Charlie Rose

ShalomFreedman  02/05/2012 10:01 AM Report

The Prime Minister of Qatar Hamad Bin Jassin Bin Jabr Al-Thani is a very sympathetic fellow. His supporting a policy of Peace between all the peoples of the Middle East is commendable.

However there are certain inaccuracies in his statements. He says that there are groups in Israel parallel to Hamas in their genocidal intentions. This is completely false. The 'Hamas' constitution calls for destruction of Israel and murdering of Jews. There is no Jewish group in Israel who calls for anything like mass- murder of Arabs.

There is too, I am afraid, limitation in two major ways in what the Prime Minister is saying. First, it is impossible to be on all sides with everyone in a situation like the Syrian one. It is incorrect to say that Iran is interested in speaking with the United States and has peaceful intentions. It is inaccurate to say that the Turkish government is tolerant of secular people. It has Islamized under Erdogan and over one- hundred journalists are in jail there.

There is another major point which Charlie Rose didn't raise. The U.S. supports the non- democratic Emirates, Sultanates, Kingships of the Gulf. There is nothing democratic in this. Is there anything really like a 'people's will' in Qatar? in Saudi Arabia? If one is really talking about a revolution toward democratic regimes in the Arab world does one have a right to be so selective and not touch one's allies?

In any case it was encouraging to hear the Prime Minister of an Arab country speak openly about Peace with Israel, and about wanting all the peoples of the region to live in Peace. I truly pray that this will one day be the case.

At the moment however Ahmadinejad Khameini and Company are engaging in invasive, terrorist actions all over the place and proceeding to defy the world in building nuclear weapons. I am afraid that even the most polite and diplomatic conversation will not prevent them from continuing and intensifying in their destructive ways.

robert78  02/05/2012 05:04 AM Report

Mr. Thani uses the word “price” to mean the amount of killings needed to uphold a dictatorship. And because this way of thinking of “price” is so twisted, it apparently escapes Mr. Rose for a second there. And to further highlight that weirdness, even as he acknowledges the killing 68 Syrian protesters in one day, Mr. Thani is still musing about whether the price is yet too high.

Gelles  02/05/2012 04:25 AM Report

http://www.c-spanarchives.org/program/304105-1

Then link above is to "What Rules [TODAY] -- Money, Morality, Mythology and Metaphor, ?", a debate on Feb 1, at Fordham University in NYC.

Attacking Iranian Nuclear Weapons sites would be justified if they would rule our lives (and deaths) in pursuit of evil -- as opposed to ruling them in pursuit of virtue, fairness and human rights as we and our allies intend to do.

The debate at Fordham found we were ruled by the love of money, the belief in Western moral objectives, and metaphors, myths and slogans that were far off the mark.

None of this means Iran must be allowed to produce and inventory nuclear weapons. In fact it means the opposite. But failure to reform the object of our love called "money", lends credence to concern that we must not only constrain Iran's evil ambitions, but we must learn to make money worth all the faith we put in it as a leading influence in our political pursuits.

Money matched to "debt" and not to "the things it buys", is so badly defined it has become over centuries past the "root of all evil" instead of the "calculus of how to do good". If the critical material needs of the poor can be provided as surely as the air they breathe, we will be on our way the fair rules we are missing for no good reason at all.

Al the above must be illustrated with appropriate diagrams and texts. Text alone has left us where the Tower of Babel said it would.

Gelles  02/04/2012 02:58 AM Report

"... Now in 2012, some 2500 years later, the children of Iran are sending an S.O.S. to the children of Israel.

"Israel should help the secularist, nationalist Iranian opposition group that is willing, ready and able to overthrow the Islamist regime in Teheran.

Iran’s foundation was based on tolerance and peace.

"This Iranian grand strategy has endured throughout the centuries. Israel, more than the U.S., has a close and binding “blood-oath” with Iran. It had an ally in a pre-1979 secular Iran, and it will have one in a post-Islamic Republic Iran. This is what the Israelis should nurture.

"Answer the Iranian people’s S.O.S. and stand with them with all you have for the sake of both peoples, and not the irrational and primitive sense of fear."

=================

The above quotation is from the link furnished by OBSERVER, below, in these comments.

The link makes a perfect case for help to Iran to reach its 1979 secular period of governance which US intervention it its domestic affairs may have disturbed.

Most amateurs like myself with have doubt that the secular period can be re-entered. However, we all agree that WAR is not the best present outcome we ought to seriously entertain.

WAR may become necessary to prevent nuclear proliferation from receiving a shove in its likelihood of occurring by peace loving democracies -- more or less like North Korea illustrates.

I favor an immediate rocket-driven leaflet bombardment of all of Iran demanding nuclear inspection NOW and offering a treaty of peace with Iran , in return, that would open the way for an era of peace there favorable to as many Iranians as possible. They have had more war than they ever deserved.

After the leaflets, it they fail, the USA should drop leaflets with an ultimatum. After that, if it fails, bomb the sites that contain their nuclear program.

OBSERVER  02/03/2012 02:37 PM Report

Mr. Charlie,

One of Your best programs.

EVERY WORD, EVERY SENTENCE HAS PROFOUND MEANING AND

APPLICATION FOR THOSE WHO HAVE VISIONS ,

NOT BLINDED BY THEIR SELF- SERVING EMOTIONS.

PEOPLE OF QATAR SHOULD BE VERY PROUD OF THEIR LEADERSHIP.

BELOW, THERE ARE TWO ARTICLES WORTHY OF ATTENTION OF THOSE

WHO FORMULATE AND IMPLEMENT FOREIGN POLICIES IN THE MIDDLE

EAST, AT THIS MOST CRITICAL TIME OF THE UNIVERSE.

A) (From Iranian People To Israeli People)

http://www.worldnewstribune.com/2012/01/30/an-sos-from-the-people-of-iran-to-the-people-of-israel-two -former-top-diplomats-take-a-stand-against-war/

B) How Obama became vulnerable on Iran - By downplaying

his diplomacy, he undermines a peaceful solution

and encourages the false charge of weakness -

Salon 02/3/12, Just the same way as the Republicans

lost last election on singing! ”Bomb, Bomb,Bomb Iran!”

God bless you.

REMant  02/03/2012 01:27 PM Report

I have a hard time believing the Qataris and other Sunni Arabs in the Arab League are really sincere about Syria. Be that as may, the tactical question is whether the situation is comparable to Egypt or to Libya. It is hard to tell just how much support the current regime has, but it seems a lot more than is being granted it. Enough to make it not much like Libya. Thus I doubt Assad's departure would have much effect on the outcome, and yet it seems pretty obvious that the situation is nowhere as benign as Egypt. I don't think better education, better jobs and so forth the entire answer, either. That doesn't often work even in resource-rich places, altho I don't doubt economics plays a part in the discontent. Except for Bahrain, the other countries he mentioned do not have the religious division Syria has, and I don't think that can be simply dismissed. He is right tho that ppl must realize they have to live together in some way if they are not to be at each other's throats. This tho can be accomplished in several ways, and "democracy" is only one of them. I think also that it is mandatory they come to this realization by themselves. It has been characteristic of Western social and political debates to divide between sentiment and reason and I wouldn't doubt that to be the case here, at least with respect to the solutions being offered. It is all very well for the sentimentalists to get in a lather about violence, but I would remind them that attempting to police such a situation has rarely accomplished its objective.