John Edwards Supports Military Action Against Iran

[Nbadan]

Dove no more...


Former Senator John Edwards (Dem.) tells Herzliya Conference serious political, economic steps should be taken against Islamic Republic; 'in order to ensure Iran never gets nuclear weapons, all options must remain on table,' he says, adding that Syria should be held accountable for its support of Hizbullah, Hamas

...

"Iran is serious about its threats," former US Senator John Edwards told the Herzliya Conference at the Interdisciplinary Center on Monday.

"The challenges in your own backyard – represent an unprecedented threat to the world and Israel," said the candidate for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination, referring mainly to the Iranian threat.

In his speech, Edwards criticized the United States' previous indifference to the Iranian issue, saying they have not done enough to deal with the threat.

Hinting to possible military action, Edwards stressed that "in order to ensure Iran never gets nuclear weapons, all options must remain on table."

On the recent UN Security Council's resolution against Iran, Edwards said more serious political and economic steps should be taken. "Iran must know that the world won’t back down," he said."

....

"After opening his speech with great praise for former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Edward's continued to express great appreciation for the Israeli people and the special bond between the two countries, saying it was "a bond that will never be broken."

Ynet News (http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3355802,00.html)

Do you think it report would have been a such a non-story by the M$M if these statements had been made by Hillary, Kerry, Gore, Obama, or Clark?

[01Snake]

They will all be for Iran.....























Then they will be against it.

[Nbadan]

I wonder how much AIPAC money Edwards is taking? He also claimed Iraq had WMDs' and SPONSORED the Iraq War Resolution.

[MannyIsGod]

AIPAC is the devil. He didn't say he supported military options though, he said all options have to remain and the table and I agree with that notion. There isn't much less he can say on the subject and remain politically alive either way.

To take the one line out of context and try to read more into it than is there is very disingenuous. Thats probably why the MSM isn't doing it.

[exstatic]

Military force won't be necessary.

Saudis flood oil market to impoverish Iran (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16772560/)

[Spurminator]

I'd be wary of any of our leaders who said war will never be an option with Iran.

[Nbadan]

AIPAC is the devil. He didn't say he supported military options though, he said all options have to remain and the table and I agree with that notion. There isn't much less he can say on the subject and remain politically alive either way.

To take the one line out of context and try to read more into it than is there is very disingenuous. Thats probably why the MSM isn't doing it.

This would be true if he made this speech while on the campaign trail in the U.S., after all, what do most American's know? He could have just been pandering. But he made this speech before very powerful Jewish lobbyist and politicians. That alone is enough to raise red flags, forget threatening a nation that has done very little to provoke these threats.

[Nbadan]

they're going to have nukes though corso! remember when russia and israel got nukes and blew up everyone?

Everyone around them has nukes. National security?

[Nbadan]

U.S. claims it has evidence of Iran's interference in Iraq


The United States claimed on Wednesday that it has evidence that Iran is interfering in Iraqi issue and will soon publish details concerning Iran's network established in Iraq.

"There is solid evidence that Iranian agents are involved in these networks and that they are working with individuals and groups in Iraq and that they are being sent there by the Iranian government," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said at a briefing.

"In the near future, we are going to try to talk a little bit more in public -- to the extent that we can because, again, you're dealing with intelligence information -- about what we know of Iranian support for these networks," McCormack said.

The United States has repeatedly accused Iran of supporting the insurgents in Iraq and secretly developing nuclear weapons under the cover of a civilian nuclear program. Iran has denied these charges.

Link (http://english.people.com.cn/200701/25/eng20070125_344666.html)

Looks like the cons are itching for another war. They are building up ships in the Gulf and sending troops and patriot missiles to Iraq.

[BradLohaus]

They probably want to get going on Iran while they still have their puppet in office.

[Nbadan]

So long John Edwards (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XM4oQGp6uw). Nice knowing ya!

[mookie2001]

well its pretty clear that we're going to war with Iran for sure now

[Nbadan]

The War With Iran Has Begun (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcSK809U3Qs)

[MannyIsGod]

Why is that news? The pentagon has so many battle plans is ridiculous. I'm sure they have battle plans for most of the countries on Earth.

[mookie2001]

War is coming brah, would anyone bet against it?

[Nbadan]

Why is that news? The pentagon has so many battle plans is ridiculous. I'm sure they have battle plans for most of the countries on Earth.

Scott Ritter was right about Iraq.

[Nbadan]

As Ritter pointed out, these plans have gone way beyond just Pentagon planning. We have troops in Iran without the authorization of Congress.

[Guru of Nothing]

At what point does a Presidential candidate garner "intelligence" facts upon which to build a campaign platform?

[MannyIsGod]

At what point does a Presidential candidate garner "intelligence" facts upon which to build a campaign platform?Do you mean when is the Pentagon briefing a candidate? AFAIK, they don't. You get information when you're the President Elect, but otherwise I don't think any of them get anything from the Pentagon. Either way, I doubt it would be anywhere before the 2 parties make their nominations.

[BIG IRISH]

The War With Iran Has Begun (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcSK809U3Qs)


It began a long time ago

The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have positioned American troops along Iran’s borders, making the United States and Iran wary competitors and neighbors who nonetheless possess overlapping interests. Meanwhile, questions continue to be raised about Iran’s nuclear program and its involvement with terrorism. Clearly, contending with Iran will constitute one of the most complex and pressing challenges facing future U.S. administrations. This informative report, which sparked sharp debate in Washington and extensive coverage by U.S. and international media, offers a timely new approach.

Rejecting the conventional wisdom that Iran is on the verge of another revolution, the report calls for the United States to reassess its long-standing policy of non-engagement with the current Iranian government. The product of an independent Task Force chaired by Zbigniew Brzezinski, President Carter’s national security adviser, and Robert M. Gates, director of central intelligence during the George H.W. Bush administration, the report highlights several areas in which U.S. interests would be better served by selective engagement with Tehran, and breaks with current U.S. policy by encouraging a new strategy.
This report focuses on developments inside Iran, tapping into the Task Force members’ extensive expertise on Iranian politics and society. It includes a comprehensive chronology of important dates in U.S.-Iranian history, economic and demographic facts about Iran, and reference materials on Iranian state institutions and governance.



Task Force Members

PETER ACKERMAN is Managing Director of Rockport Capital and Chairman of the Board Overseers of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. He is the coauthor of A Force More Powerful: A Century of Nonviolent Conflict and Executive Producer of "Bringing Down a Dictator," the Peabody Award-winning documentary on the fall of Slobodan Milosevic.

DAVID ALBRIGHT is President and founder of the Institute for Science and International Security. He is a physicist who specializes in nuclear nonproliferation. For over a decade he has assessed and published widely on Iran's secret nuclear efforts. In the 1990s, he worked with the IAEA Action Team mandated by the UN Security Council to dismantle and monitor against any reconstitution of Iraq's nuclear weapons programs.

SHAUL BAKASH is Clarence J. Robinson Professor of History at George Mason University. He is the author of Iran: Monarchy, Bureaucracy and Reform under the Oajars, 1858-1896, The Politics of Oil and Revolution in Iran,and Reign of the Ayatollahs: Iran and the Islamic Revolution. His articles have appeared in the New York Review of Books, the New Republic, Foreign Policy, the Journal of Democracy, and in scholarly books and journals.
He has written opinion pieces for the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, and other newspapers. He worked for many years as a journalist in Iran, writing for the Tehran-based Kayhan Newspapers as well as for the London Times, the Financial Times, and the Economist. Before coming to George Mason University in 1985, he taught at Princeton University. He spent the past year as a Visiting Fellow at the Saban Center at the Brookings Institution, working on a book on the reform movement in Iran.

ZBIGNIEW BRZEZINSKI is a Chair of the Task Force and served as National Security Adviser to President Carter from 1977 to 1981. He is the author of, most recently, The Choice: Global Domination or Global Leadership.

FRANK CARLUCCI is Chairman Emeritus of the Carlyle Group, having served as Chairman for eleven years. His government background includes service as Secretary of Defense, National Security Adviser, Deputy Director of Central Intelligence, Ambassador, Deputy Director of OMB, and Undersecretary of Health, Education, and Welfare.

ROBERT EINHORN is Senior Adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and served as Assistant Secretary of State for Nonproliferation from 1999 to August 2001.

ROBERT M. GATES is a Chair of the Task Force and President of Texas A&M University. Dr. Gates served as Director of Central Intelligence from 1991 to 1993. In this position, he headed all foreign intelligence agencies of the United States and directed the Central Intelligence Agency. Dr. Gates has been awarded the National Security Medal and the Presidential Citizens Medal, has twice received the National Intelligence Distinguished Service Medal, and has three times received the CIA's highest award, the Distinguished Intelligence Medal.New Secretary of Defense :rolleyes


H. P. GOLDFIELD is Vice Chairman of Stonebridge International, LLC, an international strategic advisory firm based in Washington, DC, and a Senior International Adviser to the law firm of Hogan & Hartson LLP. Previously, Mr. Goldfield served as Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Trade Development and as Associate Counsel to President Ronald Reagan. Mr. Goldfield also serves on the Boards of Directors of Black & Veatch
Holding Company, the Middle East Institute, and the Israel Policy Forum.

STEPHEN B. HEINTZ is President of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund. Prior to joining RBF, he was founding President of Demos, a public policy research and advocacy network. After fifteen years in public service, he served as Executive Vice President of the EastWest Institute, based in Prague, from 1990 to 1997.

BRUCE HOFFMAN is Director of the RAND Corporation's Washington Office and Acting Director of RAND's Center for Middle East Public Policy. He is also a Senior Fellow at the Combating Terrorism Center at the U.S. Military Academy, in West Point, NY.

JOHN H. KELLY was Assistant Secretary of State for the Near East and South Asia from 1989 to 1991, Ambassador to Lebanon from 1986 to 1988, and Ambassador to Finland from 1991 to 1994. Since then, he has been an international consultant and Ambassador-in-Residence at the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs, at Georgia Tech.

WILLIAM H. LUERS is President of the United Nations Association of the U.S. and served as an American diplomat for thirty years, including serving as Ambassador to Venezuela and the former Czechoslovakia. He subsequently served as President of the Metropolitan Museum of Art for thirteen years. In his current position, which he has held for five years, he has been involved in high-level discussions on U.S. policy toward Iran.

SUZANNE MALONEY is a Director of this Task Force, and has also served as Middle East adviser for a major international oil company and as Olin Fellow at the Brookings Institution. She is the author of Ayatollah Gorbachev: The Politics of Change in Khatami's Iran.

RICHARD H. MATZKE is President of NESW Solutions, a member of the Board of Directors of OAO LUKoil, Russia's largest oil company, former Vice Chairman of the Chevron Texaco Corporation, and Cochairman of the American Iranian Council.

LOUIS PERLMUTTER has been an investment banker and has participated in various second-track diplomatic discussions over the past twenty years.

JAMES PLACKE served much of his twenty-seven-year Foreign Service career in Middle East oil-exporting countries, concluding as a Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs, with responsibility for Iran, Iraq, and the Gulf states, and for U.S. economic relations with the Arab region. He has since been a consultant on Middle East energy economics and strategy affiliated with Cambridge Energy Research Associates.

NICHOLAS PLATT is President Emeritus of the Asia Society. He served as Ambassador to Pakistan, the Philippines, and Zambia in the course of a thirty-four-year Foreign Service career. The Asia Society organized Iran-related policy programs, cultural events, and
in-country travel during his tenure as President.

DANIEL B. PONEMAN, former Special Assistant to the President for Nonproliferation and Export Controls, served on the National Security Council staff under Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton. A Senior Fellow at the Forum for International Policy, he is coauthor of Going Critical: The First North Korean Nuclear Crisis.

ELAHE SHARIFPOUR-HICKS is an independent human rights activist. She spent ten years working as the Iran researcher for Human Rights Watch. She has also worked for the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and for Human Rights First. Sharifpour-Hicks has traveled repeatedly to Iran on human rights missions. She is a frequent commentator on human rights and related policy issues on the Farsi services of the BBC, VOA, RFI, and RFE. She is a graduate of Tehran University Faculty of Law and Political Science. She received her LLM in international law at Fordham Law School
in New York.

STEPHEN J. SOLARZ served in public office for twenty-four-years, both in the New York State Assembly and in the U.S. House of Representatives (D-NY). Mr. Solarz served for eighteen years on the U.S. House of Representatives International Affairs Committee, emerging as a leading spokesman on behalf of democracy and human rights. He coauthored the resolution authorizing the use of force in the first Persian Gulf War and led the successful fight for its passage on the House floor.

RAY TAKEYH is a Professor of National Security Studies at the National Defense University.

MORTIMER ZUCKERMAN is Editor-in-Chief of U.S. News & World Report, Publisher of New York's Daily News, and former Middle East adviser to President Bill Clinton.

full text of the report in PDFhttp://www.cfr.org/content/publications/attachments/Iran_TF.pdf

[boutons_]

The US is really good at starting fights, but ain't so good at finishing fights.

[Yonivore]

The US is really good at starting fights, but ain't so good at finishing fights.
Gee, I wonder why that is...

Democratic Presidents chicken out. I give you Iran in '79 and Mogadishu during the Clinton administration.

Republican Presidents are shackled by leftist crybabies that would sell their country out if it meant the U.S. failed in its war objectives.

We'd be real good at finishing them if the bleeding hearts would stop and realize that people die in wars and that things get broken. Get past that, and we'd win one.

[boutons_]

"I give you Iran in '79"

I was all for bombing the shit out of Iran for the Embassy/hostage business (did you want Carter to slaughter the hostages by bombing Iran while Iran held the hostages?), but REPUG Saint Ronnie did fuck all to Iran when he got the hostages back.

Then REPUG St Ronnie did nothing afte the slaughter of Marines in Beirut.

Dems Kennedy and Johnson started/continued VN, but REPUGs Nixon and Ford couldn't finish it.

[ChumpDumper]

but REPUG Saint Ronnie did fuck all to Iran when he got the hostages back.Now that's just not true.

He sold the radical Islamists over 1000 missles.

That sure showed them.

[PixelPusher]

The US is really good at starting fights, but ain't so good at finishing fights.

A more accurate statement would be "America's conventional military is exceptionally good at defeating other conventional military forces, but isn't good at occupying territories with populations hostile to their pressence"



Gee, I wonder why that is...

Democratic Presidents chicken out. I give you Iran in '79 and Mogadishu during the Clinton administration.

Republican Presidents are shackled by leftist crybabies that would sell their country out if it meant the U.S. failed in its war objectives.

We'd be real good at finishing them if the bleeding hearts would stop and realize that people die in wars and that things get broken. Get past that, and we'd win one.
Just keep on believing a conventional military solution will "win" the "war on terror", that every struggle is exactly analygous to WWII, and your stubborn support makes you Winston Churchill instead of Don Quixote.