…Hezbollah will take Beirut. Goody.
Category Archives: War Commentary
If Obama Is Reelected
US-Israeli relations could get worse.
As though we needed another reason not to reelect him.
Glad We Have A Competent President
Is North Korea collapsing? And has a civil war broken out in Iran? And is will Egypt become Somalia on the Nile?
We live in interesting times.
Arab Spring
Turns to winter for women.
Sell Out Taiwan
…for a trillion bucks? Why stop there?
This is such a stroke of genius that I suggest we extend its logic to other American allies. Let’s give Iran the OK to incinerate Israel in return for all the free oil we could use for the next century. Or why not give Russia the go-ahead to re-occupy Eastern Europe in return for all the vodka we can drink? And then let’s give North Korea permission to conquer South Korea in return for all the kimchi we can eat.
More geopolitical brilliance and smart diplomacy, courtesy of the New York Times.
The EU Proxy War
Who Lost Iraq?
Krauthammer, on the wasted opportunity.
More Of That “Smart Diplomacy”
Thoughts on the UNESCO fiasco:
For the U.S., the UNESCO vote was a debacle, with the assembled states voting 107 to 14 in favor of admitting the Palestinians, and 52 states abstaining. That would have been the moment for the U.S. ambassador to read UNESCO’s assembly the riot act and announce that the U.S. was pulling out, as it did in 1984, under President Ronald Reagan; returning only in 2003, under President George W. Bush.
Instead, the U.S. diplomatic message to UNESCO has been one of apology, regrets and fawning statements of support for a U.N. body that has just slapped the U.S. in the chops. U.S officials have even been hinting that they are looking for some kind of workaround, to get the money flowing again.
Insanity.
What George Bush Understood About The Middle East
…that Barack Obama does not. And probably never will.
Remaking the map in the Middle East:
So, with one fell swoop, Obama has redrawn the strategic map of the Middle East. Iran will have unfettered access from its own territory, across Iraq and Syria, all the way to Hezbollah-controlled Lebanon. The leaders in Iran could never have imagined such a comprehensive reversal.
The administration doesn’t seem to realize that we are war, or with whom. And you can’t “end” a war unless both sides want an end to it. But the other side wants to win.
[Bumped]
The Tragic Iraq Withdrawal
The administration never even tried.
[Update a few minutes later]
Though I’ve noted it in the past, this is worth commenting on again:
He also undercut his own negotiating team by regularly bragging—in political speeches delivered while talks were ongoing—of his plans to “end” the “war in Iraq.” Even more damaging was his August decision to commit only 3,000 to 5,000 troops to a possible mission in Iraq post-2011. This was far below the number judged necessary by our military commanders. They had asked for nearly 20,000 personnel to carry out counterterrorist operations, support American diplomats, and provide training and support to the Iraqi security forces. That figure was whittled down by Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to 10,000, which they judged to be the absolute minimum needed.
My emphasis. This is the standard rhetoric of the Democrats, and was very common throughout the war and particularly in the 2006 and 2008 campaigns. Their only solution to wars is to “end” them — we are never allowed to actually win one by the left, or even consider the possibility, and haven’t been since World War II.