In response to a worrying trend in U.S. politics Lobe Log is launching “Iran Hawk Watch”. Each Friday we will post on notable militaristic commentary about Iran from a variety of sources including news articles, think tanks and pundits.
Mainstream Media and Pundits:
Washington Post: Neoconservative media spokesman Charles Krauthammer (who [...]
I was struck by an article by Nathan Guttman in the legendary Jewish Daily Forward about Dennis Ross and George Mitchell jockeying for the position of Obama Administration’s point-person in the Middle East peace process. The whole thing is a fascinating read, but this line really jumped out at me:
Others have [...]
It’s worth noting that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s Middle East policy address on Friday contained yet another explicit endorsement of the concept of ‘linkage‘ between resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the long-term strategic interests of the United States in the Middle East.
… Iran and its proxies are not the [...]
While Iran hawks, such as Jennifer Rubin and David Frum, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have been quick to push the story that WikiLeaks cables prove “linkage”—specifically that curbing Iran and resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are inextricably linked—is an irrelevant concept for explaining the Middle East’s regional dynamics and the U.S.’s relations [...]
There’s a clear emerging pattern here — one that should not surprise us after the run-up to the Iraq war — of Washington-based hawks seeing exactly what they want (and nothing more) in everything that comes across their desks.
Matt Duss, at Think Progress, has one such example with regard to David Frum‘s [...]
News and views on U.S.-Iran relations for December 4-6, 2010:
National Review Online: American Enterprise Institute Resident Fellow Ali Alfoneh opines that expectations should be “subzero” for the P5+1 talks, continuing today in Geneva, since “the Iranian negotiators in Geneva represent the Ahmadinejad government and possibly Khamenei, therefore they cannot deliver what they [...]
The Daily Talking Points
News and views on U.S.-Iran relations for February 19-22:
The Wall Street Journal: The Journal’s editorial board writes that the Obama administration needs a “new freedom agenda,” and should take notes from George W. Bush’s second inaugural address. They accuse Obama of “[O]ffer[ing] no support for Iranian demonstrators after [the June 2009] fraudulent elections” [...]