Zurprise, zurprise: Zbig wouldn't go to war to stop Iran getting nukes. On Morning Joe today, Jimmy Carter's former national security adviser had some advice for President Obama: tell Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu that America will not go to war against Iran.
Attacking Iran's nuclear facilities would surely be an act of war. Yet doing so might well be the only way to prevent the ayatollahs from getting the A-bomb. Unfortunately, neither Joe Scarborough nor anyone else on the panel including daughter Mika asked Brzezinski flat out whether he would encourage America to stand by while Iran got nukes. But it's hard to intepret his words otherwise. And of course, Zbig is the man who called for the U.S. to shoot down Israeli warplanes on the way to Iran. View the video after the jump.
Note: check out the video about 30 seconds in, as Brzezinski imagines Obama speaking to Netanyahu. Maybe it's just me, but does there not seem to be a kind of cold glee as Brzezinski envisions Obama telling Bibi that he is in a weakened position and must comply with US wishes?
ZBIGNIEW BRZEZINSKI: I think a lot depends also however on what [President Obama] says privately and that is the missing part, because we don't know what he says privately, but I do have the feeling that there are some things he should be saying privately and perhaps we can get into that.
JOE SCARBOROUGH: What should he be saying privately?
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: Go there right now.
SCARBOROUGH: There is no time like the present, Dr. Brzezinski. What should he be talking about privately?
ZBIGNIEW: I think privately he should say to Prime Minister Netanyahu, who no longer has an obedient, compliant right-wing government, but a government composed of people who can also assert themselves, that the Prime Minister has to understand that our commitment to Israel is unshakeable and comprehensive and based on the moral principles--that's why we're committed to Israel--but at the same time, the United States has the right to expect reciprocity. That is to say we are funding Israel. We're helping it economically, we're helping it militarily and Israel has to understand that the United States has some overriding interests in the Middle East which are not exclusive to Israel. And, therefore, the United States's interests have to be taken into account and the most important one, in my view at the present moment, is that we do not get into another Middle Eastern war which will quickly become a regional war. I have in mind of course no repetition of Iraq, next year or sooner, in Iran. The war in Iraq cost us three million dollars--three trillion dollars--and 35,000 casualties. We can't afford that again and I think this the Israelis have to understand.
