Friday, September 24, 2010

US Security

During the primary it was clear to many of us that Obama would move for a radical change to the left, if elected. His phony campaign rhetoric directly contradicted his record (radical). But our gravest concern during the primary was that Obama was profoundly out of his league in the international arena and that if he were to be elected, this translated to a heightened security risk for the US.

To his credit, in adopting wholesale the Bush-Cheney domestic security apparatus Obama did the right thing.

It is with foreign security concerns that Obama has acted more or less in character. However, contrary to his harshest critics we think he may have learned a thing or two. It’s probably nuts to say this about the guy, way, way out on a limb, but heck, let’s take the fling.

We highlighted yesterday’s UN reaction to muslim-mongrel Ahmandinejad’s rant (love the leisure suit.) The better part of the body sat there and clapped. Our point was that this event will provide support for the many who have for so long looked to de-fund and then abolish the UN. I think most of us now can see why. Good.

Yet to many observers, even some Democrats, yesterday’s event blew a great big hole in Obama’s foreign strategy. Naturally most of us understand (the nursery crowd late learners) that to “reach out” to thugs is simply suicidal. And we all did see BO’s answer from Ahmandinejad’s pals. So critics figure Obama is now completely impotent in matters of security, as if yesterday’s reaction were the final spike in the casket.

But to those critics - not so fast. In recent blogs we praised the administration for tougher sanctions on Iran, sanctions that have teeth, something we know from reports of gasoline tanker off loadings. And these sanctions were set independently of the UN. So a good move by the US (and the EU, Australia and Canada). And threats of a military strike have been more frequent. While these two items may not have been BO’s idea, and we doubt they were, he is at the helm so he gets the (in this case) benefit of the doubt.

It is true that BO is addicted to world organizations. And it is true that his foreign policy distills down to this - downplay U.S. strength and exceptionalism, while promising not to act independently against despots without the approval of world governing bodies. Maybe. Or maybe BO’s not a complete fool after all. Maybe Ahmandinejad’s about to find that out the hard way.

Now that they’ve joined us, it’s too easy to join them - the crowd. It’s easy because there’s no courage in crowds, and this one’s hell bent to beat Obama to a pulp. He deserves it in matters domestic. He may not deserve in matters of the mid east.

Robert Craven

Thursday, September 23, 2010

Ahmadinejad's Sep/23/2010 Gift to the US

What exactly is Ahmadinejad (where do they get these names?) up to?

Background: He’s no buffoon. He’s smart. The WSJ’s Bret Stephens remarked after a press breakfast meeting with this guy that, “ Perhaps I haven't achieved the appropriate degree of jadedness, but my own impression of Ahmadinejad was that he was easily the smartest guy in the room. He mocked us in a way we scarcely had the wit to recognize. We belittle him at our peril.”

Last year we were pretty sure he was levering the West for handouts, in the fashion of Libya. It’s worked all over the globe. We were pretty sure too he was up to the old autocrat’s trick of create-an-enemy when things are tough at home. And for him, things are tough; he’s in a rolling run-in with the mullahs; they don’t like each other. And his economy is in the tank. So it all fits. But there must be something else.

We noted earlier that the unilateral sanctions (US, EU, Canada, Australia) combined with the now public threat of a strike might do the trick - enabling the masses (predictably, BO abandoned them last time). Certainly the sanctions have been effective, squeezing the Iranian economy.

But of course Ahmadinejad can’t cave in public. Thus, today’s rant was designed to acquire allies, in both the mid east and Asia, for his last run.

What shocked so many innocent types however was the applause as Ahmadinejad put America behind 9/11, or at least raised the real possibility. If folks were shocked it is only because they have never understood the UN, a place were petty henchmen and mass murderers gather as equals (one nation / one vote) with great democracies. It is what it has always been - a fraud. The UN notion of “sovereign equality” is a big joke. There is nothing “equal” about it.

Today’s rant then was a gift to those Americans who for years have known the UN in its present form is worse than useless, and who for years have called for an end to US funding; get the whole crowd out of NY; they can gather elsewhere.

Now, that is closer, much closer to becoming reality.

Robert Craven