REUEL MARC GERECHT: THE DECEITFUL NEOCONSERVATIVE EXPOSED

Reuel Marc Gerecht is one of neoconservatisms most diehard ideologues. In his latest piece of neocon rhetoric in The Weekly Standard Gerecht writes:

“…the uncertainties of the Arab Spring and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s air war in Libya have spooked the administration. Its ‘realist’ tendencies are well known, and ‘realism’ powerfully comes to the fore when a president doesn’t know what to do​—​or believes that the United States can do little. The safest and easiest bet then is to do nothing​—​the essence of most ‘realist’ policy.

Such ‘prudence’, ‘restraint’, and ‘patience’​—​the administration is fond of these words​—​can be commendable when a situation is messy or murky. But neither applies in Syria. This is an easy call: We have a chance to eliminate one of America’s worst enemies in the region​—​the linchpin of Iran’s alliances and terrorist apparatus. We have a chance to traumatize Tehran: The world will look a lot more precarious to supreme leader Ali Khamenei and a lot more hopeful to the millions behind Iran’s pro-democracy Green Movement if Bashar al-Assad goes down. The importance of Syria to Iranian foreign policy and internal politics cannot be overstated.”

Now, Gerecht has been around spouting the neocon cause for a very long time and while in his latest article he comes across all concerned about America’s dwindling power, the reality is that his primary concerns are not so much for America but far more for Israel.

Gerecht accuses Obama of either not knowing ‘what to do’ about Syria or believing there is little that can be done. There is another option that Gerecht doesn’t mention but which is far more likely to be the case as far as Obama is concerned and that is it’s simply not practical to go in boots and all as Gerecht would like him to do.

One has to ask oneself; how come Gerecht and all his neocon buddies are so deadset obsessed with Syria and Iran? Neither nation is a threat to America. Gerecht says; “We have a chance to eliminate one of America’s worst enemies in the region…” but how is Syria an enemy? In what way is it a threat?

What Gerecht really means to say is: “We have a chance to eliminate one of Israel’s worst enemies in the region”. Syria, of course, is an enemy of Israel because Israel invaded, occupied and then annexed Syria’s Golan Heights. Syria also supports Hezbollah in Lebanon and, to a lesser extent, Hamas in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.

And Gerecht’s interest in Israel doesn’t stop at Syria. For Israel the real enemy is Iran. Iran has the weapons to supply to those that are resisting Israel’s expansionist ambitions whereas Syria is the means by which those weapons can be supplied. And it is Iran who Gerecht has been encouraging, not just the US, but Israel to attack regardless of what the consequences might be.

Gerecht, as part of his rhetoric, has a penchant for exaggerating threats, particularly the Iranian threat, to Israel. In an article last year in The Atlantic magazine Gerecht, writing about a possible Israeli attack on Iran, said:

“Israeli calculations for a preventive strike don't have to be conclusive to be successful. If the Israelis do nothing, they know that they would eventually be staring at an internally unstable, virulently anti-Semitic, terrorist-fond regime with nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles. Simply imagining the probable hair-trigger scenarios in which Israel will have to play atomic-bluff with Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamenei and the Revolutionary Guard Corps -- the organization that oversees Iran's nuclear program -- ought to be enough to make any rational nuclear planner shudder.”

“…ought to be enough to make any rational nuclear planner shudder”? Indeed it would, but not in the way Gerecht imagines. Gerecht paints a picture or Iran that is totally unreal. Even if Iran did have a nuclear weapon, it would hardly be likely to use it against Israel. The fact is; Israel just isn’t so important a nation that Iran is ready destroy itself over no matter how much Iran despises Zionism.

The neocons are making a concerted effort to destroy Syria’s Assad regime and wants to get Obama to hasten Assad’s demise, but what the neocons don’t seem to realise is that once Assad is gone there is not suddenly going to be some Israeli-friendly, or even US-friendly government, taking his place. The people of Syria object to Israel taking the Golan Heights and they support the Palestinians and their cause. The revolt against Assad is purely an internal matter No matter how it is ultimately resolved; it is unlikely to change the Syrian people’s view of Israel or even Syria’s support of Hezbollah.

Gerecht and his fellow neocons, as usual, are practising deceit – again. Gerecht is motivated by Israeli interests and not America’s. He just wants the US to do the dirty work for Israel. Surely the American people have woken up to this deceit by now. Look what happened in Iraq. How many Americans died there?

And how many Israelis?