IntenseDebate - DavidGreen

13 years ago @ Max Ajl - lay off Amira Hass · 0 replies · +1 points

AA is a great blogger, and without his antipathy to The White Man wouldn't be who he is. Nevertheless, he shows poor judgment in cases like this. He might be unneccsarily alientating an audience that would be sympathetic to his critiques.

14 years ago @ Max Ajl - yes, American foreign ... · 2 replies · +2 points

Max, where do you think the idea of "grand area strategy" fits into all of this? That refers, I presume, to interests beyond the price of oil and corporate profits, to control of oil vis a vis Europe and Asia. Do you think there are "wise men" operating at an even more abstract level of interests--"wise men," so to speak?

14 years ago @ Max Ajl - The Banality of Anti-I... · 3 replies · +2 points

http://dissidentvoice.org/2010/08/the-right-and-l...

Elise, you can check this out if you're in a masochistic mood. I tried the pestering approach, and of course JB has no straight answers. It turns out, he's also a 9/11 Truther, and perhaps a JFK conspiracy theorist--he actually believes that in regard to Israel, everything would have been different had he lived.

His logic with Wawro is that a supposedly credible realist thinks Israel's bad for our interests; by JB's logic that makes the realist correct, and the Lobby powerful.

14 years ago @ Max Ajl - The Banality of Anti-I... · 0 replies · +1 points

Yes, exactly.

14 years ago @ Max Ajl - The Banality of Anti-I... · 0 replies · +1 points

And you can also send Cockburn a note in that regard, while you're at it. I'm sure that would bring Allison Weir into the fray. Or does Counterpunch not want to foster "debate?"

14 years ago @ Max Ajl - The Banality of Anti-I... · 2 replies · 0 points

So why don't you ask Weiss to post my current piece, and then let the Comments jackals have at it? I mean, what could be more satisfying to you? Why would you want to debate me when you can just defeat me?

14 years ago @ Max Ajl - The Banality of Anti-I... · 0 replies · +1 points

Jeffrey, people who use facts, logic, analysis, and background in a careful, thoughtful, coherent, and scrupulous way do not like "debating" those who simply pile on facts (if they are facts) to reach a pre-ordained conclusion. Like Chomsky, I don't find the notion of "debate" helpful. I'm not wedded to a particular point of view. I'm perfectly willing to consider new information and change my argument. The point is to find out what's plausibly true. I don't see that you're interested in that.

14 years ago @ Max Ajl - The Banality of Anti-I... · 0 replies · +2 points

So how well does Wawro prove his point? Does he consider the alternatives--that Israel is indeed a strategic asset (including forays around the world, Central America, etc.)? What evidence does Wawro provide that are difficulties in Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, etc. can be attributed to the intervention of the Lobby and Israel's behavior? A competent book would address these obvious issues. Instead, Wawro simply asserts the power of the Lobby, while in most of the book he simply describes events that clearly have nothing to do with the Lobby--Afghanistan, Iran, etc.

14 years ago @ Max Ajl - The Banality of Anti-I... · 2 replies · +3 points

OK Jeffrey, I'll make it easy for you; compare and contrast your understanding of raghead politics to Wawro's:

“Where strongman rule faltered, mass movements—Arab nationalism, Sunni fundamentalism, Shiite revolution—suggested themselves, in the Arab and Persian street, as the only virtuous way forward. The book looks at the seductive appeal those mass movements have had for the Middle East and the deadly threat they seemed to portend for American interests, which have always preferred bilateral relations with reliable strongmen in states like Saudi Arabia, imperial Iran or the Egypt of the free officers. Our preference for states over transnational movements is understandable, but we have so often attached ourselves to the wrong states or the wrong leaders."

14 years ago @ Max Ajl - The Banality of Anti-I... · 0 replies · +1 points

Jeffrey, you're welcome to make specific responses to my post, which basically means addressing my problems with Wawro: do you identify with his exceptionalist view of U.S. history? Do you believe in the historic good intentions and manifest destiny of our leaders and people?

IntenseDebate Comment System

Description

Connect with DavidGreen

People I'm following

DavidGreen