(WMR)—Perhaps already anticipating pressure from Senator John McCain and other pro-Israeli Republican neocons, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Martin Dempsey, only days after the Republican electoral victory, told the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs that he thought that “Israel went to extraordinary lengths to limit collateral damage and civilian casualties” in Gaza. Dempsey’s opinion was in marked contrast to previous statements in which he said the U.S. must not fight Assad in Syria while also battling the Islamic State.
McCain has called Dempsey’s public affairs spokesman at the Pentagon, Rear Admiral John Kirby, an “idiot.” The former prisoner-of-war in Vietnam, who allegedly gave his North Vietnamese captors six months of future U.S. naval bombardment schedules, has been a vocal critic of Dempsey and his boss, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel.
Although Hagel supported McCain’s run for the presidency in 2000 and was his friend, the two Vietnam War veterans have had a bitter falling out. Dempsey’s recent comments about Israel’s attack on Gaza is obviously intended to ingratiate himself with McCain and his “partner,” South Carolina’s Senator Lindsey Graham, who is slated to become chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on State and Foreign Operations.
Graham will be sure to place procedural roadblocks on any of Obama’s ambassadorial nominations that do not pass muster with the neocon policy laundries in Washington. These policy “boiler shops” include the American Enterprise Institute, the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, the Heritage Foundation, the Hudson Institute, the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs, and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).
The first volleys in the upcoming skirmishes by congressional Republicans to push for U.S. military action in the Middle East came after it was revealed that President Obama sent a letter to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in October urging U.S.-Iranian cooperation in battling the forces of the Islamic State. The Obama policy was immediately condemned by congressional Republicans after details of the letter were leaked by an administration source to the neocon propaganda daily, The Wall Street Journal.
While in Tehran in late September, this reporter urged Iranian officials close to Khamenei to respond favorably to White House entreaties over jointly combating the Islamic State. However, any rapprochement between Washington and Tehran is anathema to the Israelis and their neocon supporters in the United States, as well as to the Saudis, Turks, and Qataris, who, like Israel, support the Islamic State financially, militarily, or logistically.
Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, who publicly supported the Republicans in the election, will use surrogates like McCain, Graham, Illinois Republican Senator Mark Kirk (who attacked this reporter on his Senate website during my visit to Iran), and incoming Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman Bob Corker of Tennessee to ensure that the U.S.-Iranian rapprochement over the Islamic State is dead-on-arrival. The Senate neocons, who put Israel’s interests ahead of those of the United States, will also do their very best to ensure a complete breakdown of the P5+1 nuclear talks between Iran, the United States, and the European Union. The congressional neocons will also push for U.S. military intervention in Ukraine on the side of the Kiev regime and a military showdown with Russia.
Control of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Near East and South and Central Asian Affairs may go to Senator Jim Risch from the extremely conservative state of Idaho. His political campaign coffers can be expected to swell with out-of-state money from Jewish contributors from New York City, Los Angeles, and south Florida. There will be intense jockeying for this chairmanship considering the Jewish donor money that goes along with it.
Americans have voted to install a war party in control of the legislative branch of their government. They will have war unless the generally anti-neocon Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky can prevail on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to rein in the neocons. Paul came to McConnell’s assistance during his primary challenge by a Tea Party candidate and McConnell owes Paul a huge political debt. However, as Paul ratchets up his 2016 presidential campaign, there is every likelihood that the junior senator from Kentucky will start to waddle and quack like a “neocon-lite” duck.
Wayne Madsen is a Washington, DC-based investigative journalist and nationally-distributed columnist. He is the editor and publisher of the Wayne Madsen Report (subscription required).
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The coming neocon troublemaking for U.S. foreign policy
Posted on November 12, 2014 by Wayne Madsen
(WMR)—Perhaps already anticipating pressure from Senator John McCain and other pro-Israeli Republican neocons, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Martin Dempsey, only days after the Republican electoral victory, told the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs that he thought that “Israel went to extraordinary lengths to limit collateral damage and civilian casualties” in Gaza. Dempsey’s opinion was in marked contrast to previous statements in which he said the U.S. must not fight Assad in Syria while also battling the Islamic State.
McCain has called Dempsey’s public affairs spokesman at the Pentagon, Rear Admiral John Kirby, an “idiot.” The former prisoner-of-war in Vietnam, who allegedly gave his North Vietnamese captors six months of future U.S. naval bombardment schedules, has been a vocal critic of Dempsey and his boss, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel.
Although Hagel supported McCain’s run for the presidency in 2000 and was his friend, the two Vietnam War veterans have had a bitter falling out. Dempsey’s recent comments about Israel’s attack on Gaza is obviously intended to ingratiate himself with McCain and his “partner,” South Carolina’s Senator Lindsey Graham, who is slated to become chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on State and Foreign Operations.
Graham will be sure to place procedural roadblocks on any of Obama’s ambassadorial nominations that do not pass muster with the neocon policy laundries in Washington. These policy “boiler shops” include the American Enterprise Institute, the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, the Heritage Foundation, the Hudson Institute, the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs, and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).
The first volleys in the upcoming skirmishes by congressional Republicans to push for U.S. military action in the Middle East came after it was revealed that President Obama sent a letter to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in October urging U.S.-Iranian cooperation in battling the forces of the Islamic State. The Obama policy was immediately condemned by congressional Republicans after details of the letter were leaked by an administration source to the neocon propaganda daily, The Wall Street Journal.
While in Tehran in late September, this reporter urged Iranian officials close to Khamenei to respond favorably to White House entreaties over jointly combating the Islamic State. However, any rapprochement between Washington and Tehran is anathema to the Israelis and their neocon supporters in the United States, as well as to the Saudis, Turks, and Qataris, who, like Israel, support the Islamic State financially, militarily, or logistically.
Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, who publicly supported the Republicans in the election, will use surrogates like McCain, Graham, Illinois Republican Senator Mark Kirk (who attacked this reporter on his Senate website during my visit to Iran), and incoming Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman Bob Corker of Tennessee to ensure that the U.S.-Iranian rapprochement over the Islamic State is dead-on-arrival. The Senate neocons, who put Israel’s interests ahead of those of the United States, will also do their very best to ensure a complete breakdown of the P5+1 nuclear talks between Iran, the United States, and the European Union. The congressional neocons will also push for U.S. military intervention in Ukraine on the side of the Kiev regime and a military showdown with Russia.
Control of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Near East and South and Central Asian Affairs may go to Senator Jim Risch from the extremely conservative state of Idaho. His political campaign coffers can be expected to swell with out-of-state money from Jewish contributors from New York City, Los Angeles, and south Florida. There will be intense jockeying for this chairmanship considering the Jewish donor money that goes along with it.
Americans have voted to install a war party in control of the legislative branch of their government. They will have war unless the generally anti-neocon Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky can prevail on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to rein in the neocons. Paul came to McConnell’s assistance during his primary challenge by a Tea Party candidate and McConnell owes Paul a huge political debt. However, as Paul ratchets up his 2016 presidential campaign, there is every likelihood that the junior senator from Kentucky will start to waddle and quack like a “neocon-lite” duck.
In that event, a multi-front war is inevitable.
Previously published in the Wayne Madsen Report.
Copyright © 2014 WayneMadenReport.com
Wayne Madsen is a Washington, DC-based investigative journalist and nationally-distributed columnist. He is the editor and publisher of the Wayne Madsen Report (subscription required).