Quotes Archive: Iran
"There was a dozen ideas proffered about how to trigger a war. The one that interested me the most was why don't we build --- we in our shipyard --- build four or five boats that look like Iranian PT boats. Put Navy seals on them with a lot of arms. And next time one of our boats goes to the Straits of Hormuz, start a shoot-up. Might cost some lives.
And it was rejected because you can't have Americans killing Americans. That's the kind of --- that's the level of stuff we're talking about. Provocation. But that was rejected."
Seymour Hersh, answering a question about a meeting in Cheney's office to find a way to provoke a war with Iran. They rejected the idea, but note that it was rejected for reasons other than faking a provocation would be wrong. That's how anxious these guys are to start a war with Iran. Remember that if some "incident" does happen.
"Allow the President to invade a neighboring nation whenever he shall deem it necessary to repel an invasion, and you allow him to do so whenever he may choose to say he deems it necessary for such purpose, and you allow him to make war at his pleasure. Study to see if you can fix any limit to his power in this respect, after having given him so much as you propose."
Abraham Lincoln in 1848, during the Mexican War, expressing why allowing a president's sole discretion to decide when to invade another country is dangerous to the liberty of his own country.
"We get off on warfare."
Rev. Rod Parsley, McCain's spiritual advisor, who calls for mass murder, in a snippet of a sermon in a video by Mother Jones and Brave New Films. That line of Christian charity comes about 1:25 into the video.
"The danger of a McCain presidency is not only that he would prolong our presence in Iraq but that he would seek to fulfill neoconservative dreams of a war expanded from Iraq into Iran and Syria, leading to a regional conflagration. With his campaign already sowing the arguments for a wider conflict, we will not be able to say we weren't warned."
Joe Conason on the danger in McCain's apparent desire to begin more wars in the Middle East.
"Are we supposed to wait for George Bush and Dick Cheney to attack Iran before we take action? We can't wait. They're already rattling the sabers of war against another nation. They lied to get us into a war against Iraq. They're lying to push us into war with Iran. Why should we wait?"
Presidential candidate Rep. Dennis Kucinich, on the urgency of impeachment before Bush starts another war.
"The reliance on the military command, however, to be the voice of reason in the debate about a new war [with Iran] is not a healthy sign for our deteriorating democracy. Compliant generals can always be found to carry out the Dr. Strangelove designs of a mad White House. Those who resist implementing decisions can easily be removed. The protective cover provided by these figures in the defense establishment could vanish."
Chris Hedges, on how right now, a few high ranking people in the Defense Department are all that's stopping a war with Iran.
Here is the reality. Iran has an economy the size of Finland's and an annual defense budget of around $4.8 billion. It has not invaded a country since the late 18th century. The United States has a GDP that is 68 times larger and defense expenditures that are 110 times greater. Israel and every Arab country (except Syria and Iraq) are quietly or actively allied against Iran. And yet we are to believe that Tehran is about to overturn the international system and replace it with an Islamo-fascist order? What planet are we on?
Fareed Zakaria on the lunacy of seeing Iran as the most serious threat to the US.
"The guys now running the Iranian program have limited direct experience with Iran. In the event of an attack, how will the Iranians react? They will react, and the Administration has not thought it all the way through."
Anonymous CIA official speaking to Seymour Hersh about how the neocons are rushing into war with Iran with no more thought than they gave the invasion of Iraq.
"When the Senate passed a resolution declaring a faction of the Iranian government a terrorist organization, the faction is led by a commander in chief, the Supreme Ayatollah of Iran, who is declared, inherently, a terrorist himself. Did senators realize the implications of this? Senators had forgotten, again, that the Gulf of Tonkin resolution in Congress was distorted into an effective declaration of war in Vietnam. Senators had forgotten, again, that the Iraq resolution in 2002 was distorted into an effective declaration of war in Iraq."
Brent Budowsky, writing about how the Senate's resolution condemning Iran could be used by the acting president as authorization for war.
"Rather than continuing support of a just-war theory, a more compassionate church would oppose all war and teach peacemaking skills for all levels of government and interpersonal conflict resolution."
The National Coalition of American Nuns in a statement calling for Bush's impeachment.
"The founders were particularly wary of giving the president power over war. They were haunted by Europe's history of conflicts started by self-aggrandizing kings. John Jay, the first chief justice of the United States, noted in Federalist No. 4 that 'absolute monarchs will often make war when their nations are to get nothing by it, but for the purposes and objects merely personal.'"
Adam Cohen writing about how the founding fathers tried to restrain the presidency because they feared a president would use war to establish dictatorship, completely contrary to conservative claims the founders wanted a strong executive with extensive war powers.
"It's getting harder to believe that Pace's dismissal was about anything else other than the Cheney administration's agenda for war with Iran. It's been increasingly acknowledged that the Joint Chiefs, with Pace at the helm, had been a leader in steering Bush away from half-baked Iran attack schemes."
Will Bunch speculating that Gen. Peter Pace was denied a second nomination because he opposes the plan to attack Iran.
"There are several of us trying to put the crazies back in the box."
Admiral William Fallon, according to Inter Press Service, saying he and others have been trying to prevent an attack on Iran.
"Part of this whole thing is Cheney's quote where he said: You don't negotiate with evil, you defeat it. Well, that's a nice sound bite, but it's very impractical ... when it comes to resolving conflict. And we just have to be real clear that the philosophical underpinnings of this idea that we don't talk to people who we don't like is just bankrupt and invalid."
Rep. Keith Ellison, interviewed about Middle East conflicts, on the need to talk with nations we regard as enemies.
"After all, we've had no opportunity to hear neocon ideas except on every network, every cable channel, the Op-Ed pages of the New York Times, Fox News, all the major newsweeklies, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, the Weekly Standard, the New Republic, Slate and just about every other media outlet. This intolerable censorship of failed right-wing ideas must cease!"
Gary Kamiya in a review of "America at the Crossroads", commenting on the decision to give a full episode to Richard Perle despite his record of being wrong on everything.
"Clearly Richard [Littlejohn] is wasted as a columnist. If only he'd been out there he'd have asked for his cigarette, then stubbed it out in President Ahmadinejad's eye and growled: "All right, Abdul, who wants some?", before using the pen they'd given him to dig a tunnel and escape, having distracted the Revolutionary Guards with a hilarious joke about how you can't get a job in Camden Council unless you're gay."
Satirist Mark Steel, commenting on the conservative columnists who criticize the British sailors for letting themselves be captured and videotaped.
"We are in an interesting condition in this country, where we are told to take impeachment off the table, and keep on the table a U.S. military attack against Iran."
Rep. Dennis Kucinich, saying he's willing to being the impeachment process against Bush on a charge of aggressive war (making war against a nation which has not attacked you).
"Iranians generally agree, albeit nervously, with their government that U.S. aggressiveness and recent military moves are part of a psychological war to frighten Iran. Whether or not that it is the case, the Bush administration would do well to remember that a prideful Shiite Iran will choose martyrdom over humiliation any day of the week."
Hooman Majd, native of Tehran, writing about what he observed on his last trip there and how Iranians will likely react to an American attack.
"So far, however, [Larry] Franklin [neocon in the DIA convicted of passing classified information to AIPAC] is the only member of [Douglas] Feith's [Undersecretary of Defense for Policy] team to face charges. The continuing lack of indictments demonstrates how frighteningly easy it is for a small group of government officials to join forces with agents of foreign powers—whether it is AIPAC or the MEK or the INC—to sell the country on a disastrous war."
James Bamford, author of A Pretext for War, on how the neocons who brought us Iraq War II were simultaneously working on war with Iran.
"This is an election year. The president is down in the polls, he's trying to appease his base. It's a moment of political opportunism. It goes back to the idea that in some quarters it is good to perpetuate the myth of a clash between civilizations."
Parvez Ahmed, chairman of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, on how the term "Islamic Fascism" is being used by the acting president to increase conflict with the Muslim world.
"One is between two senior British official[s] in the run-up to the Iraq war. It talks of the US determination to oust Saddam and the differences within the administration. For a better understanding of the situation the memo recommends reading one source in particular: Seymour Hersh."
Julian Borger of The Guardian describing a secret British memo in the possession of Seymour Hersh, who broke the story on plans to drop a tactical nuke on Iran.
"Within hours of an American attack on Iranian nuclear sites, U.S. embassies across the globe would be under assault -- maybe even in flames -- and American tourists and diplomats and businessmen and women would have to run for cover. But how would Bush or Cheney or the civilian neocons in the Pentagon appreciate this possibility? They've lived lives immunized by privilege and draft deferments from the costs of war. The tragedy is that they've fallen heir to the greatest military power in history -- with no grasp of how to use it wisely."
John Farmer, national political correspondent for the Star-Ledger, on the inability of the neocons to understand the wars they blithely start.
"One is between two senior British official[s] in the run-up to the Iraq war. It talks of the US determination to oust Saddam and the differences within the administration. For a better understanding of the situation the memo recommends reading one source in particular: Seymour Hersh."
Julian Borger of The Guardian describing a secret British memo in the possession of Seymour Hersh, who broke the story on plans to drop a tactical nuke on Iran.
"It's better to have them cheating within the system. Otherwise, as victims, Iran will walk away from the treaty and inspections while the rest of the world watches the N.P.T. unravel before their eyes."
Shahram Chubin, director of research at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy, commenting on the wisdom of attacking Iran.
