Kerry: Netanyahu Was
Wrong About Iraq–Why Trust Him on Iran?
by Joel B. Pollak25 Feb 2015
Secretary of State John Kerry
told the House Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday that the U.S.
should be wary of trusting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu’s warnings on Iran, because
Netanyahu had also backed the Iraq War.
Kerry’s remarks were hypocritical, since he also supported the war. And they
raise the disturbing suggestion, beloved of conspiracy theorists, that Israel is dragging the U.S. to war. Yet it is
worth asking whether Kerry’s criticism has merit.
Netanyahu’s vehement assertion in 2002–as a private
citizen, testifying to Congress–that Saddam Hussein was pursuing weapons of
mass destruction certainly looks foolish in retrospect. In his defense, it is
what the world’s intelligence agencies also believed. It may even have been
what Saddam
Hussein himself believed. It was
the only conclusion to draw from Saddam’s defiance of the United Nations inspectors, and it was only the war that allowed
the question to be settled.
Moreover, Netanyahu was right about a number of other
things. He correctly predicted that the Iraq war could destabilize Iran, which
it did in 2009 (though President Barack Obama failed
to take advantage). He correctly predicted that the Iraq war would discourage
other states in the region that had similar weapons programs: Libya
soon gave its programs up, and Iran suspended its work towards a nuclear weapon
for a time. Netanyahu also predicted the democratization of the region.
One thing that Netanyahu could not have predicted was the
weakness of the next U.S. president. He stressed that the Iraq war and the war
on terror would only succeed if America focused on “the three W’s — winning,
winning and winning.” He could not have foreseen that Democrats would try to
leave Iraq in defeat, and that Obama would later turn a victory into a loss. He
could not have foreseen that the U.S. would actually promote the Muslim
Brotherhood and Iran’s regional
power.
Overall, Netanyahu’s support for the Iraq War actually
reinforces his credibility, because so much of what he said about the region
has actually transpired. Even if he had been wrong on every point regarding
Iraq, that would not mean that what he is saying about Iran is untrue. In
addition, Netanyahu’s warnings about Iran are corroborated even by those, like Kenneth Pollack,
who oppose war as a policy option (Pollack favors a kind of containment). So
Kerry’s criticism misses the mark.
Kerry’s jab at Netanyahu’s support for the Iraq War, then,
deserves to be seen not as a substantive point but rather as a partisan one, a
signal to fellow Democrats about which side of the argument they should back.
The anti-war movement has taken over the Democratic Party, and so likening the
Iran crisis to the Iraq war is an appeal to politics rather than reason.
In reality, history will judge Netanyahu’s errors in Iraq
more favorably than Kerry’s errors on Iran–and elsewhere–today.
Iran
Richard M. Helms
was the U.S. ambassador for Iran,
and Gregory B. Craig was his lawyer.
Note: Gregory B. Craig
was Richard M. Helms’s lawyer, the White
House counsel for the Barack Obama
administration, a trustee at the Carnegie
Endowment for International Peace (think tank), a director of policy
planning for the U.S. Department of
State, and is a partner at Skadden,
Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP.
Foundation
to Promote Open Society was a funder for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (think tank), and the Brookings
Institution (think tank).
George Soros
was the chairman for the Foundation to Promote Open Society.
Richard
A. Debs was a trustee at the Carnegie
Endowment for International Peace (think tank), Anwar Sadat’s pro-bono financial adviser, and is a trustee at the Institute of International Education.
Anwar
Sadat’s pro-bono financial adviser was Richard
A. Debs, and the president of Egypt.
Mohamed
Morsi was the president of Egypt,
and is the leader of the Muslim
Brotherhood.
Jon M. Huntsman
Jr. is a trustee at the Carnegie
Endowment for International Peace (think tank), a fellow at the Brookings Institution (think tank), was
a distinguished fellow at the Brookings
Institution (think tank), and the ambassador to China for the Barack Obama administration.
Carnegie
Endowment for International Peace (think
tank) was a funder for the Nuclear
Threat Initiative (think tank).
Ted
Turner is a co-chairman for the Nuclear
Threat Initiative (think tank), and the founder of CNN.
Andrea
Koppel was a correspondent for CNN,
and is married to Kenneth M. Pollack.
Jessica Tuchman Mathews is a director at the Nuclear Threat Initiative (think tank),
the president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (think tank),
a director at the American Friends of Bilderberg (think tank), was an
honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank), and a 2008 Bilderberg
conference participant (think tank).
Ed Griffin’s interview with
Norman Dodd in 1982
(The investigation into the
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace uncovered the plans for population
control by involving the United
States in war)
Thomas
R. Pickering is a distinguished fellow at the Brookings Institution (think tank), was
the under secretary for the U.S.
Department of State, the U.S. ambassador for the United Nations, the U.S. ambassador for Israel, and the chairman of review board that investigated the 2012 attack on U.S. consulate in Benghazi,
Libya in 2013.
Condoleezza Rice was the secretary for the U.S. Department of State, Muammar Abu Minyar Al-Qadhafi said he
loved her & kept scrapbook of her photos, and a 2008 Bilderberg conference
participant (think tank).
Muammar
Abu Minyar Al-Qadhafi said he loved Condoleezza Rice & kept scrapbook of her photos, was the leader
of Libya, and a friend of Kirsan Ilyumzhinov.
Kirsan
Ilyumzhinov was a friend of Muammar
Abu Minyar Al-Qadhafi, and a friend of Saddam
Hussein.
Saddam Hussein was
a friend of Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, and
the president of Iraq.
Iraq
Study Group made policy recommendations on U.S. involvement in Iraq.
Vernon E. Jordan
Jr. is an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution
(think tank), a trustee at the Institute
of International Education, Antoinette Cook Bush’s stepfather, Valerie B. Jarrett’s great uncle, a
director at the American Friends of Bilderberg (think tank), was a
member of the Iraq Study Group, and
a 2008 Bilderberg conference participant (think tank).
Lee
H. Hamilton is an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think
tank), and was a co-chair for the Iraq
Study Group.
Iraq Study Group
made policy recommendations on U.S. involvement in Iraq.
Antoinette Cook
Bush is Vernon E. Jordan Jr’s
stepdaughter, and was a partner at Skadden,
Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP.
Valerie B. Jarrett
is Vernon E. Jordan Jr’s great niece, the senior
adviser for the Barack Obama
administration, and a member of the Commercial
Club of Chicago.
Cyrus F.
Freidheim Jr. is a member of the Commercial
Club of Chicago, and an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank).
Cameron F. Kerry
is a fellow at the Brookings Institution
(think tank), and the U.S.
Department of State secretary John
F. Kerry’s brother.
Teresa Heinz
Kerry is an honorary trustee at the Brookings
Institution (think tank), and married to U.S. Department of State secretary John F. Kerry.
John
F. Kerry is Cameron F. Kerry’s
brother, married to Teresa Heinz Kerry,
and the secretary at the U.S. Department
of State for the Barack Obama
administration.
Martin S. Indyk
was the assistant secretary & Middle East peace envoy for the U.S. Department of State, a founding
director at the Saban Center for Middle
East Policy, the U.S. ambassador for Israel,
and is a foreign policy director for the Brookings
Institution (think tank).
Kenneth M.
Pollack is a senior fellow at the Saban
Center for Middle East Policy, married to Andrea Koppel, and was a senior fellow, Middle East policy for the Brookings Institution (think tank).
Saban
Center for Middle East Policy is a policy center at the Brookings Institution (think tank).
Haim
Saban is a benefactor for the Saban
Center for Middle East Policy, a trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank), and a friend of Shimon Peres.
Shimon
Peres is a friend of Haim Saban,
the president of Israel, and a Nobel Foundation Nobel peace prize
winner.
Benjamin
Netanyahu is the prime minister for Israel,
and the chairman for the Likud Party.
Menachem
Begin was the founder of the Likud
Party, and is a Nobel Foundation
Nobel peace prize winner.
Anwar
Sadat is a Nobel Foundation Nobel
peace prize winner, was the president of Egypt,
and Richard A. Debs was his pro-bono
financial adviser.
Barack
Obama is a Nobel Foundation Nobel
peace prize winner, the president for the Barack
Obama administration, and was an intern at Sidley Austin LLP.
Sidley Austin
LLP is the lobby firm for Israel.
Michelle
Obama was a lawyer at Sidley Austin
LLP.
Newton
N. Minow is a senior counsel at Sidley
Austin LLP, and a member of the Commercial
Club of Chicago.
R.
Eden Martin is counsel at Sidley
Austin LLP, and the president of the Commercial
Club of Chicago.
Cyrus F.
Freidheim Jr. is a member of the Commercial
Club of Chicago, and an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank).
Valerie B. Jarrett
is a member of the Commercial Club of
Chicago, the senior adviser for the Barack
Obama administration, and her great uncle is Vernon E. Jordan Jr.
Antoinette Cook
Bush is Vernon E. Jordan Jr’s
stepdaughter, and was a partner at Skadden,
Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP.
Gregory
B. Craig is a partner at Skadden,
Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, was Richard M. Helms’s lawyer, the White House counsel for the Barack Obama administration, a trustee
at the Carnegie Endowment for
International Peace (think tank), and a director of policy planning for the
U.S. Department of State.
Richard M. Helms’s
lawyer was Gregory B. Craig, and the
U.S. ambassador for Iran.
No comments:
Post a Comment