Council of Foreign Relations: Time to Attack Iran

Just found this :

CFR: Time to Attack Iran

article at foreign affairs.com

Proponents of a strike have argued that the only thing worse than military action against Iran would be an Iran armed with nuclear weapons. Critics, meanwhile, have warned that such a raid would likely fail and, even if it succeeded, would spark a full-fledged war and a global economic crisis.

The truth is that a military strike intended to destroy Iran’s nuclear program, if managed carefully, could spare the region and the world a very real threat and dramatically improve the long-term national security of the United States.

not surprising.
what i wonder is:

will the "administration" put on it's democratic mask and actually have congress legally declare war?
or will they just continue as usual with their "totalitarian" habits and just go in with no regard for public opinion?

also, who is the judge who just ruled about this on dec. 23? how corrupt is he?

Clever Ron Paul commercial.....
However if Dick Cheney is a member of the CFR, you can bet it is an evil organisation.....

Matthew Kroenig is an assistant professor of Government at Georgetown University and a Stanton Nuclear Security Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.

Here is the same author and his critique:

walt.foreignpolicy.com...

A war with Iran will be the beginning of WW3.

www.foreignaffairs.com...

In early October, U.S. officials accused Iranian operatives of planning to assassinate Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the United States on American soil. Iran denied the charges, but the episode has already managed to increase tensions between Washington and Tehran. Although the Obama administration has not publicly threatened to retaliate with military force, the allegations have underscored the real and growing risk that the two sides could go to war sometime soon -- particularly over Iran’s advancing nuclear program.

walt.foreignpolicy.com...

Matthew Kroenig's defense of his Foreign Affairs article calling for launching a preventive war against Iran does little to strengthen his case. He provides no additional evidence to explain why war is necessary; nor does he remedy the gaps and inconsistencies in his original analysis. Given that he's now had two swings at the same pitch, one may safely conclude that there is no good case for attacking Iran.

reply to post by THE_PROFESSIONAL


Or Syria, to be frank. Any move in the Mid East will trigger it. Besides a withdrawal of all US troops from the region, but of course... wishful thinking.

if he's in so tight with the CFR, why did he make this video? and why does it support Ron Paul?
both of these things don't seem in-line with normal CFR behavior.

odd, to say the least.

reply to post by metalshredmetal


ARRGGHHH!! But S&F!!!





This video I made addresses much of the conspiratorial propaganda from the CFR since 1922..

reply to post by metalshredmetal


To remain accurate, The CFR has many different members with differences of perspective.
However, an article such as this does carry some weight.

Therefore the general drift of interests.

One major botch that I can see,and keep in mind, is the "Boy who cried wolf" WMD in Iraq" episode.
The damage caused by that type of behavior results in a populace who may no longer be on board
when the threat becomes real. That is why trust and honor are still relative and crutial to leadership.

This in fact, may be the current dilemma facing us today.

We should be certain that the enemy is not closer to home in the future.
The enemy from within, so to speak.

S&F Link to non official contributers art : www.youtube.com...

Proponents of a strike have argued that the only thing worse than military action against Iran would be an Iran armed with nuclear weapons. Critics, meanwhile, have warned that such a raid would likely fail and, even if it succeeded, would spark a full-fledged war and a global economic crisis.

The truth is that a military strike intended to destroy Iran’s nuclear program, if managed carefully, could spare the region and the world a very real threat and dramatically improve the long-term national security of the United States.

Sadly, i think those two statements are true.

Edit: But i also agree with those "critics" cited...and have doubts whether ANY military strike can always be "managed carefully"....this is an illusion. So...i AM a little torn nevertheless.

reply to post by metalshredmetal


There is Something Really Sick IMO in the Hearts and Minds of Some People of Wealth and Power on this Planet , The Worship Of Death and the Indifference to Human Suffering . These Poor Excuses for Human Beings should be Put in Cages like Rabid Dogs so as not to Infect the rest of us with their Madness..........

This dude is a pseudo intellectual propagandist clown for critical thinkers to ignore.

"But skeptics of military action fail to appreciate the true danger that a nuclear-armed Iran would pose to U.S. interests in the Middle East and beyond"

No concern for international laws of war, or rules.. or silly crimes against humanity.. not to mention a little thing like the Rome statute listing the crime of aggression as "..one of the most serious crimes of concern to the international community..."

.. all that matters are the so called "interests" 1000s of miles away from the master nations border, Sieg Heil!.. defy "our" dear leaders wishes, and or fail to obey our 8% approved law making war mongering clowns..face "military action"!!

Ron Paul first executive order should be to arrest all those in the CFR, Bilderberg, Bohemian Grove and Trilateral Commission.

Give them trial and those found guilty of treason are hung, those found guilty of conspiracy are sent to jail for the rest of their lives.

reply to post by metalshredmetal


No surprise here. The CFR has been a shill for the military industrial complex for decades and, despite claims for diversity of thought is run by the neo-con crowd who push any and all military action.

With Iraq winding down and little appetite for an increase in troop strength in Afganistan, the military contractors are left with the scraps they can make off of rebuilding the Iraqi infrastructure. Now that is pegged at $156bn, but only a fraction of that will go to US or UK firms. The challenge with infrastructure is also that you need to produce something tangible, always a lesser option than supplying security forces, weapons and intelligence where the quality is largely subjective. These gents need another theater of war to continue their naked profiteering. Who really do you have left as the boogie man? No guts to take on Russia or China. Venezuela is not a big enough place to make into some long effort. The next big "threat" is the Mexican narco cartels, but that is not a big winner for those gents either. Iran is the place to be if you want a multi-year, intractable conflict.

The day the drones start flying, buy Lockheed Martin, Boeing, BoozAllen, GE and the rest of the bunch because they will be about to have a great run.

This is the scariest thing I have ever seen on ATS.

The CFR is one of the evilest institutions on our planet and they want total control and the destruction of the U.S.

CFR position papers today are ALWAYS the governments actions tomorrow.

These globalist bastards run our nation, and they are purposefully running it into the ground so they can more easily integrate it into their PUBLISHED GOAL of a one world government.

We are grateful to the Washington Post, the New York Times, Time magazine and other great publications whose directors have attended our meetings and respected the promises of discretion for almost forty years. It would have been impossible for us to develop our plan for the world if we had been subject to the bright lights of publicity during those years. But, the world is now more sophisticated and prepared to march towards a world-government. The supranational sovereignty of an intellectual elite and world bankers is surely preferable to the National autodetermination practiced in past centuries.

David Rockefeller in an address to a Trilateral Commission meeting in June of 1991

"The main purpose of the Council on Foreign Relations is promoting the disarmament of U.S. sovereignty and national independence and submergence into an all powerful, one world government." - Admiral Chester Ward - Judge Advocate General of the U.S. Navy

"Some even believe we are part of a secret cabal working against the best interests of the United States, characterizing my family and me as 'internationalists' and of conspiring with others around the world to build a more integrated global political and economic structure — one world, if you will. If that is the charge, I stand guilty, and I am proud of it."

David Rockerfeller's 2002 "Memoirs" ISBN 0-679-40588-7 Chapter 27 "Proud Internationalist" Page 405

I would recommend looking into how certain groups all operate together.
CFR
Common Purpose.
Chatham House.
The Tavistock institute.
Fabian society.

It may come as quite a shock to Americans when You realise that You are been operated by London, and that is the city of london.

The enemy is within....WAKE UP.

reply to post by gravitor


It may come as quite a shock to Americans when You realise that You are been operated by London, and that is the city of london.

Thanks to Gravitor for the post , I have been banging on for a while regarding London with various posts on ATS.

Quick links to Gravitors sections to read.

1 Chatham House. wideshut.co.uk...

2 The Tavistock institute. educate-yourself.org...

3 Fabian society. www.dailypaul.com...

4 Common Purpose. www.stopcp.com...

I can fully understand how many people cannot come to terms with how London can be the main player regarding USA. The info provided goes some way as to explaining how and why this is so.

Ask yourself WHY........the square mile of London has all these exempts from law and banking loopholes , hence this is why all the biggest banking fraud deals were done through the city of London , geez Max Keiser blows a gasket every show till he is blue in the face regarding London.

Whilst not even having a positive impact on the UK economy, let alone society, the City of London places British people at the centre of an international network of tax havens which facilitates the harsh realities that the majority of people in this world have to live with everyday. Just as we banned slavery, we have another opportunity to change the world for the better right on our doorstep, we just have to take it.

The City of London is a political Island in the centre of our capitol which has managed to quietly maintain a state special exemption from the values upon which we have built British society for several centuries. The City is represented by a Member of Parliament voted in, not by constituents, but rather a coalition of corporate interests; each business that is registered there enjoys voting rights relative to the amount of employees they have, around half of these business are foreign owned. As well as a political organ, the City is also a private corporation which owns the land of the City of London and manages its own amenities; it even has its own police force. Unsurprisingly, the mayor of London has no authority in the City which is, instead, run by the Lord Mayor of the City of London, from the whom the queen must ask permission to enter the city of London.

With all the pomp and ceremony, it may appear as though this may be just part of our quirky English tradition which, like the Queen, in reality does not infringe upon our fundamental democratic rights. On the contrary, this unaccountable little “state within a state” exerts huge influence in this country and the world through its representative in parliament (Strangely, it’s the only borough to have one) and the millions that it contributes as donations to political parties. In fact, the Conservative party have quadrupled their financial dependence on donations from the City since Cameron came in. Also, as they manage their own affairs, and with the help of some effective anti-trust laws, obtaining evidence and information relating to a criminal investigation is almost impossible. Finally, although tax levels are the same for the City of London, it is well known that through political manoeuvring and imaginative accountancy, the City pays well below their required contribution in taxes. One such example is that of Goldman Sachs who were recently just “let off” £5 million missed tax contributions.

The City do not deny their special status, in fact, they claim that they deserve it due to their “special role” in British society as “the beating heart of the financial services industry which accounts for 10% of British GDP”. So basically, as with the whole banking sector, it seems to be a case of “better the devil you know”. However, many are now beginning to question the real worth of the City of London to the British economy; is renouncing our democratic values worth the financial gain we, as a nation, get from the city? Are we even better off economically because of the City?

The Financial services sector contributed £53.4bn in the last tax year and accounts for 2.4% of national income. However, this tax contribution is eclipsed by the £850billion outlay that UK tax payers have had to pay in order to bail out the banks and the billions we are paying to the IMF in order to stabilize economies such as Greece; victims of the unfettered capitalism practised in the City of London. Furthermore, it is estimated that the total damage to the economy from the banking crisis and its resultant repercussions has been between 11 and 13% of GDP; so overall, we are experiencing a net loss from the City of London. Aside from economics, the actual social value of the City of London is not reflected in its financial contribution; “On best estimates it contributes 3 per cent a year in value added compared to 12.5 per cent value added contributed from manufacturing.”

However, it must be kept in mind that 300,000 people are employed in the financial services sector in the City of London and this rises to over a million when we take the whole country into account. Many are afraid that regulation of the City would cause the big banks to up and leave, taking with them valuable jobs. However, as always, it is not as simple as this. The Tobin Tax, a tax on speculative financial transactions, is one way in which it is possible to ensure the banking sector make a fair contribution to society while also acting as a tool with which to control market volatility. This will only affect pure speculation whilst leaving the socially useful parts of the finance industry intact. For example, shares are already taxed (stamp duty) and pension and investment funds will not be affected because they buy and hold and hardly ever sell. So it’s not like bringing financial services into line will cause the whole sector to up and leave. Rather, it would be good riddance to a small wealthy group of financial speculators whose only value to this country can be justified by the widely disregarded theory of “trickle down” economics.

Finally, the City of London acts as a “coordinating hub” for a global network of tax havens in which the assets of the rich are stashed, allowing dictators and multi national corporations to continue robbing the poor of the world. Many of these tax havens are British dependencies and the fact that we have it in our power to dismantle this backbone of international organized crime yet do nothing is a shame on this nation. “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing”; did we worry about loss of jobs and wait for international consensus when we became the first western power to ban slavery?

For better or for worse, Britain has been changing the world for the last 300 years. These days however, we have become a nation of hand-wringers, worrying about our ever dwindling resources. The opportunity to change the world and improve the lives of billions of people sits right on our doorstep. Not taking it will doom as to live as the intermediaries between the capitalist slave masters and the hungry masses of the world.

We must finally wake up to the fact that unregulated capitalism is bad for us due to it’s fundamental tenant of a separation of economics and politics being a complete myth; the case of the City of London stands testament to this. Have your doubts? Check out this banker chatting on the BBC. Our politicians must normalize the City of London and take measures such as the Tobin Tax in order to regulate the financial services sector. As citizens, we must demand of them this as well as not recognize the legitimacy nor authority of the City of London as it stands. Remember, their power is based on nothing more than our obedience.

awesome insights...I've heard of a few of those organizations but haven't really delved into what they "handle". will definitely give them a look..

I've heard the conspiracies about London for a while now, and didn't doubt them simply because it rings true with my intuition, and it makes sense when considering all our historical ties with England, politically and financially.

also, how could we NOT be linked with England/London with the existence of the Freemason network and the myriad of influential Lodges and secret societies that founded america?

i've also found the similarities of London and Washington D.C. very interesting...like as one poster mentioned above: how they both are a "nation-state' in themselves. DC is taxed without congressional representation, i'm sure London is similar.

what's the "district of columbia" all about?

also, another fascinating fact i've found: Virginia and Maryland both sacrificed territory in order to form washington DC.. the "Virgin" (virginia) "Mary" (maryland) birthing DC...also, DC is located at the forking of the potomac river...River/water forks have a lot of symbolism with birth and the womb...city names adjacent to DC also are interesting within this context: like Alexandria.