Identify the War Hawks!

In 1953, the CIA together with British colleagues orchestrated the overthrow of the democratically elected Prime Minister of Iran Mohammad Mossadegh. (For more information on that budget-friendly US-coup d'état see The Mossadegh Project or the entry in Wikipedia). After having accomplished the coup under the smokescreen of a non-existing communist threat regarding Iran, the US installed their proconsul - the oppressive, brutal and corrupt monarch Mohammad-Rezā Shāh Pahlavi whose regime lasted for 26 years. Unfortunately, only radical Islamists could break the US-backed rule. That is why we have the Mullahs in Iran since 1979.
Since then there have been rumors circulating from time to time about the next US invasion target being Iran. Recently, the alleged plotting to murder Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the United States has been sold as bargain to allegations and blatant threats against this country - rich of oil, desert and culture, reigned by prosperous Mullah businessmen who dislike US influence in the region, and inhabited by people who unfortunately have not forgotten the Shah-regime. In fact, the warmongers are attacking again - partly pretty much the same perpetrators called "experts" as experienced before the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

In order to restrict the destructive consequences of persons propagating organized barbarism against people, it is very useful 1) to know who these persons are, (2) to expose them together with their propaganda and (3) to publicly kill their propaganda by the means of rational arguments.
To start the list of war hawks, here are five examples of unmistakable, clear and direct appeals to start war against Iran, at least partly based on the recent cock-and-bull story of the planned assassination of the Saudi ambassador on US soil.
(WARNING: If you click through the links given below beside the names of the authors, you might be shocked and disgusted because of the radical militarist contents offered, displaying the US as the chosen people, as a paranoia-driven and fear mongering nationalistic militarist state, incurably hegemonic, islamophobic, and superstitiously believing in their self-invented American Exceptionalism. But that's simply the environment these perpetrators come from. If you are a decent, sensible person, you might want to abstain from visiting most of these sites.)

Btw, the author names are equipped with a link leading to the Right Web, a website dedicated to the monitoring of "militarists’ efforts to influence U.S. foreign policy". The site offers an long list of warmongers, see Individuals)


William Kristol (founder and editor of the political magazine The Weekly Standard, co-founder of the Project for the New American Century, member of the board of trustees for the free-market Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, member of the Policy Advisory Board for the Ethics and Public Policy Center  - "dedicated to applying the Judeo-Christian moral tradition to critical issues of public policy", a director of the Foreign Policy Initiative, board members of Keep America Safe and the Emergency Committee for Israel)

"There’s been plenty of talk. But of course no action. This Iranian regime has the blood of American soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan on its hands. It’s a sponsor and facilitator of terror organizations that have killed innocent Americans, Israelis, Iraqis, Afghans, Argentines, and many others. It’s a brutal dictatorship. And it’s seeking nuclear weapons while denying it’s doing so. It’s long since been time for the United States to speak to this regime in the language it understands—force. And now we have an engraved invitation to do so. The plot to kill the Saudi ambassador was a lemon. Statesmanship involves turning lemons into lemonade. [...] Congress should consider authorizing the use of force against Iranian entities that facilitate attacks on our troops, against IRGC and other regime elements that sponsor terror, and against the regime’s nuclear weapons program."

Jamie M. Fly (at present executive director of the Foreign Policy Initiative, before: director for Counterproliferation Strategy at the National Security Council, assistant for Transnational Threats Policy at the Office of the Secretary of Defense, researcher at the Republican National Committee, and The Council on Foreign Relations)

"As developments this week make abundantly clear, our disgraceful attempts to “engage” the despotic regime in Tehran — even as Iranians tried to overthrow their leaders in 2009 and even as Americans were dying in Iraq and Afghanistan at the hands of the Qods force — have failed. Fortunately, there is a template for action from President Obama’s predecessors in the Oval Office. An appropriate response would be targeted strikes against key regime facilities that support Iran’s illicit activities. [...] It is time to take military action against the Iranian government elements that support terrorism and its nuclear program. More diplomacy is not an adequate response."

Reuel Marc Gerecht (former case officer in the CIA's Directorate of Operations once said that the Iranians "have terrorism in their DNA", a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies; before: a director of the Project for the New American Century's Middle East Initiative and a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute)

"Khamenei probably approved a strike in Washington because he no longer fears American military might. Iran's advancing nuclear-weapons program has undoubtedly fortified his spine, as American presidents have called it "unacceptable" yet done nothing about it. And neither George W. Bush nor Barack Obama retaliated against Iran's murderous missions in Iraq and Afghanistan. [...] The White House needs to respond militarily to this outrage. If we don't, we are asking for it."

Andrew C. McCarthy (senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, serving as the director of the FDD's Center for Law and Counterterrorism, columnist for National Review)

"It is one thing to pretend that a jihadist campaign by a sub-sovereign terror network is just a crime spree for which trial in the civilian justice system is an adequate response.Iran, however, is a state actor — not even arguably amenable to court prosecution. A state aggressor must get a political response, not a legal one. There is a range of possible political responses, of course, but given its three-decade campaign of aggression, the response to Iran must be military — and decisive. The regime must be destroyed."

James Carafano (Director of the Douglas and Sarah Allison Center for Foreign Policy Studies, deputy director of the Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Institute for International Studies at The Heritage Foundation, Homeland Security expert, studied at the United States Military Academy at West Point, the US Army War College, and the Georgetown University - a private, Jesuit, research university)

"The U.S. is fully within it rights to conduct a proportional military response against suitable, feasible, and acceptable targets in Iran. (In many ways, the situation is similar to military operations conducted against al-Qaeda in Pakistan.)"

-------------------tbc---------------------------

Anybody offering links to similar martial quotes: Thanks a lot in advance!