Time Magazine’s Joe Klein: The Latest Useful Idiot of the Mullahs in Iran
Joe Klein of Time magazine can be a knowledgeable and talented commentator on the American political scene. But when it comes to discussing the crisis in the Middle East, the situation in Iran, and Obama’s foreign policy, he is like his journalist colleague Roger Cohen at the New York Times — nothing but the mullahs’ useful idiot. Speaking on MSNBC’s Morning Joe today, Klein said the following (listen to his harsh tone of voice in the video, referring to Bibi Netanyahu’s statement yesterday that “those in the international community who refuse to put red lines before Iran don’t have a moral right to place a red light before Israel”):
I don’t think I’ve ever, in the 40 years I’ve been doing this, have heard of another example of an American ally trying to push us into war as blatantly and trying to influence an American election as blatantly as Bibi Netanyahu and the Likud party in Israel is doing right now. I think it’s absolutely outrageous and disgusting. It’s not a way that friends treat each other. It’s cynical and brazen.
It is not cynical or brazen for the president of the United States to use a flimsy excuse (that he won’t be in New York City at the time) to not meet with Netanyahu, but to Klein it is an outrage and provocation for Netanyahu to show concern about how close Iran is coming to becoming a nuclear power, despite the ineffective boycotts and pressure. Klein went on to call those who favor any form of war with Iran people on a “fool’s errand,” and argued that to fight or bomb Iran would be “a ridiculous war.”
As Klein sees things, the Revolutionary Guards who control 30 to 40 percent of the economy are desperately hurting because of the sanctions and will soon not be able to buy weapons. As he continued to speak in a 12-minute segment of the program, Klein continued to make a fool of himself. If Iran goes nuclear, he argued, containment would work. Why? Klein’s answer: “They don’t want to have their country destroyed by nuclear weapons.” Iran, after all, is a “real country.” As we all know, real countries are all rational, despite an irrational leadership. Klein has been to Iran twice, and that of course makes him an expert. Iranians, he said, are proud of their ancient civilization, and its people are “natural allies” of the United States. Moreover, personal experience has taught him that the Iranian people “love us.”
So what about the mullahs? Klein has another easy answer. There is a “mismatch” between the people and the nation’s leadership. There is, however, a real danger. That, if you haven’t already guessed, is the election of Mitt Romney, who backs Bibi’s desire to have the U.S. “do his dirty work.” Klein sees only dangers if Israel attacks Iran’s nuclear plants. Iran would soon reconstitute its nuclear program, and bombing would serve only to “empower them to unleash Hezbollah,” producing total chaos in the Middle East.
Romney is a danger because, according to Klein, he would farm out policy to Netanyahu and would be his “puppet.” Acknowledging that the Iranian president is a “fascist,” he proceeded to say that, nevertheless, Iran was run by “extremists, not crazy people.” Hence he knows — possibly because they told him so — that if Iran goes nuclear, “they’ll have a deterrent” against any attack by either the U.S. or Israel, and he is convinced that they would never use the bomb “unless they are provoked.” Get that? Iran can provoke the U.S. and Israel all it wants, but the danger is only from those evil neocons like Romney, who would be responsible if Iran used its weapons because the West forced them to do so!
Hence, Klein assured us that there is no crisis in the area, only one “blown up” or manufactured “by a small group of people in this country.” Klein’s view is reminiscent, one must say, of Charles Lindbergh’s famous speech to America First before the Second World War, in which he said that the threat of war came not from Nazi Germany, but from the Roosevelt administration, the British, and the Jews.
Klein might find it profitable to read the recent blog post by The Atlantic magazine’s Jeffrey Goldberg, a man who knows a great deal more than Klein about Israel and the Middle East. Goldberg is no conservative, and hardly a supporter of Bibi Netanyahu. Goldberg writes:
It is understandable, though, why Netanyahu feels anxiety about Obama; their relationship got off on the wrong foot over the Administration’s public demand for a settlement freeze, and the lack of a follow-up plan when the demand went more or less unmet (the current mayor of Chicago, who was Obama’s first chief of staff and the White House expert on Israel, didn’t help by nursing a grudge against Netanyahu that dated back to the Clinton presidency).
And Netanyahu’s specific anxiety is not unreasonable: The White House position is that the U.S. will keep Iran from possessing a nuclear bomb. It is fair to ask, as Bibi is asking: Does that mean you will let them have a warhead design, sufficient enriched uranium, and a missile system capable of delivering a nuclear warhead, so long as they don’t actually finish building the device and then mating it to a delivery system? In other words, what if Iran is only technically non-nuclear? What if it would only take Iran a month to put together a nuclear bomb from the moment the decision is made? What will you do then? And how will you know, for sure, that they are doing it? American officials have promised Israel and the Arab states that their intelligence is good enough that they will know when Iran is approaching the nuclear threshold. But obviously the record of the American intelligence community is not without its flaws (the same holds true, of course, for Israel, and the Europeans.) (my emphasis)
Klein might also take a look at the informative article in the new issue of The New Yorker by David Makovsky about the decision-making process in Israel that led its leaders to bomb Syria’s nuclear installation in 2007. Of course, Syria in 2007 is not Iran in 2012. But even during the Bush administration, Makovsky pointed out, the Israeli leadership (and Ehud Olmert, not Bibi, was PM) and the U.S. “agreed on the fundamental facts and risks,” but had “reached opposing policy conclusions.” Olmert hoped the U.S. would lead the attack, but George W. Bush refused. Bush, however, unlike Obama, never “did suggest that the U.S. would block Israeli action.” There was no red light given to Israel by Bush.
How many times before have the ‘experts’ told us that a state wouldn’t obtain nuclear weapons? China? India? Pakistan? Not a good record. A now what are they saying? Are we stupid enough to believe them again?
What experts predicted that China, India and Pakistan wouldn’t get nukes?
Well, there’s a problem with US intelligence today. Many of the analysts are Leftists. What that means is that they are anti-US and pro-any US enemies. Their statements are going to be slanted towards forestalling any US action until Iran has a working nuke. Because they want Iran to nuke up. They want Israel to be wiped out and then the US to be defeated. Sorry, but people like that become Leftists because Leftists are dedicated to destroying existing society. Whenever anyone decides to get serious about this Fifth Column, well, that’s a good use for lampposts.
If Klein had spent more of the last ten years rolling around Iraq in a Humvee, worried about strikes from Iranian supplied EFPs, rather than swanking around Manhattan and DC he might have a different opinion.
Hugo Chavez has been playing footsie with the Persians, hoping they will supply him with nuclear missles — which he will point right at Miami.
This would give Chavez greater leverage in his undeclared war on Colombia as it would take the wild card of a US invasion off the table. He would also bully smaller democracies like Honduras.
Persian nukes are not just an Israeli Problem, they are a problem for the United States and Europe as well.
Have you been perusing Mondoweiss, Ron?
Netanyahu’s warmongering spells high noon for the Israel lobby
by Philip Weiss on September 12, 2012
http://mondoweiss.net/2012/09/netanyahus-overreach-spells-high-noon-for-the-israel-lobby.html
Klein is nearly as clueless as O…
“Joe Klein truly deserves the title I have given him: The Mullahs’ Useful Idiot.”
Or Obama’s useful Idiot, but I repeat myself.
Saw Joe Klein recently on Charlie Rose (and yes, I’m constantly pimping Charlie Rose, it’s a brilliant show). Anyway, Joe Klein was bobbing his oversized, chimp-like head and chirping about ‘how unserious this campaign was…’
But within minutes – minutes! – Joe Klein was hooting over “Mitt Romney’s elevator-garage” and “Ann Romney’s horses!” The little man laughed so hard, he almost fell off his phone books.
I just shook my damn head.
For any American who thinks that Iranian nukes are Israel’s problem alone and no scales off our sitzplatz, what part of “Death to the Great Satan” do you not understand?
The US is on the target list right after Tel Aviv.
http://www.Iran911Case.com/
“Rafsanjani”
Heralded as the moderate reformer with Pro-Western sensibilities in the Western press.
Rafsanjani said a *decade* ago that nuking Israel would be A-OK because even though millions of Muslims would die there would be plenty left but all the Jews would die. I guess that’s your idea of a “moderate”.
Not my idea, the Western MSM’s.
Riyadh is on the list too.
There is plenty of evidence that the Sunni Gulf states are terrified of Iran with the Bomb.
It’s not so much that Iran would use the Bomb, as that Iran, having the Bomb, would be immune to retaliation for attacks on its neighbors. None of the Gulf states could survive a sustained campaign of state-sponsored terrorism, guerrilla warfare, and even occasional military strikes – all of which Iran could do with impunity, if it has the Bomb.
Under this threat, Saudi Arabia would have to get the Bomb itself. Anyone feel good about that? I don’t think even the Sauds want to do that.
The leftists want to handcuff EVERY non-leftist from ever taking any action, at any time, for any reason, against any sworn enemy of either America or Israel.
Frankly, there is very little daylight between today’s modern leftists attitude about the Little Satan and the Great Satan.
Obama’s closest mentors, advisors and father figures…as well as many of his dearest, closest and oldest friends have spewed similar bile all over the landscape.
Goldwater, Nixon, Ford, Reagan, Bush, McCain, and now Romney have all been painted with this same leftist brush.
Leftists are not for peace. They NEVER verbally assault with the same rancor and animus the world’s greatest threats, in fact, they often openly root for them. They simply target their political enemies for their unique brand of cowardice and mendacity.
Klein is not merely a useful idiot. Going on MSNBC, the Tokyo Rose of news gathering, is no coincidence.
The left is in bed with the enemies of Israel and America, to suggest otherwise is myopic and flies in the face of now mountains of evidence.
The American left is a hornet’s nest of treason and treachery. It is a clear and present danger to the national health, safety and welfare of Israel and America. And their brethren in Europe have nearly completed the collapse of that continent. They threaten the world’s collapse and the onset of the implosion of the planet. They are the ones marching us toward war, pretending to do precisely the opposite. Or surrender, which would be war without resistance.
To suggest that Obama and all the other radically extreme followers of modern leftism are useful idiots gives them either too much credit or too little.
Those clinging to the fantasy of “liberalism” in its glory days of Madison Avenue lipstick and gloss are the useful idiots. There is no relationship between the “liberal” of yesteryear and the vile traitors of this strain of leftism.
Hiding behind the skirt in full camouflage, this strain of turncoat is an enemy within. Klein and the rest of the Propaganda and Lies Ministry orchestrate the charade, build the props and stages in complete co-conspiracy.
It’s time to stop giving them a pass.
Funny, but to me Netanyahu’s remark was to make clear that if Obama had no red line fro Iran, then he could not restrain ISRAEL. It has nothing to do with amercian forces, urges, quailing, or attacks. It was STRICTLY to say, if you won’t set a limit for Iran you cannot set one for Israel and we might go no matter what you want.
This period in our history will turn out to be very interesting. Our descendants will look back and say “WHAT were they thinking?”. Alan West is the best guy to listen to. In our society it’s all about the here and now, whereas the Muslims have a sense of a greater purpose.
We need to get much more strongly connected to our past – celebrate the heroes who have stood up and called Islam for what it is. At some point we need to face that cult down – I see no alternative.
Klein’s a bigot — who cares what he says? He’s preaching to a minority choir. Let him die his lonely death on MSNBC (Time is still around?).
Israel needs to be tunneling like the North Koreans. The entire world appears to be on board with Iran threatening genocide on a daily basis. I’d point out that internatonal law forbids genocide or incitement to genocide, but the world is cheerleading the effort.
Israel cannot afford to strike first with Obama, in addition to everyone else but Canada, on the other side. So… That leave a retaliatory strike of a nuclear nature. Which they can do very effectively with SLBMs or SLCMs.
It’s come to this.
“If Iran goes nuclear, he argued, containment would work. Why? Klein’s answer: “They don’t want to have their country destroyed by nuclear weapons.” Iran, after all, is a “real country.” As we all know, real countries are all rational, despite an irrational leadership. Klein has been to Iran twice, and that of course makes him an expert. Iranians, he said, are proud of their ancient civilization, and its people are “natural allies” of the United States. Moreover, personal experience has taught him that the Iranian people “love us.”
Funny how all these people seem to “love us” before they bomb us. I remember reading about all those German diplomats in 1939 saying that they didn’t want to fight England because the British were not their “natural enemies,” unlike the Eastern Europeans or the Russians. And how did that work out for Europe?
Now I’m hearing the same thing about the people in Libya. I have to sit and endure all these political hacks from the White House (and even John McCain, no less) drone on and on about how great the Libyan people really are and that the burning of our embassy and the killing of our ambassador was the work of just some Islamic fanatics. Really? When was the last time you saw a pro-American rally in Libya, one that was attended by thousands of people? When was the last time Libyan diplomats made a forceful and very vocal speech at the United Nations thanking the American people for helping them get rid of Gaddafi? And when was the last time you heard the MAJORITY of the Libyan people, either through public demonstrations, their print or televised media, or even through a wave of videos on YouTube, make major public statements DENOUNCING radical Islamists and DENOUNCING Muslim Fundamentalism, let alone Sharia Law?
What, you haven’t seen or heard any of that? Not surprising, nor will you. If we are “loved” by people in places like Iran or Libya, we’re becoming the best kept secret in the world. I’m beginning to feel like that black sheriff in the movie “Blazing Saddles.” The people in the town he was trying to help really wanted to thank him for saving their lives, but they just didn’t want anybody to know about it because he was black. Yup, funny how movies can sometimes be spot on.
Iran has already declared war on Israel. How and when it defends itself is Israel’s prerogative. The friendly Iranians are foolishly allowing their leaders to put them in danger of death and destruction. It is time for them to step up. Expecting Israel to wait until their cities are turned to glass is not an option for Israel. Sitting and hoping that things will get better while their leaders continue to declare total destruction of Israel is a recipe for death. It has nothing to do with the actions of the USA or Romney. It is the obligation of America to support it’s allies. Had the Allies come to the Aid of Poland when the Nazi’s attacked them the war would have ended then. Every nation that sat idly and made diplomatic treaties with the Germans was destroyed. Tens of millions were killed. Hitler was no more a despot than the Iranian leaders. Klein is an idiot.
I guess Klein imagines that the Iranian mullahs will hold a national plebiscite on whether to nuke Israel, before they actually do it.
Klein–like most leftists–does not get that dictatorships don’t make war the same way as democracies do.
Here in America, we agonize over whether to go to war, we debate it endlessly, we have televised debates and votes in Congress, we may have antiwar protest demonstrations.
A foreign dictator just goes to war–without any of that.
Long ago, Victor Davis Hanson wrote a book, “Carnage and Culture,” whose thesis was that the way a nation makes war is a reflection of its culture. I can guarantee you that the Left would freak out at that very thought.
There are only so many years in a person’s life, and only so many written pages which can be read. I concluded, decades ago, that Time magazine was essentially worthless. Occasionally, in a doctor’s office, I will pick up a copy, to reassess my judgment. The biggest change is that it is now only a few pages long. Once it was a magazine.
Time is not unique; it is indistinguishable from the New York Times, WaPo (to you insiders), and other dead tree publications. The internet long ago broke their strangle hold on news reporting. In candor, the TV majors have not comprehended this, but most of MSM are, like dinosaurs, dying with no comprehension of the cause.
If one reads aggregators, articles from many publications, one will discover two separate universes. Each has their own truth. During elections, it seems that zillions of loony bugs crawl out of the wood work, from each universe.
I know nothing about Islam, or the middle east except what I read. I do know that in my expertise, energy engineering, the vast majority of authors in the popular media are either journalists, or political scientists. They are abysmally ignorant technically; most articles contain bone head statements.
So when experts like Joe Klein come on a show, I click to a commercial, or a rerun of Daniel Boone, really informative TV. I would not trust either in matters of life or death.
Does anyone still take klein (or even read time any longer) or msnbc seriously or pay attention to either? Both are delusional dhimmis who have long since turned their backs on both democracy and reality. I changed cable providers recently and no longer receive msnbc or cnn or any of the major enemedia networks. It’s more sensible to simply watch informercials. Anyway, the less of these atrocities I spend time viewing, the more time becomes available for reading studies of islamic terrorism and anti-semitism.
Klein is looking more and more like antisemite MJ Rosenberg. Perhaps it is the end process of moral decay, just like most radioactive isotopes eventually decay into lead
How stupid is Joe Klein? So stupid that, when nearly everyone else at Time Magazine has left for greener pastures, he is stuck there because no one else is interested in hiring him.
Even Bibi’s intelligence deputy doesn’t agree with him.
This from Reuters, as reported in the Forward:
‘Benjamin Netanyahu’s deputy for intelligence and atomic affairs on Thursday broke with the Israeli prime minister’s call for Iran to be confronted with a “red line” beyond which its disputed nuclear programme would face military attack.’
http://forward.com/articles/162796/bibis-deputy-disagrees-with-him-on-iran/#ixzz26N8KJTpE
It can also be said that Ron Radosh is Bibi’s “Useful Idiot”. George W. certainly was. Israel wants us to go to war with Iraq- done. Iran – in the works. Syria – in the future. Dump Israel before the world dumps on us.