Author: Jonathan Schwarz

Ken Silverstein of Harper’s recent spoke to Michael Scheuer, chief of the bin Laden unit at the CIA’s Counterterrorist Center from 1996-99. The interview took place at an International House of Pancakes:

1. We’re coming up on the five-year anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. Is the country safer or more vulnerable to terrorism?

On balance, more vulnerable. We’re safer in terms of aircraft travel. We’re safer from being attacked by some dumbhead who tries to come into the country through an official checkpoint; we’ve spent billions on that. But for the most part our victories have been tactical and not strategic…

In the long run, we’re not safer because we’re still operating on the assumption that we’re hated because of our freedoms, when in fact we’re hated because of our actions in the Islamic world. There’s our military presence in Islamic countries, the perception that we control the Muslim world’s oil production, our support for Israel and for countries that oppress Muslims such as China, Russia, and India, and our own support for Arab tyrannies.

The rest.

This reminds me of a crazy fantasy I have. In this fantasy, a White House reporter stands up at a press conference and asks Bush the most mindbogglingly obvious question imaginable:

Mr. President, the former head of the CIA’s bin Laden unit has referred to U.S foreign policy as bin Laden’s indispensable ally. I’m sure you don’t agree with this characterization, but could you explain for us your understanding of why he says that?

Of course, I know it’s literally impossible for White House reporters to ask the President of the United States mindbogglingly obvious questions. It’s like wanting them to travel faster than the speed of light. Still, I dream my dreamy dreams.

For anyone in the New York City area, Dennis Perrin will be appearing on Wednesday the 30th at the Tarrytown Music Hall (just north of Yonkers, easy access by MetroNorth) in a debate on the mideast. Ticket purchasing information is here.

Horror and Chaos in the Middle East:
Who’s to blame, and is there a remedy?

Wednesday, August 30th, 7:30 pm

A panel discussion featuring:

President of the Zionist Association of America Morton Klein and NY Daily News columnist Sidney Zion vs. Dennis Perrin and WESPAC Foundation Executive Director Nada Khader

Moderated by WABC radio host Ron Kuby at the legendary Tarrytown Music Hall (minutes away from MetroNorth)

Did the latest round of atrocities begin with the Palestinian abduction of an Israeli soldier or was it triggered by the Israeli abduction of a doctor and his brother from Gaza? Are Israel and America attempting to further destabilize the Palestinian and Lebanese territories for their own benefit or is Israel (with America’s support) simply defending its people against the unprovoked attacks of its neighbors? Ultimately, what are the genuine motivations of the movers and shakers on all sides? What role does the existence of religion play in all this? Can real peace ever flourish when people primarily identify themselves with diametrically opposed faith-based belief systems? Could a tilt towards secularism in conjunction with an all-out assault on poverty yield a more hopeful future for everyone? Come join us as we address these questions and grasp for solutions.

The panel discussion will be followed by Q & A from the audience.

As you can see, there will likely be verbal fisticuffs aplenty. If you go, be sure to say hello to Dennis afterwards. Also, ask him for me why he loves Osama bin Laden so much.

Here’s a piece of mine from TomPaine.com on the weird delusions of politicians that they’re middle class. Among the most deluded? Joe Lieberman.

The day before the Connecticut primary, Joe Lieberman was getting down with the folks in a restaurant in Southington, a small town near Hartford. As the American Prospect reported, a longtime state employee named Paola Roy told Lieberman she felt the middle class has been forgotten by the federal government. Lieberman responded that he shared her concerns, and for good reason: “I came out of the middle class,” he said, “and, being a senator, I haven’t gone much beyond the middle class.”

Being a senator, I haven’t gone much beyond the middle class. Could anything better sum up the way American politicians seem to have relocated en masse to a new planet, and forgotten how things are back on Earth? In 2005, Lieberman and his wife Hadassah—a lobbyist at D.C. powerhouse Hill & Knowlton—together made $366,084. This places them securely in the top 1 percent of U.S. households. In fact, just the money they receive each year for supervising family trusts would likely put them in the middle quintile of American families. Moreover, they have financial assets —i.e., over and above their homes in Connecticut and Washington—worth somewhere between $465,000 and $1.9 million. The comparable amount for the average U.S. family is about $30,000.

The rest.

What’s going on in Iraq? Let’s check in with Daniel Byman and Kenneth Pollack:

The debate is over: By any definition, Iraq is in a state of civil war…

Welcome to the new “new Middle East” — a region where civil wars could follow one after another, like so many Cold War dominoes.

And unlike communism, these dominoes may actually fall.

In other news, we’re just weeks away from the 4th anniversary of the publication of Pollack’s book The Threatening Storm. I wonder how it’s holding up? Let’s read page 268:

Imagine how different the Middle East and the world would be if a new Iraqi state were stable, prosperous, and a force for progress in the region, not a source of violence and instability. Imagine if we could rebuild Iraq as a model of what a modern Arab state could be, showing the frustrated and disenfranchised of the Arab world what they should be trying to fashion. Imagine if there were a concrete symbol demonstrating that America seeks to help the Arab world rather than repress. Invading Iraq might not just be our least bad alternative, it potentially could be our best course of action.

Yes…just imagine!

By the way, this was Pollack’s explanation of why Saddam was so dangerous:

[Saddam’s] own determination to interpret geopolitical calculations to suit what he wants to believe anyway lead him to construct bizarre scenarios that he convinces himself are highly likely.

The 20 year-old son of Israeli writer David Grossman was killed in Lebanon just two days before the ceasefire. I’d never read his famous 1987 book The Yellow Wind about the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. So I got it out of the library today. At one point Grossman writes this about the Israeli self-image:

I pondered then about how much one must be suspicious of people who testify about themselves morning and night that they are merciful.

Clearly he stole this from something I said 17 years later:

…when people get righteously worked up about how wonderful they are, and their enemy’s lack of gratitude, you really need to keep an eye on them.

SEE ALSO: Jim Henley —

People who say their problem is that they are too nice are never, never right.