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

Category: Foreign Policy

  • Finally, some reality for Iran

    According to Robin Wright at the Washington Post, the US government is planning on designating the Iranian Revolutionary Guards as a “terrorist organization”;

    The United States has decided to designate Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, the country’s 125,000-strong elite military branch, as a “specially designated global terrorist,” according to U.S. officials, a move that allows Washington to target the group’s business operations and finances.

    The Bush administration has chosen to move against the Revolutionary Guard Corps because of what U.S. officials have described as its growing involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as its support for extremists throughout the Middle East, the sources said. The decision follows congressional pressure on the administration to toughen its stance against Tehran, as well as U.S. frustration with the ineffectiveness of U.N. resolutions against Iran’s nuclear program, officials said.

    Well, it’s about-damn-time. The Post goes on to explain some of the US’ options on dealing with Iran;

    The order allows the United States to block the assets of terrorists and to disrupt operations by foreign businesses that “provide support, services or assistance to, or otherwise associate with, terrorists.”

    […]

    “Anyone doing business with these people will have to reevaluate their actions immediately,” said a U.S. official familiar with the plan who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the decision has not been announced. “It increases the risks of people who have until now ignored the growing list of sanctions against the Iranians. It makes clear to everyone who the IRGC and their related businesses really are. It removes the excuses for doing business with these people.”

    For weeks, the Bush administration has been debating whether to target the Revolutionary Guard Corps in full, or only its Quds Force wing, which U.S. officials have linked to the growing flow of explosives, roadside bombs, rockets and other arms to Shiite militias in Iraq and the Taliban in Afghanistan. The Quds Force also lends support to Shiite allies such as Lebanon’s Hezbollah and to Sunni movements such as Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

    It’ll also give the US the option of using force to shut down the Iran/Iraq border.

    I can’t remember where I read it now, but PPK terrorists in Turkish Kurdistan derailed a train last week that was delivering rockets and arms to Hezbollah in Syria and Lebanon from Iran. This wasn’t discovered until Turkish investigators searched the freight on the overturned train. How strangely silent the media has been on that little discovery.

    But really strange is discovering that Reuters has writers that can actually spell the word “terrorist“.

    I expect the Democrats, and especially Nancy Pelosi, our new diplomat to the Near East terrorist organizations,  to condemn this as being counter to the Iraq Study Group’s proposal that we talk with Iran until we’re blue in the face.

  • So why are we still buying from Asia?

    The latest product recalls of Chinese-made products (it’s toys this time) makes me wonder how much Americans will take before we wake up and start boycotting all of that cheap plastic crap and inferior food products and rolling crap boxes (otherwise known as Toyota, Honda, Hyundai, etc…) from Asia. All of the local news shows are absolutely giddy that they report shoddy merchandise – it fills every one-hour news broadcast at 6 and 11 and the standard ads “Why your child is turning purple – details at 11”.

    I’ll grant that if your child is sucking the lead paint out of his toy cars, you probably have bigger worries than lead poisoning right now, nonetheless….

    I’ve written before that my grandfather wouldn’t buy anything that said “Made in Japan” on it – but it was more than the fact that he still remembered Pearl Harbor. Everything that came out of Japan was crap. Toys made there broke before the first day ended, tools were absolutely useless and would strip bolts before they’d loosen bolts, their cars were tin cans on wheels that stalled every time they came to a traffic light.

    If you want to see what Toyotas and Hondas used to be, go to Central America – the cars they sell there are still crap boxes. The equivalent of a Corrolla sells for about $9000 new compared to the $15,000 price tag here – but it’s little more than a thin metal shell on four wheels with indoor/outdoor carpet strips glued to bare metal floor boards and barely enough power to get up to 45 mph.

    Hardly a day goes by that I don’t read about or hear about our huge trade deficit with Asia. Mostly from people who are driving those overpriced Toyotas and Hondas (called Lexus and Infinity) in their parking spots. “But”, they tell me, “most of those are made in the US.” Oh, yeah? Then why is it when I’m at Miami Beach I see these huge cargo ships with “Honda” and “Toyota” painted on their sides pulling up to the dock with a new shipment of crap boxes? If most of the cars with those brand names are made in the US, why is it profitable to bring more by boat?

    Cough syrup from China killed 60 Panamanians in 2005 because they put antifreeze in the cough medicine. Anti-freeze. Toothpaste from China was found in Dollar Stores in the US with anti-freeze in it. Anti-freeze. Was there someone in China that thought anti-freeze was safe enough to put in cough syrup and toothpaste?

    Wheat imported from China killed several pets in the US this year. Wheat? Why are we importing wheat? Don’t we grow enough wheat in our country that we have to import it from a third world backwater?

    Just last month it was discovered that China was putting anti-biotics in their shell fish exports. The danger there was that taking the anti-biotics made us resistant to the anti-biotic working when we really needed the anti-biotic to defens against disease later down the line. In other words, the Chinese were making sure that a biological attack would be more successful against us. Hyperbole? Perhaps.

    Ever read “The Sum of all Fears” by Tom Clancy? The 1995 book ended with a Japanese pilot flying an airliner into the Capitol Building during a Presidential address – prophetic enough for you? But the book was about a war between the US and Japan that began with product defects – cars the Japanese were importing here were killing people – and Americans got angry that inferior products were being imported and a trade war turned into a shooting war.

    Well, that’s fairly far-fetched, however, we’re apparently numb to the thought of intentionally defective and potentially dangerous products being inflicted on the American marketplace. We’re outraged at the thought that American companies would engage in business with these economic roques, but how about if we hold entirely responsible the actual cuprits and not accept the occasional “suicide” of various Chinese CEOs as proof that they’re cracking down on quality control. How many people will die in the next defective import disaster?

    The world sees the US as a huge cash register, how about we hold them to the same standard we hold domestic companies? It’s not our government’s fault that defective merchandise makes it to the shelves – it’s the fault of the consumer for not holding manufacturers and improters accountable – with our wallets.

  • Eugene Robinson; hyperpartisan bitter hack

    I’ve never hidden my disdain for Eugene Robinson, probably the worst columnist ever hired by any media outlet in the history of western civilization, and today will not be any different. His unmitigated drivel appears every week in the Washington Post  – it’s poorly researched and poorly written. And entirely partisan – right down to the punctuation.

    Today he tried to formulate a case against Karl Rove. Besides beginning the piece with childish bitterness and what he probably thought was a down-home witticism about the door hitting Rove in his behind (which came off like playground taunt more than witty), Robinson couldn’t help but play to the ignorant Democrat stereotypes of Republicans;

    Rove’s reputation as the great political thinker of his era took a severe beating in November, when, despite his confident predictions of a Republican victory, Democrats took control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate.

    But let’s give the man his due. Karl Rove managed to get George Walker Bush elected president of the United States, not once but twice. Okay, you’re right, the first time he needed big assists from Katherine Harris (speaking of lipstick) and the U.S. Supreme Court, but still. Honesty requires the acknowledgment that Rove was very good at what he did.

    Yeah, that pesky Supreme Court always ruling with the law instead of with the Democrats, and so what if Katherine Harris followed procedures – she should have just done what Robinson wanted her to do. How dare that woman wear lipstick!

    For crying out loud. Did hack Robinson have to troll through Democratic Underground archives to rekindle his misbegotten anger at the rule of law?

    The problem, of course, is that what Rove did and how he did it were awful for the nation.

    Rove announced he was quitting as White House deputy chief of staff in an interview with the Wall Street Journal, saying that while he knew some people would claim he was just trying to elude congressional investigators, “I’m not going to stay or leave based on whether it pleases the mob.” That’s the man, right there in that quote: Benighted fools who don’t blindly trust his honesty or fully appreciate his genius are nothing more than “the mob.”

    Hey, Eugene, notice how awkward that first sentence sounds? Was your editor taking the day off?

    And if you ever took the time to look at the Left from a nonpartisan perspective (that’ll be the day, huh, Genie) you’d see they look like a mob. They want to investigate legal activity by the Republicans, they want to impeach a President for doing his job within the confines of the law, they want to subpeona law abiding citizens to appear in front of their kangaroo committee hearings for no other reason than to please goofballs in pink boas – and goofball columnists at the Post. They waiting in drooling anticipation for Scooter Libby to go to jail and whine like two-year-olds when he doesn’t.

    When the same Constitution that has served us so well for more than 200 years gets in their way, they declare that we should rewrite it to suit them. When the Supreme Court rules against their nefarious sidestepping of the rule of law, we have to change the Court. Have you seen the weirdos and goofballs that show up at these leftist “rallies”? They’re a fricken’ mob, Genie.

    Rove didn’t invent “wedge” politics, but he was an adept practitioner of that sordid art. When Bush was campaigning in 2000, he proclaimed himself “a uniter, not a divider.” But the Bush-Rove theory of politics and governance has been divide, divide, divide — either you’re “with us” or “against us,” either you’re right or you’re wrong, either you should be embraced or attacked without quarter.

    No he didn’t invent wedge politics – that was your boys that did that. When Republicans won the 1994 midterms, it was the Left that was screaming that children were going to starve to death in their school seats, that Black churches were going to be burned in the South, that old people were going to be cast out into the street and forced to live on cat food.

    And I remember a time when George Bush tried to be a uniter – I remember him and Teddy Kennedy smiling while he signed the “No Child Left Behind Act” – and within days Kennedy was condemning the very same act he’d written himself. I remember nearly every Democrat in Congress voted for the PATRIOT Act, and then condemned it. I remember when every Democrat thought Hussein had weapons of mass destruction – but how many admit it now?

    Don’t hand me that crap, Genie. If Rove did anything, he made it politically costly for Democrats to propagate their lies. Grow the hell up, Junior.

    Yesterday, in remarks on the White House lawn, Rove praised Bush for putting the nation “on a war footing” after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. But that’s precisely what Bush failed to do. Rather than try to foster a spirit of national solidarity and shared sacrifice, he persisted with tax cuts designed to please his wealthiest supporters. Rather than engage critics of the war in any meaningful dialogue, Bush accused them of wanting to “cut and run.” Rather than actually practicing the bipartisanship he disingenuously preached, Bush governed with a hyperpartisan political agenda.

    A hyperpartisan agenda? I guess the word partisan has lost it’s currency with overuse so we have resort to fabricated superlatives now. Since when is letting working Americans keep their own money dividing America. And how is Democrats wanting to protect Iraqis from Diego Garcia not cutting and running? How is “Bring the troops home now” not cutting and running? What is there to discuss about that? Other than just caving into partisan hacks like yourself. 

    Let me tell you, you half-witted buffoon, if its at all possible for anything to be “hyperpartisan”, it’s policizing the war, it’s placing our national security, our standing in the world in jeopardy for a few votes, and a few kudos from the pink boa-wearing hags. It’s refusing to believe that there is a danger in the world that’s greater than the opposing political party.

    Hyperpartisanship could probably be personified by three Democrat Congressmen standing on the roof of Saddam Hussein’s palace and declaring that Saddam Hussein is a more honest broker than the President of the United States. Hyperpartisan, indeed.

    Rove’s new job will be to put lipstick on Bush’s hideous legacy — and, in the process, freshen up his own.

    History will do that, without Rove’s help. However, you and your ignorant, ranting shit-for-brains friends might want to ask Bill Clinton if he knows anyone at Revlon that can get you a deal on lipstick in bulk.

  • “What you are” versus “Who you are”

    Early last week I wrote about Barack Obama declaring to a conference of some racist organization that calls itself The Race that people of color are involved in some nebulous “Struggle” (apparently the “one Struggle” thing doesn’t translate well to baseball, though). This week I see the conversation is still about inconsequencial things like skin pigmentation.

    CNN’s Suzanne Malveaux asked Hillary Clinton if she is “black enough” to be the Democrat Presidential candidate;

    This campaign moment occurred Thursday before the Las Vegas convention crowd of the National Association of Black Journalists. CNN White House correspondent Suzanne Malveaux pinned back the former First Lady to explain how she could “sustain black support ” while running against an African-American. Ironically, thanks to Sen. Barack Obama’s mixed white and Kenyan parentage and campaign mischief, it is he who usually gets to field the “black enough” question.

    Malveaux is one of the most racist journalists to ever have her words read. And apparently fairly shallow – since she thinks that an accident of birth is the only qualification worthy of discussion in a presidential campaign. Clinton dodged the question – completely in character, too.

    Earlier in the weekend, Obama declared that he is indeed “black enough” to be president.

    With puzzlement and a touch of humor, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama weighed in Friday on a question posed by some in the black community about whether he’s ”black enough” to represent them in the White House.

    Clinton says she’s qualified to be President because she’s a woman, Obama says he’s qualified because he’s Black, Richardson says he’s qualified because he’s Latin, the media says Romney isn’t qualified because he’s a Mormon. What the Hell is going on here?

    Article II Section 1 of the Constitution list only these qualifications;

    No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States.

    No where does it mention race, sex or religion. So why is the media and particularly the Democrats so interested in these superficial qualifications? 

    What a person is is more important apparently than who a person is. Obama has lied in his campign book about events he claims shaped his poitical personae, Hillary is a congenital liar as we’ve seen from those dark years she spent in the White House, and Richardson couldn’t even run the Energy Department let alone the whole country – none of that has to do with race or gender – but we’re supposed to overlook these personality disorders because they’re members of a special protected class – protected by the laws of probability and the biology of birth.

    All of the Democrats, with the possible exception of Richardson, want to raise our taxes  (they say they only want to raise taxes on the rich, but we know from the 1993 tax hike that Democrats think even retirees on Social Security are “rich”), all of the Democrats want to sacrifice our national security for purely political reasons. Hell, Obama prefers to threaten our allies instead of our enemies. Hillary wants government to take over negotiation for our mortgages.

    But I guess all of that poor judgement takes a backseat to skin pigment and genitalia.

  • Guess life in Iran isn’t quite so rosy

    From reading the international press I got the impression that life in Iran was like living in a paradise (OK, I kid). Reading stuff that comes out of Chavez’ forays into the Ahmadinejad’s Islamic wonderland (or vice versa) like this from Truthout;

      “Venezuela and Iran have demonstrated that together, out of the reach of hegemony and American imperialism, they can work and improve,” Ahmadinejad said at the oil well in southeastern Venezuela.

        “For all the people who want to live free and independent, the message is that we can achieve this kind of victory. We are at the beginning of the path and we must know each other,” he said.

        During Ahmadinejad’s visit, Venezuela’s leftist president renewed his support for Iran’s disputed uranium enrichment program, which the United States and other Western countries fear would be used for the development of a nuclear bomb.

        The United States is pushing for sanctions to force Tehran to stop producing enriched uranium, which can be used both for nuclear power and atomic weapons. Iran insists that it seeks peaceful nuclear power to meet its energy needs.

        “We are with you president, we will defend the rights of the Iranian people,” Chavez, who has visited Iran several times, told Ahmadinejad.

    Do you mean rights like this from Kamangir:

    A new pro-polygamy bill has just been sent to the parliament by the cabinet. The bill eliminates the necessity of the wife’s permission for the husband getting married again. Labyrinth mocks the aspect of the bill which replaces the wife’s permission with only economic power [Persian].

    Or this one from Molten Thought:

    Taheri reports that, according to the head of the Contractual Workers’ Union, more than 25,000 members have been fired in the last four months, and more than 1,000 workers are being purged every single day. This is part of the mullahs’ vicious campaign against every possible source of open dissent against the regime. As you would expect in such circumstances, more and more workers are dying in “accidents,” some of which are not at all accidental, but cover-ups of assassinations.

    Or this little tale (from Saudi Arabia not Iran – but, well you know) from Confessions of a Closet Republican:

    Speaking to Arab News on phone from his cell in the Malaz prison, Mohammed said that after the woman received treatment and after he returned to Riyadh after three days in the Western Region, he was arrested after checking up on the woman’s health. In the woman’s apartment were three other women related to her.“I was glad to note that the lady was making steady progress,” he said. “While we were chatting, there was a knock on the door. When this lady opened the door, four or five Saudis, whom I had seen outside the building before, barged in. They accused me of being alone with the woman unrelated to me and suspected my intention behind this visit to her apartment.”

    Or perhaps this one from Zaneirani.

    Maybe Chavez would like to follow Iran’s example and order state-registration for bloggers?

    So exactly what rights are left for Iranians that Chavez can help defend from evil-assed America? The only “rights” that Chavez wants to defend is the right to oppose George Bush and the right to blame America for all your ills.

  • Ban ki-Moon; Hope at last for Haiti

    The UN’s Secretary General Ban ki-Moon wrote a piece this morning in the Washington Times celebrating that there’s “Hope at last for Haiti“. I hate to remind the new Secretary that there’s always been a lot of hope for Haiti, but not much progress. Ban writes;

    There may be worse slums in Haiti, but none so infamous for its violence and grinding poverty as Cite Soleil in the heart of the capital city, Port-au-Prince. Drinking water is scarce, public sanitation nonexistent. Most of its 300,000 residents have no electricity; fewer have jobs. The neighborhood’s mayor was blunt when I met him during my visit to Haiti last week. “Here,” he said, “we need everything.”

    And yet I also saw hope in Cite Soleil. At the mayor’s offices, a new local government is putting down roots in a community it long ago abandoned. Across the street, I toured a newly refurbished school. Youngsters greeted me, excited by the prospect of resuming their education. Nearby, young men played soccer.

    Good for them. I truly mean that, but whatever happened to the hope we had back in 1994?

    The day after former President Jimmy Carter helped negotiate the agreement to avert a U.S. invasion of Haiti, The Los Angeles Times described him as a person with “a preternatural patience and an unshakable faith in his fellow man.”

    But in the eyes of President Carter and The Carter Center, another factor was at work. The situation in Haiti exemplified how nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) like the Center can work with a government to prevent violent conflict and to promote peace and human rights.

    “President Carter was able to help the U.S. avert a war in Haiti because of the Center’s long history of involvement there,” said Marion Creekmore, director of programs at The Carter Center. “We try to be available to assist countries that are struggling to build democracy.”

    Thirteen years ago, the Carter-Clinton cabal negotiated away millions of US taxpayer dollars to pay off General Cedras and his cronies and they promised us that they would fix Haiti. Within months, Haiti fell off the media’s radar screen and our failures there never saw the light of day.

    No one published pictures of the hundreds of Haitians imprisoned on Guantanamo Naval Base in worse conditions than the current population enjoys. No one has bothered to mention the hundreds more that have landed on our shores in the ensuing years (the reason we were given for getting involved there in the first place).

    But not to worry, the UN has finally figured it out. I’m so relieved.

  • DEA report: Arabs immitating Mexicans

    According to Sara Carter of the Washington Times (upon whom I’m developing a crush, though we’ve never met, based purely on her journalistic production in the national security area in recent weeks), the DEA has released a report that Mexican drug smugglers are assisting Arabs to infiltrate the US;

    Islamic extremists embedded in the United States — posing as Hispanic nationals — are partnering with violent Mexican drug gangs to finance terror networks in the Middle East, according to a Drug Enforcement Administration report.

    “Since drug traffickers and terrorists operate in a clandestine environment, both groups utilize similar methodologies to function … all lend themselves to facilitation and are among the essential elements that may contribute to the successful conclusion of a catastrophic event by terrorists,” said the confidential report, a copy of which was obtained by The Washington Times.

    But the main reason that the Homeland Security Department was formed is still an ongoing problem;

    Lack of information sharing between U.S. intelligence agencies is creating a blind spot in the war on terror and has left the U.S. vulnerable to another attack, the report states.

    So what, exactly, is Homeland Security doing? This is discouraging, to say the least.

    According to a Department of Homeland Security intelligence report obtained by The Times, nearly every part of the Border Patrol’s national strategy is failing.

    “Al Qaeda has been trying to smuggle terrorists and terrorist weapons illegally into the United States,” the 2006 document states. “This organization has also tried to enter the U.S. by taking advantage of its most vulnerable border areas. The seek to smuggle OTMs [other than Mexicans] from Middle Eastern countries into the U.S.”

    So where’s our wall?

  • Iranians working in concert with Democrats

    In this Fox News story, US forces officials are admitting that many of the roadside devices that are killing our troops are manufactured in Iran;

    High-tech bombs allegedly supplied by Iran were used in 99 roadside bomb attacks in Iraq last month, American officials say.

    The powerful weapons, known as explosively formed penetrators or EFPs, accounted for a third of combat deaths suffered by coalition forces, the New York Times reported.

    Well, that’s not news, is it? We’ve all known it for a while (except for some commenters here who think that Pakistan should be bombed instead of Iran), so what exactly are we waiting for? The news report does bring up one interesting point, though;

    Lt. Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, the No. 2 commander in Iraq, told the Times he believes Shiite extremists have stepped up attacks in anticipation of Gen. Petreus’ upcoming progress report to Congress on the war.

    In other words, the Iranians know they can force a US withdrawal by making Iraq appear hopeless in a relatively short period of time by playing to the Democrats’ surrender dreams. We had Harry Reid calling the surge a failure before it’s even begun – how far will Iranians have to push him before he falls over? Not far, I’m guessing.

    And with the slow withdrawal of British troops around Basra, sectarian violence is increasing behind them;

    As British forces pull back from Basra in southern Iraq, Shiite militias there have escalated a violent battle against each other for political supremacy and control over oil resources, deepening concerns among some U.S. officials in Baghdad that elements of Iraq’s Shiite-dominated national government will turn on one another once U.S. troops begin to draw down.

    Three major Shiite political groups are locked in a bloody conflict that has left the city in the hands of militias and criminal gangs, whose control extends to municipal offices and neighborhood streets.

    Which is pretty much what will happen if we withdraw too soon – unless we clamp down on Iran…now! The Iranians know that Democrats are their best chance for turning the Middle East into a charred ember, for forcing their perverted form of extremely cruel brand of religious zealotry on the people that have been kept in the Dark Ages for a millenium by the backwards “religion of Peace” adherents.