"Fox News Sunday" (FNS) is always fun for the feeble minded.
Chris Wallace, the ringmaster for this circus, went on and on and on today about his "concern" that because the Congress is taxing away the bonuses of failed but still rapacious AIG executives, private money will not be committed by other rapacious executives (some of whom are with AIG counterparties in the CDS racket) to a scheme in which they have a good chance of making a lot of money in a partnership with the government in which most of the money will be government money, i.e., buying the trash paper from the banks. Having been a "visitor" to the world of international business for ten years I find that amusing. Businessmen are about making money, and that is all. They are no more "concerned" for the fate or public humiliation of other businessmen than sharks are "concerned" over the blood of other sharks in the water. If there is a reasonable chance of personal profit, businessmen will swim toward the money. Is the bonus tax unconstitutional? Probably. The courts will settle that and the business sharks all know it.
President Obama has now made some significant gestures toward Iran. These should be seen as alternative to the drift toward eventual war with that country that was the basic Bush Administration policy. The Iranians do not seem to be responding favorably to those gestures. This is foolish. The danger to Iran of continuing evasiveness over the exact nature of their nuclear program is suicidal. The Iranians should insist that the IAEA pursue unlimited inspections of ALL facilities and atomic programs in Iran. To do otherwise is to weaken all those in the West who want to see reasonable relations between Iran and its potential enemies. When the opacity of parts of the Iranian nuclear program are coupled with continuing expressions of hostility by Iranian officials toward both the US and Israel, an atmosphere is encouraged in which eventual military action becomes probable.
The Israelis are pushing hard for this, as are their overt and covert allies in America. Britt Hume of FNS was very open today in saying that "the worst thing that could happen would be for the Iranians to respond positively to Obama's gestures toward them." Why? That is simple. He believes that the iranians are utterly untrustworthy and that any temporary improvements in relations will be mere deceptions and delays in what he sees as the inevitable outcome.
This situation has nothing to do with ancient history about Mossadegh and the Iran-iraq War and everything to do with what the future will hold for all concerned. If the Iranians do not want to find themselves fighting an air and missile war against the United States and Israel, they should take care over what they say and do. pl
