John said:
“1) US foreign policy puts *way* too much emphasis on Israel. I mean, we gotta hear about it every night on the news like it was the 51st state or something. We never hear about Argentina or the Ukraine or Thailand – nope, it’s all Israel, all the time.”
While it’s true that the MSM extensively reports about Israel, that’s not US foreign policy — that’s the MSM’s selective focus on reporting. The PRC’s People’s Liberation Army now provides the security for the Panama Canal, but, when was the last time you heard that reported?
According to at least some in the MSM, the real reason for invading Iraq was to get its oil (in addition to prompting by the Israel Lobby). Exactly one US official suggested that — National Security Advisor Sandy Berger at TOWN HALL MEETING on IRAQ at OHIO STATE FEB. 18, 1998, reported at www.fas.org/news/iraq/1998/02/20/98022006_tpo.html
The Dems campaigned in 2006 on calling for a “new strategy” for Iraq. They got one. It’s working. They don’t like that. And, unlike the one developed by the State Dept., the top down imposed CPA (known by those who served there as the “Can’t Produce Anything”) and the later top down efforts, the new strategy is developing governance and cooperation at the local level from the bottom up. Neither the Dems or State Dept. bureaucrats like that either. That sounds like strong support for “The notion that states are rational actors” to me.
While it is true that the establishment of some form of democracy in Iraq would benefit Israel, that benefit would be only very indirect — since the totalarian regimes in the area would have to deal with an Arab-Muslim democracy which they couldn’t dismiss as an imperial Zionist state. This would under cut the favored past time of diverting internal opposition by demonizing Israel, and either deal with their own problems or face an opposition that can no longer be either easily diverted or discredited.
Oh, wait, now I understand — the Israel Lobby wants the US to establish an essentially stable, democratic Muslim state in Iraq which will accept diversity among its citizens and basic levels of individual freedom, so that such ideas will spread to other Muslim states, leading to growing economies that need Jewish bankers — crafty Jews — trying to control the world through spreading ideas like democracy, stability and prosperity!!
