Neoconned Again?

"That the rhetoric used to justify war against Iraq sounds eerily similar to the case being made to start a war against Iran and Syria is not purely a coincidence. Many of the advocates of a muscular policy against countries regarded as outside the pale or perceived as a threat to Israel come from the same circle of neoconservatives, "resident scholars," and sound-bite experts who move seamlessly from think-tank to advocacy group to academia and back again. The pundits who made the case that led to the Iraq catastrophe are continuing to urge a larger, greater war that would engulf the entire Middle East, though many of them are now arguing that negotiations should precede nuking, if only to prove that diplomacy does not work......

Currently, groups similar in sound and style have been actively making the case for war against Iran and Syria. Organizations like the Foundation for Democracy in Iran (FDI) and the Lebanon Study Group are essentially neocon-funded-and-staffed advocacy groups that argue for the military option as the only way to end the threats posed by "rogue regimes." The FDI, which is headed by Kenneth R. Timmerman and includes fellow neocons Joshua Muravchik and Peter Rodman as founding members, features on its Web site the headlines "How to Topple the Mullahs" and "There Is an Alternative to the Baker-Hamilton Capitulation." All three are regarded as particularly close to the Israel lobby, and Timmerman in particular has frequently been linked to Mossad. He published a newsletter in Paris some years ago, Med News, that was believed to be funded by the Israeli intelligence service, and Mossad almost certainly provided material for his book Countdown to Crisis: The Coming Nuclear Showdown with Iran. He has also written The French Betrayal of America. The FDI also cites American Enterprise Institute alum Michael Ledeen as an apparent authority on Iran, which is not at all surprising, as Ledeen is a self-described expert on practically everything. Referring to Iran and Syria, Ledeen has written, "It's time to bring down the other terror masters. Faster, please."......"