This ain't Hell, but you can see it from here

Category: Foreign Policy

  • Snowden still loose; US looks foolish

    Back in 2008, I was told that if I voted for Obama, the US would be more respected on the world stage than we had been in the previous eight years of the Bush administration, so this is probably all my fault, because I didn’t vote for Obama, so sorry. But anyway, Hong Kong could have stopped Ed Snowden, the NSA-contracted leaker from leaving and they didn’t.

    The New York Times said that China made the call to let Snowden leave;

    From China’s point of view, analysts said, the departure of Mr. Snowden solved two concerns: how to prevent Beijing’s relationship with the United States from being ensnared in a long legal wrangle in Hong Kong over Mr. Snowden, and how to deal with a Chinese public that widely regards the American computer expert as a hero.

    Yeah, we’re so respected in the world that Snowden is a hero for pissing on our policies.

    Now Snowden is “somewhere in Russia”. You’d think that the Russians would be concerned about an illegal alien wandering around loose, especially an illegal alien who is wanted by all of their ally’s law enforcement entities, but apparently not. Even Politico admits that the boobs in the White House are powerless;

    The spotlight-grabbing international travel — just as Obama seeks to focus attention on his Tuesday climate change speech and a weeklong trip to Africa that begins Wednesday — is sure to keep Snowden’s own story atop the headlines, highlighting the White House’s relative powerlessness to bring him back to face charges.

    Reuters calls Russia “defiant”. Doesn’t sound too much like an ally or that Russia is grateful for Obama scrapping the missile shield for Eastern Europe. Or even his most recent blather about reducing nuclear weapons.

    So Snowden is trying to get into Ecuador which is run by one of Hugo Chavez’ coke huffing buddies, Rafael Correa. it seems to me that if we were respected in the world, the answer would have been a resounding and immediate “no”. Especially from some third world shit hole who needs the US now that Chavez is gone.

    So, like I said, I apologize for not voting for Obama and making such a mess of our foreign policy. I’ll know better next time.

  • In Case You Missed It

    Al Qaeda’s leadership has publicly called for Sunni Muslims to “rise above their differences” and back the Syrian rebels.  The call came from Ayman al-Zawahri himself.

    al-Zawahiri also called for jihad in Syria and the establishment of an Islamic state.  Both of those would certainly be in the US national interest, wouldn’t they?

    So much for the claim that al Qaeda isn’t supporting the Syrian rebels, or that their goals aren’t one and the same.  Tell me again why the current US Administration wants to help al Qaeda’s leadership attain its goals?

    Shakespeare had it right:  “A plague o’ both your houses.”  In that fight neither side is what anyone with even one working brain cell would call “the good guys”.  We need to stay the hell out.

  • US Embassy folks shot in Venezuela

    Agency France Press is reporting that two Military attaches from the US embassy were shot near a strip club in Caracas, The injuries are reportedly not life threatening;

    The Venezuelan media identified the two men as Roberto Ezequiel Rosas and Paul Marwin, and said they were military attaches at the embassy, but neither the State Department nor the embassy in Caracas would confirm those reports.

    “My understanding is that they are other agency personnel, not from the State Department,” Ventrell said.

    Venezuelan television channel Globovision reported on its website that the incident took place at the Antonella bar located in a shopping center in the Chacao district of Caracas, after an altercation with other bar patrons.

    According to the article, there have been 3400 murders in Venezuela so far this year, so I guess guns are the first solution to disagreements there.

  • An Update from Syria

    Well, from a US/Western perspective it looks like things are going just “swimmingly” in Syria.  From a recent news article:

    In Syria’s largest city, Aleppo, rebels aligned with Al Qaeda control the power plant, run the bakeries and head a court that applies Islamic law. Elsewhere, they have seized government oil fields, put employees back to work and now profit from the crude they produce.

    Across Syria, rebel-held areas are dotted with Islamic courts staffed by lawyers and clerics, and by fighting brigades led by extremists. Even the Supreme Military Council, the umbrella rebel organization whose formation the West had hoped would sideline radical groups, is stocked with commanders who want to infuse Islamic law into a future Syrian government.

    Nowhere in rebel-controlled Syria is there a secular fighting force to speak of.

    Yeah, you read that right.  None of the significant Syrian rebel groups are secular.  All of them appear to be Islamist – and many seem to have al Qaeda sympathies, if not direct links.  Some make no bones about their links to al Qaeda.  At least one rebel group – the al Nusra Front, which also is among the most powerful of the Syrian rebel groups, and currently dominates Aleppo – has confirmed past cooperation with al Qaeda in Iraq and has pledged loyalty to al Qaeda’s leadership.  The US government has declared the al Nusra Front to be a terrorist organization.  Even the rebel Supreme Military Council – an umbrella group ostensibly coordinating rebel efforts, led by a turncoat Syrian general and which professes no ties to al Qaeda linked rebel groups – has numerous Islamist commanders.

    So what news source is reporting this?  Perhaps some conservative “wingnut” internet publication, like WND or CNS?

    Hardly.  Try the New York Times.

    Someone tell me again why we’re supporting either side in Syria.  I’ll be damned if I can figure that out.

    But not to worry, folks.  The current US Administration, which is supporting those Islamist Syrian rebels, has everything under control.  “No problem!”

    Just look how well things have turned out in Egypt and Libya.

  • And In the “More Good News from Egypt” Department . . . .

    Well, it looks like we have more “good news” regarding those friends of tolerance and democracy, the current government of Egypt.  You know, that Muslim Brotherhood dominated group that the current US Administration watched overthrow the government led by former US ally Hosni Mubarak?

    About three weeks ago – on 7 April 2013 – there was a funeral at at St. Mark’s Coptic Orthodox Cathedral in Cairo.  The Cathedral was later attacked by persons using firearms, machetes, and possibly firebombs.

    Egyptian police were there at the time.  They stood by and did nothing.

    Yeah, that’s a strong statement; it will take some strong evidence to support it.  Well, would video of the incident in question do?

    But don’t worry, folks.  Letting the Muslim Brotherhood itake over Egypt and run things was in everybody’s best interests.  The current US Administration has matters under control here.  There’s nothing to worry about.

    Yeah.  Right.  I heard that before, too – in 1978 after a change of regime in Teheran.

  • More “Good News” From Our “Friends” In Egypt

    Well, it’s looking more and more like the current Administration really hit a “home run” for freedom in Egypt a couple of years ago. You know, when they stood by and did nothing as the Muslim Brotherhood overthrew a longtime US ally, Mubarak, because he was not sufficiently “democratic”.

    A family in Egypt has been sentenced to a prison term of 15 years.  That’s “family” – as in a mother and her 7 children.

    Their crime?  Converting from Islam back to Christianity.

    I’m not kidding.

    Seems the lady was Christian originally, but converted to Islam when she married 20+ years ago.  She converted back to Christianity after her husband died in the early 2000s in order to receive an inheritance from her family.  She completed the conversion process, including getting new identity cards showing her and her children’s new religion, in 2004-2006.

    Apparently that’s illegal now (it seemingly wasn’t at the time) under Egypt’s new Constitution – pushed through by the Muslim Brotherhood, of course.  So the lady and her kids were sentenced to 15 years in jail.  The clerks who assisted her with getting new identity cards were also sent to jail (the length of their sentence wasn’t given).

    But don’t worry, folks. The current Administration knows exactly what they’re doing here.

    Yeah.  Right.  “Damn fools” is more like it.

  • Obama Press Secretary unsure if U.S. troops in Afghanistan are terrorists

    At a press briefing at the White House today a member of the press corps asked Jay Carney, in light of the Boston bombings, whether a U.S. airstrike earlier this month resulting in the unintended deaths of eleven people claimed to be civilians could be called an act of terrorism. In what seems to be been an unprecedented response the official public representative of the President of the United States declined to defend the American service members involved or draw conclusions as to whether or not they were committing acts of terrorism.

  • More Troops to Jordan

    The SECDEF has apparently ordered the deployment of 200 additional US troops to Jordan.  The troops will come from the HQ of the 1st Armored Division, and will apparently be heavy on communications and intelligence support personnel.

    The reason given by a Pentagon spokesman for the deployment of additional forces is to (1) assist the Jordanian military, and (2) “be ready for military action” should that be ordered by the POTUS.

    I hope this is just the Pentagon erring on the side of caution.  But as I’ve said before about the US and Syria:  “I’ve got a bad feeling about this . . . . ”