Victor Davis Hanson asks for a little foresight and planning from this administration of which, I suspect, they are utterly incapable, and in which they are not even disposed to engage.
Category Archives: War Commentary
My Goals For Our Libyan Adventure
They’re pretty limited, really.
I don’t really care who wins, as long as Colonel Whathisname loses. I think that attempting to influence the outcome of events beyond that are far too problematic, with poor prospects for success, and large prospects for quagmire.
But we need to remove this carbuncle from the backside of humanity once and for all, after more than four decades of his insanity and warmaking, particularly now that the president foolishly told him that his time was up, and that his behavior was “unacceptable.” To leave him in power after that pusillanimous action, with no plan to actually make it happen, would weaken us tremendously, in both the Arab world and the globe at large.
He needs to be reminded that actions have consequences — something that he seemed to have forgotten in the transition from Bush to Obama — and if he doesn’t live long enough to learn the lesson, then his successor(s) needs to know it. If we are to rid the world of tyranny, we have to get the proper incentives in place, and one of those lessons should be, if you want to enjoy a comfortable retirement, you don’t slaughter your own people when your rule is challenged.
[Update later morning]
Stephen Green: We seem to have gotten into this war without a strategy. Do we even have an objective?
What A Difference A President Makes
Thoughts on the new rush to war:
Just pointing out the obvious –
Like the comments in the BBC news section right now where you’d think no one had ever tried to put together a coalition of western democracies to depose an Arab tyrant who was abusing his population. And this one hasn’t even bothered to invade anyone recently.
From those comments one thing is clear – that was one well deserved Peace Prize!
Did these people never hear of Saddam gassing the Kurds, running over Shia with tanks to quell their uprising, or throwing his opponents in chippers?
Guess not.
I suppose that means my support for getting Saddam was “blood for oil” but my support for “Lyberation” is virtuous.
I just can’t figure myself out sometimes.
They told me if I voted for John McCain, we’d be bombing Arab countries while the supporters of the bombing promised that we’d be greeted as liberators. And they were right!
Yup.
“Overpowering Horror”
Some thoughts on what it takes to slit the throat of a baby:
…to live under the rule of Jews! This is a matter of great shame, an “overpowering horror” that justifies baby-killing in the minds of many (I’d wager most) Palestinians to expiate that shame. I suspect that part of the loathing other Arabs feel for the Palestinians stems from their view that the Jews made the Palestinians their bitches, to be vulgar about it, and no Muslim worthy of the name would permit such an inversion of the natural order to happen. The very notion that a Jew should command and a Muslim obey, that a Jew should ride while a Muslim walks, that a Jew should be armed while a Muslim is weaponless is simply an abomination — an “overpowering horror.”
Not that most would be able to do such a thing — human beings are hard-wired to recoil from slitting throats of three-month-old babies. But while in other circumstances the inability to kill babies would be seen as a good thing, in this case those Palestinians who can’t bring themselves to do that see it as a weakness — they wish they could muster the courage to murder Jewish babies, but unfortunately they can’t. So the second best is to lionize those heroes who do have the cojones to wipe away the shame of being subject to Jewish overlordship.
We underestimate the cultural war in which we are engaged at our extreme peril. I’m not sure I agree that it’s “most,” but it’s enough that it’s as big a problem as the Nazis were, in terms of having to break the back of a racist totalitarian ideology. And we’re not doing much along those lines. Instead, we pretend it doesn’t exist, or that it’s just a few “extremists,” and that we should give equal time to the KKK and murderers of abortion providers.
Iran Lies About Its Space Program
…and the AP buys it uncritically:
Iran says it has sent the country’s first space capsule that is able to sustain life into orbit as a test for a future mission that may carry a live animal.
The state IRNA news agency says the capsule was carried by a rocket dubbed Kavoshgar-4 – or Explorer-4 in Farsi – some 75 miles (120 kilometers) into orbit.
There is no such thing as a 75-mile orbit. That’s barely into space (the official altitude is a hundred kilometers, or about 63 miles), and there is too much drag to sustain it. If they have enough velocity to get to orbit, they’d also have enough to get to a decent altitude (at least a hundred fifty miles or so). This was probably a suborbit. If there was a launch at all.
I wonder if they bothered to confirm with the JSPOC? Maybe I will.
Lessons From Libya
To ensure that the president does not focus unduly on your war, schedule it while he is preoccupied with other matters: a Motown concert, a conference on bullying, his golf game, and finalizing his Final Four picks.
Consider restarting your nuclear program, since the conditions that caused you to suspend it are gone. At most, the president will form a committee of several nations to talk to you; he will consider more sanctions if the world speaks as one. You need not worry about his “deadlines.”
Teddy Roosevelt talked about speaking softly and carrying a big stick. This president thinks that you declare things “unacceptable,” and then go pick your brackets.
[Update a few minutes later]
The noose tightens. But not Barack Obama’s.
[Update a few minutes more later]
Some (uncomfortable) questions for Jay Carney:
1) What did the president mean when he said that Colonel Whathisname’s behavior was “unacceptable”? Has he changed it in any way for the better? If not, what does the president propose to do to not accept it?
2) What did the president means when he said that “the noose is tightening” around Colonel Whathisname? Was it around his neck, or his waist, or his wrist? Or his shirt that he’s since taken off? Is it still tightening, or is it loosening again?
Dead Jews Is No News
More thoughts, on the butchery in Israel and the ever-increasing European anti-semitism, from Mark Steyn.
While Japan Burns, Drowns And Melts Down
…and while Colonel Whathisname continues to slaughter the people over whom he rules, the president is focused on the serious things:
Via Mike Allen’s newsletter, we see in the first line how the leader of the free world will spend his day during this awful crisis:
President Obama is taping his NCAA picks today, and they’ll be revealed tomorrow on ESPN.
Okay, that’s not all he’s doing. “Obama will tape interviews from the Map Room with KOAT Albuquerque, KDKA Pittsburgh and WVEC Hampton Roads on education reform and the need to fix No Child Left Behind.”
Japan faces an almost unparalleled crisis, Libya is in civil war, and we’re having another budget showdown after running up a $222.5 billion deficit in the 28 days of February. And after last week’s bullying summit, Obama is spending this week talking education reform.
I have to say, though, that I actually agree with this comment:
I’m not sure if it is more dangerous for America that he do nothing or do something. Generally, if you have a dysfunctional child who lights fires all over the neighborhood, it makes you happy when he is just sitting in the corner scribbling on paper. Maybe we should just leave little Barry in the corner with his pencil and bracket sheet and count ourselves blessed.
In case any of you are wondering about my bracket, I don’t have one. Basketball is evil. On this there can be no dispute.
Raptors Of A Feather
It would be easy to think that Colonel Whathisname paid off Robert Mugabe, but I suspect that he just doesn’t like the potential precedent.
There Will Never Be Peace In The Middle East
…as long as we continue to turn a blind eye to butchery. Anyone who thinks that “settlements” cause this is disconnected with regional reality.