Glenn Greenwald makes an obvious but frightening observation about the state of American politics in another superb essay.
In the American political framework, one can never lose credibility by urging on new wars. That is an inherently respectable position. Only opposing new wars, or the continuation of old ones, can result in a loss of credibility. Yet both the views and the underlying motives of warmongers like Lieberman are as radical — and as deceitful and corrupt — as can be.
Just watch Lieberman during this appearance and try to keep track of the number of lies he makes.
Every one of his charges against Iran has either been thoroughly debunked. The heads of the intelligence agencies he refers to have stated that there is no evidence implicating Iran.
Never is the elephant in the room mentioned by the interviewer.
In urging on Glorious War with Iran, Lieberman repeatedly mentioned Israel, including the fact that he had just returned from his latest visit there. In parading around all the various possible pretexts for this new war, Lieberman repeatedly highlighted all the threats which Iran poses to that country, which is a different nation than the U.S. That Israel is at the center of the growing calls for a new war with Iran can hardly be reasonably doubted.
And while Israel’s amen corner would declare this an anti-Semitic conspiracy, let’s be reminded what Israel’s leaders themselves have said about this matter.
In early 2007, Benjamin Netanyahu, likely the next Israeli Prime Minister, said:
Israel “must immediately launch an intense, international, public relations front first and foremost on the U.S. The goal being to encourage President Bush to live up to specific pledges he would not allow Iran to arm itself with nuclear weapons. We must make clear to the government, the Congress and the American public that a nuclear Iran is a threat to the U.S. and the entire world, not only Israel.”
And Israeli Minister Avigdor Lieberman (whose duties include strategic affairs and Iran) visited the U.S. earlier this year, and gave an interview to The New York Times in which he said this:
“Our first task is to convince Western countries to adopt a tough approach to the Iranian problem,” which he called “the biggest threat facing the Jewish people since the Second World War.” [Minister] Lieberman insisted that negotiations with Iran were worthless: “The dialogue with Iran will be a 100-percent failure, just like it was with North Korea.”
The same month, the current Israeli Prime Minister echoed those sentiments:
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Friday compared Iran’s nuclear ambitions and threats against Israel with the policies of Nazi Germany and criticized world leaders who maintain relations with Iran’s president. . . .
Israel has identified Iran as the greatest threat to the Jewish state. Israel’s concerns have heightened since the election of Iran’s hard-line president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who frequently calls for the destruction of Israel and has questioned whether the Nazi genocide of 6 million Jews took place.
So the fact of the matter is that the political play of the land in the US has become so corrupted and contaminated that the views of Dick Cheney, Joe Lieberman and Bill Kristol are regarded as moderate.
The “Centrist” Lieberman is advocating an action which the American public overwhelmingly opposes and the so called “liberal media” are merely playing the role of the enablers.