With the Obama Administration still crowing about its claims to have gotten support for some level of new sanctions against the Iranian government, former Secretary of State Colin Powell says he doesn’t believe they will accomplish anything.
“I don’t see that this causes sufficient pain,” Powell insisted, though he did not suggest that an alternative littany of sanctions would convince Iran to abandon its civilian nuclear program either.
“Iranians have been around for thousands of years, trading and selling and getting around various constraints and what not, they’re very clever,” Powell added.
The new sanctions are said to target banks and shipping in an effort to punish the nation for refusing to stop enriching uranium for civilian purposes and for continuing with its plans to open a nuclear power plant. Iranian opposition figure Mir-Hossein Moussavi warned that the sanctions were likely to harm civilians while doing little to change government policy.
Powell, that lying sack, should shut the hell up. In the thick of it with Mi Lai in Vietnam, Bush seniors butt boy for Gulf 1, Bush the lessers chief liar at State for Gulf 2 and now he has the cajones to spew further lying vitriol at the Iranians. Simply no shame at all.
Who cares what this thrice war criminal thinks?
Except for one thing. Obama is hinting at Obama's next step. This next step is also hinted at in this article …
http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?id=1…
… the next step will be to claim that an actual attack on Iran is really just sanctions. …
"A military strike on Iranian military bases, airports, bridges, railroad stations and other key infrastructure could lead Iran to suspend its nuclear arms program, according to a paper that came out last week in a US Army publication.
…
“This kind of military action is akin to sanctions – causing ‘pain’ in order to change behavior, albeit by much more powerful means,” the sociologist writes.
…
.”"
Yes. The next step will be claiming that war isn't war. That it's sanctions. Proving what we've long known, that sanctions are actually war.
At one time,ten years ago or so,there was a man,a war hero with very high political and military experience, who had garnered the respect of most Americans.Unbeknown to all of those believing Americans was the true chicken character of that man. General.etc.etc Powell sold his honor,self respect and any other positive characteristic he had managed to convince the American people that he possessed,so he would claim to be a good party man as well as a good soldier to the end.I,and most other Americans, will/should never forget that black day in our history when Powell stood at the UN and lied to the world about trucks moving on IraQI back roads carrying chemical and nucleer weapons. The neo-cons and their adherents,such as powell, out of ignorance if not malice, will never rest until our country is bankrupt financially,militarily and moraly.
cali-dude, I hear what you're sayin', but really you give Powell way too much credit. He always was a spineless yes man, and nothing more than that. He sold himself out heart and soul long before the Bush years. You can look up his record for Viet Nam for evidence of that, or just think: How would he have gotten into the Bush administration if he were a principled and independent thinker? Anyone who showed traces of those qualities was immediately eliminated from the Bush regime. He knew perfectly well that he was lying at the UN and was only sorry after he was caught, just like any other common criminal. And I totally agree with you there – he is indeed a criminal.
Yes, Powell learned the blind eye early, overlooking all the evidence of My Lai, thus earning himself a ticket up through the ranks of the brass.
You are also right–he's really dislikes being caught.
But it's an easy game in the US.
He would never have lasted through his twenties in Jamaica.
In fact, Powell likely would never have got beyond precinct captain in Chicago, if that.
I'll just bet this morning that Powell demands sanctions against Israel for slaughtering that convoy bringing aid to Gaza. LMAO, no, he's too busy licking their shorts. The one thing that has to offer comfort to the war pigs is that no matter what they do – run torture chambers, conduct a genocide, make up lies and then use those lies as an excuse to invade, rape and murder prisoners in their care, etc, etc, – that the American people will cheer it on like they did when they rewarded Bush with reelection. What's a few sanctions – even those that starve children – for a nation that ALREADY supports horrific war crimes and the men committing them? Family values!
God Bless America.
“I don’t see that this causes sufficient pain,” Powell insisted, though he did not suggest that an alternative littany of sanctions would convince Iran to abandon its civilian nuclear program either.
===================
The war criminal prefers DU and other WMDs against helpless civilians!
"they're very clever."
The tone is that of a fellow with overweening force at his disposal ready to pull the trigger on an adversary who has cleverly exposed his hypocrisy and gotten the upper hand in the dialectic.
Not very clever of Powell, really.
But then what does one expect from a man who collects Edsels?
Apt expression when talking about inferior species of the planet, from the perspective of an empirial general. So, being "clever" is a death sentence. This is the only reason Iran is not trusted with their right as NPT signatory — right to nucear enrichment. So, they are just "very clever", and therefore, must be starved, isolated, controlled and Gaza-ed. As Ms. Rice said, these are the "birth pangs" of the new Middle East. Only she had something entirely different in mind.
Colin , you could fix this problem very easily. Just go up to the UN, and declare that you have seen with your own eyes the rows upon rows of ballistic missiles equipped with nuclear warheads that the Iranians have amassed all pointing at Israel and the US. Tell them about the drones that can be sent aloft at a moments notice to fly undecteted to any poing of the earth to deliver their deadly multi megaton cargo. Just go ahead, and do it. Play for them those scraps of intercepted conversation about eliminating someone from the face of the earth. They will believe you.
Yes, and don't forget the new Air Force sub-orbital vehicle that can deliver an Edsel anywhere in the world in one hour.
I see the Israelis have taken him at his word and captured some ships and killed a bunch of Ahyrab sympathizers… I wonder how it will werk..!!??
Well, if Gaza is Israel's Warsaw Ghetto, is murder and piracy on the high seas the beginning of Operation Barbarossa?
Americans in particular, with their usual ignorance and Narcissism, tend to forget that Mussolini was in power for two decades.
Strictly tactically, he made only two major mistakes:(1) with ingrained Italian hatred of Austria, he simply could not resist joining the NAZI Anschluss; (2) he eventually began to believe his own Spectacle.
Really, his bigotry is astounding.
My goodness! Those oh so clever Iranians! They just won't roll over and die on command. What's a hyper-power to do?
"Americans in particular, with their usual ignorance and Narcissism, tend to forget that Mussolini was in power for two decades.
Strictly tactically, he made only two major mistakes:(1) with ingrained Italian hatred of Austria, he simply could not resist joining the NAZI Anschluss; (2) he eventually began to believe his own Spectacle."
Exactly what this has to do with the price of cheese in Denmark I'll never figure out. But it is worth noting that the "Nazi Anschluss" was very much desired by Austrians as ethnic Germans. As with the Habsburgs, it was only the Austrian politicians who opposed Anschluss, because it would put them out of work. The fiction that the Germans forcibly incorporated Austria is pure Allied propaganda, founded on the ridiculously biased assertions of Schussnig.
For one who cannot figure out the patent relation to the price of cheese in Denmark, Herr Valerianus, you remain a veritable fons of Tendenz.
Speaking of Saga, the typical American's picture of Mussolini–and Italy–is brilliantly, and completely erroneously sketched, in The Freshman(1990).
Don't blink or you will miss it–including the egregious error.
This from a guy who called Nelson Mandela a terrorist!! Anything this guy says is garbage!!
The main problem, however, remains that the Pentagon aims to achieve a disarming and unanswerable first-strike capability according to Bob Aldridge -www.plrc.org-and apparently they think they can minimize Nuclear Winter effects by using earth-penetrating warheads. The new missiles in Poland, Romania and on ships in the Black Sea in Bulgaria may have 3 or more MARVs each. Bob Aldridge commented, "Whether on ships or land, they are still a necessary component for an unanswerable first strike".
Ah, that makes it all perfectly clear. Is the Pentagon going to subsidize the Russians and Chinese and North Koreans and so forth in building earth-penetrating warheads so that when the US makes it first strike their second strike won't end human life on the planet.
One is sure the Russians and Chinese and North Koreans will be glad to cooperate in such a humanitarian enterprise.
How about, say, fifty trillion in the new USD? Nah, it'sgetting late–make it five hundred trillion, and throw in Alaska and Las Vegas.
I think Powell thought he was telling the truth to the United Nations , When he found out he was not told the whole story before he talked at the UN . He resigned and left the Bush administration . He may not even have supported the republican neocons ever again . I can't say I blame him . They used him ,and his good name .