Is President Obama unintentionally outsourcing US foreign policy?
A pattern emerging from recent events suggests so. Up first, of course, is the plan to scrap the US Missile Defense shield in Eastern Europe, a long-time thorn in the side of many European and US Liberals, not to mention Vladimir Putin. By putting the planned system on hold, Obama has simultaneously angered many of our European allies and appeased the Russians, who must be dancing in glee behind the walls of the Kremlin.
What’s the effect? The EU has neither the will nor resources to effectively deal with a resurgent and emboldened Russia looking to expand its influence, especially with former Eastern Bloc nations. This credibility-destroying decision cements Russia’s position as the other 800-lb gorilla in the room, and effectively outsources at least some European security decisions to them.
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Looks like Hugo and Mahmoud are getting even friendlier. The events of last week – the furor over Obama’s speech to US school children, his health care address to a joint session of Congress, September 11th commemorations, and the 9/12 Washington march – overshadowed the announcement of a new strategic deal between Venezuela and Iran.
According to the AP, “Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez sealed an agreement to export 20,000 barrels per day of gasoline to Iran, state TV reported Monday. The deal would give Tehran a cushion if the West carries out threats of fuel sanctions over Iran’s nuclear program.”
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I don’t think so.
The coverage of Ted Kennedy’s death is preventing the claims of Mohammed Jawad from getting wider media coverage in the US. Jawad states that he was sent to Guantanamo at the tender age of 12:
In December 2002, when he says he was only 12, he was arrested on suspicion of throwing a grenade into a Jeep carrying US special forces soldiers through Kabul, wounding two of them and an interpreter. He was taken first to an airbase north of Kabul, then to the US prison in Guantánamo Bay…
He has a bit of a credibility problem though – he claims his father died in the 1980s while fighting the Soviets, and the Pentagon claims that bone scans indicate he was 18 when arrested.
According to the article he’s a minor celebrity in Afghanistan, but he’ll have a hard time getting broad-based sympathy in the US. A recent Gallup Poll reported that 45% of Americans favor keeping Guantanamo open:
President Obama’s most loyal supporters — Democrats and liberals — do lean decisively toward closing the U.S. prison there. But Americans overall do not express such a clear preference, and in fact are more likely to prefer keeping the prison open.
Closing Gitmo would further alienate a broad segment of voters that Obama needs if he is to salvage his presidency. The groups that want to pressure the US to close it need to do a lot better than this obvious falsehood if they expect to change US public opinion and get President Obama to act.
Hot Air reports on the CIA’s super-secret plan to assassinate al-Qaeda leaders. I am shocked, just shocked and appalled that we might actually want to kill terrorist leaders and deny them their rights under our Constitution.
Yeah, right, guess again. Could The White House be looking to drum up a sense of outrage among their useful idiots in the press, thereby creating a barrage of coverage and opinion pieces to distract the populace from the fact that the stimulus isn’t working?
Guess what guys? Pursue this at your own political peril. I’ll wager that most Americans think assassinating terrorist leaders is a good idea.
Can pragmatism trump long-standing resentment and suspicion? Keep a lid on it, Joe.
PRUDEN: Big overflight news suddenly in the air – Washington Times
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A revealing but not terribly surprising interview with a North Korean defector:
(The interviewee states that there are) two economies in North Korea: one administered by the North Korean Cabinet and nominally oriented toward serving the needs of the people; and a “Royal Court economy,” financed by illicit enterprises worldwide and providing the stream of hard currency that keeps Kim Jong Il, and his cronies, ensconsed in power and luxury.
Nothing unusual there – it’s standard for every dictatorship. The illicit enterprises, however, are more disturbing:
the regime’s largest source of hard currency comes from the clandestine manufacture and sale of weapons of mass destruction. After that comes the regime’s multibillion-dollar insurance fraud business, in which the authorities stage arson and bogus accidents to collect multimillion-dollar payouts from international banks and insurers.
No real surprises here either. Given Kim Jong Il’s declining health, will the US be able to ensure its regional position and capitalize on the likely instability after his death? Could North Korea be steered towards a South Korean style success story? Or will we squander the opportunity in an effort to placate other regional powers, even at the expense of millions of desperate souls?
North Korean Defector Describes Inner Workings of Isolated Regime – Political News – FOXNews.com.
