Dick Cheney’s office over-ruled Colin Powell’s State Department and rejected Iranian overtures to normalize relations and end Iranian support for militant groups across the Middle East.

From the Beeb:

Tehran proposed ending support for Lebanese and Palestinian militant groups and helping to stabilise Iraq following the US-led invasion. …

But Vice-President Dick Cheney’s office rejected the plan, the official said. …

One of the then Secretary of State Colin Powell’s top aides told the BBC the state department was keen on the plan - but was over-ruled.

“We thought it was a very propitious moment to do that,” Lawrence Wilkerson told Newsnight.

“But as soon as it got to the White House, and as soon as it got to the Vice-President’s office, the old mantra of ‘We don’t talk to evil’… reasserted itself.”

Usually the best commentary on U.S. politics comes from abroad. Richard Adams at the Guardian in the U.K. sums up my feelings after watching the speech last night:

Much of what President Bush said was a reprise of earlier, more upbeat new plans for Iraq, such as that he delivered back in November 2005 - the “National Strategy for Victory in Iraq” - claiming then: “As the Iraqi forces gain experience and the political process advances, we will be able to decrease our troop levels in Iraq”. In the 2007 edition, President Bush had to explain why another effort was needed to secure Baghdad, after previously talking up US success there. This time it would be different, he urged, because there would be more troops. Then he claimed: “In earlier operations, political and sectarian interference prevented Iraqi and American forces from going into neighborhoods that are home to those fueling the sectarian violence. This time, Iraqi and American forces will have a green light to enter these neighborhoods”. That, presumably, raises the highly unlikely prospect of US military operating in Sadr City.

Read the rest of it here.

Read the Democratic response here.

Holy hell, this guy rips Rumsfeld a new one.

From the NY Times via Democracy Now!:

“the president expressed frustration that Iraqis had not come to appreciate the sacrifices the United States had made in Iraq, and was puzzled as to how a recent anti-American rally in support of Hezbollah in Baghdad could draw such a large crowd.”

…ya know… I chuckle at those bumper stickers that say stuff like “Bush = Moron”, but I guess I never really, truly though he was an idiot. Ignorant, yes, stupid, not necessarily. I apologize. I see it very very clearly now. The President is a moron.

However, I do not want to be accused by the NSA of anti-Americanism, so here isa short list of links to stories about the “sacrifices the United States [has] made in Iraq.” I hope Iraqi’s learn from this and come to “appreciate” us more.

• Army enlists more low-scorers
• In Western Iraq, Insurgency Is Gaining
• Marines shrouded by suspicion since deaths of civilians
• Al-Qaida gains strength in Iraq Sunni heartland
• Clashes in Basra and Mosul, Baghdad bombs kills 21
• Violence flares in Iraq
• Bomb kills 8 in Baghdad
• A suicide bombing and street skirmishes kill 16 in Iraq
• Iraq’s spiralling sectarian strife
• July deadliest month in Iraq, tallies show
• UNESCO chief condemns wave of killings of journalists in Iraq
• Photos of the torture that US military personal carried out at Abu Ghraib

Golly gee, I wonder why Iraqis might be drawn to support groups that are anti-American?

Seymour Hersh once again cuts through the fog of political theater. this time he explains to us all how the US government continues to follow the policies of the neoconservatives – policies that any rational person understands have failed miserably. The extraordinary pro-Israeli government bias that the neocons are infused with and, in many ways, fundamentally built upon, is so totally counter to the interests of American citizens, it amazes me sometimes that they are able to continue to fool themselves. I mean, my god, does Dick Cheney really think that the US policies in the Middle East are making the world safer? It boggles my mind.

What is strikingly absent from this story of the pro-war imperial neocons and their Israeli counterparts is basic human compassion. Danny Schechter wrote about this recently and it’s a major motivation for groups like Jewish Voice for Peace and Tikkun. The cavalier attitude that these people have for going to war is so disgusting and infuriating. The more this current crop of “leadership” around the world continues to pursue inhuman policies, the more I begin to feel like I crossed over into some alternate universe where the world just doesn’t operate the right way. Like I’m Donnie Darko in some right-wing fantasy world of rulers, warriors, and peasants.

I have posted Hersh’s entire article here. It’s long, but like all good writing, you don’t mind so much. Read it all. (Highlights are mine.)

WATCHING LEBANON
Washington’s interests in Israel’s war.
by SEYMOUR M. HERSH
The New Yorker