April 16, 2010, - 7:22 pm

Weekend Read: A Prescient Warning About Iran From Decades Ago

By Debbie Schlussel

Concerning the impending dangers posed by Iran, this great blog, “The Death of Common Sense,” has a must read featuring very applicable quotes from a prominent presidential advisor from decades ago, when we were in a different war for our lives.

obamasmiling.jpgharoldickes

Here’s just an excerpt from “Gathering Clouds?“:

No one who pays serious attention to Obama’s words and actions, least of all Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, can envision this president ordering a preemptive American strike on Iran—and maybe not a retaliatory one, either.

For the possible consequences of that, we can turn to the words of Harold L. Ickes, secretary of the interior throughout FDR’s presidency and the administration’s loudest critic of Nazism, Fascism, and anti-Semitism. After World War II, he published a remarkable three-volume memoir based on his “secret” diaries.

Entries in the third volume, titled The Lowering Clouds in homage to Churchill’s The Gathering Storm, begin two weeks after Germany invaded Poland in 1939 and conclude in late 1941, just after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

What did Ickes say that needs to sink in, today, to Barack Obama (and some others)? Read the whole thing and find out. It’s short, sweet, and brilliant.




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29 Responses

I always say obama is worst than a communist. Communist favor a strong military.

tyler on April 16, 2010 at 10:25 pm

I will read it now… off topic, but has anyone noticed how every time you turn around it is Friday? Time goes way to fast.

sharon on April 17, 2010 at 12:23 am

We have elected the most radical president in the history of the United States. Mr. Obama is a sign of decadence and decline. We have chosen a leveller to lead us, and there will be a price to be paid.

Worry01 on April 17, 2010 at 12:44 am

The ObamaNation of America will affect generations. This is what happens when morons buy into the media BS and elect liberal fascists to lead a democratic Republic.

Bonzer Wolf on April 17, 2010 at 1:23 am

Debbie, I don’t agree. It doesn’t take any great courage to order the military into action. You’re gambling someone else’s life and the taxpayers treasure. Obama’s decision to attack Iran will be purely based on politics; if it will help him, he will do it, if not, then he won’t. Let’s hope the politics lines up with our national security.

dougx on April 17, 2010 at 2:30 am

It isn’t courage that we are questioning here, because bullies would gladly send in troops against those they don’t like or don’t agree with.

It is precisely for this reason that we should understand that Obama agrees with much of what Iran’s (and Ahmad…) despotic totalitarian group believes in and espouses (obliteration of all Jews in the world, and, of course Israel).

Obama’s job is to protect the USA…his FIRST and most important job. He has already unilaterally disarmed his administration, and it is unlikelyhe’d be able to protect us from Iranian (or Chinese, or Russian, etc.) military acts against us, even if they were surreptitious.

Damocles on April 17, 2010 at 5:38 am

I said it before and I’ll say again Obama is a double agent in cahoots with the Middle East to transform America by force if neccesary into a pro-Islamic nation. Or at the very least lay the foundation for Islam to creep up on us. Obama is well financed by these people and he owes them big time.

ARISHEM on April 17, 2010 at 7:25 am

Awesome post.

Jack on April 17, 2010 at 9:29 am

The last sentence in the linked article is telling; all the Jewish organizations want is some kind of lip service to sanctions; enough verbalization so their organizations can credibly continue to get contributions & dues and maintain the fiction they are fighting for Jewish interests. And now their silly arguments are about who has really hurt the peace process, Israel or the Palestinians(sic), accepting the fiction that the so-called peace process is something worth preserving. FDR’s anti-semitism is well known.

Little Al on April 17, 2010 at 12:00 pm

“Obama is a double agent in cahoots with the Middle East”
Really, I guess the CIA and FBI never looked into his past and checked up on the guy, oh wait maybe they’re in on it to.

Thank goodness we have you and your laptop to solve the case, way to go Scooby!

And really the worst president ever? Bush, Nixon, Lincoln, Taft, etc… you could easily make the case that anyone these guys was the worst. It’s just that the Obama is happening now.
Pete

Pete Bone on April 17, 2010 at 2:13 pm

    I bet that you think that Jimmy Carter was a great president…How did that work out for America? Does Obama NOT act as though he is executing the second term of Jimmy Carter?
    Abe Lincoln was one of the worst presidents in your book? Sounds like your a lunatic on Shutter Island or to be more politically correct, a redneck down south somewhere in hillbilly haven to think that.

    Who cares? on April 17, 2010 at 5:20 pm

      I didn’t really care for Carter and even worse than southern redneck, I’m a Northwest lefty.

      There is the argument that if Abe had handled things differently he could avoided the Civil War. Which in some eyes would make him the worst president. Personally I am a fan of the man, but the point is still the same. Who one person feels is a great man is another man’s scoundrel.

      Pete Bone on April 18, 2010 at 7:47 pm

You have to be kidding! Most of America would take President Bush back in a heartbeat over this clown. He is a disaster!

medvedfan on April 17, 2010 at 3:46 pm

It’s really too premature to say Obama is the worst president ever. (Or ever, really because it’s such a nebulous idea.)

I also don’t think most people would take Bush or Obama.

Pete Bone on April 17, 2010 at 4:19 pm

Don’t let the United States be involved in a war with Iran – unless there is a declaration of war from Congress. If we do get illegally involved in a war there will be letters and videos like the following (just substitute Iranian for Iraqi):

http://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/5966/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=2724

Ramjordan on April 17, 2010 at 5:41 pm

What are waiting for? Obama knows this, that is why nuclear terrorism is on top of his Agenda!

http://www.debka.com/article/8713/

What are waiting for? on April 17, 2010 at 5:47 pm

Haaaah, well, let the Americans come to Iran and we’ll behead them all with our great scimitars of doom. Americans are shit. Americans don’t know shit. We, the great sons and daughters of islam will kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill….and kill everyone on earth until no non-muslim person is left standing. We may be selfish to want to be the only ones alive but that is our destiny. We are killers but killers for a grand cause. And Obama? He is just a tool for us muslims to conquer america.

hehehe on April 17, 2010 at 8:55 pm

Another excellent post, Debbie.

JeffE on April 17, 2010 at 11:01 pm

From the article:

“…as well as others who come to my office to tell me because they can’t tell the President, who is inaccessible and who won’t tell the State Department because they don’t trust it.”

Nothing’s changed.

Shy Guy on April 18, 2010 at 12:26 am

Just for the record, just to give the devil his due, Franco did not jump when Hitler, may he rot in hell, pulled the string. Franco took in Jewish refugees and refused to deport the Jews of Spain.

Miranda Rose Smith on April 18, 2010 at 1:52 am

“You have to be kidding! Most of America would take President Bush back in a heartbeat over this clown. He is a disaster!

medvedfan on April 17, 2010 at 3:46 pm”

THAT MEMBER OF YALE’S SKULL AND BONES AND BOHEMIAN GROVE?! BUSH, WHOSE GRANDFATHER PRESCOTT (FORMER CT SENATOR) FINANCED HITLER?!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2004/sep/25/usa.secondworldwar

REALLY?!

Bob Porrazzo on April 18, 2010 at 6:38 am

One more thought about the LA Times link I agree with the tenor of the article with one exception; while the comments about FDR’s general political stance are incisive, I do have to disagree with the discussion about Del Vayo and the criticism of FDR’s not supporting the Loyalists in Spain. Del Vayo called himself a left-wing Socialist during the 1930s, and subsequently became associated with the Communist Party, being a regular correspondent for the Communist-front National Guardian in the 50s. He was probably a Communist in the 30s also, since his views were indistinguishable from those of the Communist Party.

While I do not defend Franco, there is no doubt that if the Loyalists had won in Spain, that country would have become the first European satellite of the Soviet Union (sic). While Roosevelt’s inaction in the late 30s in not combatting fascism, and during WW II in failing to combat the Holocaust or accepting refugees from Europe were disgraceful, I don’t really criticize him for not supporting the Loyalists. They have been the beneficiaries of a media whitewashing for decades. Just like Franco, the Loyalists conducted vicious atrocities, killing thousands and thousands of Spanish priests among other things. Stalin’s followers in Spain even killed other left-wing Loyalists who disagreed with the policies of the Soviet Union. The Catholic Church was naturally strongly opposed to the Loyalists, and with good reason, and exerted great pressure on Roosevelt not to intervene on their behalf.

Of course the Communists also purged Jewish individuals on a large basis both in Russia during most of the 20th century and in Eastern Europe after they overran Hungary, Rumania, Czechoslovakia, etc. Many people believe if Stalin had not have died in 1953 there would have been a new Holocaust in the Soviet Union (witness the repression after the so-called Doctor’s Plot), so inaction in Spain is one thing I don’t condemn Roosevelt for. The Communists certainly were not friends of Judaism.

The LA Times reporter may not have known this, as the general tone of his article and comments about Ickes are certainly very illuminating.

Little Al on April 18, 2010 at 7:53 am

With the Russians assisting Iran in nuclear technology, we should assist the formerly Russian enslaved European eastern block countries like Poland in obtaining nukes (Ballistic and Tactical). These former commie controlled countries would be way more apt to use them on Iran, compared to the U.S. sissy, bitch-slapped, cowardly response by BHO and his admin to the world dictators like ImaNutJob.

Jarhead on April 18, 2010 at 3:16 pm

    Yeah, I know arming Poland with nukes would never happen in the near future, but I’m sure they could ‘find’ some nukes that the Russians have ‘lost’ over the years. The Poles will need to find weapons some other way to defend themselves, because dumbass Omoron signed away our ability to arm Poland with missiles. The Russians (or Soviet Light) have the ability to back out of the U.S.- Russia nuclear weapons deal if we arm Poland.

    What will happen when we have other allies in Europe who would like to buy weapons from us and the commie-light Russian leaders object? Does BHO bow and submit to the Russians again? As has been written before, and I never get tired of, is:

    Somewhere in Kenya a village is missing its idiot.

    Jarhead on April 18, 2010 at 3:39 pm

RE the above post, just like Western leaders can be judged by how they treat Israel, they can be judged by how they treat Poland. Most don’t come out very well by either standard.

Little Al on April 18, 2010 at 3:42 pm

Speaking of “ImaNutJob”, did any “news” people in the United States cover Iran’s “Nuclear Summit?” (I only saw this on CBC — and it was also probably on BBC). Anyway, “ImaNutJob” held his own “Nuclear Summit” — I don’t know how many nations showed up — but that was Iran’s response to Obama’s “nuclear summit.” (Once again, the US is being mocked by Iran.)

J.S. on April 18, 2010 at 3:45 pm

Franco loved his Bubby-Abuelita. that’s why.

ZooKeeper on April 18, 2010 at 4:33 pm

Franco saved Spain from the most wretched Sovietization imaginable. He had a profound hatred of ‘isms’ and fanatics, especially Hitler. Hitler DESPERATELY wanted to cross Spain and get at Gibraltar and Franco would have gone to war against him if he had.

poetcomic1 on April 20, 2010 at 1:03 pm

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