September 28, 2007
American Predators
Advocates of U.S. military strikes against Iran are pushing as hard as they dare for a series of confrontations that the White House can use to drag the rest of government behind it in a new, exponentially expanded war. Rationally, this should not be happening, yet it would be imprudent in the extreme to minimize the risk. Or to underestimate the stupidity of Congress. Nevertheless, it's also quite helpful to hear from the optimistic side of things — if we just get over the next election cycle, in both the U.S. and Iran, says Gary Sick, relations might finally begin to normalize. Gary's been working on Iran for a very long time and his insights and experience are invaluable. I'm delighted to have been able to talk with him, and hope to talk with him again at some point after he travels to Iran. Total runtime here of fifty three minutes. Enjoy!
Comments
As Gary describes the personality of Ahmydinnerjacket, I'm reminded of a certain G.Bush, resident of the Oval office. Does anybody know the Farsi for "Bring 'em on"?
I wonder if the characters of the people who really matter, Supreme Leaders Dick Cheney and Ali Khamenei bare a similar correspondence?
For more on the next installment of Dick and George's excellent adventure in the Middle East, a chat with Robert Baer and Wayne White.
stream
http://www.ianmasters.org/ian_masters_082607_24.pls
download
http://ianmasters.org/ian_masters_082607_24.mp3
these are the low bitrate versions, which sound fine to me. high bitrate versions also in the 2007 archives at ianmasters.org
Posted by: David Wilson
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September 28, 2007 11:29 AM
I was disappointed in Gary Sick's apparent naivete about the workings of the US government and who is in charge. His analysis seemed very shallow to me.
If he is a representative sample of the University's staff, it is little wonder that Columbia totally blew a great opportunity to ask some truly penetrating questions of Ahmadinejad. I don't think it is Iran's President who is outrageous, but rather the US propaganda machine which distorts his every statement.
Your questions revealed just how clueless how some highly (overly) respected people in academia really are about what has changed in the USA.
Posted by: pandabonium | October 1, 2007 3:32 AM