Kerry, Bush, and Zbig

John Kerry’s fellow member on the Council on Foreign Relations, Zbigniew Brzezinski, wrote in his 1997 book "The Grand Chessboard" that it would take something on the scale of Pearl Harbor to get the U.S. public to support a war in the energy-rich Middle East.

Here are some quotes:

"The public supported America’s engagement in World War II largely because of the shock effect of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor." (pg. 24-25)

"But the Eurasian Balkans are infinitely more important as a potential economic prize: an enormous concentration of natural gas and oil reserves is located in the region, in addition to important minerals, including gold." (pg. 124)

"It follows that America’s primary interest is to help ensure that no single power comes to control this geopolitical space and that the global community has unhindered financial and economic access to it." (pg. 148)

"Moreover, as America becomes an increasingly multicultural society, it may find it more difficult to fashion a consensus on foreign policy issues, except in the circumstances of a truly massive and widely perceived direct external threat." (pg. 211)

In addition to Kerry and Brzezinski, other members of the Council on Foreign Relations include George Herbert Walker Bush and many of George W. Bush’s senior career bureaucrats. As Bush comes under criticism for using 9-11 in his political ads, these CFR connections deserve closer scrutiny from the mainstream media this election season.