{"id":248,"date":"2007-02-28T09:22:46","date_gmt":"2007-02-28T14:22:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=248"},"modified":"2007-03-05T16:06:45","modified_gmt":"2007-03-05T21:06:45","slug":"mr-negroponte-i-presume","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=248","title":{"rendered":"Mr. Negroponte, I Presume"},"content":{"rendered":"

It may be time to abandon all talk of “the Bush administration.”\u00c2\u00a0 What we have in Washington are two Bush administrations at war with each other.<\/p>\n

There is, of course, the Cheney administration, spoiling for a fight with Iran and sweet on the Shiites of Iraq.<\/p>\n

Then there is the other<\/em> administration.\u00c2\u00a0 Call it the “establishment” Right Arabist” of the administration.\u00c2\u00a0 That is the one that yesterday resurrected the Baker-Hamilton Report and announced plans to support diplomatic discussions with Iran and Syria<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The last time the Bush administration “blinked” on Iran in June 2006, Right Zionists like Richard Perle blamed Secretary of Sate Condoleezza Rice<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It detracts little from Rice’s influence in the administration to suggest that the “establishment” wing of the administration also received some reinforcement with the formal arrival<\/a>–also yesterday–of John Negroponte as Deputy Secretary of State, Rice’s number two at Foggy Bottom.<\/p>\n

The North Korea deal that so unsettled John Bolton<\/a> was probably the first sign of a new “establishment” offensive.\u00c2\u00a0 Now comes Iran.<\/p>\n

The Right Zionists have not yet weighed in about the news of the diplomatic initiative with Iran and Syria, but it won’t be long before the battle is joined.<\/p>\n

Still, all is not lost for the Right Zionists.\u00c2\u00a0 There is, of course, still Cheney and his wing of the administration.<\/p>\n

And–surprise!<\/em>–things are looking up in the Senate where Dem Zionists<\/a> are reliably hawkish<\/a> on Iran and Syria.<\/p>\n

Just for kicks, check out Michael Ledeen’s effusive praise<\/a> for Democrat Senator Carl Levin:<\/p>\n

Carl Levin, NeoCon [Michael Ledeen]<\/p>\n

Read it twice, I had to. But Carl Levin has endorsed my longstanding proposal to go after terrorist training camps and weapons assembly facilities in Syria and Iran.<\/p>\n

Carl Levin, you say?<\/p>\n

Yeah, Carl Levin, the newly minted neocon from Michigan. My kinda guy<\/strong>. Just read it and cheer. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s from hearings yesterday:<\/p>\n

SEN CARL LEVIN (D-MI): “Now, in terms of the weapons coming in from Syria, those weapons that you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve described as coming in from Syria and perhaps other Sunni neighbors are killing our troops. Do we have a plan to address the Syrian weapon source \u00e2\u20ac\u201d of killings of our troops?”<\/p>\n

JOHN MCCONNELL, Director of National Intelligence: “Sir, I know the military is working that border area to close it down from not only weapons but also jihadists coming in \u00e2\u20ac\u201d”<\/p>\n

LEVIN: “It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s more than just \u00e2\u20ac\u201d we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re trying to close down the Iranian border area too. The problem is that these weapons are coming from a state which is \u00e2\u20ac\u201d doesn’t recognize Israel either, just like Iran doesn’t. We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got to try to stop weapons coming into Iraq from any source that are killing our troops. I agree with the comments about trying to stop them coming in from Iran, I think we have to try stop them that are going to the Sunni insurgents as well as to the Shia. I was just wondering, does the military have a plan to, if necessary, to go into Syria to go to the source of any weapons coming from Syria? That are going to Sunni insurgents? That are killing our troops? \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 I think we ought to take action on all fronts including Syria and any other source of weapons coming in, obviously Iran is the focus \u00e2\u20ac\u201c but it shouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be the sole focus.”<\/p>\n

(Armed Services Committee, U.S. Senate, Hearing, 02\/27\/07)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It may be time to abandon all talk of “the Bush administration.”\u00c2\u00a0 What we have in Washington are two Bush administrations at war with each other. There is, of course, the Cheney administration, spoiling for a fight with Iran and sweet on the Shiites of Iraq. Then there is the other administration.\u00c2\u00a0 Call it the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7,6,3,10,11,14],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=248"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}