I Agree With Pat Buchanan... and in this case Barack Obama

* AND HERE WE GO...

As we approach the centennial of World War I, we will read much of the blunders that produced that tragedy of Western civilization. Among them will be the “blank check” Kaiser Wilhelm II gave to Vienna after the assassination by a Serb terrorist of the Austrian Archduke Francis Ferdinand.

"If you decide to punish the Serbs," said the Kaiser, "we are with you."

After dithering for weeks, Austria shelled Belgrade. Within a week, Germany and Austria were at war with Russia, France and Great Britain.

* AND THE REST IS THE HISTORY OF THE 20TH CENTURY...

(*SIGH*)

Today the United States Senate is about to vote Israel a virtual blank check — for war on Iran.

Reads Senate bill S.1881: If Israel is “compelled to take military action in legitimate self-defense against Iran’s nuclear weapons program,” the United States “should stand with Israel and provide … diplomatic, military and economic support to the Government of Israel in the defense of its territory, people and existence.”

* YA KNOW WHAT, FOLKS... I'VE GOT A BETTER IDEA: LET THESE U.S. SENATORS RESIGN THEIR OFFICES AND JOIN THE ISRAELI ARMED FORCES!

* GO! WALK THE WALK! THEY'RE SO FRIGGIN' WORRIED ABOUT "DEFENDING" ISRAEL WITH AMERICAN BLOOD AND TREASURE... LET 'EM START BY LAYING THEIR OWN LIVES AND FORTUNES ON THE LINE!

Inserted in that call for U.S. military action to support an Israeli strike on Iran, S.1881 says that, in doing so, we should follow our laws and constitutional procedures.

* OH, PLEEEASE... THESE BASTARDS DON'T GIVE A FLYING "YOU KNOW WHAT" FOR OUR LAWS AND CONSTITUTIONAL PROCEDURES.

Nevertheless, this bill virtually hands over the decision on war to Bibi Netanyahu who is on record saying: “This is 1938. Iran is Germany.”

* ISRAEL IS AN ALLY AND A SOVEREIGN STATE... LET 'EM DO WHAT THEY FEEL THEY NEED TO DO... AND LET US REACT AS OUR NATIONAL INTERESTS DEMAND.

The bill repeatedly asserts that Iran has a “nuclear weapons program.” Yet in both 2007 and 2011, U.S. intelligence declared “with high confidence” that Iran does not have a nuclear weapons program.

* ONE MORE TIME...???

Yet in both 2007 and 2011, U.S. intelligence declared “with high confidence” that Iran does not have a nuclear weapons program.

* SO... BUSH'S INTELLIGENCE INFRASTRUCTURE AND OBAMA'S INTELLIGENCE INFRASTRUCTURE...

(*SHRUG*)

Where is the Senate’s evidence for its claim?

Why has Director of National Intelligence James Clapper not been called to testify as to whether Tehran has made the decision to go for a bomb?

Why are the American people being kept in the dark?

* ALL GOOD QUESTIONS...

Are we being as misled, deceived and lied to about Iran’s “weapons of mass destruction,” as we were about Iraq’s?

(*PURSED LIPS*)

* LISTEN... FOLKS... I'M NOT COMFORTABLE WITH PAT'S USE OF THE WORD "LIED" - BUT... BUT... BUT... - THE SIMPLE FACT IS THAT THERE WERE NO IRAQI NUCLEAR WEAPONS.

The bill says that in a final deal Iran must give up all enrichment of uranium. However, we have already been put on notice by President Hassan Rouhani that this is an ultimatum Iran cannot accept.

* LISTEN... IF WE'RE SOMEDAY TALKING ABOUT "WEAPONIZATION" OF URANIUM/PLUTONIUM ALL OPTIONS ARE ON THE TABLE... BUT THE BOTTOM LINE IS THAT ISRAEL IS THE ONLY STATE IN THAT "NEIGHBORHOOD" WITH NUCLEAR WEAPONS.

(*SHRUG*)

Even the reformers of Iran’s Green Revolution of 2009 back their country’s right to a peaceful nuclear program including enrichment.

* YA GOTTA PICK YOUR BATTLES...

Senate bill S.1881 imposes new sanctions if Iran fails to live up to the interim agreement or fails to come to a final agreement in six months. Yet the Senate knows that Iran has warned that if new sanctions are voted during negotiations, they will walk away from the table.

Why is the Senate risking, or even inviting, a blowup in these talks?

* MONEY... POWER... PERCEIVED POLITICAL INTEREST... IN SOME CASES A SINCERE FEAR OF IRAN...

When the interim agreement was reached, it was denounced by neocons as “worse than Munich.” Now the War Party piously contends this Senate bill is simply an “insurance policy” to ensure that the terms of the deal are met and a final deal reached.

* I HATE IT WHEN LEFTIST DEMS ARE FULL OF $HIT... (WHICH THEY USUALLY ARE...)

* BUT... I ALSO HATE IT WHEN NEOCONS AND RINOs TRY TO SELL THE AMERICAN PEOPLE A FALSE BILL OF GOODS...

(*SHRUG*)

It is nothing of the sort. This bill is a project of AIPAC, the Israeli lobby, designed to sabotage and scuttle the Geneva talks by telling Tehran: Either capitulate and dismantle all your enrichment facilities, or face more severe sanctions which will put us on the road to war.

* I DON'T LIKE FOREIGN LOBBYISTS. THEIR INTERESTS ARE THEIR COUNTRYS' INTERESTS - NOT AMERICA'S INTERESTS.

What terrifies AIPAC and Bibi is not an American war on Iran, but an American rapprochement with Iran.

* OUR GOAL REMAINS A FUTURE IRAN FREE OF THEOCRACY... A PEACEFUL, PRO-WESTERN IRAN... (BUT IN THE MEANTIME WE MUST DEAL WITH THE MULLAHS WHILE NEVER ACKNOWLEDGING THEIR CLAIMS OF LEGITIMACY.)

* BOTTOM LINE... WE DON'T WANT THE FANATICS AS OUR "FRIENDS"... BUT WE DO WANT A FREE AND PROSPEROUS IRANIAN PEOPLE WHO HAVE SUCCESSFULLY RISEN TO TAKE THEIR COUNTRY BACK.

Who are the leaders of the push for S.1881? Sens. Mark Kirk and Robert Menendez, the biggest recipients of AIPAC campaign cash.

* FOLKS... MENENDEZ IS A TOTAL DIRTBAG! (AND UNFORTUNATELY... KIRK CAN'T BE TRUSTED.)

(*PURSED LIPS*)

Last weekend, the Obama National Security Council finally belled the cat with a blunt statement by spokesperson Bernadette Meehan: “If certain members of Congress want the United States to take military action [against Iran], they should be up front with the American public and say so.”

(*RISING TO MY FEET TO APPLAUD*)

* HEY... FOLKS... WHEN OBAMA IS RIGHT I'M GONNA GIVE HIM CREDIT. PERIOD.

Exactly. For whether or not all these senators understand what they are doing, this is where their bill points — to a scuttling of the Geneva talks and a return to the sanctions road, at the end of which lies a U.S. war with Iran.

* FATHERS... MOTHERS... WHO WOULD SACRIFICE A SON OR DAUGHTER TO THE NEOCONS? WIVES... HUSBANDS... SONS... DAUGHTERS... WHO WOULD SACRIFICE A SPOUSE OR PARENT TO THE NEOCONS?

A majority of Democratic senators have thus far bravely bucked AIPAC and declined to co-sponsor S.1881. However, all but two Republican senators have signed on.

(*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*)

* SOME ARE NO DOUBT SINCERE. OTHERS ARE PLAYING POLITICS. IT'S BAD ENOUGH THAT WE HAVE THE LIKES OF OBAMA AND HILLARY CLINTON WHO BASE THEIR FOREIGN POLICIES UPON POLITICS - WHEN REPUBLICANS DO SO IT DRIVES ME TO DISTRACTION!

If, after Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya, the GOP has once again caught the war fever, the party should be quarantined from the White House for another four years.

(*SIGH*)

* GOD HELP US... BOTH PARTIES ARE FULL OF SCUM.

Press Secretary Jay Carney says that if S.1881 passes, Obama will veto it. The president should tell Congress that not only will he veto it, but that if Israel decides on its own to attack Iran, Israel will be on its own in the subsequent war.

(*NOD*)

Obama should order U.S. intelligence to tell us the truth.

* IS THIS REALLY DEBATABLE...?!?!

Is Iran truly hell-bent on acquiring a nuclear bomb? Does Iran have a nuclear bomb program? If so, when did Tehran make that decision?

* YEP... TELL US THE TRUTH!

Or are we being lied into war again?

(*PURSED LIPS*)