Fantasy foreign policy

Hysteria

eek....!

George Steiner

The Iranians have rubbed the nose of one US president already. They will easily rub another.

One of the problems of having a lawyer as president is that engaging, negotiating, talking, is what they have been tought at school.

As lawyers, they always do it with other people's money.

Alcuin

Diplomacy without a gun under the table amounts to little more than pleading. Do these neophytes really think the Mullahs are so stupid that they do not know this?

Iran has choke points - its oil refineries. These could be directly attacked, or subtly sabotaged by agent provocateurs. Perhaps a little deniable covert sortie might make the Mullahs a little more receptive. Can we do it? All together ...

Augustus

American campuses have been mass-producing smug, politically correct poseurs and slogan-spouting groupthink conformists for decades. Converging circumstances have enabled these postmodernists who indoctrinate America's youth to now conquer its highest political bastions as well. their underlying assumption is the absence of subjective truths, justice, or ethical absolutes. Nothing is any longer black or white, only subjective shades of grey on a landscape of moral relativism. All cultures are of equal merit. The worst despotic societies aren't any more villainous than societies which santify civil liberties. Indeed there is an inclination to downplay autocratic repression while at the same time casting doubt on the freedoms which the world's egalitarian systems enjoy. Democracies are, in essence, little better than the tyrannies which challenge them. The operative conclusion is that rather than fight for their righteous causes, democracies must acknowledge inherent guilt for the state of the world, make amends, shrink inwardly, and where possible appease and buy respites.

This is an all-encompassing mindset. It manifests itself in liberal aversion to offshore oil drilling and nuclear power. In an obsessive belief to go green, pump up car tyres, recycle restaurant grease, hype up windmill farms, and practise all that Al Gore preaches.

There is also a perception of American culpability which leads to a variety of prescriptions for retrenchment versus growth, and for a contraction of American superpower influence. This in turn leads directly to a conciliatory attitude towards the nuclear ambitions of Ahmadinejad. It's as if the 1930s never were. As if Neville Chamberlain never sold out at Munich. Obama has already decided that Iran is pretty insignificant. If we can just minimize the possibility of conflict, to say nothing of outright genocidal attack, be nice to the most bellicose of potentates, try to understand just what it is that gets them riled, talk things out, meet them 'halfway', and put pressure on their intended victims, them maybe the bad guys will reform, and all these nightmares will just dissipate and go away.

Barry H

It's no surprise this administration looks as if it's going to believe its own hype.

This is what the Obama cult is all about: faith that they have the power, that he has the power to make it all better by lying down.

The trouble is, the more the Caliphate spider sees you fall weak, the more poison it will inject into you. When you realise how stupid you've been, it's then even harder to fight back.

An American

Many of Obama's advisors are the very same people who advised Bill Clinton...and look where that got us. In Clinton's presidency, we had the first attack on the World Trade Center, the killings of our Marines in Somalia, the bombing of the Embassy in Kenya..on and on. Clinton's liberal, cowardly advisors (here I actually agree with Bin Laden's assesment) treated these attacks on America and Americans as if it were a legal problem.
Their response was incredibly weak. And that weakness emboldened Osama Bin Laden and the Taliban to attack and destroy the World Trade Center's two towers and attack the Pentagon. Osama's thugs also had plans for the Capital but some brave American's on that plane saved the lives of the very Congressmen and Congresswomen who would later undermine and prolong the war that our brave soldiers would fight in Iraq.
So...here we go again.
I'm pretty angry with the foolish people that voted for this 'pretty boy' charlatan...Obama.
I wonder what Obama will say when the big one comes...I'm sure he'll blame Pres. Bush, who by the way...has received very little credit the past 7 years for keeping all Americans safe in our homeland since the World Trade Center's attack.
I'll take no pleasure when I tell the foolish people who voted for Obama... 'that I told you so'.

Margaret

Great comments, all! I've nothing to add to your wisdom, but my thanks.

Emmet

The mainstream media carefully concealed the fact that Al Qaeda welcomed Obama's victory. And why not? Bin Ladin can now look forward to a long and secure retirement. Who knows, if he plays his cards right, the new American admin might even give him a pension. But don't expect that to stop further attacks. On the contrary, PC dogma, such as closing Guantanamo and refusing to profile young males from the Middle East at airports etc (racism, after all), will make new and spectacular attacks on America almost inevitable. But don't worry; it'll all be Bush's fault. Hell, even Hurricane Katrina was Bush's fault.

AF Austin, Texas

Love your writing...especially your last line jabs. This one is particularly great.

DeadLadyJustice

Augustus and An American, good posts! Not only do i agree with both of you, i can't comment on the above because you both summed up what i wanted to say. There is a man named Ralph Peters who writes sometime for the USA Today, and has a "Crisis Watch" in the magazine ArmChair General. His most recent "Crisis Watch" is pretty similar to the above (sorry no link).

Elizabeth

Somebody remind me which American president it was who said, regarding foreign policy, "speak softly but carry a big stick". Identification and correction welcomed. Thanks

John Birch

An American: In contrast to cowardly Bill Clinton, how did that tough Ronald Reagan respond to two separate terrorist attacks in Beirut that killed nearly 300 Americans? Who did he punish and strike back against with force? Or did he actually withdraw his troops in the aftermath of the attacks sending a message of weakness and then turn around and actually trade arms to the Iranian government that had supported the attacks in the first place? Your ignorance is sickening.

An American

John Birch,
Your comments about Reagan may be correct. Perhaps Reagan shouldn't have had troops in Beirut in the first place
All US politicians have made mistakes.
Wasn't it Churchill who said that Americans keep making mistakes until they get it right.
Well...don't count on our Marxist Messiah getting it right. He lacks the ability or fortitude.
I find your personal insult to me rather sickening...do you feel better now?

John Birch

An American: Sorry, I apologize for my final comment. That was uncalled for and a deviation from my efforts not to engage in name calling.

alan

...and they will.

Conservative Cabbie

Elizabeth

It was Theodore Roosevelt who said it. It was a sppech in Chicago, here's the context:

"Speak softly and carry and big stick; you will go far.' If the American nation will speak softly, and yet build and keep at a pitch of the highest training a thoughly efficient navy, the Munroe Doctrine will go far."

An American

John Birch, apology accepted.

Conservative Cabbie,
Leave it to a Brit to know that quote... thank you.

American Voter

An American: Yes, I, too, am disgusted with my fellow Americans who voted for Obama but I am even more so with those Americans who chose not to vote at all. One of the arguments I used with family, friends and associates was that of British non-voters who by their indifference helped to put Labour into power in 1997 and to contribute to the destruction of Great Britain. Obama's popular vote was only 4% greater than McCain's and when one has factored in the illegal votes from fraudulent voter registrations, the dismal picture is of a polarized nation which is more likely to be conquered by stealth Jihad and American government dependence on multi-billion dollar 'loans' from 4 Moslem countries than by a direct, violent attack. Citizenship, and voting, are responsibilities as well as rights, and the failure of people to assume and carry out their responsibilities is the real reason why we may be defeated without ever really fighting.

Elizabeth

Conservative Cabbie, Thank you for taking the time to source my quotation. I shouldn't have posted until I had complete information, mea culpa.

Conservative Cabbie

Elizabeth

You're welcome. Now the election has finished, there is an unfortunate paucity of american political discussion here so any opportunity to contribute is a pleasure.