opening of the annual summit meeting of the Group of 8 industrialized nations here.

But the strains were clear as different leaders offered their interpretations of the statement drafted at the summit meeting that said, in an apparent allusion to Hezbollah and its Iranian and Syrian supporters, “These extremist elements and those that support them cannot be allowed to plunge the Middle East into chaos.”

President Jacques Chirac of France characterized the statement issued here as a call for a cease-fire — a word the Bush administration has sidestepped at every turn over the last few days. The host of the summit meeting, President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, told reporters that “we do get the impression that the aims of Israel go beyond just recovering their kidnapped soldiers.’’

snip

Yet Mr. Bush won a victory here on Sunday, when a statement issued by the leaders urged Israel to show the “utmost restraint’’ but also cast the new conflict in terms of a wider war on terrorism. The statement blamed militants for the start of the five-day conflict, saying they were intent on destabilizing the entire region, and more specifically were setting back progress toward democracy in Lebanon.

snip

[saigon68]

1. more specifically were setting back progress toward democracy in Lebanon.

LOL

assclowns

[barb162]

5. I think Hezbollah should be given the "honor" of setting back

progress on this issue

[The Stranger]

12. No, it is pretty clear that the rest of Lebanon was on track, and even

the few seats Hezbollah had were not likely to last. Israel's completely unjustified attack on Lebanon and knocking out its fledgling government ruined the best shot at defeating Hezbollah Israel ever had.

[Kagemusha]

2. Condi's remarks are being seen as goading Israel on now.

I wonder what the point is of giving Israel such a green light and well, basically asking, what would a cease-fire do to solve the problem? (Not killing civilians and enabling an American citizen exodus apparently aren't on her priority list at all)

[DELUSIONAL]

3. Two people completely out of their depth -- CondiLiar & shrub

What a photo -- worth a thousand words . . . .

[daleo]

6. Rice's scowl is classic

And Bush looks like he'd rather be mountain biking.

[saigon68]

7. Her face could break a mirror

[Laughing Mirror]

10. and her voice only chalk on a chalkboard could love

and when her fingers start banging the ivory keys, dinosaurs awaken from primeval swamps and start baying.

[seafan]

4. * inserted his language into the joint statement. Interesting.

Re: the joint statement:


"....but also cast the new conflict in terms of a wider war on terrorism."


and


"....they were intent on destabilizing the entire region,...."



Interesting that * convinced the other leaders to adopt his language. These words are a reflection of the PNAC agenda.

[ShockediSay]

8. Why our support? Israel Lobby money & pressure

Google AIPAC and "Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America" (CAMERA)

It's the lobbyists, stupid.

They pushed, shoved and dragged us into Iraq.

[Copperred]

13. It is TRUE / and Americans have nothing to fear but fear itself......

Everything Professors John J. Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt said in their recent policy paper "The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy" is true.

[ShockediSay]

14. "The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy"

http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient-ff&ie=UTF-8&rls=GGGL,GGGL:2006-23,GGGL:en&q=%22The+Israel+Lobby+and+U.S.+Foreign+Policy%22

Read and judge for yourselves

[FreedomFromBankers]

9. What's really going on here.

It should be clear to anyone who can read as to why this is happening. The gullible American people need a reason to be whipped into a lather so that the puppet masters can go into Iran just like they went into Iraq.

It wasn't about oil in Iraq it was about the CONTROL OF THE OIL and it being tied to the Euro instead of the US dollar. Just last year Iran did what Hussein did in Iraq between 2000-2003. That's why there is the drum beat for war against Iran now.

CIA along with Mossaud instigate a conflict so as to give the occupied US government a reason to invade Iran. It's not about nuclear weapons in Iran. It's about Iran switching to the Euro. Note in the last paragraph that Rice said the US is holding Iran and Syria responsible for the so-called kidnapping of the Israeli soldiers.

Read the next couple of paragraphs.

"From late 2000 to early 2003, Saddam Hussein's Iraq dumped the American dollar in favor of the euro as payment for Iraqi oil under the UN's infamous Oil-for-Food program. When the US invaded Iraq in 2003, Iraq was brought back to the American petrodollar. Today the U.S. is faced with the same scenario, but this time with Iran. Iran will be selling not only oil, but gas and petrochemicals as well. Many speculate that the Iranian Oil Bourse could be even more of a direct threat to the United States' economic stability. Many more countries and foreign investors could potentially participate in the Iranian market."
http://www.bibleprophecymagazine.com/iranecowar.html

"The coalition of interests which converged on war against Iraq as a strategic necessity for the United States, included not only the vocal and highly visible neo-conservative hawks around Defense Secretary Rumsfeld and his deputy, Paul Wolfowitz. It also included powerful permanent interests, on whose global role American economic influence depends, such as the influential energy sector around Halliburton, Exxon Mobil, ChevronTexaco and other giant multinationals. It also included the huge American defense industry interests around Boeing, Lockheed-Martin, Raytheon, Northrup-Grumman and others. ... In this power game, least understood is the role of preserving the dollar as the world reserve currency, as a major driving factor contributing to Washington’s power calculus over Iraq in the past months. American domination in the world ultimately rests on two pillars — its overwhelming military superiority, especially on the seas; and its control of world economic flows through the role of the dollar as the world’s reserve currency. More and more it is clear that the Iraq war was more about preserving the second pillar – the dollar role – than the first, the military. In the dollar role, oil is a strategic factor.
http://www.energybulletin.net/2455.html

"A few nuclear bombs in Iranian hands hardly add up to a strategic threat to the United States,” said Tarpley. “But the new Iranian euro-based oil market or oil bourse as it is called has the potential to oust the dollar as the world’s reserve currency, causing central banks to shift a trillion dollars or more in reserves into the euro and other destinations. That would spell immediate doom for the US stock price bubble and real estate bubble as hot money streamed out of this country. It would cut Wall Street and London out of a myriad of lucrative transactions, and deprive the US-UK combine of their ability to interfere in access to other people’s oil,” he added."
http://www.pressbox.co.uk/detailed/International/BEHIND_THE_MAD_RUSH_TO_BOMB_IRAN_-_Teheran_s_Euro-Based_Oil_Exchange_Spells_Doom_for_Dollar_-_Interv_50885.html

You can do a search and find a boat load of articles that discuss this.

Is it possible that Iran is being made out as evil just as Iraq was with the non-existent weapons of mass destruction to build support in America and provide an excuse to bomb or invade Iran? Is it also possible that some inside Lebanon are working with the CIA and others to provide the catalyst for a war that will ultimately go as far as Iran?

"The United States Wednesday demanded the immediate release of two Israeli soldiers captured by Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas, and said it holds Iran and Syria responsible for the new outburst of Middle East violence. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is telephoning leaders in the region to try to ease the crisis. ... The Bush administration is trying to orchestrate pressure on Hezbollah to release the two Israeli soldiers, while also ascribing blame for the latest crisis to Iran and Syria, which have supported the radical Shiite militia in southern Lebanon."
http://www.voanews.com/english/2006-07-12-voa64.cfm

[jwirr]

11. Unfortunately, *ss sees support as standing back and doing nothing.

Instead he should have had negotiators in this mess immediately to try to prevent a larger war. Putin plans to send his own team to do what used to be a natural for the US. You can bet that EU is watching closely to see who is taking the highground in this issue.