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

Category: Foreign Policy

  • How can we not act unilaterally?

    All I’ve heard the last six years is how “Bush The Cowboy” acted unilaterally against Afghanistan and Iraq and al Qaeda, in general. How could we not use the goodwill al Qaeda generated for us in taking potshots at us to gather a consensus worldwide to fight terrorism and evil…blah-blah-blah-blah! Well, let me ask these short-sighted imbeciles; what choice do we have besides acting unilaterally.

    Yesterday, President Bush told the UN they should do something about Myanmar or Burma or whatever it is today – a brutally repressive regime that the UN ignores (Bloodthirsty Liberal has a whole slew of posts on the situation there). There’s the Rawanda genocide, the Darfur genocide, Iranian and Syrian nuclear programs. Every single day I read from Little Green Footballs that “The Religion of Peace Strikes Again in Thailand“. Russia and China are ganging up, Venezuela’s Chavez is buying arms, suppressing opposition and forming military alliances at the cost of his own people’s living conditions.

    Anyone who reads Kamangir for a minute knows that Iran is a repressive government which squeezes the life out of it’s citizens daily.

    What has the community of nations done to ease suffering in North Korea? Besides pay-off the government to continue repressing their people.

    And who is stepping up? Where are all of the do-gooders who are sickened by these regimes and the absolute injustice? How can the US NOT be cowboys when the rest of the world is populated by pussies and pretentious pseudo-intellectuals who are willing to bide their time with useless sanctions and empty discussions while hundreds of thousands – no, millions – suffer daily.

    They suffer because they’re women, or because they’re the wrong color or the wrong religion, or because they want the right to speak freely, or because they’re gay – all of the reasons that these neo-liberals claim to be “their” issues, “their” reason to exist. And yet, they expect the Conservatives to do something about it, because they can’t summon the gumption to make the necessary decisions – it’s easier to let the suffering continue than to hitch-up their collective trousers and get off their dead collective ass.

    Who’s being the humanitarian here?

  • Chavez the gladiator battling the evil oppressor

    While the Ahmadinejad play fades into history, the other dwarf on the world stage is busy pumping up his stunted image with the willful assistance of the Associated Press;

    “‘Gladiator’ — What a movie! I saw it three times,” [Hugo Chavez] tells an Associated Press reporter traveling with him in a Toyota 4Runner, along with his daughter and a state governor. “It’s confronting the empire, and confronting evil. … And you end up relating to that gladiator.”

    The parallel is unstated but clear. To Chavez, the United States is the empire, and he is the protagonist waging an epic struggle to bring justice to the oppressed of Venezuela and the world.

    Yes, the United States and George Bush, in particular, have so interferred with Chavez plans to conquer South America, haven’t they? He’s a brave soul to stand up to such a fearsome enemy. Dumbass. So interferring are we that we’ve sent hack-actor Kevin Spacey to undermine Chavez’ grip on power (h/t A Columbo-Americana’s Perspective) ;

    Actor Kevin Spacey met privately Monday with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, one of Washington’s most outspoken critics in Latin America.

    Neither Spacey — who has won Academy Awards for roles in “The Usual Suspects” and “American Beauty” — nor Chavez spoke to the press after the nearly three-hour encounter in the presidential palace in Caracas. They shook hands warmly on the red carpet as Spacey left after a dinner with Chavez.

    Another in long line of failing Hollywood-types dipping their toe in world politics half-assed understanding the causes they’re supporting – or not supporting. I guess all that’s important is that Chavez calls President Bush “The Devil” – that’s as deep as they go.

    And honestly, that’s as deep as Chavez goes, too. He’s made shallow promises to nearly every nation in South and Central America none of which have come to fruition. Of course this all the fault of the United States;

    Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Sunday denied media reports that he clashed with his Brazilian counterpart Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva at a Thursday meeting, saying the United States was behind the reports.

    “That is the handiwork of the Empire, but it will never achieve its goal of making us fight,” Chavez said during his Sunday radio and TV show “Hello, President.”

    Chavez promises are now extending to Europe as well;

    Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez will visit France in November to discuss the fate of hostages, including prominent Franco-Colombian Ingrid Betancourt, held by Colombian Marxist rebels, the French President said Monday.
        “Mr. Chavez will visit France in November. I have spoken with him by phone three or four times over the past 15 days,” President Nicolas Sarkozy told reporters on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly session.
        Chavez has offered to mediate between Colombian President Alvaro Uribe and the Marxist rebels who are holding 45 hostages including Betancourt, who has dual citizenship, and three Americans.
        “France’s obsession is to have Betancourt returned to her family as soon as possible,” he added.

    And don’t forget that he’s still best buds with Ahmadinejad;

    President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his Venezuelan counterpart Hugo Chavez, in a telephone conversation on Monday, called for further promotion of Tehran-Caracas cooperation.

    President Ahmadinejad is currently in New York to attend the 62nd session of the United Nations General Assembly to begin on Tuesday.

    “Ahmadinejad and Chavez are two brothers who have joined hands at international arena to establish peace and tranquility,” the Iranian president said.

    Of course – that’s why Chavez has tossed out Christian Missionaries from the Venezuelan interior but allows Hezzbollah (the Syrian client terrorists of Iran) to recruit there.

    The Devil’s Excrement explains why Chavez makes long term plans with foreigners instead of his own people;

    The first few years of Chavez’ presidency, you could tell he was frustrated with economic issues, he did not know how to manage them, did not understand them and could not control them, in contrast with social and political issues where he could really understand what the people wanted and used it to his advantage, blaming the previous forty years for all the problems.

    Since then, Chavez has learned that you can lie, exaggerate and make up numbers on just about any subject, but it is precisely in social issues where he has to walk a very fine line, because the people are not dumb. You can’t fool people into believing there is no crime or it has not increased, no inflation and he has stopped it, no shortages or a boom in housing. Thus, Chavez avoids these subjects. Chavez never says “we have built so many housing units…”, he knows that if he exaggerates, some people will feel that they were left out, so it is better to say “We will build so many thousand units…”. In a year, nobody will check anyway.

    And that’s how he manages his foreign policy – he deals in vague statements, empty promises, crowd pleasing emotional outbursts. Full of sound and fury signifying nothing. Chavez is more like Alonso Quixano (ingenious hidalgo Don Quioxte, knight errant) than a gladiator and socialism is his fair and elusive Lady Dulcinea.

    Bloodthirsty Liberal just cracks me up with his Chavez posts – everytime.

  • Protest at National Press Club tele-luncheon

    A small group of protesters gathered outside of the National Press Club on 14th and F Streets in Washington DC today, a few blocks from the White House, to protest members of the National Press Club lending a forum to Iranian cheif thug Ahmadinejad.

    There were probably two dozen and they were able to attract some minor media attention (outside of the NPC, though, it seems they’d attract more) while members of the National Press Club were listening to the Iranian President’s 45-minute speech. It was supposed to be followed by 30-minutes of questions from the Press Club, but given Ahmadinejad’s responses the night before on 60-minutes, I suspect that each of his “answers” began with the question “Are you a Zionist?”

    Regardless, here are the pictures.

    They were the politest protesters I’ve ever seen in DC – but they still endured some insults from this guy and the guy whose back you see on the otherside of the door. The comments were something about “why don’t they protest Abbas” or some such goalpost movement. When I got my camera out to photo him, the guy who insulted the protesters turned tail and ran inside the Press Club.

    The security guard had a very boring day.

    Here’s a video of some of the press coverage of the protest. I suppose the members of the press club went in through the parking garage because I didn’t see anyone enter at this door or at the other door where I kept my vigil by the ashtray. It was a small protest by very well-behaved protesters – something the media habitually avoids.

    Kesher Talk and Atlas Shrugs have pictures of the protest in New York at Ground Zero. Little Green Footballs discovers that DailyKos diarist thinks Ahmadinejad sounds “entirely too reasonable”. Michele Malkin has the whole “Mahmoudapalooza“. Hot Air on the “no gays in Iraq” comment. Ace of Spades has Republican candidates’ reactions to the Columbia farce.

    A Columbo-Americana’s Perspective had the NYT Live blog if you missed the whole thing like I did. She also has more pictures of the signs – Kate’s my protest buddy – she keeps me in line and out of jail.

  • Ahmadinejad short and stout

    Yes, it’s all about the Iranian President these days. The US is finding more evidence that we’re already at war with Iran while their head of state can’t summon the courage to admit it;

    Military spokesman Rear Adm. Mark Fox said U.S. troops were continuing to find Iranian-supplied weaponry including the Misagh 1, a portable surface-to-air missile that uses an infrared guidance system.

    Other advanced Iranian weaponry found in Iraq includes the RPG-29 rocket-propelled grenade, 240 mm rockets and armor-piercing roadside bombs known as explosively formed penetrators, or EFPs, Fox said.

    Iran has denied U.S. allegations that it is smuggling weapons to Shiite militias in Iraq, a denial that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad reiterated in an interview with CBS’ “60 Minutes” aired Sunday.

    “We don’t need to do that. We are very much opposed to war and insecurity,” said Ahmadinejad, who arrived in New York Sunday to attend the U.N. General Assembly. “The insecurity in Iraq is detrimental to our interests.”

    We were at war with bin Laden for a decade before anyone recognized it, too. Kat-Missouri at Ace of Spades thinks this is the final confrontation that Ahmadinejad has been hoping for. Boker Tov, Boulder! says NYT banishes Ahmadinejad to the Metro section and quotes Ahmadinejad hatin’ in his own words.

    Meantime, the Iranians have shut down the border between Iran and the Kurds;

    Iran closed major border crossings with northern Iraq on Monday to protest the U.S. detention of an Iranian official the military accused of weapons smuggling, a Kurdish official said.

    At least four border gates have been closed and one remains open, the governor of the Kurdish province of Sulaimaniyah, Dana Ahmed Majeed, told The Associated Press. The move threatens the economy of Iraq’s northern region – one of the country’s few success stories.

    In Tehran, the public relations department in Iran’s Interior Ministry said no decision had been taken to shut the border.

    But Kurdish authorities said the Iranians began shutting down the crossing points late Sunday near the border towns of Banjiwin, Haj Omran, Halabja and Khanaqin.

    The closings came four days after U.S. troops arrested an Iranian official during a raid on a hotel in Sulaimaniyah, 160 miles northeast of Baghdad.

    The Iranians are so untrustworthy that they can’t even admit when they close the border – something people can see with their own eyes.

    Yesterday I linked up a Columbia students’ plea for Ahmadinejad to speak, but I wonder how those same students feel about the Iranian government closing down an Iranian website critical of the little fella?

    Iran’s judiciary has sealed off the offices of a popular news Web site critical of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s policies after journalists continued to update it despite official filtering, the Web site said.

    Rights groups and diplomats say there is a broad crackdown on dissenting voices in the Islamic state, which is under growing Western pressure over its disputed nuclear programme. The authorities deny such moves, saying they allow free speech.

    Blocking access to Baztab.com earlier this year was seen as part of the clampdown. Updates to the Web site, which is published in English and Farsi, were still available to Internet users outside Iran until the offices were sealed.

    The last item on the Web site carried the headline: “The wish of the presidential office was realised and Baztab’s offices were sealed off”. The site, when accessed via a link outside Iran, indicated it was last updated on Sept. 23

    Kamangir reports more on Baztab and adds;

     It is quite hillarious to remember Ahmadinejad’s claim that “Complete freedom exists in Iran and all individuals and groups can express their ideas

    He claims a right to speak out against our president and our policies in our own country, but denies his own people the right to do the same. And just as with Chavez, the American left defends behavior from the Iranian government that would send them into hyperdrive if it happened to them here.

    The Washington Times editorial board suggests questions that Columbia University students should ask the Iranian President;

     But in the event that anyone at Columbia seriously decides to challenge him, it would be nice to ask him things like: Why have you called the Holocaust a “myth” and a “sheer historic lie?” Why did you invite “scholars” like former Ku Klux Klan Imperial Wizard David Duke to Iran last year for a Holocaust-denial conference? A senior adviser to you and Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has talked about a strategy for the destruction of Anglo-Saxon civilization “by means of our suicide operations or by means of missiles.” Is this part of your government’s message of “peace?”

    Of course, I won’t be holding my breath waiting for the answers – nor will I wait for anyone allowed into the “forum” to summon the testicular fortitude to ask the questions. The Wall Street Journal even reports that some low-profile Democrats are miffed at Columbia University offering the forum to the little terrorist;

    But critics like Christine Quinn, Democratic speaker of the New York City Council, counter that the prestige of the institution offers the Iranian leader too high a perch. “He can say whatever he wants on any street corner — but should not be given center stage at one of New York’s most prestigious centers of higher education,” Ms. Quinn wrote Mr. Bollinger in a letter last week.

    Some lawmakers bemoan that Mr. Ahmadinejad and his delegation were even granted a visa to come to New York, a step the U.S., as host to the U.N., is essentially obliged to take.

    And the Republican New York Speaker of the Assembly threatened to cut off Columbia from the state teat;

    In an interview with The New York Sun, the speaker of the Assembly, Sheldon Silver, said lawmakers, outraged over Columbia’s insistence on allowing the Iranian president to speak at its World Leaders Forum, would consider reducing capital aid and other financial assistance to the school.

    Israel Matzav responds to the CU Alumni Association. Judith at Kesher Talk has the scivvy on today’s protests and a couple of photos of some of Ahmadinejad’s supporters here. Gateway Pundit reports that anti-Ahmadinejad ads don’t get the same discount rate at the NY Times as anti-Petraeus ads.

    Well, I’ll be in front of the National Press Club this morning where there’s supposed to be a protest against Ahmadinejad’s tele-luncheon (I’m guessing it’ll be in the club’s First Amendment Room on the top floor – if that’s not enough irony for you). The NPC website says their conference will start at noon- Ahmadinejad will speak for a half hour and take 45 minutes of questions from the assemblage. I can only imagine what those questions will be. Sort of like the 60 Minutes interview last night (I couldn’t watch the interview – the Giants were busy holding back the ‘Skins at the two yard line);

    Wallace tried to ask him about Hezbollah’s use of missiles, rockets furnished by Iran, but he wanted to talk about Israel’s attacks with American bombs.

    “The laser-guided bombs that have been given to the Zionists and they’re targeting the shelter of defenseless children and women,” the president said.

    “Who supports Hezbollah?” Wallace asked. “Who has given Hezbollah hundreds of millions of dollars for years? Who has given Hezbollah Iranian-made missiles and rockets that is making — that are making all kinds …” he continued as he was interrupted.

    “Are you the representative of the Zionist regime? Or a journalist?” Ahmadinejad asked Wallace.

    “I’m a journalist. I am a journalist,” Wallace replied.

    “This is not journalism, sir. Hezbollah is a popular organization in Lebanon, and they are defending their land,” the president said. “They are defending their own houses. And, according to the charter of the United Nations, every person has the right to defend his house.

    “What I’m saying is that the killing of innocents is reprehensible. And making this — the displacement of people and making them refugees, again, is reprehensible,”

    Pamela Geller of Atlas Shrugs has more on the ’60 Minutes’ interview. 

    Because I’m not a member of the NPC nor an “accedited” member of the press, I’ll just be standing on the corner taking pictures and reporting back to ya’all. Ya know, like the accedited media should be doing. I expect I should have pictures up by about 2PM today if anyone is interested.

  • It’s nice to have friends again

    The Washington Times reports that France is preparing to join the US in tougher sanctions against Iran;

    France and the U.S. are in strong agreement on the need for more sanctions against Iran if it does not halt its drive to obtain nuclear weapons, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said yesterday.

    Miss Rice and visiting French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said they would keep pushing the U.N. Security Council to approve a third round of sanctions against Iran over its nuclear programs, and Mr. Kouchner said this week he also favored new European Union action against Tehran.

    “I think that there is essentially no difference [between the U.S. and France] in the way that we see the situation in Iran and what the international community must do,” Miss Rice said after a working lunch at the State Department with her French counterpart.

    But that’s not all;

    Bloomberg News reported yesterday that Germany may soon follow France’s lead in backing tougher U.N. action if Iran fails to cooperate.

    Ruprecht Polenz, head of the German parliament’s foreign-affairs committee and a member of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union, told the news service in an interview “it now seems legitimate to consider raising the stakes” for Iran.

    Germany has recently tightened controls on some sensitive military and high-tech exports to Iran.

    So, apparently, President Bush is a visionary and a man ahead of his time – Old Europe is just catching up to him. That must really torque off the Left – well, as soon as they figure out what this week’s events mean. 

    Oh, and the other day, Saudi Arabia joined the UN’s IAEA board;

     Saudi Arabia and other US allies were among 11 countries named to the UN watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency’s 35-nation board of governors on Thursday.
     
    US allies like Ireland and the Philippines were among the incoming 11 while US adversaries Cuba and Syria were among the outgoing states, part of a regular rotation of board members.

    This could make things easier for the United States on the IAEA board, which rules on Iranian compliance with the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), diplomats said.

    So, I guess this why Ahmadinejad wants to make a spectacle of himself in New York next week, to show the world how the US persecutes his barborous ass.

  • Head jihadist at Columbia U. – finally we’ll hear him speak

    Yesterday I wrote that Ahmadinejad scrapped plans to visit Ground Zero and that now instead, he’ll poison young minds at Columbia University. First, I should warn him that it’s not a target-rich environment – for young minds, that is.

    Watching the evening news, I heard comments from CU students like “I think it’s cool!” I’m sure the young airhead’s parents were excited to hear such an analysis coming from the mouth attached to the brain that they’re spending tens-of-thousands of dollars to fertilize.

    Michele Malkin tells us that there’s a protest planned for the little buckethead at CU. Bill Kristol recommends a boycott.

    But the protesters needn’t worry – apparently the university president has promised that he’ll ask the Iranian president hard-hitting questions and not allow him a free rein of the ideas in the room.

    I’m sure we’ll hear the answer to all of the questions we’ve been wondering – like “Does your beard ever get real itchy?” and “I’ll bet you’re real comfortable not having to wear a tie like we infidels must, aren’t you?”

  • So how’s that appeasement working out for you, Zapatero?

    With a hat tip to Lady Vorzheva, the Spanish Pundit, I see Spain has terrorist problems despite the fact that El Presidente Zapatero won his election by promising to appease al Qaeda and leave Iraq (AP);

    Spanish police and the FBI arrested two Pakistani nationals in a joint operation in Madrid and Barcelona on suspicion of being involved in financing international terrorism, the Interior Ministry said Thursday.
     
    The men, identified as Anar Muhammad Shan and Preces Mehmood Sandhu, were also held on suspicion of belonging to a terrorist organization, a ministry statement said.

    But, according to the AP story, this isn’t the first time;

    Eleven Pakistanis were acquitted in May of plotting to blow up buildings in Barcelona, although five were found guilty of lesser charges.

    The 11 were arrested in September 2004 and prosecutors maintained the defendants had been planning to attack high-rise buildings and a shopping center in Barcelona. The National Court acquitted them for lack of evidence, but convicted three of sending sent money to Muslim extremists and two of forging documents.

    Lady V asks;

    Zapatero says that “the menacing message from Al-Qaeda is not new“. Yeah, that’s true. But you assured every Spanish citizen that Al-Qaeda was interested in attacking Spain because we were in Iraq. Now we aren’t. So what are we going to do now? What and who are we going to cave in this time….

    She also quotes from an anonomous Frenchman in le Figaro;

    Till now, the menaces were adressed mainly to the Americans. How can we explain that Al-Qaida targets now the Franch and Spanish in the Maghreb?

    How indeed?

    The arrests in Spain seem to have been coordinated with the US, according to this AP article in the Washington Times that announced there were 39 arrests worldwide;

    Raids were conducted yesterday in Maryland, the District, New Jersey and Spain, authorities said.

    Thirty-two of the 39 indicted had been arrested as of yesterday afternoon, said Marc Raimondi, a spokesman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The U.S. District Court clerk’s office said it did not have records of lawyers being assigned to the defendants.

    Maybe Spain should take a lesson from Pakistan;

    Osama bin Laden on Thursday called on Pakistanis to wage holy war on their President, saying in a new recording that it was their religious duty to overthrow General Pervez Musharraf for his alliance with the US against Islamic militants.

    But Pakistan dismissed the same, taking a vow instead to cleanse its soil of extremists and terrorists like the al-Qaeda.

    “If someone is hurling threats at us, that is their view. The whole nation is behind us and the Pakistan army is a national institution,” Pakistan military spokesman Major General Waheed Arshad said.

    ”We are already committed to fighting extremists and terrorists — there is no change in our policy,” he added.

    They’re coming anyway, ya might as well go down fighting. Emiliano Zapata said “It’s better to die on your feet than to live on your knees”.

  • Iran/China/Syria/North Korea; the new Axis

    Have you ever woke up in the morning and feel like you’re living in a Tom Clancy novel? That’s the feeling I get today. Yesterday, I read from Gateway Pundit and Bloodthirsty Liberal about the most recent murder of an anti-Syrian legislator in Lebanon;

    Anti-Syrian Lebanese politician was murdered today in a bombing!
    A 40-kilogram strong car bomb killed anti-Syrian Christian leader Antione Ghanem and eight others six days before the Lebanese Parliament is scheduled to meet to elect a new president.

    And today from Spanish Pundit and Breitbart about Iran’s admission that China is supporting their nuclear program;

    Iran’s interior minister said China renewed its support Friday for negotiations over his country’s disputed nuclear activities, and he warned that new U.N. sanctions could force Tehran to adopt “other means.”

    From Kamangir and Crotchety Old Bastard, the US is kowtowing to that berserker Amadinejad and contemplating his tour of Ground Zero. Kamangir, the Iranian says;

    Ahmadinejad must not be permitted to get close to where the twin towers used to stand?

    The NYPD says ‘no’, but he claims he’ll go anyway. Either way, he’ll be a welcomed speaker at Columbia University.

    From Free Korea, (h/t Gateway Pundit), North Korea and Syria are linked, too;

    The details of the claims are vague, but one source told FOX News in late August that the North Koreans had sold the Syrians a nuclear facility, most likely related to uranium enrichment. Enriched uranium is necessary both for nuclear power and nuclear weapons uses. The United States accuses Syria of assisting terrorist groups including Hezbollah.

    And so, it comes full circle – there is a global conspiracy against American interests, but Democrats would prefer to talk about healthcare and the minimum wage instead of facing the reality that we are under attack worldwide, that it’s been going on for sometime and Democrats are unwilling to recognize that there’s a problem, let alone formulate a plan for doing something. From Breitbart;

    Former President Jimmy Carter said Wednesday that it was almost inconceivable that Iran would “commit suicide” by launching missiles at Israel.  

    From the guy who figured it was inconceivable that Khomeini would succeed in taking over Iran. He’s really got his finger on the pulse of stuff, huh? And we need to put some more of those dimwits in a position of power.

    Speaking of Iran, Kamangir has caught the Islamic Republic in another lie.