My Flameouts Gets Updated!!!

Re(1): 'Been there, done that... a Fisking Zbigniew Brzezinski's Op Ed!!!', BoghieOnYourSix, Me
Re(2): 'Brzezinski, Iran, and the Wingnuts', If I Ran the Zoo, Tom Hilton

I was surfing my blogs stats in the TTLB Ecosystem and noted a new blog linking to a a specific post of mine - namely 'Been there, done that... a Fisking Zbigniew Brzezinski's Op Ed!!!'. How exciting!!! How wonderful!!!

But, Tom Hilton - the author - scudded me. Never heard the launch warning, and who cares. So many folks from the Left have launched and missed that one should not really worry. Oh, well. Got a dent in my head. Goes with the territory. Be a man about it, eh...

Even though I had perused the Internet, and Wikipedia entries on the Iran Hostage Crisis, Presidennt Carter and, in fact, Secretary Brzezinski it is apparent that I did not review the documentation close enough.

I think for the umpteenth time in his career, Secretary Brzezinski's doctrine and efforts became intermixed with the conflicted confusion of President Carter, Secretary Cyrus Vance, Secretary James Schlesinger, and the rest of that cabinet. I mixed them all together because it seemed laughable that strength could be found within that mess. I obviously didn't carefully read the biography - and what I read seemed to be the normal 'on the one hand, while on the other hand' thing. Regardless, 'Been there, done that... a Fisking Zbigniew Brzezinski's Op Ed!!!' now populates the first entry in the 'My Flameouts' list. Forever...

From Wikipedia - which seems to have a very fair entry on Zbigniew Brzezinski.

Iran

Facing a revolution, the Shah of Iran sought help from the United States. Iran occupied a strategic place in U.S. foreign policy toward the Middle East, acting as an island of stability, and a buffer against Soviet penetration into the region. He was pro-American, but domestically oppressive. The U.S. ambassador to Iran, William H. Sullivan, recalls that Brzezinski “repeatedly assured Pahlavi that the U.S. backed him fully," however these reassurances would not amount to substantive action on the part of the United States. On November 4th, 1978, Brzezinski called the Shah to tell him that the United States would "back him to the hilt." At the same time, certain high-level officials in the State Department decided that the Shah had to go, regardless of who replaced him. Brzezinski, and Energy Secretary James Schlesinger
(former Secretary of Defense under Ford), continued to advocate that the U.S. support the Shah militarily. Even in the final days of the revolution, when the Shah was considered doomed no matter what the outcome of the revolution came to be, Brzezinski still advocated a U.S. invasion to stabilize Iran. President Carter could not decide how to appropriately use force, opposed a U.S. coup, ordered the Constellation aircraft carrier to the Indian Ocean, but soon countermanded his order. A deal was worked out with the Iranian generals to shift support to a moderate government, but this plan fell apart when Khomeini and his followers swept the country, taking power 12 February 1979

With feckless and conflicted people all around him - to include the President - it seems as if Secretary Brzezinski did what he could in a bad situation. He even realized that the direction the Democratic Party was taking would lead it to become marginalized in American politics. That is what occurred with me. That is why I speak with this center-right voice.

P.S. I have seen RealPolitik spelled RealPolitic. I have used both spellings. I will use the 'k" variant in memory of this scudding...