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Brit Hume Suggests That Diplomacy with Iran Is Impossible and Intervention by a Non-American Military Is Needed

Reported by Marie Therese - September 11, 2007 -

Yesterday FOX News anchor Brit Hume had an "exclusive" interview with Gen. David Petraeus and Iraq Ambassador Ryan Crocker. In other words, FOX News offered Petraeus and Crocker a cozy womb in which they could comfortably spout administration talking points secure in the knowledge that there would be no hardball questions from the interviewer. General Petraeus rolled out some fancy flow charts designed to justify his claims that there has been decided improvement militarily in Iraq. He claimed that Iraq is in the midst of an "ethno-sectarian competition for resources" that must play out and Petraeus clearly believes that American soldiers must stay there, being killed and wounded for God knows how many years, until the Iraqis calm down and decide how they want to structure their own government. Petraeus and later Ryan Crocker made sure to sprinkle the word "Al Qaeda" liberally throughout the discussion, despite the fact that bin Laden's group is a very minor player in the Iraqi conflict. With video.

The General went over his charts, including the one showing that the rate of sectarian violence and death from sectarian violence have decreased dramatically. Several independent organizations dispute his claims.

When listening to Petraeus or Crocker, one must always remember these words spoken by the true President of the United States, Dick Cheney, to Chris Wallace, January 14, 2007 on FOX News Sunday:

"The most dangerous blunder here would be if, in fact, we took all of that effort that's gone in to fighting the global war on terror and the great work that we have done in Pakistan and Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia and across the globe out there and saw it dissipated because the United States now decides that Iraq is too tough and we're going to pack it in and go home. And we leave high and dry those millions of people in their part of the world that have signed on in support of the U.S. or supported governments that are allied with the U.S. in this global conflict.

"This is an existential conflict. It is the kind of conflict that's going to drive our policy and our government for the next 20 or 30 or 40 years."

The National Security Network, an independent group of security analysts, has addressed the Petraeus report in the video below. In essence they state that the "report" is nothing more than statistics manipulated to achieve a predetermined political result, i.e., the prolonging of American presence in Iraq.

However, in addition to Petraeus' use of questionable statistical analysis, there is the larger question of Iran. Brit Hume used a portion of this interview to turn the discussion to Iraq's Shi'a neighbor.

It was the standard spin we've all heard before, the same kind of inflammatory rhetoric used to manipulate us into attacking Iraq.

Towards the end of the discussion, however, Brit Hume began asking leading questions, as though he was an attorney trying to slip something past the judge. Here is a transcript of the exchange, one I found very, very disturbing and possibly indicative of an incipient attack on Iran, possibly, as Hume suggested, by a non-American military force.

GEN. DAVID PETRAEUS, Commander of the Multi-National Force in Iraq: "So, Iran's role in Iraq is very destructive. It is something Iraqis certainly would hope would be much more of a normal role among countries, but one in - about which they have become very concerned in recent months as they, along with us, have learned the extent of Iranian involvement."

BRIT HUME: "Do the rules of engagement that you're operating under allow you to do what you think needs to be done to suppress this activity on the part of Iran or, perhaps, do you need assistance from military not under your command to do this?"

PETRAEUS: "Well, they allow us to do what we need to do with - inside Iraq."

HUME: "Right."

PETRAEUS: "Beyond this ..."

HUME: "Is that enough, in your view?"

PETRAEUS: "Well, that's what I'm responsible for and, again, when I have concerns about something beyond that, I take them, of course, to my boss, Admiral Fallon, who is the regional commander and, in fact, we have shared our concerns with him and with the chain of command and there's a pretty hard look ongoing at that particular situation."

HUME (slight pause, then careful choosing of words): "Um. That sounds pretty disturbing, Ambassador Crocker - um - that we are confronting with Iran now a situation where - um - I mean, it doesn't appear we have any diplomatic possibility there, do we, to suppress this activity by Iran? Or do we?"

RYAN CROCKER. U. S. Ambassador to Iraq: "Well, I've had a couple of meetings now with my Iranian counterpart in which we've laid out very clearly what our concerns are and said that what they need to do is align practice on the ground with their stated policy in support for a stable, democratic Iraq."

COMMENT

I couldn't shake the feeling that Brit Hume had another agenda that he was pushing during this segment. Knowing how closely he and FOX News are allied with the White House, I wondered if he was signaling that the Bush administration has no intention of pursuing any serious diplomatic effort with Iran and might, in fact, be close to allowing a "military not under [American] command" to strike at Iran.