Nazi appeasers!

The US plans to establish a diplomatic presence in Tehran for the first time in 30 years as part of a remarkable turnaround in policy by President George Bush.

The Guardian has learned that an announcement will be made in the next month to establish a US interests section - a halfway house to setting up a full embassy. The move will see US diplomats stationed in the country.

The news of the shift by Bush who has pursued a hawkish approach to Iran throughout his tenure comes at a critical time in US-Iranian relations. After weeks that have seen tensions rise with Israel conducting war games and Tehran carrying out long-range missile tests, a thaw appears to be under way.

The White House announced yesterday that William Burns, a senior state department official, is to be sent to Switzerland on Saturday to hear Tehran's response to a European offer aimed at resolving the nuclear standoff.

Ohhhh Nooooo! What would Grandpoppy Prescott think? What will Americans think? What will other nations think?

I thought you said anybody who talked to bad guys

Was a Nazi appeaser, Georgie? What about your best buds Israel and Turkey?

Israel and Syria:

Jerusalem, Israel (AHN) - Israel and Syria have resumed indirect peace talks in Turkey over the weekend. According to Israel's military radio station, close aides of Israeli PM Ehud Olmert, traveled to Ankara to being the peace talks on Sunday under Turkish mediation.

Israeli President Shimon Peres, who is on a visit to the U.S. urged Syria on Sunday to enter into direct talks with Israel. He said that the leaders should meet directly to discuss the issues.

Turkey and Iran:

On June 6, General Ilker Basbug, the commander of the Turkish Land Forces, confirmed that Turkey and Iran were sharing intelligence and coordinating military operations against the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) - which is primarily composed of Turkish Kurds - and its Iranian affiliate, the Kurdistan Free Life Party (PJAK).

Both rebel groups have their headquarters and main training camps in the Qandil Mountains of northern Iraq. Although it has long been assumed that security cooperation between Turkey and Iran has included both intelligence-sharing and the coordination of military operations against the PKK and PJAK, Basbug's statement is the first public confirmation by a high-ranking Turkish military official.

Turkey and Iran first signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on security cooperation on July 29, 2004, three months after PJAK's inaugural congress in April 2004 and two months after the May 2004 decision by the PKK to return to violence following a five-year unilateral ceasefire. This agreement was reinforced on April 17, 2008, by a new MoU which foresaw a broadening and deepening of security cooperation between the two countries.

Well, they might be Nazi appeasers, but at least the Iraqi army is doing your bidding:

Baghdad - A fresh outbreak of violence across Iraq on Monday caused at least five fatalities while Iraq's army said it would not go ahead with a crackdown on Shiite militias in the southern Maysan province until a government deadline for militiamen to surrender their arms expires.

Ah, okay. But Maliki is Georgie's bestest bud and will support our military staying forever in Iraq in 58 bases and not being answerable to Iraqi law, right? I mean, that's not unreasonable, is it?

BAGHDAD — Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki raised the possibility that his country won't sign a status of forces agreement with the United States and will ask U.S. troops to go home when their U.N. mandate to be in Iraq expires at the end of the year.

Maliki made the comment after weeks of complaints from Shiite Muslim lawmakers that U.S. proposals that would govern a continued troop presence in Iraq would infringe on Iraq's sovereignty.

"Iraq has another option that it may use," Maliki said during a visit to Amman, Jordan. "The Iraqi government, if it wants, has the right to demand that the U.N. terminate the presence of international forces on Iraqi sovereign soil."

Kevin Hayden of American Street says it best: (my bold)

It should be noted, too, how perverse the political process is that has functioned for the past 8 years. Consider (a) the twin heads of Al Qaeda came from Saudi Arabia and Egypt, (b) Al Qaeda funding largely came from Saudi Arabia, the UAE and other Arab nations but has never been tracked to Iraq or Iran, (c) Al Qaeda terror training occurred in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Somalia, mostly, (d) nuclear design and technology came from AQ Khan of Pakistan, (e) base headquarters of Al Qaida’s principals was provided by Afghanistan, and (e) the 9-11 attackers came mostly from Saudi Arabia, plus Egypt and Yemen.

Out of the 10+ principal nations complicit in sustaining and equipping Al Qaeda or in spreading nuclear technology, the Bush administration remains allied with most of them and has only directly attacked Afghanistan. Plus it attacked a non-involved party (Iraq) and regularly threatens the non-involved Iran.

*Gasp* Then ... Then that means YOU are the Nazi appeaser, Georgie!

Appeasers!

Bring out the scarlet letters!:

During a speech to the Israeli parliament yesterday morning, President Bush attacked Barack Obama, comparing him to Nazi appeasers for the Illinois senator's willingness to hold discussions with Iran.

One problem: Bush's speech came just hours after The Washington Post reported that Bush's defense secretary, Robert Gates, said that the United States needs to "sit down and talk with" Iran. Not only that, Gates added, "We can't go to a discussion and be completely the demander."

Oops.

Naturally, then, a media firestorm erupted, with the Bush administration and its political allies questioned all day about whether Bush has any idea what he is talking about, whether he has lost control over the Pentagon, whether Gates will be fired, what Gates thinks about Bush's comparison of those (like Gates) who advocate dialogue between the United States and Iran to appeasers of Adolf Hitler, and whether the fiasco will remind voters that the Bush administration's foreign policy has been marked by incompetence and dishonesty, thus doing irreparable electoral damage to John McCain and other Republican candidates.

Sorry -- what was I thinking? That didn't happen.

Instead, much of the news media got busy pretending the Post article didn't exist and that Gates had not undermined Bush's political attack on Obama. Instead, many news outlets simply rushed to repeat Bush's assault over and over again, as though it had merit.

Just like this guy... who had no clue what Neville Chamberlain had done and what appeasement actually means:

to yield or concede to the belligerent demands of (a nation, group, person, etc.) in a conciliatory effort, sometimes at the expense of justice or other principles.

crossposted at SteveAudio

Since Georgie brought up Nazi appeaser

It would be well to refresh ourselves with a little history lesson.



Prescott Bush, Georgie's granddad:

A BBC Radio 4 investigation sheds new light on a major subject that has received little historical attention, the conspiracy on behalf of a group of influential powerbrokers, led by Prescott Bush, to overthrow FDR and implement a fascist dictatorship in the U.S. based around the ideology of Mussolini and Hitler.

In 1933, Marine Corps Maj.-Gen. Smedley Butler was approached by a wealthy and secretive group of industrialists and bankers, including Prescott Bush the current President's grandfather, who asked him to command a 500,000 strong rogue army of veterans that would help stage a coup to topple then President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

According to the BBC, the plotters intended to impose a fascist takeover and "Adopt the policies of Hitler and Mussolini to beat the great depression."

And those Nazi appeasers?:

George Bush's grandfather, the late US senator Prescott Bush, was a director and shareholder of companies that profited from their involvement with the financial backers of Nazi Germany.

The Guardian has obtained confirmation from newly discovered files in the US National Archives that a firm of which Prescott Bush was a director was involved with the financial architects of Nazism.

His business dealings, which continued until his company's assets were seized in 1942 under the Trading with the Enemy Act, has led more than 60 years later to a civil action for damages being brought in Germany against the Bush family by two former slave labourers at Auschwitz and to a hum of pre-election controversy.

The evidence has also prompted one former US Nazi war crimes prosecutor to argue that the late senator's action should have been grounds for prosecution for giving aid and comfort to the enemy.