no monsters to destroy

U.S. MILITARY OPPOSED TO IRAN STRIKES, DOESN'T BELIEVE IN ``ISRAEL FIRST,'' SAYS WILKERSON

Quoting American System President John Quincy Adams on an Al Jazeera roundtable aired today, Col. Larry Wilkerson, the former chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell, again blasted Barack Obama's drive for war against Iran, the insanity of the Republican candidates for the presidential nomination, and Israel's drive to drag the U.S. into that war.

Wilkerson cited Quincy Adams' avoidance of going abroad ``in search of monsters to destroy," referring to his July 4, 1841 speech in Congress, in which Quincy Adams said, ``Wherever the standard of freedom and Independence has been or shall be unfurled, there will her [America's] heart, her benedictions and her prayers be.

``But she goes not abroad, in search of monsters to destroy.

``She is the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all.

``She is the champion and vindicator only of her own.''

One of the most vocal retired military leaders against the Iran war, and the Obama-Bush assault on the Constitution, Wilkerson warned against "the neo-Conservative component, which I'm seeing again. Which I saw in 1997 and 1998 and on up to the Iraq war, which is now trying to mold people to the Iran war!"

"They're doing the same thing" on Iran, Wilkerson said. "In fact, I'm amazed that they think the very same script, more or less, will work again! And yet I'm not amazed ... the American people don't seem to understand it's going on, don't seem to understand who's constructing this other element of foreign policy.''

When Al Jazeera host Shihab Rattansi asserted that all U.S. policy is ultimately whatever Israel's policy on Iran is, Wilkerson shot back, "That's not true. 

That's definitely not true in regard to the Pentagon and to the Armed Forces in general."


Regarding Israel and Palestine, Wilkerson said, "as David Petraeus made quite clear, until he had to retract a little bit," there is "{grave concern} in the armed forces of the United States about what the Israel-Palestinian challenge does to U.S. National Security, not just in West Asia, but all over the world.


It's damaging to our reputation all over the world that we are increasingly seen, not as an honest broker, but Israel's lawyer."

Wilkerson said Obama's rhetoric saying "it's unacceptable for Iran to have a nuclear weapon," and then "all options are on the table," are exactly what is going to get the U.S. into that war, because Obama {can't handle} the situation.

On Dec. 12 on Examiner TV, Wilkerson also delivered a strong denunciation of the just-passed indefinite detention of Americans embedded in the National Defense Authorization Act. 


It is a step towards tyranny, like Caesar's crossing of the Rubicon, he said, expressing grave concern that the law, authorizing the U.S. military to indefinitely detain suspected terrorists, even if they are American citizens, will erode the very tradition of civil-military relations that are the underpinning of the U.S. Constitution. 

Our officer corps, he said, has the best knowledge of our nation's history and the provenance of civil-military relations. This understanding is the greatest protection against tyranny, and the new law is aimed at forcing our military to believe otherwise.

But nobody ever compared the president to John Quincy Adams, so there.