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

Category: Foreign Policy

  • Foreign policy by BDS

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    Earlier this month, we had Jimmy Carter in the Middle East conducting our foreign policy without anyone asking him to do so. He did his best to undermine the country’s standing in the world and accomplished nothing. Last year, Nancy Pelosi and a score of Democrat congress members did the same with Syria. Right before the Israelis bombed a nuclear facility Syria was building with another irrational member of the world community, North Korea. Carter and Pelosi both carried false messages (USAToday link);

    She said she brought a message to Assad from Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert that Israel was ready for peace talks with Syria. Assad gave assurances that “he’s ready to engage in negotiations for peace with Israel,” Pelosi said. She later left Syria, heading for Saudi Arabia, the next leg of a Mideast tour.

    Carter falsely reported (Associated Press link);

    Former President Jimmy Carter said today that Hamas — the Islamic militant group that has called for the destruction of Israel — is prepared to accept the right of the Jewish state to “live as a neighbor next door in peace.”

    Today we are treated to Bill Richardson, governor of New Mexico conducting his own foreign policy with Hugo Chavez; USAToday link);

    New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson told The Associated Press in a telephone interview that he plans to put forward a proposal for the release of the three U.S. defense contractors in the coming weeks and that Chavez is willing to work with him as a “primary mediator.”

    The Democratic governor met with Chavez on Saturday night to discuss the issue. The president did not release any statements following the meeting.

    […]

    Richardson, a former U.S. presidential candidate and energy secretary, said he was visiting Venezuela not as an official envoy but at the request of the hostages’ families.

    So what is it with Democrats? Are they so steeped in their hatred for this country that they want to undermine our foreign policy at every turn? Are they convinced that they’ll win elections by pandering to our enemies? If a Republican had done the same to a Democrat administration, they’d holler to high heaven.

    The Constitution charges the President as our sole head of state, and rested the faith of the people in his agents to conduct our foreign policy. But, Democrats have on countless occasions shown what they care about the Constitution. John Kerry tried to conduct his own foreign policy with North Vietnam, as a Navy officer, and a decade later with the communist regime in Nicaragua as a Senator with Tom Harkin.

    Jim McDermott and David Bonior tried to undermine US foreign policy in Iraq months before our attack on Hussein, and was possibly financed by Hussein. Their trip may have influenced Hussein to remain in power despite offers from the US to step down and caused the whole military operation.

    If Democrats really were concerned about our foreign policy, they’d get out of the way and wait for their own turn at bat instead of conducting their own foreign policy based on Bush Derangement Syndrome.

    UPDATE: More on Richardson’s visit to Chavez from Gateway Pundit, Jammie Wearing Fool and Fausta’s Blog.

  • Syria, North Korea were near nuclear bomb production

    Sara Carter and Nicholas Kralev of the Washington Times writes this morning thatthe Administration was convinced that Syria, with the help of North Korea were nearing completion of the facility before Israel bombed it last year;

    The Bush administration is set to tell Congress today that a nuclear facility in Syria built with North Korean help was nearly complete when Israel bombed it in September, but that Pyongyang has not provided any further nuclear assistance to the hard-line Arab nation, at least at that site, U.S. officials said.

    CIA Director Michael V. Hayden and other intelligence officials are expected to brief several congressional committees in closed-door sessions, breaking the administration’s silence on the issue. The facility has become a major issue in six-nation negotiations to end the North’s nuclear programs.

    “The belief is that the reactor was nearing completion,” said one official familiar with the content of the briefings. “It would have been able to produce plutonium.”

    The Washington Post provides more details. Apparently an Israeli informant video taped North Koreans inside the facility;

    A video taken inside a secret Syrian facility last summer convinced the Israeli government and the Bush administration that North Korea was helping to construct a reactor similar to one that produces plutonium for North Korea’s nuclear arsenal, according to senior U.S. officials who said it would be shared with lawmakers today.

    The officials said the video of the remote site, code-named Al Kibar by the Syrians, shows North Koreans inside. It played a pivotal role in Israel’s decision to bomb the facility late at night last Sept. 6, a move that was publicly denounced by Damascus but not by Washington.

    Sources familiar with the video say it also shows that the Syrian reactor core’s design is the same as that of the North Korean reactor at Yongbyon, including a virtually identical configuration and number of holes for fuel rods. It shows “remarkable resemblances inside and out to Yongbyon,” a U.S. intelligence official said. A nuclear weapons specialist called the video “very, very damning.”

    It also explains why Syria never complained much about the bombing – much less that the Sudanese complained about their aspirin factory getting cruise-missiled. Who knows what kind of crap Hezbollah would be firing into Israel today if production has continued.

  • Carter: Hamas ready for peace

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    Jimmy Carter is an idiot – that probably can’t be said enough. According to Associated Press, he announced that Hamas is ready to accept Israel’s existence. Isn’t that grand? That’s probably why they attacked Israel this weekend, within hours after their last talks with Carter.

    Former President Jimmy Carter said Monday that Hamas is prepared to accept the right of Israel to “live as a neighbor next door in peace.”

    Carter said the group promised it wouldn’t undermine Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ efforts to reach a peace deal with Israel, as long as the Palestinian people approved it in a referendum. In such a scenario, he said Hamas would not oppose a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza.

    Hamas, a militant Islamic group that both the U.S. and Israel consider a terrorist organization, calls in its charter for Israel’s destruction. It has also traditionally opposed peace negotiations with the Jewish state.

    Sami Abu Zuhri, a Hamas spokesman, later said Carter’s comments “do not mean that Hamas is going to accept the result of the referendum.”

    So what was accomplished? They won’t undermine Abbas’ efforts to reach a deal as long as the people approve it – but they reserve the right to ignore the referendum. So, actually, Carter got nuthin’ – except he’s written a new lie that Democrats can use to tell their sheep. That being that Hamas responds to negotiations – we all know it’s not true, but it sounds nice and it’ll probably fit on a bumpersticker somehow and that’s all that matters to the tiny-brained, drooling dolts.

  • Chavez writing Mugabe’s speeches?

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    Robert Mugabe celebrated Zimbabwe’s Independence Day surrounded by his army today and raged against the British Empire that was keeping the brother down (Yahoo/AP link);

    The scene at the official 28th Independence Day celebration Friday had all the pomp of old, with air force jets sweeping overhead and Mugabe, bedecked in sash and medals, striding past soldiers at attention.

    But any private observances by ordinary Zimbabweans were likely muted — prices for food, gasoline and drinks have more than doubled just in the past week amid an economic meltdown that has emptied store shelves and idled four of every five workers.

    “There are black people who are putting prices up, but they are being used by the whites,” Mugabe said, promising to tighten laws that set prices and to crack down on — and possibly take over — businesses that break the rules.

    Whites “want the people to starve so they think the government is wrong and they should remove it,” said Mugabe, who has ruled since independence in 1980 but who, according to independent monitors, failed to win re-election in the March 29 presidential vote.

    But since Mugabe has succeeded in running out most of the white people by seizing their farms and demonizing them in the past, that argument might not have the same weight as it might have carried in 1980 when the apartheid government was turned over to Mugabe.

    But every socialist needs a scapegoat. Hitler had the Jews, Stalin had the kulaks, Chavez has his oligarchy and Mugabe has the white devils, but since the white devils are dwindling in number, he has to blame Britain now too in order to make it seem plausible.

    It’s real damn funny how just a scant few weeks ago, the Left was telling us how our ally in the war against terror in Pakistan, Musharraf, had to hold new elections soon. Yet they don’t have a word to say against (avowed communist) Mugabe who may or may not have been beaten in an election (since his government won’t release the results, we can be pretty certain which is the real answer).

  • Jimmy Carter; Hugging terrorists so you don’t have to

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    Jimmy Carter places a wreath on the AIDS-ridden corpse containment system of Yassir Arafat

    Hamas is so bloody that when the Israelis walled them off from killing Jews in Israel, they turned on their Fatah supposed  allies, dragged many into the street and shot them in front of their families. Yet, here we are treated to this description of Nobel Prize laureate Jimmy Carter hugging one of their senior leaders from the Washington Times;

    At a reception in the West Bank town of Ramallah organized by Mr. Carter’s office, the former president hugged Nasser Shaer, a senior Hamas politician, meeting participants said. Embraces between men are a common custom in Arab culture.

    “He gave me a hug. We hugged each other, and it was a warm reception,” Mr. Shaer said. “Carter asked what he can do to achieve peace between the Palestinians and Israel … and I told him the possibility for peace is high.”

    Mr. Carter’s office refused to comment, saying he does not discuss closed meetings.

    I’ll bet he doesn’t comment – especially when the discussion of a closed meeting would include a narrative involving Carter dropping trou and bending over.

    Quoted in the Chicago Tribune, Carter explained why he made overatures towards Hamas;

     “Since Syria and Hamas will have to be involved in a final peace agreement, they ought to be involved in the discussions leading up to … peace,” Carter said.

    Israel was displeased;

    Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said Mr. Carter’s meeting with Hamas “dignified” a group committed to Israel’s destruction. “One cannot but wonder how this attitude is supposed to promote peace and understanding,” he said.

    Carter misses the primary prerequisite for reaching a peace agreement – both sides must be rational actors and they must have demonstrated a willingness in the past to keep their respective word. he should explain to the rest of us why we should trust anything that comes out of the mouths of Hamas or Syria.

  • Democrats side with terrorists

    The narco-terrorist marxist organization, the Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC) has been dealt some terrible defeats in recent weeks by the Colombian government and international cooperation. Colombia has been our greatest ally in the war against terrorists – a war they’ve been waging for over 40 years. The Colombians even foiled a plot to build a dirty bomb, recovering 30 kilos (of a suspected 50 kilo cache) of low-grade uranium on the outskirts of the Colombian capitol Bogata.

    But the US Congress is doing their level best to turn the fortunes in that war. President Bush sent Congress the US-Colombian Free Trade Agreement the other day with a 90-day time limit for Congress to pass this important FTA with our greatest ally in the hemisphere. However, Democrats in Congress are more concerned with their political patronage.

    From the Wall Street Journal;

    Mrs. Pelosi’s decision to confront Mr. Bush comes at a delicate time. Many in Washington are preparing for Democrats to make further gains in the coming election. But congressional Democrats face poor approval ratings and pressure to make progress on issues such as the housing crunch.

    Mrs. Pelosi rejected the White House charge that House leaders have changed the rules unfairly by holding up the Colombia trade agreement. “It’s all a question of who has the leverage,” she said. Moments later, though, she suggested that Democrats’ demands on the free-trade bill wouldn’t be so “onerous” that it can’t pass.

    On war spending, Mr. Reid said Democrats have a number of alternatives to consider. Among them would be adding an extension of unemployment insurance to an Iraq supplemental-spending bill expected to be debated later this spring.

    Another point of contention is an antiterror measure that would expand warrantless surveillance powers in the U.S. and give legal immunity to telecommunications companies that assist in eavesdropping.

    Democrats are eager to cast the White House and congressional Republicans as out of touch on the economy. White House officials in turn note that Democrats have accomplished little so far that would help on the specific problem areas, notably the housing sector. They are uncertain whether Democrats can ultimately pass anything meaningful, particularly given the close margins in the Senate.

    The article doesn’t mention that the Democrats are beholden to the partisan union thugs who vehemently oppose any free trade agreement for purely partisan reasons, clinging to the myth that the US economy is hinged on the manufacture of tiny plastic crap. Democrat patronage may influence the Democrats to fore go passage of the Panama and South Korea FTAs as well later in the year – for no good reason.

    Passage of the Colombian FTA would go a long way towards demonstrating to the Colombian people that we stand unfailingly with the Uribe government against the terrorists of FARC, but Pelosi and her supporters are more focused on damaging the Bush Administration than they are doing what’s right for this country and others.

    (Crossposted at Tall and Rich)

  • Jimmy Carter; the Damascus candidate

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    As is usually the case, the first I heard of Jimmy Carter’s impending visit to Hamas’ Khaled Meshal was from Little Green Footballs in Charles’ post entitled Jimmy Carter hits bottom, digs;

    America’s worst president will now apparently meet with the leader of an openly genocidal Islamic terrorist gang: Report: Jimmy Carter to Meet With Hamas Leader in Syria.

    NEW YORK CITY — Former President Jimmy Carter is reportedly preparing an unprecedented meeting with the leader of Hamas, an organization that the U.S. government considers one of the leading terrorist threats in the world.

    The Arabic-language newspaper Al-Hayat reported Tuesday that Carter was planning a trip to Syria for mid-April, during which he would meet with Khaled Meshal, the exiled head of the Palestinian terror group Hamas, on April 18.

    Well, I’m not surprised – he’s stroked-off every other blood soaked thug in the world. Samantha Sault rounds up bloggers’ opinions at The Weekly Standard Blogs;

    Carter may claim he is working for peace, but bloggers aren’t at all convinced. Allahpundit reminds us of Carter’s view of Israel, so it’s no surprise that he’d consider a friendly little fête with Hamas. Michael van der Galien agrees: “First Carter accuses Israel of being an Apartheid state, then he goes to meet with the leader of an organization [whose] sole purpose is to destroy Israel and to kill all Jews.” And at the American Thinker, Rick Moran adds, “Hamas’s latest peace offering was to send a gunman to a Jewish seminary and slaughter 9 innocent people. I’m sure Meshal and Carter will have a lot to talk about considering the former President’s previous statements about Israel being the biggest obstacle to peace in the Middle East are perfectly in line with Meshal’s own fantasies.”

    Who’s next? After all, as the Gateway Pundit says, “There’s never been a violent dangerous dictator that Jimmy Carter did not have friendly relationships with or prop up in some way, so it should come as no surprise that he is going to meet with the leader of the violent terrorist group Hamas.”

    Me? Everything that needs to be said about Jimmy Carter, I’ve said before and it’s earned Jimmy Carter his own category on this blog – knock yourselves out and see if what I’ve written before applies equally well this time.

    I’ll just add that I hope TSA checks his bulky overcoat real well when he comes back through US security.

  • Mugabe’s troops raid opposition offices

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     Photo from Reuters

    I guess it was too good to be true that Robert Mugabe would leave office without being a jackass (Associated Press link);

    President Robert Mugabe’s government raided the offices of the main opposition movement and rounded up foreign journalists Thursday in an ominous indication that he may use intimidation and violence to keep his grip on power.

    Police raided a hotel used by the opposition Movement for Democratic Change and ransacked some of the rooms. Riot police also surrounded another hotel housing foreign journalists, and took away several of them, according to a man who answered the phone there.

    “Mugabe has started a crackdown,” Movement for Democratic Change general secretary Tendai Biti told The Associated Press. “It is quite clear he has unleashed a war.”

    Biti said the raid at the Meikles Hotel targeted “certain people … including myself.” Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai was “safe” but had canceled plans for a news conference, he said.

    Biti said that Thursday’s clampdown was a sign of worse to follow but that the opposition would not go into hiding.

    So, we can expect the Islamic Republic and Venezuela to start making excuses for Mugabe any minute now.