Officials can rarely predict the long-term impact of a war says Zbigniew Brzezinski, former national security advisor to President Carter. In an interview with Editor-at-Large Harry Evans, Brzezinski adds that the U.S. should guarantee every Persian Gulf country that any threat from Iran will be viewed a direct threat to the United States. (July 18, 2012)."I know from experience, and also from history, you can start a war, and you can know how you're going to do it, and you can more or less anticipate the short-range consequences, you can rarely predict the long-range consequences. How long will it last? What its impact will be? And I do know that right now the last thing the United States needs in the world scene is a new prolonged military engagement with extremely negative economic consequences for the American economy and for the world economy.
Now, what about the nuclear threat? Yes, that's a problem. But I think we can deal with it without necessarily attacking Iran. First of all, maybe we can reach an agreement in negotiations, but perhaps not. And, if not, there's another way out. The United States, in my view, should issue, and I'm saying this now publicly, should issue an ironclad guarantee to every country in the Persian Gulf region, and specifically to Israel, that any threat from Iran directed at any of them, not to mention even an attack, would be viewed as a threat directed at the United States. And let me add here, we have successfully protected for forty years an almost completely vulnerable Western Europe from a Soviet Union whose war plan envisioned using nuclear weapons against Hamburg already on the third day. We have protected Japan and South Korea against a crazy North Korea, and earlier the Chinese, we can certainly protect the Middle East against a country which doesn't have nuclear weapons, which at best at some point will have maybe one or two, probably not even tested, whose delivery systems are absolutely inadequate, whose leadership is shrewd and difficult but not suicidal." - Zbigniew Brzezinski.
Apparently, Israel and Saudi Arabia do not believe that Uncle Sam can protect them. What a bunch of big babies. Maybe they haven't read the history of the Cold War, or bothered to check the news out of East Asia. America has proven it can protect rational and sensible allies in whatever region from rising revolutionary powers - Europe, East Asia, West Asia - but it can't protect the warmongers in Israel and Saudi Arabia from themselves, from their own stupidity, paranoia, and stubbornness. That is too high a bar to clear, it seems.
2. Video Title: President Obama participates in the 10th Annual Saban Forum. December 7, 2013. Source: The White House. Date Published: December 7, 2013. Description:
President Obama participates in the 10th Annual Saban Forum. December 7, 2013.An excerpt from, "Obama defends nuclear deal the best way to stopping Iran from getting the bomb" allvoices.com, December 8:
"It is important for us to test that proposition during the next six months, understanding that while we’re talking, they’re not secretly improving their position or changing circumstances on the ground inside of Iran," said Obama. "And if at the end of six months it turns out that we can’t make a deal, we’re no worse off, and in fact we have greater leverage with the international community to continue to apply sanctions and even strengthen them.""And point number two -- I’ve already said this before -- you have to compare the approach that we’re taking now with the alternatives. The idea that Iran, given everything we know about their history, would just continue to get more and more nervous about more sanctions and military threats, and ultimately just say, okay, we give in -- I think does not reflect an honest understanding of the Iranian people or the Iranian regime. And I say that -- by the way, I’m not just talking about the hardliners inside of Iran. I think even the so-called moderates or reformers inside of Iran would not be able to simply say, we will cave and do exactly what the U.S. and the Israelis say.
Obama added that if "We’re able to get this deal done, then what we can achieve through a diplomatic resolution of this situation is, frankly, greater than what we could achieve with the other options that are available to us."
Saban asked Obama about a lack of confidence on the part of 77 percent of the Israeli people that this first nuclear deal will not preclude Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons, and that the Israeli perceive this fact as an existential matter for them.
Obama said, "It is in America’s national security interests, not just Israel’s national interests or the region’s national security interests, to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon."
They are going to have to have a path in which they feel that there is a dignified resolution to this issue. That’s a political requirement of theirs, and that, I suspect, runs across the political spectrum. And so for us to present a door that serves our goals and our purposes but also gives them the opportunity to, in a dignified fashion, reenter the international community and change the approach that they’ve taken -- at least on this narrow issue, but one that is of extraordinary importance to all of us -- is an opportunity that we should grant them." - President Obama, "Obama at Saban Forum" Haaretz, December 7, 2013.
3. Video Title: Hizbullah Sec.-Gen. Nasrallah before Signing of Nuclear Deal: War in the Region Should Worry Our Opponents More than Us. Source: MEMRI TV. Date Published: November 13, 2013.
"As for the Iranian nuclear negotiations, there are two possibilities: Either they reach an understanding, or they don't in which case, God forbid, there will be war. Some say that Hizbullah is worried and confused by the negotiations. If things lead to war, God forbid, everybody should be worried, but our opponents should be more worried than us. Our opponents should be more worried than us if things lead to a war in the region.
The second possibility is that there will be an understanding. What I am saying is being recorded by the TV stations present here. If an understanding is reached over the nuclear issue between Iran and the world, we will be stronger and better off in Lebanon and the region. " - Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.
Peace and security would be better for the people of Lebanon and the region than perpetual war? What a shocking idea! If only the world can manage to convince Israeli and Palestinian leaders to embrace "peacemaking" and "negotiating" which are obviously strange concepts to them.
