When You Lose Pat Buchanan, Maybe -- Just Maybe -- Your Side is Full of Shit . . .

[ click pic to enlarge ]

Ok -- so the other big news this past week is the nuclear agreement between the U.S., it's co-negotiators, the U.K., Germany, France, China and Russia and the dread pirates - Iran.

Every reputable statesman who has read the agreement is pretty much on the same page that the U.S. and it's co-negotiators got way more concessions from the Iranians than anyone remotely even imagined possible, and providing that there are no major obstacles, you know -- like your own countrymen ratfuck stabbing you in the back, then the prospects for the avoidance for yet another bloody, costly, protracted war in the mid-east are pretty damn good.

Not that the prospects for peace are anything that right-wing, American conservatives in this country have so much as a passing interest in as it stands:

A small part of the Middle East may soon be off limits to US bombing and killing, so naturally Republicans and their neocon allies are furious.

The tentative Iran deal announced on 3 April, in which Western leaders and the Islamic republic agreed on strict limits to Iran’s nuclear program, was hailed by many as a breakthrough, given that it could avert yet another US-led war in the Middle East. So almost immediately, it was denounced by key conservative members of Congress, neocons, and Republican presidential candidates, whose unquenched thirst for blood almost always outweighs their supposed commitment to peace.

Senator Mark Kirk kicked things off by quickly proving Godwin’s Law, and absurdly declared that “Neville Chamberlain got a better deal from Adolf Hitler”. (“Appeasement” and “Chamberlain” are two of conservatives’ favorite buzzwords whenever a diplomatic breakthroughs by Democratic presidents may be afoot, even if they don’t actually know what they mean.)

Israeli Prime Minister, with his usual bombast, said: “This deal would pose a grave danger to the region and to the world and would threaten the very survival of the state of Israel”. He added: “In a few years … the deal would remove restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program, enabling Iran to have a massive enrichment capacity that it could use to produce many nuclear bombs within a matter of months.”

It’s hard to take Netanyahu’s hyperbolic statements seriously when he has basically been saying the same thing - that Iran is this close to a nuclear bomb - for over twenty-three years. Even his own intelligence services don’t agree with him.

Often forgotten in the entire debate is the fact that all 16 US intelligence agencies have concluded that Iran actually abandoned its active nuclear weapons program in 2003. The US has known this since at least 2007, when a classified National Intelligence Estimate (NIE), which undercut George W Bush’s burgeoning Iran war talk, was leaked to the media. In 2010 and 2012 two other NIEs were issued by the US government that concluded, as the LA Times put it: “US intelligence agencies don’t believe Iran is actively trying to build an atomic bomb”.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/apr/04/republicans-have-no-interest-in-peace-the-iran-talks-prove-that?CMP=ema_565



So basically, the fear mongering by the right wingers and the leader of their wet dreams, Israel's own version of Baghdad Bob - Benjamin Netanyahu, is nothing more than a crock of propagandizing horseshit aimed at keeping uniformed and Fox "News" informed (ignorance personified) Americans fearful that the Iranian mullahs are hiding under their beds, ready to jump out at any moment and shove a nuclear-tipped missile up their asses.

That's how these people operate -- fear, lies, subterfuge -- and don't think for a moment that they will not make a concerted attempt to sabotage this historic agreement.

Fortunately, others in this country are willing to take a stand, even some fellow conservatives.  Watch this clip as former Nixon speech writer and former GOP Presidential candidate Pat Buchanan bitch slaps Fox's Sean Hannity on the subject:

Hannity began to get rather exercised. But Buchanan continued, undeterred.

BUCHANAN: Are we going to be frightened by words from some character in Iran? …Listen to the American head of intelligence. He says Iran does not have a bomb program as of 2013. Secondly, if they start building a bomb, we will know it. Third, Iran has made some concessions, they’re not enough, it makes them less able to get to a bomb…

…Your friend Bibi’s been talking about Iran getting a bomb since 1992. In 2006, he said they’ll be building 25 bombs by the end of the decade. Are they? No.

Buchanan also explained that U.S. and Iranian interests are allied to some degree right now.

BUCHANAN: In Iraq, Iran is fighting ISIS and Al Qaeda. In Syria, they’re fighting ISIS on behalf of Assad. In Yemen, they’re not involved there.

…Sean, they’re fighting our enemies. I’d rather have Iranians fighting in Tikrit and dying than American kids there.

But the best part was when Buchanan told Hannity, “The reason Iran is gonna be a power in the gulf is because your president, George W. Bush, invaded Iraq and turned it into an ally of Iran.”

Hannity tried to blame President Obama but Buchanan wasn’t having any of it.

BUCHANAN: Sean, the reason we’re in this position is because Saddam Hussein, a thug, was overthrown, his state was destroyed, his army was broken up. Elections were held by Bush's democracy crusade and the Shia won and we lost Iraq!

Buchanan finished by making Hannity and Netanyahu look like cowards.

BUCHANAN: I’m not scared of Iran, for God’s sakes. They don’t have an atomic bomb. …Bibi’s sitting on 200 atom bombs and he’s fretting over Iran, which hasn’t even produced weapons grade uranium?

The United States could finish off Iran in an afternoon. What are you frightened of, Sean? …I think you’re hysterical, Sean.

Buchanan had Hannity sputtering – and it was a thing of beauty.

http://crooksandliars.com/2015/04/watch-pat-buchanan-school-hannity-iran



Yes indeed -- that was a thing of beauty.  The Gadfly is certain that Hannity went home and cried himself to sleep the night after that interview with Buchanan took place.  Oh -- and also let it never be said henceforth that The Gadfly does not ever showcase the views of conservatives on the pages of his shitty little blog here.  Haha.

Nonetheless, let's hope more sensible conservatives, an endangered species to be sure, but they do exist, come out and support our president and his allies' quest for peace over unnecessary war.  And let us all raise our voices and collectively tell the warmongers in the industrial military complex and their cheerleading enablers on Fox "News" that unless every one of the defense industry CEO's and their institutional investors, along with their supporters, will be the first Americans to willingly offer up their own heirs as front-line cannon fodder in the wars that they yearn for, then they can all just go fuck  themselves.

Making your voice heard in this debate may very well salvage the future quality of life of your children and their children.  Think about it.



----TFG