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

Category: Foreign Policy

  • Biden rescues Poland from Russian hordes

    The Washington Times reports that just a few weeks after the Obama Administration shut down the Bush Administration’s missile defense plans for Eastern Europe, and after we listened to the “experts” tell us that a submarine-based system was more effective anyway, Joe Biden waded into the shallow end of the pool and promised the Poles an Obama missile defense plan of the ground-based genre.

    Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk emerged from a lengthy private discussion to announce that Poland’s participation in the missile defense system was, essentially, back on — though in a new format that involves delivering a smaller number of defensive weapons in 2018.

    Mr. Tusk said through a translator that he considered the revised proposal “a very interesting idea.”

    “We are ready to participate in this project,” he said.

    The hastily arranged vice presidential trip, which also will include stops in Romania and the Czech Republic this week, was intended to soothe relations and reassure the fledgling NATO members that the missile program was not being scrapped, and that the evolving policy should not be viewed as a snub or a weakening of U.S. security commitments to states in the region.

    Apparently, New Europe wasn’t buying the math of the sub-based plan, so Brilliant Joe had to go over and explain it to them. So where are the Leftists who normally protest these things?

    Somehow, I wouldn’t consider this reassuring if I were Polish;

    Noting NATO’s collective security pledge, Mr. Biden said: “An attack on one is an attack on all. And this strategic assurance is absolute. Absolute, Mr. Prime Minister.”

    “Make no mistake about it,” he continued, “our commitment to Poland is unwavering.”

    Well, our commitment won’t waver unless the Russians tell us to waver.

  • Clinton: some in US/Russia stuck in Cold War

    After Secretary of State Clinton folded like a Kmart lawn chair to the Russians yesterday on the issue of sanctions against Iran, she went to talk to Russian students, according to the Washington Times, and resurrected the old “stuck in the Cold War” myth the Left loves so much;

    “We have people in our government, and you have people in your government, who are still living in the past,” she told a hall packed with hundreds of students at Moscow State University. “They do not believe the United States and Russia can cooperate to this extent. They do not trust each other, and we have to prove them wrong.”

    She sounds real brave, doesn’t she? Clinton apologizes that Americans still don’t trust Russia because of the Cold War. But if you want to really point fingers at someone who has no real reason to mistrust the other side, yet loves the fear that mentioning the Cold War gets, it ain’t the US, doll. This from Breitbart/AP by way of Drudge;

    A top Russian security official says Moscow reserves the right to conduct pre-emptive nuclear strikes to safeguard the country against aggression on both a large and a local scale, according to a newspaper interview published Wednesday.

    Presidential Security Council chief Nikolai Patrushev also singled out the U.S. and NATO, saying Moscow’s Cold War foes still pose potential threats to Russia despite what he called a global trend toward local conflicts.

    Yeah, if we were really a threat to the Russians, we probably would have made our move 20 years ago when there was such confusion after the SOviet Union collapsed – certainly not now that they’ve recovered somewhat. Yet, Hillary blames the conservatives in the US. Shock, huh?

    “I chose partnership and I chose to put aside being a child of the Cold War. I chose to move beyond the rhetoric and the propaganda that came from my government and yours,” Mrs. Clinton said.

    The rest of us did, too, Clinton, until the Russians interceded in Georgia last year. We put the Cold War behind us, until the Russians decided to make an issue of defensive weapons in Poland. Why should they be worried about defensive weapons? Why are they now rehabilitating their first strike policy?

    Clinton has fallen into the same trap as her boss- trying to blame the US for everyone else’s mistakes. Jimmy Carter foreign policy.

  • Clinton gets us a hand full of jack

    Remember a few weeks ago when the Obama Administration threw “New Europe” under the bus by conceding to Russian demands that we end our missile defense plan of Eastern Europe? Remember that we were told that we needed to do that to get the Russians’ support for sanctions against Iran? Well, how’s that looking today?

    Secretary of State Clinton spent four hours with her Russian counterpart, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. The Washington Times quotes Lavarov;

    During a press conference with the secretary, however, Mr. Lavrov said that sanctions are “very far” from being inevitable and repeated a position Russia has expressed for years.

    “At the current stage, all forces should be thrown at supporting the negotiating process,” he said. “Threats, sanctions and threats of pressure in the current situation, we are convinced, would be counterproductive.”

    Actually, I agree sanctions wouldn’t work – but we were told that’s why we conceded to Russia on missile defense. So what are we getting for giving up our allies? Squat. how’s Putin’s ass taste, Hillary?

    In fact, the Washington Post wrings it’s hands over the vulnerability of the Administration to conservative critics at this point;

    Senior administration officials said that the differences were tactical rather than substantive. Both sides agreed that Iran would face sanctions if it failed to carry out its obligations, a State Department official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

    But failure to win a Russian commitment to a set of specific sanctions in advance could leave the administration vulnerable to Republican criticism that it gave the Kremlin what it wanted by overhauling missile defense plans in Europe but got nothing in return.

    Yeah, that should be their concern – conservatives. Never mind that we look like impotent tools in front of the whole world. You’d think that was bad enough, wouldn’t you? But, no it’s not. Fox News reports that Clinton gave the Russians access to our nukes.

    Russia and the United States have tentatively agreed to a weapons inspection program that would allow Russians to visit nuclear sites in America to count missiles and warheads.

    The plan, which Fox News has learned was agreed to in principle during negotiations, would constitute the most intrusive weapons inspection program the U.S. has ever accepted.

    Any mention of our inspections of Russian nukes?

    “We want to ensure that every question that the Russian military or Russian government asks is answered,” she said, calling missile defense “another area for deep cooperation between our countries.”

    But what about the Russians’ nukes, Madame Secretary?

    President Obama — who visited Russia in July — has vowed to “reset” U.S.-Russia relations. On Tuesday, Clinton apologized for missing that meeting because of a broken elbow.

    “But now both my elbow and our relationships are reset and we’re moving forward, which I greatly welcome,” she said.

    Um…Russian nuclear weapons inspections?

    Nuthin’.

  • German-flagged vessel busted with ammo bound for Syria

    Cuffy Meigs reported yesterday that US forces boarded a German-flagged ship bound from Iran to Syria with seven shipment containers of 7.62x39mm ammunition and the means to manufacture more. According to Cuffy, since Syria has it’s own means of manufacturing ammo, it was probably bound for Hezbollah.

    The contraband arms were off-loaded and secured in Malta, and the Hansa India is currently steaming off the coast of Lisbon, Portugal, presumably back to Germany.

    Don Surber writes;

    I would like to wait and see what transpired. Maybe Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government blew the whistle.

    All of this while Hillary Clinton is in Moscow trying to convice the Russians to help clamp down on Iran’s nuclear program. I suspect that Iran and Hezbollah is in the midst of creating another diversion from the nukes by provoking Israel to stage another invasion of Syria, since it was Gaza’s turn earlier this year.

    Israel Matzav writes;

    Earlier on Monday, I reported that Britain had decided to boycott Islamic Republic of Iran shipping lines. I guess now we know why.

    Ed Morrissey asks;

    What else do German ships transport into and out of Iran? What else have we not caught?

    Fat lot of good more sanctions to punish Iran will do.

  • DeMint reports on Honduras

    South Carolina’s Senator Jim DeMint went on a fact-finding trip to Honduras despite John Kerry’s opposition and writes about it today in the Wall Street Journal;

    In a day packed with meetings, we met only one person in Honduras who opposed Mr. Zelaya’s ouster, who wishes his return, and who mystifyingly rejects the legitimacy of the November elections: U.S. Ambassador Hugo Llorens.

    When I asked Ambassador Llorens why the U.S. government insists on labeling what appears to the entire country to be the constitutional removal of Mr. Zelaya a “coup,” he urged me to read the legal opinion drafted by the State Department’s top lawyer, Harold Koh. As it happens, I have asked to see Mr. Koh’s report before and since my trip, but all requests to publicly disclose it have been denied.

    Now, we’ve seen how huffy the Democrats get when a Republican Administration won’t publicize a legal opinion – why the hypocrisy? We can only assume that the opinion which the Obama Administraion is hiding from us is legally vacuous. The Obama Administration decided to back Zelaya (read that: Chavez) before the opinion was written.

    Honduras is scheduled to have presidential elections is just six weeks and the whole problem will be resolved – unless the kiss-asses at the US State Department and the OAS find a way to screw it up. Of course, they will.

    Fausta writes that Roberto Micheletti, the interim Honduran president of Honduras took an opportunity to school OAS reps the other day;

    “First, I wish to express unending thanks for the good will that you are showing . . . but we must speak out about something: the truth. You do not know the whole truth and, at times it appears that you do not want to hear it. Why don’t we begin to investigate what happened before the 28th of June?

    And Micheletti told the OAS reps what’s what. Let’s see if they listened.

  • Spanish senate files case against US/UK leaders

    I guess the Spanish Senate doesn’t think they have to deal with in their own country, they’ve decided they’re the standard of civility in the world and they’re trying to impose their will on the US and the UK;

    MADRID: Today the Spanish Senate, acting to confirm a decision already taken under pressure from powerful governments accused of grave crimes, will limit Spain’s laws of universal jurisdiction. Yesterday, ahead of the change of law, a legal case was filed at the Audiencia Nacional against four United States presidents and four United Kingdom prime ministers for commissioning, condoning and/or perpetuating multiple war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide in Iraq.

    This case, naming George H W Bush, William J Clinton, George W Bush, Barack H Obama, Margaret Thatcher, John Major, Anthony Blair and Gordon Brown, is brought by Iraqis and others who stand in solidarity with the Iraqi people and in defence of their rights and international law.

    Unfortunately, the only links I can find to the story all track back to the same article. I can’t find it on the Spanish Senate rather sparse agenda. Either way it’s a totally ignorant thing for an impotent country like Spain. I guess they don’t remember the fate of the Spanish Armada (the last time they looked over their gun barrels at the Brits), the Spanish-American War (when we were a third world country). Mostly they forget that the last time they surrendered to Islamic wishes, they were occupied for half-a-millennium.

  • Like babes in the woods

    I’m pretty sure the Obama Administration knew about the problems with Iran before they took the reins nearly ten months ago. So what’s taking them so long to develop a policy and design those sanctions they were so adamant about last year during the campaign? From the Washington Times;

    “Even as the administration focuses on diplomacy, we have also been working with our colleagues across the U.S. government to develop a strategy for imposing substantial costs on the government of Iran if the president determines that is what is needed to affect Iranian policies,” said Stuart Levey, undersecretary of the Treasury for terrorism and financial intelligence, in prepared testimony on Capitol Hill.

    In other words, when they made the decision to impose sanctions, someone didn’t just walk over to the file cabinet a pull a file that they’d been working over the last year. In my head, the folder would have said “Plan B” on the jacket. I guess they really did plan on ignoring our foreign policy for the first year.

    So, they’re moving with all deliberate speed to impose sanctions, right? Hardly;

    Nonetheless, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said late Monday that Tehran’s concessions in Geneva had put sanctions on the back burner for the moment.

    “It buys time,” she said in an interview with CNN. “It buys time for us to consider carefully their response, the sincerity of their actions, and, you know, we’re moving simultaneously on the dual track.”

    “Buys time” for who? Buys time for the Iranians to build their nuclear weapon and avoid sanctions.

    It’s almost as if the Obama Administration is hoping that Israel will strike Iran. Then they can breathe a sigh of relief that they didn’t have to commit to anything concrete – and then spend the next ten years condemning Israel for acting unilaterally.

  • Kerry blocks DeMint’s Honduras mission

    Senator Jim DeMint thought it might be a good idea for someone to go to Honduras and gather some actual facts about the situation there rather than sit back in Washington and make grand pronouncements. Well, John Kerry, who happens to be the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee says “nope” according to The Hill and DeMint’s office;

    “No U.S. Senator has yet been to Honduras to assess facts of crisis. [Kerry] & Obama admin using bullying tactics to hide truth,” DeMint, who also sits on the Foreign Relations panel, said on Twitter after he heard the trip would not occur.

    “@JohnKerry (Foreign Rel. chair) trying to hide truth to protect Zelaya, blocking our fact-finding trip to Honduras at last minute,” DeMint also tweeted late Thursday afternoon.

    DeMint’s office followed with a statement. “These bullying tactics by the Obama administration and Senator Kerry must stop, and we must be allowed to get to the truth in Honduras. Not a single U.S. Senator has traveled to Honduras to learn the facts on the ground.

    The first thing that came to my mind was Kerry’s little foray to Nicaragua along with phony soldier Tom Harkin in 1985. At the time Kerry said;

    “We believe this is a wonderful opening for a peaceful settlement without having to militarize the region. The real issue is: Is this administration going to overthrow the government of the Sandinistas no matter what they do?”

    My how things have changed, huh? Well, not really – Kerry is still supporting the communists over democratic opponents.