WHERE HAS THIS GUY BEEN?

I caught some of former NATO Commander and National Security Advisor General James Jones' interview with Candy Crowley on CNN's State of the Union this morning.  The General said that about a year and a half ago Iran showed its true colors or stripes or some such platitude. 

Say what?  Where's the guy been for the last 30 years?  What about helping blow up U.S. barracks and slaughter American soldiers in Lebanon?  Spreading terrorism all over the world?  Oppressing minority religions?  Hanging gays?  Arming Hezbollah and Hamas? This didn't give the retired General a hint prior to a year and a half ago? 

General Jones continued to demonstrate that his head is buried well into the sand when he repeated his oft- stated position that the Israeli-Palestinian dispute is one of the central factors giving rise to the many problems in the Middle East.  The Israeli-Palestinian dispute needs to be solved so that both Israelis and Palestinians can live in peace and so that their children can live full, rich, peaceful lives. 

But just about everyone who previously felt the way General Jones still does took note of the fact that the massive, remarkable upheavals now taking place in the Arab world had not one iota to do with the Israeli-Palestinian dispute.  In fact, it is hardly mentioned, unless you consider the obligatory blame placing on "the Zionists" to be evidence of a serious motivator.  But General Jones insists on clinging to his unsubstantiated belief.

One hopes that others in our political, military, and intelligence communities are just a wee bit more observant than General Jones.

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It is a pleasure to watch Candy Crowley at work on State of the Union.  A well-prepared, serious journalist doing good work.  She is a breath of fresh air in a sea of cable television's offensive nonsense.