Obama foreign policy failures
Our presumptuous President convinced his court of Democrat and RINO clowns to ratify the START II treaty this month, just one of several left-wing agenda items pushed through in the days before Christmas that will long degrade United States national security and international influence. He and his left-wing cronies, both Democrat and RINO, marked ratification as a victory for the US. But the reality is, this move is just one of many foreign policy blunders that have made us a laughing stock around the world.
The treaty was ratified by the lame-duck US Senate last week and received initial approval from Russia’s lower house of parliament a few days later. Under the terms of the agreement, the US will drastically reduce the number of nuclear weapons in its arsenal. But debate in the Russian parliament reveals that country will give up almost to comply with the treaty. In defending the treaty to his country’s legislature, Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov said, “We will not have to make any cuts to our strategic offensive weapons. But the Americans — they will indeed have to make some cuts.”
In Obama’s haste to secure a “foreign relations victory” to feather his cap, he apparently forgot the United States was not supposed to be the only party giving something up. The President’s eagerness to see his autograph on a piece of paper resulted in the diplomatic checkmate. Our Ivy-League-educated President apparently didn’t take the time to learn that Russia’s ICBM’s were already out of date and ready to be retired. He also didn’t expend the effort to learn our old Cold War nemesis doesn’t have the money to upgrade their outdated weapon systems. So the treaty calls for them to scrap weapons that were already scheduled to be scrapped and that the Russians could not afford to replace. So we give up viable weapons systems in exchange for the Russians throwing out scrap iron.
But there’s more…
Earlier this month, President Obama’s primary propaganda website America.gov claimed we are making Significant Progress in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The piece quotes the President saying, “It’s harder for them [Al Quaeda] to recruit; it’s harder for them to travel; it’s harder for them to train; it’s harder for them to plot and launch attacks.” From his assessment, one might expect things are improving in the terrorist stronghold. But it’s all a lie.
The Wall Street Journal has gotten hold of some internal United Nations maps that don’t exactly jive with Obama’s upbeat assessment of progress in the region. In fact, they paint a picture that shows the situation in the war-torn country worsening instead of improving. The maps show violence escalating in several parts of the country that were considered relatively safe, and show almost no areas where violence is subsiding. “The country as a whole is dramatically worse off than a year ago, both in terms of the insurgency’s geographical spread and its rate of attacks,” said Nic Lee, director of the Afghanistan NGO Safety Office. Apparently, administration propaganda isn’t telling the whole story.
After North Korea launched an artillery attack against our ally on their southern border, President Obama called on China to step in and stop the rogue nation that has grown exponentially bolder since the current President took office. But that’s a lot of faith to place in a country that’s been building a military to challenge ours. Just yesterday, Admiral Robert F. Willard told a Japanese newspaper that China is deploying a missile system capable of sinking our aircraft carriers. Defense analysts have stated the new missile system could force US carrier groups to stay farther away from China in the Pacific Ocean, making it more difficult to provide protection for our allies in the region.
Iran continues to develop its nuclear program in spite of the international sanctions President Obama continues to tout, even as the country murders dissidents and flexes its muscle stamping out pro-freedom activism in the terror-sponsoring nation. The most vocal enemy of the United States in the Western hemisphere, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, recently seized temporary (yeah right!) dictatorial powers just before opponents of the devout Socialist leader were set to play a greater role in the country’s government.
If, in the face of all this, Obama still lays claim to a “successful” foreign policy, one must wonder what he truly desires for the United States of America.
Tags: Obama, United States, Russia, START II, Treaty, Chavez, Ahmadinejad, Putin, Democrat, RINO, UN, United Nations
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Was the Deepwater Horizon rig attacked by North Korea?
by John Allison III, editor
I have to say, the thought crossed my mind that left-wing, enviro-wack jobs sabotaged the oil rig that blew up in the gulf the other day. We’ve had deep water oil rigs off the coast as long as I can remember and I’ve never heard of a catastrophe like this one. But even my right-wing, national security conscious mind never drifted to the possibility of sabotage by a foreign power.
Enviro-nut greens with the eco-terror group Environmental Liberation Front have previously set fire to Hummers on dealer lots, to a ski resort in Colorado, and to mansions under construction in Southern California. The millions of dollars in damage and harmful effects on the environment (I’m sure quite a bit of CO2 was released into the atmosphere) were inflicted to stop humans from negatively impacting nature?
It doesn’t make sense (but then what does any lefty do that makes any sense?) but it shows these liberal far-left loons are perfectly willing to destroy the environment in order to save it. So it was natural for my suspicions to track straight to the tree huggers when I first learned of the “accident.”
But today, this from the EU Times Online…
A grim report circulating in the Kremlin today written by Russia’s Northern Fleet is reporting that the United States has ordered a complete media blackout over North Korea’s torpedoing of the giant Deepwater Horizon oil platform owned by the World’s largest offshore drilling contractor Transocean that was built and financed by South Korea’s Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. Ltd., that has caused great loss of life, untold billions in economic damage to the South Korean economy, and an environmental catastrophe to the United States.
The article goes on to describe exactly how the Kremlin claims the communist North Koreans perpetrated this alleged act of war, with special forces suicide squads deployed from a cargo vessel that deviated from its planned route from Cuba to Venezuela.
Who would ever believe that a North Korean ship leaving a Cuban port on its way to Venezuela would attack us?
I mean, wasn’t Obama’s foreign policy going to destroy all the hatred in the hearts of our enemies? He practically ignored the North Korean belligerence last spring to entice crazy Kim Jong Il to be diplomatic. He took an anti-US book from Venezuelan American-hater President Hugo Chavez hoping to turn the hate filled heart of that dictator. And he lifted our 50-year-long travel ban to the island paradise and most desired vacation destination of Fidel Castro’s Cuba as evidence of our willingness to befriend our closest communist neighbor.
Yet, after all these olive branches to our bitter enemies, could it be that a North Korean vessel traveled from a Cuban port to attack us and then retreat to the refuge of Venezuela?
According to the EU Times article, the Russian report also describes a motive for the alleged attack.
Apparently, Russian Navy experts believe the most viable option for controlling the spill is to detonate a low-yield nuclear bomb. These experts believe the impending ecologic disaster could be averted or mitigated if President Obama will simply use “the nuclear option.”
Russian Navy atomic experts in these reports state that should Obama choose the “nuclear option” the most viable weapon at his disposal is the United States B83 (Mk-83) strategic thermonuclear bomb having a variable yield (Low Kiloton Range to 1,200 Kilotons) which with its 12 foot length and 18 inch diameter, and weighing just over 2,400 pounds, is readily able to be deployed and detonated by a remote controlled mini-sub.
This week opens the UN’s Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference, held every five years to evaluate international compliance with the treaty and to improve upon it. The article speculates this disaster and the upcoming conference place President Obama between a rock and a hard place.
If the Russians are right, and a nuclear bomb is the best way to control the spill, the President has a choice to make. Save the environment or save the Non-Proliferation Agreement.
If the Russian scientists are correct and a nuclear detonation could resolve the environmental crisis unfolding, thousands of miles of US coastland could be saved by an underwater nuclear detonation. But Obama recently stood before the world and said the US was pretty much never going to use nuclear weapons for pretty much any reason. His decision to denounce nuclear weapons in practically any instance but a direct nuclear attack on our country was designed to give the US the upper hand at the negotiations in the upcoming conference. But detonation of a nuclear device, even to control an environmental disaster, will basically undercut all his liberal idealistic offering of the proverbial olive branch might have achieved.
The use of a nuclear weapon to protect the US Gulf Coast from the onslaught of the leaking oil would offer a reason for every country operating offshore oil rigs an excuse for developing, testing, and possessing their own nuclear stockpiles. How could even the Left-wing loons call for a moratorium on the development of nuclear weapons?
After all, the purpose for their proliferation would no longer be for making war. Now everyone would need nukes to protect the environment!
So, if the Russians have it right, the North Koreans have forced the President to choose between two of the main columns that support Obama and the Democrats’ liberal platform, save the environment or save the Non-Proliferation Agreement. Choose one and destroy the other.
President Obama has been playing a high stakes game of chess since the bellicose Kim Jong Il began launching missiles into the Pacific last spring. Before the game even started, Obama virtually told the North Korean tyrant that we don’t really want to win. Thinking this would make Kim less aggressive and more open to dialogue and diplomacy, the President was playing to the inner good that all liberal idealists believe exists in every human being, even evil dictators like Kim.
No retaliation when North Korea launched the first missile. No display of force, no massing of US Navy ships in the Sea of Japan. Nothing.
Then last month, emboldened by the lack of response to its previous belligerence by the Obama administration and its neighbors to the South, North Korea torpedoed and sank a South Korean ship. The response?
Nothing.
Last month’s act of war by North Korea evinces the failure of Obama’s foreign policy. We can’t show Kim Jong Il enough love to entice him to reciprocate. With our every offer of peace, Kim and his country grow bolder and feel less inhibition to challenge us.
Still, an alleged report from the Russian Navy doesn’t prove anything. And I’m certainly not ready to definitively declare the veracity of the allegations. But the response by the administration doesn’t do much to convince anyone to doubt the report.
Obama’s first response was to order SWAT teams to “inspect” all the oil rigs in the Gulf. SWAT teams?
Special Weapons and Tactics teams…
Sounds a lot more like a defensive response, or at the very least, like he is expecting to find other rigs set up to blow. Remember, this is the first event of its type that I can recall in my 42 years on this Earth. SWAT teams don’t really seem like a natural response if this “accident” weren’t the result of foul play.
The EU Times Online article goes further to allege that President Obama has ordered a news blackout on the investigation. If so, suspicion grows.
Browsing mainstream media websites yields no mention of North Korean involvement in the event. Not even a mention of the Russian allegation on traditionally right wing news organizations like Drudge and Breitbart, where we would expect to see such stories posted.
Chairman and President of BP America, the owner of the well, Lamar McKay said on ABC’s This Week they believe the catastrophe was caused “by a failed piece of equipment.” That’s vague to say the least. BP contracted with Transocean, which owned and operated the rig. Transocean’s Safety Director Adrian Rose said shortly after the explosion, “There was undoubtedly some abnormal pressure buildup.” But Rose offered no other information on the possible cause.
But most interesting is not what’s in the news about the incident, but what we don’t see in the news. The following is the statement on the Transocean website regarding the “accident.”
On April 20, a fire and explosion occurred onboard our semisubmersible drilling rig Deepwater Horizon, working approximately 41 miles offshore Louisiana on Mississippi Canyon block 252. Of the 126-member crew, 115 were safely evacuated. Despite exhaustive rescue efforts, eleven crew members lost their lives, nine of which were Transocean employees. Our entire Transocean family has been saddened by this tragic event and our thoughts and prayers remain with all who have been affected by this horrible tragedy.
We’ve been hearing a lot about the 11 who died in the explosion, but nary a peep out of the 115 survivors. Doesn’t that sound odd?
I would expect the press to be beating down the doors of these guys (and gals maybe?) to get their story. Their silence, or lack of reporting of their stories, makes the possibility of an imposed blackout even more plausible.
When asked in a regular press briefing earlier this week, Press Secretary Robert Gibbs at first seemed unwilling to dismiss the idea that sabotage could be involved in the destruction of the rig. But when pressed, he refused to clarify his remarks and went so far as to shut the reporter’s questioning down.
Though I’m still not ready to swear the events unfolded as stated in the EU Times article; the increased belligerence by North Korea, the upcoming UN nuclear non-proliferation conference, the sending of SWAT teams to the remaining oil rigs, and the lack of expected related news stories make quite a string of coincidences to at least make the Russian Navy hypothesis seem plausible.
Tags: Deepwater Horizon, Environment, Nuclear Non-Proliferation, UN, North Korea, Cuba, Venezuela, Oil Spill, Oil Slick, BP, EU Times Online, News Blackout, Transocean
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Could we be headed for a 2nd Cold War?
by John Allison III, editor
At least that looks like a real possibility thanks to our imbecilic President’s idiocy on the foreign policy front.
It’s been no secret that Obama’s not-so-novel idea of loving our enemies so much that they beat their swords into plowshares hasn’t worked so well. (Of course after Jimmy Carter tried it in the seventies, you’d think even liberals would have expected less than ideal results.) This left wing loon of a chief executive has yet to achieve one positive result in our relationship with foreign powers.
In the early stages of his Presidential campaign, Obama told the Chicago Council on Global Affairs that “Many around the world are disappointed with our actions. And many in our own country have come to doubt either our wisdom or our capacity to shape events beyond our borders. Some have even suggested that America’s time has passed.”
That was in April 2007.
Before the North Koreans beat their chests as they launched missiles to test our mettle. Before Iran violently put down protesters seeking a more open and representative government. Before Libyan President crawled out of his tent to embrace the murderer of 270 passengers and crew aboard Pan Am flight 103 twenty one years earlier. Before Iran and North Korea openly defied American and UN warnings in their pursuit of nuclear weapons. Before scrapping a plan to deploy an anti-ballistic missile shield in Poland. Before Obama signed a new arms treaty that weakens our national security and that the Russians told us they would ignore at will. Before childishly snubbing the President of our only true, time-tested ally in the Middle East at the White House. And before today, when Russia announced they were working to build a nuclear reactor for Iran that would be completed by the end of this summer!
I doubt Jimmy Carter can claim so many foreign policy failures in his first 15 months as President!
We (conservatives) tried to warn the President that his proposed policy of appeasing our adversaries would only embolden them, diminish their respect for us, and weaken our national security. But he wouldn’t listen. In a style that made liberals proud, he sheepishly pursued a kindler, gentler approach to dealing with the belligerent bullies berating our country and way of life around the globe.
The failure of said policy is obvious.
In 1989, after nearly 45 years of sharing superpower status with the USSR, the US became the victor in the Cold War when the Berlin Wall came crashing down under the hammers of German citizens who had for so long remained separated the concrete and steel barrier that divided the East and West. Communist governments then fell in quick succession in the ensuing years all over the old Soviet bloc. Ronald Reagan, so despised by liberals in the US, had destroyed the only real challenge to American might.
The United States reigned supreme as the sole superpower at the end of the 20th century and former Cold War enemies were transforming their political and economic systems to become more like those that helped us achieve that status.
As the dust settled in 2001 after the terror attacks of 9/11, some predicted the end of US dominance had been brought about by a handful of rag tag terrorists who could handle the controls of a passenger jet. But then-President Bush marshaled American troops and citizens to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat and take the fight to the enemy.
Pride in our country took root once again and the enemy was quickly routed on the field of battle. Enemies of the US were awed by the destructive power of American will and might.
But the early successes in the war were soon overshadowed by anti-war activists like now-President Barack Hussein Obama. To be fair, Bush made mistakes in the conduct of the war. But liberal ideologues like our current Commander-in-Chief seized every opportunity to put success in Iraq and Afghanistan out of reach. Obama and his left wing loon friends consistently decried every Bush policy intended to help achieve victory against the terrorists who had struck the US homeland.
Now Obama and his America-hating advisers occupy 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. They control the switches that determine when, where, and how US power is wielded around the globe.
They told us once their ideas were put into play, our enemies would gain new respect for us. They told us their ideas would stop radical Muslims from strapping bombs to the chests of their children to blow away unsuspecting civilians. They told us a lot of things, but they were wrong.
Now, after months of watching third world tyrants back down the might US without any significant response, our old nemesis Russia has chosen to flex its muscle. First by seizing the momentum in the nuclear treaty negotiations, and now by openly defying US and UN demands that Iran give up their pursuit of a nuclear reactor capable of producing nuclear weapons. And don’t forget, earlier this month Russia let the world know they were sending $5 billion in arms to America’s arch-enemy in the Western hemisphere Venezuela.
Russian power is on the rise as our apologizing, bowing, appeasing President presents a kinder, gentler side of America to those who wish to destroy us in the world.
And this is only 15 months into Obama’s term. I can only imagine how much more damage the President can inflict over the next 33 months.
But make no mistake, Russia still longs for superpower status. And once they achieve it, as long as we too remain a superpower, we will find ourselves locked in the second Cold War.
Tags: Obama, Foreign Policy, Cold War, Venezuela, Iran, Nuclear Weapons, Terror, War on Terror, Liberals, Poland, START Treaty,
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Just in case anybody forgot about Obama’s foreign policy failures…
It’s sometimes easy to become distracted by President Barack Hussein Obama’s domestic attacks on our US Constitution, and overlook what horrendous effects his foreign policy failures have created. Here’s an article from Newsmax reporting on the fruits of President Barack Hussein Obama’s “We Just Wanna Be Friends” policy of dealing with Iran.
Iran Begins Production of Cruise Missiles
Sunday, 07 Mar 2010 05:09 PM
Iran announced Sunday that it has started a new production line of highly accurate, short range cruise missiles, which would add a new element to the country’s already imposing arsenal.
Gen. Ahmad Vahidi told Iranian state TV that the cruise missile, called Nasr 1, would be capable of destroying targets up to 3,000 tons in size.
The minister said the missile can be fired from ground-based launchers as well as ships, but would eventually be modified to be fired from helicopters and submarines.
Western powers are already concerned about Iran’s military capabilities, especially the implications of its nuclear program. The U.S. and some of its allies, as well as the International Atomic Energy Agency, fear Iran is trying to produce nuclear weapons, a charge Iran denies.
…More
It seems conservatives were correct (go figure!) when they predicted the President’s overtures would only embolden the terrorist leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Ahmadinejad: ‘Yep, I’m Nuclear’
by Ann Coulter at Human Events
The only man causing President Obama more headaches than Joe Biden these days is Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (who, coincidentally, was right after Biden on Obama’s short-list for V.P.)
Despite Obama’s personal magnetism, the Iranian president persists in moving like gangbusters to build nuclear weapons, leading to Ahmadinejad’s announcement last week that Iran is now a “nuclear state.”
Gee, that’s weird — because I remember being told in December 2007 that all 16 U.S. intelligence agencies had concluded that Iran had ceased nuclear weapons development as of 2003.
At the time of that leak, many of us recalled that the U.S. has the worst intelligence-gathering operations in the world. The Czechs, the French, the Italians — even the Iraqis (who were trained by the Soviets) — all have better intelligence.
…More
Once again, the US to the rescue…
After a year of listening to our President blame the United States for all the troubles in the world, a year of watching him bow and grovel at the feet of foreign potentates, a year of watching him embrace enemies of America like Hugo Chavez, a year of watching him destroy our way of life in the name of “fixing” it, I received an email with nothing but a link to the video below.
As you listen, think about the $100 million the United States immediately pledged to ease the suffering and help in reconstructing Haiti after the devastating earthquake that left the country in shambles. And ask yourself how much foreign aid the US received when hurricane Katrina destroyed New Orleans.
Almost 40 years ago, a respected Canadian recognized what our President and so many of his followers can’t seem to see. The United States has long been the most generous, most charitable of all the nations in the world.
The following is a recording of Tex Ritter reciting the remarks first uttered by Canadian broadcaster Gordon Sinclair on June 15, 1973. A time when anti-war sentiment ran high in the streets of America. When our sailors, soldiers, airmen, and Marines were spat upon when they returned from the jungles of Southeast Asia. Rampant inflation, rising debt, and political scandal tore at the fabric of American society.
The parallels of now and then make Sinclair’s words as appropriate today as they were in 1973. Our nation is locked in a prolonged war that has our nation divided along ideological lines. Over the past decade, floods, tornadoes, wildfires, and hurricanes have scarred our landscape, our cities, and our towns. The political crevasse separating the right and left has never been so wide, and so deep.
Liberals and conservatives will join in the Haitian relief efforts, donating time, money, and material to help rebuild a country in ruins. And we will once again heal from the wounds inflicted by foreign and domestic enemies of our way of life.
And, just like the 1980s, we’ll be stronger than ever.
For now, we pray for our own nation and that God will have mercy on those suffering in Haiti.
For those who have trouble loading videos, the text of Sinclair’s remarks follows.
“The United States dollar has taken another pounding on German, French, and British exchanges, hitting the lowest point ever known in West Germany. It has declined there by 41% since 1971 and this Canadian thinks it’s time to speak up for the Americans as the most generous and possibly the least appreciated people in all the Earth. “As long as 60 years ago, when I first started to read newspapers, I read of floods on the Yellow River and the Yangtze. Who rushed in with men and money to help? The Americans did, that’s who.
“They’ve helped control floods on the Nile, the Amazon, the Ganges, and the Niger. Today the rich bottomland of the Mississippi is underwater and no foreign land has sent a dollar to help. Germany, Japan, and to a lesser extent, Britain and Italy were lifted out of the debris of war by the Americans who poured in billions of dollars and forgave other billions in debts. None of those countries is paying even the interest on its remaining debts to the United States.
“When the franc was in danger of collapsing in 1956, it was the Americans who propped it up and their reward was to be insulted and swindled on the streets of Paris. I was there. I saw it.
“When distant cities were hit by earthquakes, it’s the United States that hurries in to help. Managua, Nicaragua was one of the most recent examples. So far this spring, 59 American communities have been flattened by tornadoes. Nobody has helped.
“The Marshall Plan, the Truman policies, all pumped billions upon billions into discouraged countries. And now newspapers in those countries are writing about the decadent, warmongering Americans. I’d like to see just one of those countries that is gloating over the erosion of the United States dollar build its own airplanes.
“Now c’mon, let’s hear it.
“Does any other country in the world have a plane to equal the Boeing jumbo jet, the Lockheed Tri-Star, or the Douglas 10. If so, why don’t they fly ’em? Why do all international lines except Russia fly American planes?
“Why does no other land on Earth consider putting a man, or a woman, on the moon?
“Talk about Japanese technocracy and you get radios. You talk about German technocracy and you get automobiles. You talk about American technocracy and you find men on the moon. Not once, but several times. And, safely home again.
“You talk about scandals and the Americans put theirs right in the store window for everybody to look at.
“Even the draft dodgers are not pursued and hounded. They’re right here on our streets in Toronto. Most of them, unless they’re breaking Canadian laws, are getting American dollars from Mom and Dad at home to spend here in Canada.
“When the Americans get out of this bind, as they will, who could blame them if they said, ‘The Hell with the rest of the world. Let someone else build or repair foreign dams, or design foreign buildings that won’t shake apart in earthquakes.’
“When the railways of France, Germany, and India were breaking down through age, it was the Americans who rebuilt them. When the Pennsylvania Railroad and the New York Central went broke, nobody loaned them an old caboose. Both are still broke.
“I can name you five-thousand times when the Americans raced to the help of other people in trouble. Can you name me even one time when someone else raced to the help of the Americans in trouble? I don’t think there was outside help even during the San Francisco earthquake.
“Our neighbors have faced it alone and I’m one Canadian who’s damned tired of hearing them kicked around.
“They will come out of this thing with their flag high and when they do, they’re entitled to thumb their nose at the lands that are gloating over their present troubles.
“I hope Canada is not one of these.
“And another thing. Recently the American Red Cross was told at its 48th annual meeting in New Orleans that it was broke. This year’s disasters, with the year less than half over, has taken it all and nobody, but nobody has helped!”
US Apologist Obama wins Nobel Prize
I think I’m going to be sick. Our Dear Leader has now been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
With peace in Afghanistan nowhere in sight, with American troops pulling out of Iraq as bombs continue to explode, with two of the world’s most roguish nations flexing their nuclear muscles, our President (whose policies encourage all of these threats and violence) receives this prize?
The Committee says Obama is this year’s winner because “for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.”
Here are some remarks I believe the Committee should have included when they announced this award:
For apologizing for everything America has done…
For ignoring those who died in pursuit of freedom in Iran…
For ignoring his commanders in the field who want more American troops to stem the violence in Afghanistan…
For embracing Socialist dictators like Chavez and Castro…
For refusing to pursue “victory” in the Afghan War…
For proclaiming”America is not a Christian nation”…
For encouraging Kim Jong Il and Ahmadinejad’s pursuit of nuclear weapons
For abandoning the Eastern European countries that formerly suffered as part of the Soviet Bloc…
Obama’s French Lesson
By Charles Krauthammer at Townhall.com
“President Obama, I support the Americans’ outstretched hand. But what did the international community gain from these offers of dialogue? Nothing.” — French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Sept. 24
WASHINGTON — When France chides you for appeasement, you know you’re scraping bottom. Just how low we’ve sunk was demonstrated by the Obama administration’s satisfaction when Russia’s president said of Iran, after meeting President Obama at the U.N., that “sanctions are seldom productive, but they are sometimes inevitable.”
You see? The Obama magic. Engagement works. Russia is on board. Except that, as The Washington Post inconveniently pointed out, President Dmitry Medvedev said the same thing a week earlier, and the real power in Russia, Vladimir Putin, had changed not at all in his opposition to additional sanctions. And just to make things clear, when Iran then brazenly test-fired offensive missiles, Russia reacted by declaring that this newest provocation did not warrant the imposition of tougher sanctions.
Do the tally. In return for selling out Poland and the Czech Republic by unilaterally abrogating a missile-defense security arrangement that Russia had demanded be abrogated, we get from Russia … what? An oblique hint, of possible support, for unspecified sanctions, grudgingly offered and of dubious authority — and, in any case, leading nowhere because the Chinese have remained resolute against any Security Council sanctions.
Confusing ends and means, the Obama administration strives mightily for shows of allied unity, good feeling and pious concern about Iran’s nuclear program — whereas the real objective is stopping that program. This feel-good posturing is worse than useless, because all the time spent achieving gestures is precious time granted Iran to finish its race to acquire the bomb.
…More
Surrendering U.S. Sovereignty at G-20 Summit
by Dick Morris and Eileen McGann at Townhall.com
While all eyes were on the rantings of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at the United Nations, the United States — under President Obama — was surrendering its economic sovereignty at the G-20 summit.
The result of this conclave, which France’s president Nicolas Sarkozy hailed as “revolutionary,” was that all the nations agreed to coordinate their economic policies and programs and to submit them to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for comment and approval. While the G-20 nations and the IMF are, for now, only going to use “moral suasion” on those nations found not to be in compliance, talk of sanctions looms on the horizon.
While the specific policies to which the U.S. committed itself (reducing the deficit and strengthening regulatory oversight of financial institutions) are laudable in themselves, the process and the precedent are frightening.
We are to subject our most basic national economic policies to the review of a group of nations that includes autocratic Russia, China and Saudi Arabia. Even though our gross domestic product is three times bigger than the second-largest economy (Japan) and equal to that of 13 of the G-20 nations combined, we are to sit politely by with our one vote and submit to the global consensus. Europe has five votes (Britain, France, Germany, Italy and the EU), while we have but one.
…More
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