“Pakistan urges ‘unconditional’ aid” according to Al-Jazeera, which apparently means a demand for little or no accounting of the monies given them because how can friends operate, except on “trust”.
The call came in a statement released by Asif Ali Zardari’s office on Tuesday, the day after he met Richard Holbrooke, the US special envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan, and Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff.
“Pakistan is committed in eliminating extremism from the society, for which it needs unconditional support by the international community in the fields of education, health, training and provision of equipment for fighting terrorism,” Zardari said in a statement released on Tuesday.
“Military action is only one aspect of the solution.”
The Associated Press described how the “trust” between the two nations was explainable in terms of the psychological mood to get the campaign against the Taliban and al-Qaeda going. The US delegation appeared to object, but they did not rebuke the Pakistanis openly.
Pakistani and U.S. officials emphasized the need for trust between their countries to counter the al-Qaida and the Taliban threat, even as Pakistan’s foreign minister complained Tuesday about American missile strikes on his nation’s soil.
U.S. envoy Richard Holbrooke and Adm. Mike Mullen of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff were visiting Pakistan on the heels of President Barack Obama’s announcement of plans to reinvigorate the war in Afghanistan by sending more troops to the region and boosting aid to Pakistan to help it stave off al-Qaida and Taliban-led militancy on its soil.
Pakistani leaders say they are happy about getting billions more in assistance, but Obama’s insistence that the money won’t come without conditions — no “blank check” — has rankled some here and underscored a trust deficit between the two camps.
“We can only work together if we respect each other and trust each other,” Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said during a joint news conference.
It was a sentiment echoed by Mullen, who said he was committed to improving the nations’ relationship to the point where there is a “surplus of trust.” … Asked about whether the U.S. could simply hand over Predator drones to the Pakistanis so they could carry out the strikes, Mullen did not directly answer, but said the Americans were eager to share counter-insurgency techniques and lessons with Pakistan.
Barack Obama is asking for a lot of favors behind the scenes these days. Stratfor says that President Obama, after getting almost nowhere with the European Allies, and carefully concealing the fact, is now hoping that Turkey will help him hold back Russia. It explains that despite the happy snaps, the Allies simply agreed not to bicker in public.
The reality, however, is that the meetings ended in apparent unity because the United States accepted European unwillingness to compromise on key issues. U.S. President Barack Obama wanted the week to appear successful, and therefore backed off on key issues; the Europeans did the same. Moreover, Obama appears to have set a process in motion that bypasses Europe to focus on his last stop: Turkey. … This was Obama’s first major international foray, and he could not let it end in acrimony or wind up being seen as unable to move the Europeans after running a campaign based on his ability to manage the Western coalition. It was important that he come home having reached consensus with the Europeans. Backing off on key economic and military demands gave him that “consensus.” …
When Obama looks at the chessboard, the key emerging challenge remains Russia. … Turkey is the key to all of this. If Ankara collaborates with Russia, Georgia’s position is precarious and Azerbaijan’s route to Europe is blocked. … From the American point of view, Europe is a lost cause since internally it cannot find a common position and its heavyweights are bound by their relationship with Russia. … The key to sustaining the U.S.-German alliance is reducing Germany’s dependence on Russian natural gas and putting Russia on the defensive rather than the offensive. The key to that now is Turkey, since it is one of the only routes energy from new sources can cross to get to Europe from the Middle East, Central Asia or the Caucasus. … Therefore, having sat through fruitless meetings with the Europeans, Obama chose not to cause a pointless confrontation with a Europe that is out of options. Instead, Obama completed his trip by going to Turkey to discuss what the treaty with Armenia means and to try to convince the Turks to play for high stakes by challenging Russia in the Caucasus, rather than playing Russia’s junior partner.
Stratfor basically argues that Obama has given up, for the moment on the Europeans, and is playing the long shot with Turkey in an attempt to contain Russia. However, the President is carefully concealing from his empty hand from the domestic audience and is continuing to pretend to be the transcendant international superstar. But behind the scenes the reality is rather more depressing. Obama may be operating from a position of weakness both in Afghanistan and in the Caucasus and is using up US diplomatic and financial credit to get allies to do his bidding. Neither Pakistan nor Turkey will come cheap; and it is anybody’s guess whether the US taxpayer will get value for money.
There is ultimately going to be a price to pay for accepting a decline in US strategic strength — environmental regulations, disincentive to nuclear power, the nationalization of large swathes of the economy, a reduction in US combat systems that are the hallmark of BHO’s policies — in exchange for domestic entitlement programs and photo opportunities. For the moment, the deficit is being met by masking the shortfall with fake prestige; a political bubble. But like all bubbles, it may pop at the first real challenge. And then to the economic deficit one must add strategic debt.
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70 Comments
1. Lifeofthemind:Pakistan’s Zardari asks for “Trust” that he can not offer himself. The problem is that within Islam there is a level of trust absolutely mandated that makes it a given that a crime committed against an insider is worse than a crime committed against a non-Moslem and therefore it is always permissible on some level to view the outsider as more likely to hold you to an Unfair or purely logical standard. Indeed the earthly standards of logic and proof are inherently profane and less worthy than the inclusive web of trust that exist for, and only for, members of the Ummah. Justice, the holding of people to standards, is exercised by God and his representatives. Ordinary Moslems do not have that authority over other Moslems but they do have authority over unbelievers, and any putative Moslem who can be shown to be a heretic is by definition fair game. This creates a system in which everyone who thinks that he his a good Moslem has no obligations to non-Moslems and every Moslem feels that they can arrogate unto themselves almost God like authority over unbelievers and heretics.
We in the outside, that is to say the civilized, world assume with our arrogance that a system of standards and proofs, accountability and performance, are natural givens. The entire 3,000 year process of trial and error by which this complicated edifice was built is simply assumed away as if it boils down to a simply matter of technique or a set of calculations and parlor game tricks that can be taught to anyone in four semesters at an engineering or business school.
Apr 7, 2009 - 4:16 am 2. Habu:“He made him an offer he couldn’t refuse”
“He put a gun to his head and said either his brains or his signature would be on the contract” Micheal Corleone explaining to Kay some of the finer points of negotiation.
Pakistsan, as well as the rest of the world has now taken obama’s measure. They have read our blogs, they know his agenda is too large, that we are broke, and that he is dealing from a position of weakness the world has not seen the US in since before WWII. Further obama has now cut from defense the airborn laser and the missle defense, while getting nothing in return.
Ths man-boy is actively sabotaging the United States national security. Home Land Security should raise the threat level to the top of the scale simply because of obama.
Pakistan should have a gun put to it’s head given their absurd request for aid unchecked.
“Trust us”…yeah
Our intelligence has already uncoverd the depth of Pakistani trust through the treachery of the ISI.
We need to encourage India, if need be through an operation similar to the forgery by British agent Ivar Bryce,of a fake South American map outlining what Hitler’s plans were for that continent. Bryce worked for William Stephenson (who Ian Fleming model Bond, James Bond after) who had been given the mission: Provoke America to go to war with Germany. Well we need to provoke India to take out Pakistan.
The map aided FDR in his attempt to get us engaged in the war but did not have full effect until 12/7/1941. It did mute for a considerable time the anti war American Firsters, a Pro German movement.
Pakistan is another rogue nation and must be dealt with with a gun at it’s head, not a sugar bowl of weaponry and money…all to go unaccounted for. Sign the contract Pakistan, or else.
Apr 7, 2009 - 4:31 am 3. Habu:Taqfir is a form of real terrorist techniques, cells and social deception. Taqfir allows Muslims to immitate the ways of the West in order to undermine and infiltrae the society to set up cells and conduct terrorism. It is what was practiced by the 9-11 Islams.
Pakistan is now in full military and diplomatic taqfir mode..fool me once…
Apr 7, 2009 - 4:48 am 4. bob1:Yep, some of those hijackers were fine folks, lived right next door. Waved howdy every day, and then…they were gone one day, and a little later turned up at the World Trade Center.
Apr 7, 2009 - 5:16 am 5. Neil Craig:“When Obama looks at the chessboard, the key emerging challenge remains Russia.”
This presupposes that Russia is challenging any US interest. But America’s interests in the Caucausus are merely to challenge Russia for the sake of doing so. Thus the US supported Goergia’s attempted genocide in Ossetia purely to have Georgia as a piece in play & is now doing the same in Turkey Russia may be a rising economic power, though not as fast as China but it is not challenging any US or indeed European interest – they are too keen to sell gas to us.
Such actions may persuade it to.
Apr 7, 2009 - 5:18 am 6. Lifeofthemind:For 8 months I have worried about our visitors from the Lubyanka. Are they doing OK, still employed, doing the same shift changes? When they left us after the Georgian War without even saying goodbye I was hurt.
Apr 7, 2009 - 5:36 am 7. Willie G:I just had this thought – BHO is reprising the role of the sheriff in “Blazing Saddles” where he jumps up on the stage, points a gun at his head and says “Put the guns down or…..” Remember?
Sometimes, truth is stranger than fiction.
Apr 7, 2009 - 5:41 am 8. michael hoskins:I will not post.
I will not post.
I will not post.
I will do my job.
I will do my job.
oh hell.
See LOTM at 1. We continue to play defense to Islam’s assaults. We must go to offense. We must start an all out propaganda attack on Islam. At first there will be a lot of so called rage…but no one can sustain the level of emotion required for a mob that long. Keep pinging. Keep pointing out Islam’s faults. Keep on keeping on. Wear them out. Then, the words will begin to sink in.
It is a long war.
Apr 7, 2009 - 5:42 am 9. Joshua:I’ll say this for Mr. Zardari: He’s done his homework. Not that there was much of it to do in this case, mind you. All he had to do was assess (1) his own country’s (grim) situation, (2) Obama’s lack of success in drumming up support for his foreign policy agenda in Europe and (3) the way Obama and his predecessor have handled the U.S. financial crisis, and the logical strategy to pursue became stunningly obvious: Simply portray his own corrupt, two-faced, up-to-its-neck-in-Islamic-supremacism-and-terrorism shambles of a nation-state as, you guessed it, Too Big To Fail (TM).
Apr 7, 2009 - 5:49 am 10. Triton'sPolarTiger:@6 LotM:
I reckon they all went on vacation when things over there cooled down… So now vacation’s over, I suppose…
Triton
Apr 7, 2009 - 6:05 am 11. Brock:This is depressing. I knew the Euros wouldn’t muster, but the Obama Adminstration’s preference for appearance over substance will lead us nowhere. The greatest danger in the world is the ability to fool yourself into believing what’s false is true; not because it’s reasonably believable but because it’s highly desirable.
Moreover, it’s not entirely Obama at fault here. He’s just one man; we elected him. His problems are America’s problems embodied.
Russia is determined to reestablish its Empire in the old Soviet territories, and (in the short term) it looks likely to succeed. It’s already made Ukraine and Germany client states again through control over the energy supply. The other states in the region are too weak to oppose them until you reach Ankara, regardless of how brave the Poles and Czechs are in speaking truth to power. In the long run Russia’s coming demographic collapse will bring it all down around their ears, but goodness knows how much damage they’ll do in the mean time.
Apr 7, 2009 - 6:06 am 12. myna:Wretchard,
Do you have thoughts about the stolen Cessna plane from Canada? Do you think there is an eery similarity on the Bonjika terror dry-run? Do you think the FBI is pursuing this angle?
Apr 7, 2009 - 6:22 am 13. Habu:8. michael hoskins:
I admire your pluck in doing what was right..posting !
One observation.
“We must start an all out propaganda attack on Islam”
I would say it doesn’t need to be a propaganda campaign. If our leaders would simply tell the truth about Islam it would be very effective.
Islam and Christianity are immiscible. Always have been, always will be. We will be at war with them to outrance.
Apr 7, 2009 - 6:35 am 14. Habu:11. Brock:
I like your evaluation of the Sov’s attempting to reestablish hegemony over their former empire.
One of my points yesterday for a return to a bipolar/now tripolar world was to allow the Sov’s and ChiComs to have their way with countries that are irritants to them
One divergent point I have is this:
Moreover, it’s not entirely Obama at fault here. He’s just one man; we elected him. His problems are America’s problems embodied
He’s is one man, THE MOST POWERFUL MAN IN THE WORLD, and he’s done nothing,nada,zip, to strenghten the US. He’s poured gasoline on every problem we have, he’s lied flagrantly about transperency, hired highly suspect people to run the US and in general just blown off all his campaign promises.
He’s a dangerous man to have in the W.H. The world smell weakness and with him it’s a heavily gladular thing. I’m surprise his dogs don’t bite him daily. The world leaders embraced him to a small degree only because he’s one of them..a socialist. The Euro trash really liked him for the same reason.
Apr 7, 2009 - 6:49 am 15. Lifeofthemind:Triton’sPolarTiger,
Possibly this could be a leading indicator that something big is planned to happen.
My WAG prediction is that the Ukraine goes down in July and at the same time there is a serious challenge to US Navy transit through the Straits of Hormuz.
Habu,
Apr 7, 2009 - 7:05 am 16. Lifeofthemind:Truth is the best propaganda.
Habu,
Apr 7, 2009 - 7:12 am 17. F:What dog? That’s another promise in vapor lock. Has he ever owned a pet? Has he ever owned a car? He didn’t have the credit to even rent one how recently? It is as likely that he can avoid catastrophe as it is that we all can win the lottery. He is such a thin veneer that it would not shock me if a theatrical agent repossessed his children.
Habu @ #14:
I won’t dispute what you say, but I’d like to pose an alternative to your last point: the Euro trash do not like him because he is a socialist as much as because they could see he weakens the US. And they like a weakened US. That’s my take on their reaction, but it might include a little of the “support-a-fellow-traveler” mentality too.
I very much share the commentariat’s trepidation above: Obama has now shown his weakness and it’s only a matter of time before an upstart nation or organization (i.e., Kim Jong Il or Osama) decides to make their bones. If he fails that test (do any of us doubt that?) the world will be less safe for us and for Europe. At that point, the folks who stiffed Obama at the G-20 summit might change their tune. Not a rosy picture.
I like the “encourage India” option. We might also think about an “encourage Colombia” option for a part of the world this administration seems to have just written off. F
Apr 7, 2009 - 7:24 am 18. steveaz:Thanks for this post, Richard. It really clarifies things for me.
I see now that we’re being mugged, plain and simple. There’s a gun in our back, and its holder wants our cash, or else – no questions asked.
It may be, the bursting of the bubble and Bush’s raid on the treasury with TARP1 were actually informed moves: today, there’s no more juice left to squeeze out of America’s turnip.
Once upon a time, a UN functionary called the US “stingy.” We are in a good position today to show him the real meaning of the word.
Apr 7, 2009 - 7:29 am 19. tomw:LOTM #1:
“Ordinary Moslems do not have that authority over other Moslems but they do have authority over unbelievers, and any putative Moslem who can be shown to be a heretic is by definition fair game.”
I have known “Christians” who worked in the same way, the mechanic that replaced perfectly good parts, overcharged for labor, and then laughed because the person was not overtly “Christian”[read:specific sect here]. It is called hypocrisy, and absolutely breaks the Golden Rule. By my standards, anyway.
Apr 7, 2009 - 7:49 am 20. Habu:tom
17. F:
Good alternate observation. I predicated mine on the fact that we have provided them with a security unbrella so they could work 35 hour weeks and have a months paid vacation. They see him leading the US to the same lame habits, and they know it won’t take much given the gross overweight tonnage Americans are sporting around their midsections and their almost total ignorance of the subjects we talk about here…but they can tell you all day about American Idol. We are so ripe to become a third rate country it’s so, so European.
Well after writing all that I gotta say we’re sitting around the same campfire sharing the same thoughts. Pass the whiskey.
Apr 7, 2009 - 7:53 am 21. buddy larsen:Neil Craig/5; if I may point out, you have forgotten to write “South” in front of “Ossetia”. Is neccessary to properly name new province but is needing one more winter playfully closing westbound pipeline valves first, I would imagine Mr Andrei Illarionov would agree.
Apr 7, 2009 - 8:06 am 22. Alexis:Whenever someone brings up the topic of trust, I make sure I distrust that person. Always. The only people who ask “Why don’t you trust me?” are enemies. And now Pakistan is asking for a black check. It looks to me that the Pakistani government is seeking to poke President Obama in the eye.
Note to President Obama: Pakistan is dissing you. What are you going to do about it?
Apr 7, 2009 - 8:07 am 23. downtowndubai:hey
first time i ever heard of ass-stif zardari was at the dubai polo club which he helped establish in the late seventies. the urban legend at the time went something like…
”while zardo was in London doing the horizontal mombo with his main squeeze… ms. bhutto, he decided to roll over to Guards polo club and hang loose. members of the dubai royal family happen to be in london the next week and while at Guards, a friendly Brit polo patron happen to comment it was great having another royal visit to Guards…why just last week Sh. Asif Zardari was around talking big deals for polo ponys and getting the red carpet treatment around London for a 5 day period.”
lets not forget folks that z and Ms. B are still up on financial fraud charges in Swiss based on defense contract kick backs in peaceful pakistan. he might even have a fellony rap waiting for him if he ever visits our neutral ”nazi loving” pals.
consulted with USAID 1987-1990. Uncle Sap that has dropped around 6 billion every five years on P-stan since the year one. results, come on…this a place that in 1988 actually sent back to D.C.25 mmillion in aid for power generation projects because the government couldn’t decide which band of asshats would get the goodies.
good food, great polo, amazing scenery, but Pakistan is and always will be a flaming asshole and a failed state.
and yea…i have the T shirt.
Apr 7, 2009 - 8:24 am 24. Habu:Defense cuts deepen old wounds…POLITICO
It took a while for the magnitude of the cuts to sink in, but once it did, the ritualistic wailing from congressional leaders and defense contractors that always accompanies Pentagon budget-slashing began with unprecedented fury.
And that’s because the cuts proposed Monday by Defense Secretary Robert Gates — axing six major defense weapons systems, including missile programs, helicopters, fighter jets and a communications satellite — were themselves unprecedented. Or to borrow an Obama term, audacious.
Tell me is Robt Gates the prototypical Washington whore or what?
more
Apr 7, 2009 - 8:25 am 25. Unsk:http://tinyurl.com/cldvgc
Zardari has just lied to our face. This is not even good taqfir. We know he won’t/can’t and probably doesn’t want to deliver the goods he promises. In reality, Pakistan has just given us the middle finger salute.
Zardari request really reveals that he and his cohorts really have no interests in fighting the Taliban or Al Qaeda. It’s just a bad stick-up job. As an operating position, we should consider Pakistan from this point onward highly unreliable at best, at worst, lost.
There should be penalties for such behavior. If we had a real American Patriot in the White House, we could opt to respond in kind. We could massively increase our UAV attacks. We could threaten to give India missile defense and other advanced military hardware to tip the balance completely in India’s favor. We could do a lot of things. But we won’t because we have O at the helm.
Many commenters write as if O really wants to further America’s interests, though he only wants further America’s interests by using only those tools found in the pacifist/leftist toolbox. O feints so often, I ‘m confused at times about what O wants beyond the obvious takedown of America’s stature and power. When the terrorist attacks come with greater and greater frequency and lethality, then what? At some point, will O really defend America’s interests or is this just another move toward chaos and eventual coup?
Apr 7, 2009 - 8:35 am 26. Jamie Irons:Alexis,
Very old Jewish joke, which I first learned from my father-in-law (he and I are both Jewish):
Q.
How do you know when not to trust a Jewish businessman?
A.
When he says “Trust me.”
Jamie Irons
Apr 7, 2009 - 8:43 am 27. veracious:tomw,
Islam teaches that it is perfectly okay and expected to lie, steal and rape non-Moslems. Hopefully you won’t have to actually experience that small variance from Jesus Christ. In fact, Mohammad it’s prophet gave the infidels one of three options:
1) convert to Islam
2) accept Sharia law (allow it to rule your land)
3) have your head cut off
I can’t believe how few people have seen fit to study this religion by what it actually says. Sooooo asleep….
Apr 7, 2009 - 8:52 am 28. Steve J. Nelson:Wretchard, why do you quote Bzrezinskite old fart Cold Warrior nonsense from George Friedman and co. at Stratfor.
Contain Russia from doing what, exactly? Invading Ukraine? Why do that when the eastern part and Crimea may VOTE for an anschluss years from now? Cut off the gas to Europe? Why? Do Russians not like steady income, and are they not justifiably ticked off when Ukrainian politicians and oligarchs steal the same gas bound for Germany and insist that they get it for half the price the Germans pay or whine that they are victims of energy imperialism if not?
I know, I know, Yuschenko is a freedom loving pro-Westerner, and that Timoshenko was also said to be the same until the lady PM turned on her President and cut a deal with the Russians. Calling Ukraine a “Russian client state” is like calling Mexico the same for the U.S. Not quite true.
Apr 7, 2009 - 8:58 am 29. michael hoskins:tomw. Your point? You are making the same lame excuse for doing nothing that many others are…
However, failure to agree with Islam cost me my head, failure to agree with a Christian Hypocrits cost me a few bucks, that may be recoverable.
Hypocracy is a human condition. Christianity at least tries to do something about it.
Someone has named your type of blindness, I don’t remember…but get a grip. Islam wants to rape the women in your life, extract your wealth and then lop off your head. Wake up.
Apr 7, 2009 - 9:23 am 30. MAS1916:Unconditional aid.. isn’t that what AIG received? Look what happened there.
This is what happens when Democrats run the show. Pakistan will take taxpayer money and it will come around – perhaps horribly – to bite us.
Apr 7, 2009 - 10:13 am 31. buddy larsen:1) Ukraine’s discount is easement access & rent on the Russian pipeline that transits across Ukraine & allows Russia to get gas into Europe. It’s a negotiated contract and not based on “whining” at all. “Whine” is a word that crops up repeatedly when pro-Kremlin apologists characterize victims of Kremlin aggression. It’s to sneer at someone bleeding after you shoot him. “Ha, Look at the dog whine and bleed!”
2) Ukrainian “Blues”, the Russian-speakers of Kiev and Timoshenko’s constituency, are, according to my Kiev contacts, getting less enthusiastic by the day about re-entering the Federation. The re-sovietization is making them think twice. See below point (4).
3) And besides, are the “Oranges” to be dismissed so easily (and venomously)? Just look away? Anyone who mentions them is an “old fart cold warrior”? There’s no old fart cold warriors scheming (and disposing of dissidents, unlike here in USA) from the Kremlin?
4) The Kremlin premise that Ukraine is a loose-cannon “freedom-lover” aggravating a “frozen conflict” on Russia’s border is pretty goddamn thin soup coming from the party mentality that saw nothing wrong with creating the Holodomor, which, still in Ukraine’s living memory, accounts for at least an element of the pro-westernism that Kremlin pretends is just silly consumerist wanna-be nonsense.
Apr 7, 2009 - 10:16 am 32. buddy larsen:We may not be able anymore to do much about it, but at least we can try to not pretend it’s justified or merely a minor trifle far away.
Apr 7, 2009 - 10:26 am 33. Tony:/sarc on
SecState Clinton, in these troubling times, is facing head-on the strategic threats facing the world. The Obama Administration is calling for increased protection of the world’s polar region. From the Russian military, their Navy? Hell no, from tourists and cruise ships, you fool!
“With the collapse of an ice bridge… we are reminded that global warming has already had on our planet, and we have no time to lose in tackling this crisis,” SecState Clinton said.
/sarc off
I still don’t see how Obama’s reducing the troops augmentation in Afghanistan by one-third (compared to last Fall’s projection of 30,000 additional troops at this time) counts as a bold new strengthening of our position. Oh, and that sacred mission to “Get Osama” that was the nadir of Bush’s abject failure in his war on terrorism (ooops, sarc again), well, getting that old geezer is no longer a priority for Obama.
Obama would like a nice, clean war like Operation Desert Fox and our attacks on Serbia. Not only does nothing really happen, and we have no casualties, but you get to burn up hundreds of those evil Cruise missiles so they can’t do any harm in the future. (sarc again)
I love (sarc) the WaPo headline today: Defense budget would take aim at real enemies. Now, let’s hope the Chinese stop buying nuclear subs and invest their vastly expanding military expenditures in IED’s and suicide bombers. We’ll be all set for them.
The funniest thing of all – the idea of turning Predators and Reapers over to the Pakistanis. Yeh, sher.
/sarc off
Apr 7, 2009 - 10:26 am 34. Triton'sPolarTiger:@19 tomw
““Ordinary Moslems do not have that authority over other Moslems but they do have authority over unbelievers, and any putative Moslem who can be shown to be a heretic is by definition fair game.”
I have known “Christians” who worked in the same way, the mechanic that replaced perfectly good parts, overcharged for labor, and then laughed because the person was not overtly “Christian”[read:specific sect here]. It is called hypocrisy, and absolutely breaks the Golden Rule. By my standards, anyway.”
Well, I’d define it as theft, myself… and yes, to claim to be a Christian while dealing with your fellow man in a decidedly un-christian manner is indeed hypocritical.
The comparison breaks down, however, when you consider the fact that what LotM asserts about Islam is correct, and decidedly at odds with New Testament Christianity. The adherent of Islam is given wide latitude to do violence to apostates and non-believers, whereas the New Testament believer is admonished by Christ Himself to “let he who is without sin cast the first stone.” Practicing christians are deeply aware of their own failings, i.e. their own need for forgiveness, and hence don’t generally go about cheating “others” because of some notion that God permits it.
Muslims, on the other hand, can be considered hypocrites when, confronted by an infidel such as I, failing to remove my head.
To put the cookies on the bottom shelf, the muslim who smites a muslim apostate does good in the eyes of Allah and is, therefore, not a hypocrite. The christian who “smites” a christian apostate does evil in the eyes of I AM, and is a hypocrite.
The comparison is invalid.
(And oh, while I’m at it, Islam and its practices are an abomination before I AM. Believing as I do that hell is a literal place, I have no doubt that Mohammed is broiling away at this very moment.)
Apr 7, 2009 - 10:27 am 35. Habu:Harvest of Sorrow by Robert Conquest (Standford) is the best read on the Holodomor. I highly recommend it.
Apr 7, 2009 - 10:29 am 36. buckets:Alexis @ 22,
I agree completely. It’s the same thing when someone says “I’m not an idiot.” I always found that the need to explicitly deny something like that (untrustworthy) indicates there were well-founded reasons not to trust that person in the first place.
On that note, Obama recently:
PRESIDENT Obama added a line at the last minute that wasn’t in the prepared text of his nuclear-disarmament speech in Prague: “I’m not naive.”
Apr 7, 2009 - 10:31 am 37. Triton'sPolarTiger:@35 buckets
Exactly!
Apr 7, 2009 - 10:34 am 38. buddy larsen:…and as far as comparing Russia-to-Ukraine as USA-to-Mexico, that’s just utter nonsense and an insult to the plain common sense of the guests here.
To make that analogy apt, USA would have to bloodily invade Guatamala, turn savage paramilitaries loose on the people outside the military battlezone, annex a third of the nation, set up SS21 batteries aimed at the capital Guatamala City, and begin an active subversion, propaganda, and cold war campaign aimed at annexing Mexico into the USA.
Apr 7, 2009 - 10:40 am 39. joe buzz:Had the troubled turk (Adam Leon) aka Yavuz Berke’s flight south been a test run, he would have overflown a population center, I suspect. Does anyone know if he flew slightly upwind of any? He has admitted to wanting to have been shot down. I hope the FBI has someone good at interviews chatting with him now.
Apr 7, 2009 - 10:46 am 40. whiskey:Neil and Steve –
Russia is our enemy, one of our greatest, for the simple reason of gas and oil prices.
Russia, regardless of the leader, MUST HAVE sky-high oil and gas prices to pay their massive goon patronage regime that kills reporters in Moscow Apartment elevators, throws them from windows, or poisons exiles in London with Polonium 210 tea. Such men do not come cheap, and must be paid.
And for the rest of the population, Russia only has oil and gas. That’s it. Either a populist revolt or revolt of the unpaid thugs is a mortal threat to whoever rules in Russia.
Thus they MUST HAVE EXPENSIVE OIL.
They aim to get oil sky-high by aiding Iran’s nukes.
After Beslan, Putin made a “deal” with both AQ and Iran. He’d aid both, and has, extensively, in return for their giving up aid to the Chechens and ratting them out which they did. Putin crushed the Chechens by killing another 200,000 or so, with a proxy army of Chechens, and ruthlessly killing all the former leaders who did not take his deal. Enabled by AQ and Iranian intel.
This is why, despite the long-term dangers of an Iranian bomb, Russia has helped Iran go nuclear.
Russia frankly longs for the day when Iran or Pakistan or both nuke America. That allows Russia to sit on the sidelines as America and Muslims fight. It’s “the Last Man Standing” or “Red Harvest” or “Yojimbo” (same story) strategy which I’ve blogged about.
Russia is collapsing demographically and culturally. Russian leaders operate as if they still have millions of men at their command as in 1944. When they have pitifully few. But they don’t have to be great, just the last man standing if America and Islam fight. Which they are doing their best to provoke.
Obama is both weak, and deceptive, but his backers have the fantasy that the Yuppie/SWPL/Feminized/anti-White Guy stuff they traffic in, the sort of Yuppie Sneer combined with various Rev. Wright toxic sentiments and feminized attitudes towards war, violence, and so on will prevail.
This is by no means limited to Liberals, and Leftists. Paleocons too have stupid fantasies about how America can sit isolated in the world, by pretending North Korea will NEVER get it’s ICBMs working.
The day after North Korea tests it’s latest ICBMs, Obama promises in so many words no Missile Defense.
Because Missile Defense means less power for feminists, women in general, the View, Oprah, Ellen, the Seinfeld Generation, Ipod toting yuppies, SWPL, and so on, and more power in all areas to defense contractors and the military.
You wonder WHY Obama is so weak, and why no one calls him on it?
Because his backers would rather see America nuked than share a scrap of social, cultural, and economic power with people they hate: ordinary White guys.
[THE central fight in the West is between those ordinary White guys and those who hate them and fear them.]
Apr 7, 2009 - 10:51 am 41. twobyfour:Whiskey, there are quite a few liberal guys, as white as they come. So, we have an equivalent of a self-hating Jew… a self-hating white guy?
Apr 7, 2009 - 11:08 am 42. blert:buckets @35…
Nailed it!
The only positive aspect of H’s turn towards Iran is that her internal politics virtually assures that it blows up rather quickly.
The mullahs are going to re-arrange the deck chairs this year so no substantive policy changes will happen.
The campaign season is breaking loose in Pashtunistan so I’d expect our supply line to be hugely compromised before the summer is out.
H’s first big crisis will be our anabasis out of Helmand land.
LONDON (AFP) — Military operations in Afghanistan are “worthless,” with British NATO forces unable to hold ground against Taliban insurgents, the former chief of British special forces there said in an interview published Saturday.
Major Sebastian Morley, former commander of Special Air Service troops in Afghanistan, was speaking out for the first time since resigning in protest in late 2008 over the use of lightly armoured Land Rovers in combat zones.
“The operations that we are conducting are so worthless,” Morley, 40, told the Daily Telegraph newspaper.
“We hold tiny areas of ground in Helmand and we are kidding ourselves if we think our influence goes beyond 500 metres (yards) of our security bases.”
“It’s just crazy to think we hold that ground or have any influence on what goes on beyond the bases,” he added.
“We go out on operations, have a punch-up with the Taliban and then go back to camp for tea. We are not holding the ground. The Taliban know where we are. They know full well when we have gone back into camp.”
“I don’t think we have even scratched the surface as far as this conflict goes. The level of attrition and casualties is only set to rise. This is the equivalent to the start of the Vietnam conflict, there is much more to come.”
Apr 7, 2009 - 12:01 pm 43. always right:I am only worried about what the price Obama is willing to pay (to our enemies) to have all these troubles hit home down the road after he is safely away from his WH tenure(s).
To their way of thinking, everything has a price, and everybody could be bribed with the right amount of incentives.
I just don’t think we could afford what Obama is offering.
Apr 7, 2009 - 12:38 pm 44. Eggplant:Off topic but interesting:
Former Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori was convicted of human rights violations and sentenced to 25 years in prison (it’s on Google news).
The Maoist terrorist group Shining Path (Sendero Luminoso) was effectively destroying Peru. Fujimori as President of Peru was able to dismantle Shining Path and saved the nation from ruin. However in the process of doing that he committed human rights violations. As I see it, Fujimori is in the same boat with Augusto Pinochet, i.e. a Latin American leader who saved a nation from ruin but in the process committed serious human rights violations.
It’s an interesting ethical contradiction: Does ridding a nation of deeply entrenched communists and terrorists justify what are essentially fascist tactics. One can make a compelling argument that using such tactics constitutes murder and overturns the Rule of Law. However one can invert this argument by showing that failure to remove deeply entrenched communists and terrorists also constitutes murder and overturns the Rule of Law. There’s a thin ethical line there that when crossed can lead to a moral person putting on an SS officier’s uniform and order the murder of Jews. I find this ethical ambiguity disturbing.
Apr 7, 2009 - 12:41 pm 45. blert:Eggplant @43…
That’s a weak analogy.
The SD were liquidating an entire sub-population based on a DNA pretext: their crime was breathing.
In contrast the Shining Path radicals were extremely violent law breakers who usurped the ‘Kings Justice.’
The situation was so severe that Fujimori was forced to resort to ex-officio power, bypassing the intimidated/ corrupted law enforcement system.
The same could be said of Pinochet.
None of their policies can in any honest way be equated to the systemic horrors of Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, Saddam, et. al.
So the conviction is nothing more than political retribution at the hands of his successors.
Apr 7, 2009 - 1:16 pm 46. blert:H embraces Magical Thinking.
Hence there is no limit to his vision arrogance.
H does not well tolerate opposing counsels.
He won’t have to wait for September to have his 9/11.
Change will be coming after him with a vengeance.
Apr 7, 2009 - 1:20 pm 47. blert:Here’s a wild hypothetical:
Pakistan is so destabilized that exfiltrating along that flank is too dangerous: the nukes are loose.
Instead, NATO backs out through Iran a power only at the threshold. Her ability to thwart NATO is but slight since her dispositions and inclinations have ever been to the west.
All this happens after Bibi hits the bulls-eye.
Apr 7, 2009 - 1:24 pm 48. Eggplant:blert said:
“That’s a weak analogy.”
I wish it was. I must emphasize that I consider the SS officer ordering the extermination of innocent people (Jews) to be the ultimate form of immorality. However there is an incremental logical path that can take a person from a moral position to finding himself wearing a SS officer’s uniform. The motivation in the Weimar Republic (as in Peru and Chile) was in stopping communists from ruining the nation and murdering a large chunk of the population. The communists are in many ways an absolute form of evil. Unfortunately other forms of evil (Nazis) can dress themselves up to be less offensive than communists. After you’ve signed up with the Nazis to stop the communists, how do you draw the line and keep from being sucked into damnation? It’s not obvious.
Apr 7, 2009 - 1:34 pm 49. sigintel:While having some fun last night surfing youTube videos for the “Gremlins of the Kremlins” cartoon, I came across several Looney Tunes that are supposedly banned because they are too politically incorrect(today) and very anti-German and anti-Japanese. Eggplant worries about the ethical ambiguity of “going all out” to win the war. We sure as hell were not ambiguous during WWII and “dropped the big one” to end it in the Pacific. Was that a violation of human rights….ah yup…and it saved hundred of thousands of Japanese and American lives even though it cost thousands of dead in Japan. What becomes ambiguous is as to “why we fight”…do we fight for survival, for a politically based meme, national sovereignty? What are we fighting for in Afghanistan?
Apr 7, 2009 - 1:41 pm 50. Tony:Sig,
As far as I can tell from my liberal friends, we are fighting in Afghanistan as a Count of Monte Christo thing, purely for revenge, to get the bad guys who done us wrong. Obama has given up on the democracy-spreading deal, and it’s not even important to get Osama anymore. It’s just to stop “them” from harboring our enemies.
Wouldn’t Linebacker III be just as effective for such a limited goal?
Apr 7, 2009 - 1:56 pm 51. blert:The Jews, Seventh Day Adventists and others DID NOT have blood on their hands. Period.
Analogy is broken.
Shining Path/ SD/ NKVD/ et. al. were ORIGINATORS of extra-judicial violence and operated explicitly outside the judicial process.
The above perps targeted entire classes of people with lethal violence.
Fujimori would be at worst guilty of using ‘lettres de cachet’ or engaging in absolutism. Despotism is not in every case considered a crime against humanity. The King of Saudi Arabia is a complete despot yet our President bows to him.
And it’s a fact that the Mossad even now terminates bad players with extreme prejudice. These acts against spies and enemy agents are scarcely different than the fight Fujimori had with the Shining Path. It is notable that Fukimori did not have a corrupt government — by the standards of his culture. It is also notable that the whole of Peruvian society benefited from his acts. The Shining Path was nothing more than a classic retread of Pol Pot’s vision. Practically any act can be justified to avoid that level of horror.
Fortunately Fujimori was able to stop the enemy without massive loss of life while cleaning up government. BTW he had to deal with fellow-travelers in the legislature. The radicals were that far advanced.
That the Shining Path funded their ops with contraband exports and dragooned the peasants into cultivation stands as further evidence of the existential threat they presented to Peru.
There is no comity between victimized classes in Leftist dystopias and murderous narco-radicals in the uplands of Peru.
Apr 7, 2009 - 2:13 pm 52. sigintel:Tony,
Correcto….LB II + I….can we clean up our ammo dumps and get rid of all of the old ordinance? But wait… doesn’t saturation bombing cause global warming?
Apr 7, 2009 - 2:29 pm 53. blert:Tony…
We need to shut down the production line of fanatical suicide bombers.
Pattern bombing just won’t do that. Instead it would lead the average Pashtun to conclude that we were worse than the Soviets and deserved the ultimate vengeance. The Soviets proved that killing 20% of the male population was still not enough to change their mindset.
Of course any such bomb-for-all gambit would generate horrific blow-back on the world stage.
I’d say that the precision strikes against the shadow army are the way to go and that they are working so well that even H sees the logic of it.
Of course Osama is dead. His burial rite was posted to the front page of the NY Times quite a while back. Remember it? The photo showed his black guard neatly arrayed in front of his grave with other players — rank by rank — giving the boss the last big send-off.
It is not in our geo-political interest to openly admit that OBL is at room temperature. It is cute to listen to the CIA ‘verify’ that this or that tape is a genuine OBL recording.
Well I’ll remind all Club members that Churchill’s famous WWII recordings are NOT HIS VOICE. They were recorded in a studio by a professional who was able to imitate Winston to a tee. That’s the reason for their high quality and the complete absence of backround noise. The reason was simple: Churchill gave the speech in Parliament, off the cuff, and no microphones were set up for him. When it was realized that the speech was fantastic his government immediately wanted him to record it for radio broadcast. However, for some reason, he was too busy and so the professional was set to the task. And so, ALL of the speeches that you’ve heard were not Churchill, though he crafted them.
In such a manner AQ has resorted to a stand-in. In AQ’s situation a lousy recording is preferred.
No sensible person can believe that OBL could possibly stay away from a camera in all these years while his number 2 is constantly cranking out press releases. — Give me a break.
I would not be surprised to see AQ and Omar having Quetta time this summer.
Apr 7, 2009 - 2:31 pm 54. wretchard:#12 Re the Cessna in Canada. My thinking is that it is irrelevant why Yavuz Berke was crossing the border in a Cessna, but that in any case, it now indicates to anyone planning a 9/11 style attack what the response would be to an intruding aircraft. Personally I don’t think anyone put Yavuz Berke up to it because the Cessna had little potential as anything but a recon platform. There were no explosives in it; and the Cessna has too little kinetic and potential energy to do much damage unless he happened upon a target like a stadium or a school auditorium. From the sound of it he had no target.
But if I were the AQ, I’d be thinking, “what if we sent a dozen Cessna’s across in a brief period? We know the US air defense won’t shoot on sight?” A dozen Cessnas might overload the air defense briefly or serve as a diversion for another attack by occuping air assets. Who knows?
Bojinka was in certain respects the dry run for 9/11. I don’t think the next 9/11 is necessarily going to involve airplanes. But it may involve feints, misdirection and deception to cover the main assault. Of course the real defense against a new surprise attack is intel. It is agents, either foreign or domestic, infiltrating the enemy ranks; it is comm intercepts. I hope the shields are up, but there’s no way of knowing.
Apr 7, 2009 - 2:40 pm 55. hdgreene:A month ago, if I recall, Stratfor was talking about how President Obama was going to cleverly operate against Iran by using Russia. Now he’s going to operate against Russia using Turkey.
OK, he gives Europe what they want because it ain’t worth squabbling over. But why the abject apologies? His penchant for knocking the US only alienates half of the country. The other half thinks he’s attacking the half that’s offended, and they’er OK with that. So he ends up dividing the US needlessly — which makes him weaker when he deals with foreigners. It’s like he wished he could give them more because we owe them more.
I think the Obama administration’s foreign policy is like an inkblot. And there are clever people trying to make us see something in there that makes sense. But sometimes an inkblot is just an inkblot — in fact it is always an inkblot, all of the time. The politics is leading different people to see what they want. Or, as the Boss Prez might say, “People see in my foreign policy what they want to see.”
About the only stuff he’s doing that makes sense — at least in terms of what is in the US interest — is what is carried over from Bush. And that is stuff he would change if he wouldn’t get blamed for the following disaster. So instead he changes the labels.
What Obama needs from the world is much higher oil prices. Only five dollar a gallon gas will make his energy policies look sensible. But it has to be done in a way that he can blame the oil companies (and then take them over to head off the pitch fork brigade.) So when other countries drive up the price of oil, they will expect something in return from the Obama administration.
I believe the administration is full of smart people who feel their brain farts have a high intrinsic value. I think they want an equity market for their brain farts, so people can buy into them. And a futures market for future farts. That way if one brain fart doesn’t live up to its total potential, it can be hedged against another “counter fart.” Re-inflate the real estate bubble to pump up the value of the subprime mortgages for their Wall Street pals and have the government absorb the risk. Kowtow to Europe and Asia and The Muslim World and Russia and low lying islands soon to be flooded because of the half of America that did not vote for the Democrat in 2000.
Apr 7, 2009 - 2:45 pm 56. Eggplant:blert said:
“Fortunately Fujimori was able to stop the enemy without massive loss of life while cleaning up government. BTW he had to deal with fellow-travelers in the legislature. The radicals were that far advanced.”
I’ve long been very impressed by Alberto Fujimori and believe he was a good man who performed great service to his nation. I like to think that if I had his leadership skills, I would have done the same things that he did. Unfortunately, he has now been convicted of mass murder and sentenced to 25 years in prison (what does that say about me?). This brings to mind the whole Nurenburg Process. Alberto Fujimori is being treated the same way that Hermann Goering and Julius Streicher were treated by the Allies after WW-II. I think we would agree that the prosecution of Alberto Fujimori was a gross injustice and the work of fools and moonbats. But how do you demonstrate that? The moonbats who prosecuted Fujimori would argue that he’s wicked. I would counter-argue that the moonbats have no moral sense and are unfit to judge anyone. The moonbats would probably counter-counter-argue that the main difference between Fujimori and myself is that Fujimori is in jail while I belong in jail. I should add that this ethical dilemma has relevance to the United States. Obama is leading us to a cliff. The next person who runs the United States may feel compelled to do something about our moonbat problem. How are we to judge that this person is an Alberto Fujimori or a Heinrich Himmler?
Apr 7, 2009 - 2:46 pm 57. blert:The American way to handle political justice is to remove the player from office and expose his record of shame. If it’s bad enough we send the clown to prison.
The American way to handle moonbats is to take the keys away: defund them. The leading sources of moonbattery are Federal and Patrician grant engines.
If funding makes rockets go up then de-funding flattens the moonbat.
The hyper-funding of ACORN is a sin for the ages.
Apr 7, 2009 - 3:02 pm 58. blert:Ford and MacArthur must be spinning in their graves.
The bequest of Buffett is something to be feared.
The Patricians ruined Rome’s Republic. Our Patricians are on the exact same course. The parallels are stark.
Apr 7, 2009 - 3:07 pm 59. twobyfour:Eggplant,
I see that you, for some reason, equate an authoritarian, dictatorial form of government with fascism (and communism obviously). But that is not necessarily the case.
The difference is that while the totaliarian-isms institutionalize, ideologize and banalize evil as a built-in feature for whatever greater good they set as their ultimate goal, the authoritarian regimes of Peru and Chile used some not so agreeable methods as a temporary and utilitarian ad hoc measure. They did not pretend that the evil they thought they have to utilize is something else than what it was.
Thus, neither Pinochet nor Fujimori intended to keep the repressive system in place beyond the need to fend off a greater evil, no ideological “considerations” warranted it. Of course, the duration of the “need” was defined by them, especially in Pinochet case–but once he saw the “need” for a strong authoritarian rule diminishing, he did let go, even if somewhat reluctantly.
I am not justifying their misdeeds, but thought that there is a distinction and also that the tendency to associate any type of temporary repression with fascism and nazism is not being helpful to understanding what these system represented.
Apr 7, 2009 - 3:51 pm 60. Eggplant:twobyfour said:
“I am not justifying their misdeeds, but thought that there is a distinction and also that the tendency to associate any type of temporary repression with fascism and nazism is not being helpful to understanding what these system represented.”
A concern is how one distinguishes between an apparently moral leader like Alberto Fujimori versus the various immoral examples that can be drawn from history. Saying the moral ones eventually give up power willingly isn’t much of a guide if the leader in question is currently holding office. Also there are historical examples of bad guys who gave up power willingly, e.g. Lucius Cornelius Sulla.
Apr 7, 2009 - 4:20 pm 61. Tony:No one wants war, so when war is going on, one’s moral duty is to get it done quick. Even though the tool is war, the product is peace. God willing.
Sig, sir, I’m pretty sure most of the old ammo has been fitted with those strap-on fins and guidance packs, and expended judiciously by now. One would hope. After all, new bombs equal well-paying new jobs.
Blert, Linebacker II led directly to the end of the Vietnam War, it was precision (for the time) strategic bombing of all of the North’s ports, forts and whatever else they got. After 11 days, the North surrendered.
The mountainous Af/Pak border is more like the Ho Chi Minh trail, they got no forts, ports, doodly-squat. Our bombers made toothpicks out of jungle and on the other end of that heavily bombed trail, entire NVA Divisions would form. Same way that armed forces materialize in Afghanistan. Tactically, Arclight around Khe Sanh was omnipotent; strategically, Linebacker II ended the enemy’s intention to fight.
Bombing our way to peace seems counter-intuitive, but history argues for its efficacy. Better to get it over with quick. For God’s sake.
Apr 7, 2009 - 5:22 pm 62. MarkJ:“When Obama looks at the chessboard, the key emerging challenge remains Russia.”
Question: What makes us think that Obama even understands chess, much less plays it? Hell, dare I mention that Lord Zero can’t even bowl?
Apr 7, 2009 - 6:30 pm 63. JFSanders:Tic tac toe maybe but he probably loses every time.
Pakistan to America: I swear I will pull out! Just trust me! Obama, Ok just this once… sad.
Jim
Apr 7, 2009 - 6:58 pm 64. F:Having served in the American Embassy in Lima during Fujimori’s administration I have a little sympathy for the situation he finds himself in now. American-educated Fujimori, “el Chinito” (the little chinaman, as he was called by his countrymen because of his Japanese heritage — yeah, I know, but it makes sense in Peru) took over the presidency when his country was faced with a deteriorating terrorist situation.
He turned that around, sometimes with draconian tactics, but turn it around he did. When I arrived one could still hear occasional bombings in the capital; when I left that was history. The Japanese embassy was taken over by terrorists during a Japanese National Day reception (which I missed because my staff were throwing me a farewell dinner) and Fujimori encouraged elite military teams to end the takeover with violence that resulted in only minor injuries to the hostages and zero — let me repeat that — ZERO live terrorists to stand trial. They only numbered something like 6 or 7 anyway, but they were all killed in the attack, several by a single shot in the head. I have to say I think his style of dealing with terrorism could be used with good results elsewhere.
Peru had and has its share of problems. Poverty, burgeoning urbanization in the face of high unemployment, a low literacy rate, infrastructure that reaches only parts of the country, to name just a few. But its Maoist terrorism was an aberration for that country, one that grew not from the peasants, but from the universities. (Same thing one sees in Cambodia, North Vietnam, and many other so-called Third World countries.) Fujimori addressed it effectively, if a little harshly.
And prior to that, his “Self-coup” (when he effectively took the reigns of power from himself, thus extending his term in office unconstitutionally) and his “faceless tribunals” to try terrorist suspects are still pointed to as horrible anti-democratic moves. And human rights advocates were offended in their elegant homes in upscale New York or Madrid neighborhoods, but Peruvians for the most part appreciated what he did. My middle class Peruvian friends did not particularly care for el Chinito, but they certainly appreciated the manner in which he ended the terror reign.
This jail sentence is, as Eggplant has pointed out, the work of fools and moonbats (wish I had coined that sentence) and clearly an act of destructive vengeance. But for Fujimori’s policies, Peru would be Bolivia with a coastline. And if the fools and moonbats have their way, it still could be. F
Apr 7, 2009 - 7:06 pm 65. twobyfour:F, thanks, nice to have a first hand POV.
Apr 7, 2009 - 8:51 pm 66. buddy larsen:Shining Path was a bad, bad, bad bunch of hombres. The little chinaman ought to have a Fujimori Square like Trafalgar Square –but instead is off to die in chains. Twisted , twisted.
Apr 7, 2009 - 9:02 pm 67. dan:“Stratfor basically argues that Obama has given up, for the moment on the Europeans, and is playing the long shot with Turkey in an attempt to contain Russia.”
This is what Stratfor is arguing? I’d think Friedman would’ve recognized the strategic significance of the Turkish decision to disallow our use of Turkish sovereign space to crush Iraq. Turkey wants EU membership for economic reasons and subversive reasons; it is reverting to Islamo-political domination under the cover of a historical impetus, which thereby deprives the APK of agency in the minds of CFR and other crypto-Hegelian cartoon-worshippers. Come on Stratfor! What a mess the international order is, and frankly it’s all the Europeans’ fault – primarily the French. Oh I know Marie Claude will come on here and throw a frog-accented tantrum at me, but please: the past is, as the Romans said, perfect, and there is nothing you and your derivative little neuroses can do about it, salope.
Apr 8, 2009 - 11:48 am 68. dan:Oh – OT but N.B.: Communist Party just re-took Czechoslovakia and Moldova. Watch for lightning in the Ukraine (and elsewhere).
Apr 8, 2009 - 11:53 am 69. NahnCee:Obama may be rolling over and playing possum, baring his soft little tummy for the Islamists to attack, but regular Americans are still standing up and being hero’s.
“Official: Americans Retake Pirated Ship – TIME”
What do you want to bet the Americans all had guns, and probably bigger and better guns than a bunch of starving Muslim savages?
Question #2 is why don’t sailors from any other country on the globe (including most especially the Frogs and the Brits) react the same way?
Apr 8, 2009 - 12:09 pm 70. Marty:Obama is so naive, he keeps putting his foot in it even when he’s trying to do the right thing.
Why did he have to publicly state that US would hold them accountable? Say it privately, but don’t embarrass them in public and force them to push back…
sheeesh!
Apr 9, 2009 - 2:21 pm