Hersh: US money funding violent Sunni groups?

[SirNitram]

Frigid and I had a drawn out argument over the two evils the US has gotten wedged between in Iraq. On the one hand, an enemy that openly defies, shoots at, and annoys the US while going for nukes, Iran. On the other, an 'ally' who enslaves Americans, sends terrorists after them, and exports the Wahhabist movement while playing kissy-face with the oil companies and their lackeys.

I had been hearing rumours about how the US is picking sides, and that's what sparked the discussion on whether either could really be considered the lesser of two devils. Well, apparently, there's quite a bit to the rumours. Don't have a copy of The New Yorker, but I have a transcript from CNN.

[quote] BLITZER: Near the end of your article, you have this explosive point in there about John Negroponte, who is now going to be the deputy secretary of state, as opposed to the head of U.S. intelligence.

You write this: “I was subsequently told by the two government consultants and the former senior intelligence officials that the echoes of Iran-Contra were a factor in Negroponte’s decision to resign from the National Intelligence directorship and accept the position of deputy secretary of state.â€

[frigidmagi]

I honestly hoped no government would get this stupid.

My government, which arrests al Qaeda every place it can find them and send — some of them are n Guantanamo and other places, is sitting back while the Lebanese government we support, the government of Prime Minister Siniora, is providing arms and sustenance to three jihadist groups whose sole function, seems to me and to the people that talk to me in our government, to be there in case there is a real shoot-’em-up with Hezbollah and we really get into some sort of serious major conflict between the Sunni government and Hezbollah, which is largely Shia, who are basically — or as you know, there is a coalition headed by Hezbollah that is challenging the government right now, demonstrations, sit-ins.

Sooo you would like to invade Lebanon or something? Not trying to slander you here but I'm trying to grasp what you want us to do. We could cut off the Lebanonese government... And then deal with Nasrallah as the new head of state in about 6 months to a year... We could invade Lebanon, and try to babysit a population that bluntly wouldn't want us there while trying to keep Afghanistan and Iraq from blowing up and you can forget about any kind of help from Europe or other allies. We could impose sanctions which would cripple PM Siniora and make his losing to Narallah more likely.

HERSH: … and could lead to a real mess…

It's already a damn mess and it's at least half our fault, the US and Western Europe I mean (excluding Germany) going back all the way to the Peace treaties that ended WWI.

By the way would it be a bad time to bring this up?

[Mayabird]

I honestly hoped no government would get this stupid.

You've always been a lot more optimistic than me. I'm still waiting to see how much more stupidity lies ahead. I'm pretty sure it'll be beyond my skills of imagining it.