[whataretheysaying] Mary Madigan: Pro-Americans vs. malign realists

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Posted by Mary Madigan:
Pro-Americans vs. malign realists
http://whataretheysaying.powerblogs.com/posts/1170871359.shtml


   Michael Totten interviews [1]Toni Nissi, one of Lebanonâs pro-American
   interventionists -

     "Hezbollah is now attacking you personally, by name," I said to
     Toni.

     "Yeah," he said. "This started a long time ago. Now heâs attacking
     me personally even on TV."

     "So he feels threatened by you," I said.

     "Of course," he said. "Well, not by me as a person. If they felt
     threatened by me as a person they could kill me. It's easy. Itâs
     very easy, you know. They are afraid of who I represent in Lebanon
     â the international lobby, the guys in the States, people
     everywhere in Lebanon â they are afraid of what we are doing. But
     they think by pushing me to leave or maybe killing me, I donât know
     the plans but, by eliminating a person having the power of the
     Diaspora Lebanese who is also very well connected with the
     international community and who can go on TVâ¦Iâve been fives times
     on TV here and no one is able to put me on the screen anymore.â He
     laughed darkly. âBecause of the influence of Hezbollah.â

     âWait a minute,â I said. âYou mean Hezbollah is pressuring TV
     channels here to not talk to you?â

     âYes, of course,â he said. âOf course.â

     âAnd they are complying?â I said.

     âThey call any reporter and tell him if you make an interview with
     Toni weâre going to kill you,â he said...

   The fact that Hezbollah influences and threatens journalists was
   repeated, not only by MJT and most of the Lebanese I talked to, but
   also by [2]journalists in the US. Many journalists play along -
   something we should always remember when [3]reading
   AP/Reuters/CNN-type reports from Lebanon..

   Toni also observes how the US government operates....

     âWhat has [Palestinian Fatah leader Mahmoud] Abbas delivered for
     that?â Toni said.

     âNothing,â I said.

     âYeah, so,â Toni said and laughed. âWhenever you pay money you have
     to get something in return.

   This is Bribery 101. Our government is so incompetent at bribing
   people, they need to be told this?

   (and when I say 'our government', I mean the federal government.
   Locally, you couldn't get elected garbage collector if you didn't know
   this stuff)

     âThey donât trust the Americans, yes,â Toni said. âBut they donât
     believe that the American soldiers are coming here. Most Lebanese
     believe and know that in 1990 the United States handed the Syrians
     Lebanon on a plate of silver.â

     Toni is referring here to Secretary of State James Baker who traded
     a green-light for Syrian domination of Lebanon in exchange for
     Syrian âhelpâ in ousting Saddam Hussein from Kuwait. Most Americans
     have no idea this even happened, but Lebanese have never forgotten
     it. Hezbollahâs Christian allies in Michel Aounâs Free Patriotic
     Movement in particular bang on this point again and again. The fact
     that we've been incompetently bribing enemies like Abbas for years
     (and the fact that we continue to throw good money after bad) is
     proof that our foreign policy is a mess.

   Part of the responsibility for the mess we call our foreign policy has
   to rest on the shoulders of 'realists' among the Democrats
   ([4]Brzezinski and his followers) and also the Repubicans (ie.
   [5]Henry Kissinger, and the [6]justifiably-hated James Baker).

   These malign gargoyles still exert undue influence over our
   government. Until we can put them and their ideas out to pasture, we
   can't really expect Republicans or Democrats to make any intelligent
   changes in our policies towards Iran, Syria or Saudi Arabia.

   However, pressuring Syria and Iran would produce better results than
   having the US be directly involved in the delicate situation in
   Lebanon. In yet another excellent interview, MJT speaks to the more
   mainstream [7]Eli Khoury about a civil response to Hezbollah's threat.

References

   1. http://www.michaeltotten.com/archives/001379.html
   2. http://newsbusters.org/node/6574
   3. http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=24224&only&rss
   4. http://whataretheysaying.powerblogs.com/posts/1133883881.shtml
   5. http://www.slate.com/id/2151129
   6. http://www.whataretheysaying.org/archives/001337.html
   7. http://www.michaeltotten.com/archives/001380.html