Growing Concerns over Iran and Syria after U.S. Troop Pull-Out from Iraq
New concerns over Iran and Syria after American troop withdrawal from Iraq. Options for the U.S. and E.U. to contain their influence and enhance security in the region.
Guests
resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and senior editor at Middle East Quarterly
director of the New Internationalism Project at the Institute for Policy Studies; co-author of "Ending the U.S. War in Afghanistan: A Primer"
professor in the practice of diplomacy and international politics at the Harvard Kennedy School and former undersecretary for political affairs at the U.S. Department of State.
editor-at-large, TIME magazine; host of the CNN program "Fareed Zakaria GPS"; Washington Post columnist; author of several books, including "The Post American World 2.0"

Comments
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So hoping that the Rehm Team chose far more honest guest to be on the show discussing the Iran, Syria issue. Not the same old same old like Reuel Marc Gerecht, Bill Kristol etc. Scholars and former Bush administration officials who left the administration before the invasion of Iraq because they disagreed with the invasion FLYNT and HILLARY MANN LEVERETT over at RACE FOR IRAN.
Also hope that Diane does not allow guest or callers to repeat unsubstantiated claims about Iran's alleged nuclear weapons program or repeat the debunked "Iran wants to wipe Israel off the map" hogwash that the neocons and MSM host have been repeating themselves and allowing guest to repeat for eight years. Professor Juan Cole debunked this purposely mistranslated statement years ago.
Please challenge these claims Diane. The Iaea has stated over and over that there is no HARD EVIDENCE to back up claims that Iran is developing nuclear weapons. And please bring up that Iran signed the NPT and is allowed to enrich uranium up to a certain level. How Israel (still refuses to sign the NPT amd sits on large stockpiles of uninspected nuclear, biological and chemical weapons)and the US persistently threatening them only makes them more fearful.
Also hope you mention that at the IAEA website you can find letters from miccle east nations that address how Israel's defiance to sign the NPT and not allow inspections has threatened peace in the middle east for decades
Isn't it amazing how some people are able to post an informed, intelligent, Comment about a show before it even airs!
Oh, wait, they can't?
Never mind.
Etaoin: They say long married couples can never successfully prepare a surprise party for one another. What we should probably be asking is if there would be any need or institutional support for DRShow without the parent associations and publishers of the frequent cookie cutter experts and guests.
For example, most of the guests today owe much of their notoriety to DRShow. Is this a bad thing? Well, not for the guests or the hosts, because it's always old home week. And not for the "sports minded" segment of the audience looking at our next unworthy war opponent whom we are about to smash into grass. And coincidentally, not for war profiteers and those who owe their authority and power to fear mongering. Noam Chomsky (on a New Zealand outlet 24/7) says the USA is dangerous because it is a wounded monster. kathleen is a wild optimist if she thinks a few facts and objections on this commentary will stop the abominable energy addict from fracking out the whole planet. Pseudoscientific techniques of discipline have replaced actualities, justice and human rights. They really know how to get all the "goody out the nut" using big media and the Internet for extraction these days. For you see, the same clique who owns the manufacturing and the military also owns the Internet. Putting your two cents in can only enhance their cash flow and never slow or reverse it. We forgot to take possession of the MEANS.
Occupy was beautiful for awhile mostly because a bunch of optimists got face to face in the park. DRShow is no walk in the park. The outcome is predestined. If it is deemed profitable for the 1% Iran will be eviscerated, but a population of 75 million will be evicted, good practice before "da big gain" with Pakistan. Are we more at war with East Asia, or with West Asia? Only X-box 360 knows for sure, and that depends on the cartridge or site.
Please think of the people of Camp Ashraf!!! De-List the MEK!!
What is it with the Rehm team not inviting Flynt and Hillary Mann Leverett on your program to discuss Iran and Syria? Two of the most well informed scholars on middle east issues specifically Iran and you invite Micheal Rubin, Bennis, Zakaria (who just interviewed the Iranian President) but has allowed numerous guest in the past to repeat unsubstantiated claims about Iran.
Bennis is not highly qualified to discuss this issue. Know she is allegedly liberal but not on this issue. She will lean towards spinning for the Iran war mongers.
Why not invite Hillary and Flynt Leverett on your program. What does the Rehm Team have against highly qualified people who can speak about Iran based on facts and not their personal agendas.
Maybe it wouldn't be proper kathleen. Are the Leverett's in the Blue Book?
Are they "part of polite society"? Are they connected to the Langley Leveretts?I pardon your faux pas, my dear. Now back out through the servant's entrance. You only hurt your own standing when you make a fuss.
wrong
The Rehm Team demonstrates just how controlled they are. And many throughout the internet world and many others are becoming more and more aware of this. When the Rehm team has the option to bring real experts on their show about these issues and they choose Rubin (one of the big suppliers of false Iraq WMD intelligence), and not have real experts on like the Leveretts etc they once again demonstrate who has a huge influence on their programming
Folks should go to RACE FOR IRAN if they want accurate information on Iran and Syria. INFORMED COMMENT AND MUCH OF WHAT STEVE CLEMONS OF THE ATLANTIC AND WASHINGTON NOTE.
Not one person on the program from the Think Tank NEW AMERICA FOUNDATION.
Why is the troop withdrawal signed by former President G W Bush being touted as a failure of President Obama?
Why is our government once again working toward another trillion dollar a day war in the Middle East?
Does the fact that the speaker got Iran and Iraq mixed up to start out the interview reflect the fat that most people in the USA do not really know much of a difference either?
Do Americans really understand anything about the society and culture of the people of the Middle East?
Why do we have to try to force "Americanism" on everywhere else?
Be more cost effective to help the women escape and let the man-only nations man themselves out of existence.
Before the War we were all politely informed that Sadaam had plotted with Al Qaeda, attempted to obtain material for nuclear weapons, had made aluminum tubes for purpose of uranium enrichment, had “mobile chemical factories”, they attacked us with Anthrax, “hated us for our freedom”, and on & on.
Iraq was given ultimatum to surrender the WMD’s they didn’t possess or the grown-ups in America were going to attack.
So we bombed bejesus out of them and occupied their country. We were told that like when France was liberated in World War II, Iraqis would come out and spread “roses” at our troops feet.
Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, some of them bad guys, but most “collateral damage” were killed. And Rumsfeld & co. just couldn’t understand why these folks seemed so PO’ed at us.
2004 W was reelected, largely because Dems were too wimpy when it comes to “War on Terror”. All domestic issues were put on back burner. “Deficits didn’t matter” quipped Cheney. The $’s spent on “War on Terror” was a state secret. No-bid contracts and scandals abounded, but somehow press and America looked the other way, because “War must go on” and “if you’s ain’t with us you’s again’ us”
Meanwhile W & co looked the other way while until corporate America essentially raped America, until bottom fell out of American economy
‘08 Obama was elected- Many voted for him because they were tired of the War- and the hypocrisy.
It seems as if Obama had some kind of deal going on with Hillary- she was tired of y’all calling Dems wimpy- “I’ll show y’all we can extend unnecessary War ‘with the best of them’”, and so occupation wore on.
It sorta seems that Al Qaeda-like groups who tend to view conflicts in terms of centuries, not election cycles, couldn’t have asked for much more. We did more damage to ourselves in myriad of ways through our brazen stupidity then they could have ever hoped to do to us.
Did we learn anything?
Explain the dynamics in the MEK-Israel lobby relationship.
Several years ago Seymour Hersh wrote about Israeli and US special forces on the ground in Iran. The cyber attacks on Irans nuclear program, the killing of Iranian scientist. Are these all ready direct acts of war?
Hope the Rehm Team has some experts from the IAEA on to discuss the Iranian nuclear program based on facts
Who'd a thunk after W freed Iraq there would come an Arab Spring and the people would free themselves from the dictators 'others' had in charge
Wonder if they saw that one coming
And before the illegal and immoral invasion of Iraq hundreds of thousands of us marched (millions across the nation 30 million world wide) against the invasion based on what we were hearing from former weapons inspector Scott Ritter, General Zinni, Zbigniew Brysinski, IAEA head El Baradei (who came out in early March and said the Niger Documents were false) etc etc. In Oct of 2002 Senator Dick Durbin (on the Senate intelligence committee) voted no on the Iraq war resolution (hello Hillary) all serious indications that the cherry picked intelligence about Iraq was manipulated. Millions marched not believing Douglas Feith, Wolfowitz, Cheney, Bolton, Rumsfeld, Condi "mushroom cloud" Rice.
But the MSM was missing in action. Hardly any coverage
i dont know about the MEK-Israel relationship i just know that the people of Camp Ashraf are going to be in enormous danger when the US pulls out of Iraq.The U.S should remove them MEK from the FTO list, for obvious reasons, so that the people of Ashraf can find refuge else where. WE need to support the MEK in their efforts
Well Diane you did it again, this guy Zakaria sounds like he is a spokesmen for Iran. The nerve of him saying that our (USA) troops are to be used for the benefit of these worthless leaders is beyond belief. And your not correcting this statement is a little disheartening. These soldiers are our future and for anyone to use them like disposable things of no value for dictators to use at their will is unconscious. Diane, at this point I have to question your agenda.
Israel continues to threaten Iran almost daily. If Israel signed the Non Proliferation Treaty as Iran did long ago how would that change the dynamics?
ALSO
Former Bush administration official and former CIA middle east analyst Flynt Leverett has written that Iran has tried to directly negotiate with one US administration after the next over the last three decades. That congressional members manipulated by the Israeli lobby as well as Israeli firsters congress members have pushed back on any direct negotiations with Iran.
Can you please discuss interference against direct negotiations with Iran.
Go listen to the interview. Also Amy Goodmans interview with the Iranian President along with Charlie Rose's interview with him.
To justin...go listen to the interview
by MEK I am referring to the PMOI (Peoples Mujahedin of Iran)
Kathleen, I believe Grady Lee Howard's comment was satirical, and he was agreeing with you.
I am disturbed by the lack of serious intellectual discussion in this country, particularly on NPR, where you are supposed to be able to find such things. I despair when I hear a guest say things like the Iraqis have the option of asking the US to go to part of their country and "beat up the bad guys." We don't live in a comic book world, folks. A more accurate way of phrasing it might be the Iraqi can ask the US to go murder dissidents, but that degree of bluntness is hard for American audiences to accept, used to the idea that US foreign is like Spiderman swinging in and landing a bunch of punches on Dr. Octopus, who is somehow defeated without even being bruised. The infantilization serves to dumb down discussion of complex situation where everybody has interests and positions of some legitimacy - and it serves to obscure the brutality with which the US persues theirs.
I'm glad to see such well informed comments (generally the comment sections on NPR shows are vastly more informative and informed than the show itself). At some point we will really have to organize ourselves and figure out what we're going to do about it.
Where is the Tom Ogle fuel system?
US Patent # 4,177,779
Fuel Economy System for an Internal Combustion Engine
Tom Ogle (December 11, 1979)
"Tom Ogle says it wasn't a hoax.
He insists there were no hidden fuel tanks or other alternate fuel sources used to power a two-ton automobile for 205 miles Saturday on only two gallons of gasoline fumes.
Ogle isn't alone in his no-hoax statements.
Carl Wright, for example, has been working on internal combustion machines for 35 years. He is a certified teacher of auto mechanics and is currently shop foreman at Peck's Automotive Service, where Ogle built his controversial energy-saving fuel system.
"It's no hoax." Wright said in straight-forward fashion. "There were no hidden tanks." Wright, who has no vested interests in the invention, said at first he was skeptical of the young man's invention.
"I've watched the thing from the time they built the fuel tank to the very present," Wright said, "It looks to me like it'll do what Tom said it would do."
Wright said any secret fuel compartments would have required many extra man-hours by Ogle to install in the car body.
"He only worked on the car during office hours," Wright said,"and he didn't have a key to the door" to get into the automotive shop during off-hours or weekends."-
"Ogle Fuel System - No Hoax"
by Gregory Jones
Patenting then shelving is not what patents are made for.
Go Phyllis. Stong consistent stances. Surprised. Heard her speak in DC not so solid and consistent. Go Phyllis
Diane just asked what the difference between Syria and Libya is? If you follow that logic then That question should be applied to Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, the Palestinians, Sudan
In part the conversation today is outright delusional. The American Embassy in Baghdad cost a billion dollars to build. The Iraqi head of state with U.S. blessing, Nouri Al-Maliki, and his family are estimated to have accumulated 5 billion dollars in wealth since the beginning of the U.S. endeavor, mainly provided by the American tax-payer. The six billion dollars alone would finance one high-speed rail line or could have been used to repair all dilapidated bridges not only in your state.
Nouri Al-Maliki is a leading member of the Dawa Party, the same party that was instrumental in building the Party of God, Hezbullah, in Lebanon with Syrian backing and Iranian support. Great friend and ally!
The U.S. involvement in Iraq seems to lead to no good!
Matlove1 " I despair when I hear a guest say things like the Iraqis have the option of asking the US to go to part of their country and "beat up the bad guys"
So many host of shows are now hammering on this idea that the US has sacrificed so much in Iraq and Afghanistan (and we have) but they spin the invasions as if the people of Iraq and Afghanistan asked the US to invade.
Who is John Galt?
Phyllis how would things change if Israel stopped threatening Iran almost daily and would also sign the Non proliferatino treaty as Iran did long ago
Phyllis Bennis is right on as usual. As much as I agree with Kathleen's commentary, I
think she wrong wrt Bennis.
The study of Iraqi deaths by The Lancet would substantiate Bennis' assertion regarding
the deaths of Iraqi children due to the twelve year sanctions the West imposed.
Radkeit. You are right I was wrong. Had heard Bennis speak several times and heard more murky statements about Iran. She was right on today all they way. Consistent
Hope folks contact the Rehm show and ask them to have Hillary Mann Leverett and Flynt Leverett on. Both former Bush administration officials who quit the Bush administration just before the invasion of Iraq because they disagreed. Experts on middle east issues specifically Iran. Go to RACE FOR IRAN. Why Diane would not have them on is perplexing