We went to war against Iraq largely because a false meme was created that claimed that they had an ongoing nuclear weapons program. The false meme was largely created by people who held dual allegiances to Israel and the United States, and who suborned democratic processes here to push an agenda that has diminished our democracy's viability and vitality.
For over a generation, one Israeli politician or public figure after another has claimed that Iran is only months or a couple of years from becoming a nuclear power. The 2005 AIPAC conference had an entire multimedia interactive basement display devoted to illustrating how the Iranians would create an IRBM nuclear capability within the next 24 months. And this at a time when our failing, flailing Iraq campaign was costing us scores of deaths - and the Iraqi people several hundreds of deaths - per month.
This will be the Bartlett Club's first contentious set of presentations on Israel's role in our foreign policy since Joe Princiotta has been in charge of programming events and speakers there. It is also the first time since my friend for 37 years, Pat Abney, stepped down as head of the Bartlett Club.
Pat was always concerned that bringing up the subject of Israel's role in our foreign affairs, or Israel's militant Zionist expansionist colonialism in Palestine, at the Bartlett Club, might have an adverse impact on the Club, or on the Alaska Democratic Party.
Her concerns were not unwarranted.
The only time I ever walked out in anger at a Bartlett Club event was when Alaska AIPAC head David Gottstein accused the entire crew of the USS Liberty of suffering from some sort of delusional PTSD for their firm belief they had been intentionally attacked on June 8th, 1967.
David, who I otherwise respect, was one of the concern trolls who haunted Pat on the particular subject of Israel's role in our foreign affairs.
But the people who made these threats have a diminishing role in how the Democratic Party makes decisions in Alaska, or on how outside pressure can dictate who says what and how at Denny's on Bragaw on Thursdays at noon.
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