Posts filed under 'Foreign Affairs'
And without a massive charge to the taxpayers or media hoopla about a messianic speech in Berlin:
Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin will meet with foreign leaders next week at the United Nations, a move to boost her foreign-policy credentials, a Republican strategist said.
Republican candidate John McCain plans to introduce the Alaska governor to heads of state at the opening of the U.N. General Assembly, although specific names weren’t yet firmed up. “The meetings will give her some exposure and experience with foreign leaders,” the strategist said. “It’s a great idea.”
McCain and Palin are expected to visit the U.N. on Tuesday, when President George W. Bush will address the international body.
Since her nomination, Palin has energized the Republican base, drawn huge crowds and propelled fund-raising. However, Democrats have attacked her as weak on foreign policy experience. Even on last week’s “Saturday Night Live,” actress Tina Fey spoofed Palin’s assertion that she is familiar with issues involving Russia, noting that Alaska is nearby. “I can see Russia from my house!” Fey-as-Palin said.
But McCain advisers hope her U.N. visit will show how quickly Palin can make key connections and become well-versed in foreign-policy issues.
In my view, meeting foreign leaders is over-rated - once upon a time, a US President simply wouldn’t leave the United States during his term; diplomacy was handled by diplomats. Treaties were worked out in consultation between diplomats and the President and once agreed to they were submitted to the Senate for ratification. It all worked pretty well - and as varied meetings, at varied times, between Woodrow Wilson, David Lloyd George, Georges Clemenceau, Winston Churchill, Adolf Hilter, Josef Stalin, Chiang Kai-shek, Neville Chamberlain, Benito Mussolini, Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Harry Truman produced pretty much nothing but disaster, I can assert with some strength that direct meetings between leaders cause more problems than they solve. In counter balance to this, we have the meetings between Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev….but the chances that the level of wisdom in those two men would be duplicated elsewhere by others is rather slim, even with the best of intentions.
But Governor Palin will meet some - and it will at least give her a grounding in the sort people she’ll have to deal with in global affairs. It will also give her at least as much foreign policy experience as Obama, who has nothing but the aforementioned trip to Europe a couple months ago on his foreign policy resume’.
Tags: 2008 Campaign, Sarah Palin
September 17th, 2008
This is, well, nauseating:
U.S. vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin’s loving and highly-publicized acceptance of her Down’s syndrome child Trig has some Canadian doctors worried that her example may lead to mothers shunning abortion after diagnosis of Down’s syndrome.
According to the Globe and Mail, Dr. Andre Lalonde, executive vice-president of the Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada (SOGC), is worried that Palin’s decision to give birth to Trig, despite knowing about his condition, could influence other women in similar situations, but who lack the financial and emotional support that Palin had access to.
“The worry is that this will have an implication for abortion issues in Canada,” he said.
Citing his concern for women’s “freedom to choose”, Lalonde said that popular examples about women like Palin, who choose not to kill their unborn children, could have negative effects on women and their families, reported the Globe.
However, Lalonde said that doctors in Canada give balanced information about the consequences of the condition to pregnant women with a Down’s child, and that women are not necessarily encouraged to abort. “We offer the woman the choice. We try to be as unbiased as possible,” Lalonde said. “We’re coming down to a moral decision and we all know moral decisions are personal decisions.”
Krista Flint, executive director of the Canadian Down Syndrome Society, however, disagreed with Lalonde’s claim that pregnant women are given balanced information about the condition: “Many of the country’s medical professionals only give messages of fear to parents who learn their baby will be born with the genetic condition.”
Only in the sick, twisted world of the culture of death could there be a concern that having a Down’s Syndrome baby - as opposed to killing it - might provide a “bad example”.
I really don’t know what to say here - I don’t know, at this moment, how I am to love those in the culture of death who would think such things…it is, some times, very hard to do so, though I must do it. Why on Earth would anyone want to be a person who is worried that a woman might not choose to abort? How do you get like that? On second thought, I don’t even want to know….
Tags: abortion, Canada, culture of death, Culture of Life, Sarah Palin
September 14th, 2008
Making dreams come true seems to be the norm these days for our wonderful men and women in uniform. Security and responsibility for the Anbar Province in Iraq was handed over to the Iraqis today.
“This would have been a dream two or three years ago. This was the cradle of Al Qaeda.”
– Mowaffak al-Rubaie, Iraq’s national security adviser
At the same time, the success of the surge can be seen through the dramatic drop in civilian casualties:
This invaluable chart is provided by Professor John Wixted’s “Back Talk” blog, who concludes thusly:
“No matter how you slice it, the troop surge has been an almost unbelievable success . . . There is no escaping the fact that when it mattered the most, Obama strongly supported abandoning Iraq to the wolves of al Qaeda. That’s definitely not the judgment we need.”
Tags: Iraq Campaign, Judgement, National Security
September 1st, 2008
The news story:
A U.S. military ship loaded with aid docked at a southern Georgian port Wednesday, and Russia sent three missile boats to another Georgian port as the standoff escalated over a nation devastated by war with Russia.
Georgia’s government said its short war with Russia had caused $1 billion in damages, while European leaders called the Kremlin’s moves in two breakaway Georgian regions an unacceptable attempt to unilaterally redraw the map of the Caucasus region.
The dockings came a day after Russian President Dmitry Medvedev recognized the Georgian territories of South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent states, which Georgia answered Wednesday by recalling all but two diplomats from its embassy in Moscow.
The U.S. Coast Guard cutter Dallas, carrying 34 tons of humanitarian aid, docked in the Black Sea port of Batumi, south of the zone of this month’s fighting between Russia and Georgia. The arrival avoided Georgia’s main cargo port of Poti, still controlled by Russian soldiers.
Why the Coast Guard? Probably has to do with the mission being more humanitarian than military (Dallas has one 76mm gun and one Phalanx anti-missile gun) and, also, its rather tricky to send combat ships through the Dardanelles. Still, its a sign that we remain committed to Georgia and any American forces in Georgia lessens the likelihood of further unprovoked Russian aggression.
But it is dangerous, and we should say a prayer for our men and women now in harms way in that corner of the world - Russia under Putin has proven itself irresponsible and dangerous, so we cannot rely upon the Russians applying common sense to the issue. They may strike again, and may even deliberately strike our forces in some bizarre attempt to teach us a lesson, or some such chest-thumping by the Bear.
Also good to keep in mind: the world is a dangerous place, and the White House is no place for a heretofor empty suit to learn the ropes.
Tags: Georgia, Putin, Russia, South Ossetia, US Military
August 27th, 2008
Food for thought as Christians and Moslems start a series of meetings to discuss the shared beliefs of the two faiths:
Christian and Muslim leaders from around the world met this summer at Yale University for the first of four conferences to discuss “the foundational principles” of the two faiths…
…Last fall, 138 Islamic leaders from forty nations sent a letter, “A Common Word between Us and You,” addressed to the pope and other Christian leaders worldwide. The twenty-nine-page letter invited Christians to meet with Muslims on the basis of “what is common to us and most essential to our faith and practice: the Two Commandments,” i.e., love of God and love of neighbor…
…Many are ready to dismiss this … as mere piety or naivete. They should reconsider: The history of democracy in the West owes a great debt to these two commandments. Secular-minded historians and political scientists would like us to believe that democratic ideals emerged from the triumph of Enlightenment thought—in opposition to Christian doctrine. In fact, the Biblical concepts of human dignity and equality supplied the philosophical pillars of liberal democracy, especially in the Anglo-American tradition. Ministers on both sides of the Atlantic, for example, regularly cited the golden rule—what they called “the great rule of equity”—to argue for religious toleration and equal justice under the law.
Are the Christian leaders who gathered at Yale familiar with this history, and are they willing to press its lessons upon their Muslim guests? Participating groups such as the liberal National Council of Churches have shown scant interest in defending the persecuted church, the principle of religious freedom, or the democratic institutions that sustain it. Yet if Muslims are serious about the golden rule, they must explain why the governments of most Islamic states represent such a brutal contradiction to its democratic expression.
Another potential problem with “The Common Word” dialogue is its implication that the Christian Church must reform itself no less so than the Islamic community. There’s no doubt that reform is needed. Whether the issue is materialism, hypocrisy, or the politicization of the gospel, there are real problems in the Church. Yet the danger here is the trap of moral equivalency—the assumption that modern Christianity is as prone to terrorist violence as Islam. As the Muslim letter put the matter: “The future of the world depends on peace between Muslims and Christians.”
The future of the world depends on no such thing. The existential threat to international peace and security is not a religious war between Islam and Christianity. The global threat today is a faith-based version of European fascism—a re-emergence of the totalitarian impulse, animated by the theology of radical, Islamist jihad. This ideology of bloodlust and martyrdom claims millions of adherents worldwide, inspires terrorist cells across entire continents, and is obsessed with acquiring the world’s most destructive weapons to unleash against civilian populations. “Why were millions of people astounded by what happened to America on September 11?” writes Ayman al-Zawahiri, al Qaeda’s second in command. “We have the right to kill four million Americans—two million of them children—and to exile twice as many and wound and cripple hundreds of thousands.”
There is simply no equivalent to this perverted religion anywhere in the Christian world—it is a crisis within Islam, a moral and spiritual malaise that has grown unchecked for decades. It is incumbent upon the Christian leaders engaged in this dialogue to ask why this is the case, and what their Islamic interlocutors intend to do about it.
They might take a cue from a Muslim reformer, Abd Al-Hamid Al-Ansari, the former dean of the law faculty at Qatar University. He argues that terrorism is the result of a “culture of hatred” in Arab countries and “a discourse of denial” about its homegrown sources. “How can this miserable creature called the Arab and Muslim individual not turn to extremism, when he is surrounded by an overall atmosphere of extremism, bound by the shackles of repression and prohibitions, and girded by the ideas of intimidation and terrorization, and of almost endless torment?” he writes. “Go to hear a Friday sermon, and you will find a preacher who is enraged at the world, angry at civilization, spreading the poison of hatred and enmity.”
And yet there is that - love of God and love of neighbor, which is the foundation of the West and, as noted, the foundation of our modern liberties. Moslems do profess this love, and thus there is grounds for hope. Of course, for this hope to be realised it will require not just Moslems willing to reform, but Christians willing to stand foursquare for Christian beliefs - the liberties built upon love of God and neighbor are being erroded in the West by consumerism and despair, two sins the Moslems radicals use to great effect, telling their followers that failure to fight for Islamism will result in the same moral disintegration in the Moslem world. The other problem on the Christian end, as noted by the author of the piece, is all too many Christians willing to ignore Christian belief…when the Archbishop of Canterbury starts saying that sharia law is ok by him, you know you’ve got a terrible problem in Christianity.
For Moslems to listen to us they first have to respect us - as it is, Moslems in Iraq respect our soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines. Why is this? Because they are strong men and women who act upon their convictions with no thought to personal risks. But looking past the Marine on patrol, the Moslem world can still see an America slouching ever further into a sewer of moral decay. It is a fair question for any Moslem to ask - if we are to become democratic, does this mean we have to suffer the social breakdown the West has undergone? If the answer to that question is “yes”, then it is easy to see why a lot of Moslems would be wary of democracy and willing to lend an ear to Islamist propaganda. We must show the Moslem world that freedom means the freedom to do the right thing, not an excuse to do whatever depraved thing you want.
Victory in the war, peace with the Moslem world and repairing our badly damaged society go hand in hand - and just so long as we listen to those who offer us the easy way out, so will this war go on, and our society continue to decay. On the other hand, if we arrest our rot and start back on a path to social sanity - and no better place to start than in the matter of abortion - we will show that freedom is a boon, not a bane, and the Moslem world will follow suit.
Tags: Christianity, Islam
August 24th, 2008
I think that Russia’s adventure in Georgia just might turn out to be a fiasco:
Ukraine offers satellite defence co-operation with Europe and US
The proposal, made amid growing outrage among Russia’s neighbours over its military campaign in Georgia, could see Ukraine added to Moscow’s nuclear hitlist. A Russian general declared Poland a target for its arsenal after Warsaw signed a deal with Washington to host interceptor missiles for America’s anti-nuclear shield.
The move came as the Russian president, Dmitry Medvedev, signed a cease-fire deal that sets the stage for a Russian troop withdrawal after more than a week of warfare with its neighbour Georgia.
Russia has created a mountain of crisis, looks like it will obtain a mole hill of territory, and has angered just about everyone in Europe. Not a very slick move on Putin’s part. The analogy here is the Agadir crisis of 1911 - Germany stamped on its neighbor’s foot and the only real result of the aggressive act was a stronger anti-German alliance.
One thing we have to keep in mind here is that Putin and his gangsters aren’t all of Russia. While we do have to react in various anti-Russian ways, we must always keep the door open to more sensible Russians who may be able to force Putin out at some future date and re-set Russia on the patch of democracy.
Oh, as an aside: don’t you lefties who fought so hard against SDI feel like, well, a bunch of stupid fools? You know, like a bunch of suckers who fell first for communist propaganda about it, and now have fallen for Putin’s semi-fascist propaganda about it? Man, its gotta suck to be wrong about everything, all the time.
Tags: Georgia, Poland, Putin, Russia, South Ossetia, Strategic Defense Initiative, Ukraine
August 17th, 2008
Just a bit amazing that such a person could be exposed enough to the Christian message to become a convert:
Masab-Joseph Yousef, a son of prominent West Bank MP Sheikh Hassan Yousef, has discussed his conversion to Christianity in an interview with the Israeli newspaper Haaretz. Praying that his family will “open their eyes to Jesus,” he expressed love for his enemies and claimed Muslims’ conversion to Christianity is the only way to have a chance for peace in the Holy Land.
Yousef, 30, said his first exposure to Christianity came in Jerusalem about eight years ago, when he was invited to learn about the faith. He converted four years ago, but did not tell his father. “For years I helped my father, the Hamas leader, and he didn’t know that I had converted, only that I had Christian friends,” he said to Haaretz.
His father, Sheikh Yousef, was a founder of the extremist group Hamas in the West Bank and was imprisoned for several years for his membership in the organization.
Masab-Joseph Yousef, the oldest of eight siblings, was expected to take an active role assisting in the political work of his father, whom he claimed is opposed to killing civilians. He characterized the Israelis’ arrests of his father as very influential events in his life.
“I only knew that the Israeli army had arrested my father repeatedly, and for me he was everything: a good, loving man who would do anything for me. He took care of us, bought us gifts, gave of himself, whereas the soldiers entered our house and took him away from me.”
Arrested at the age of 18 for his leadership role in his high school Islamic society, Yousef told Haaretz he discovered in prison that most Hamas members were not as admirable as his father.
“Their leaders in prison received better conditions, such as the best food, as well as more family visits and towels for the shower. These people have no morals, they have no integrity,” he said, alleging Hamas leaders also embezzle money meant for widowed families.
Yousef, who now lives in California, described how an invitation to learn more about Christianity led him to convert.
“I was very enthusiastic about what I heard. I began to read the Bible every day and I continued with religion lessons. I did it in secret, of course. I used to travel to the Ramallah hills, to places like the Al Tira neighborhood, and to sit there quietly with the amazing landscape and read the Bible.”
“A verse like ‘Love thine enemy’ had a great influence on me,” he continued. “At this stage I was still a Muslim and I thought that I would remain one. But every day I saw the terrible things done in the name of religion by those who considered themselves ‘great believers.’”
I am reminded of St. Francis’ project to end the Crusades by converting the Islamic world to Christianity, on the theory that it is better to make Christians than destroy Moslems - it didn’t work, of course, but not for lack of trying on St. Francis’ part. A very different world would it be had success crowned his efforts…
Aside from that, the story here is important because it shows that cross-cultural understanding between Islam and Christianity is possible. Someone looked past Yousef’s background and decided to introduce to him a new idea, and the courage that person showed has been rewarded by the development of a man who not only doesn’t kill for his religion, but can’t even comprehend the concept any longer. We need not fight each other forever, provided we recognise our common humanity and see in the other person another glorious creation of God, and not an enemy.
Tags: Christianity, Global War on Terrorism, Islam, Israel/Judaism, Masab-Joseph Yousef
August 16th, 2008
Exactly the sort of thing needed to inject a note of reality into Russian deliberations:
The United States and Poland reached a long-stalled deal on Thursday to place an American missile defense base on Polish territory, in the strongest reaction so far to Russia’s military operation in Georgia.
Russia reacted angrily, saying that the move would worsen relations with the United States that have already been strained severely in the week since Russian troops entered separatist enclaves in Georgia, a close American ally.
But the deal reflected growing alarm in countries like Poland, once a conquered Soviet client state, about a newly rich and powerful Russia’s intentions in its former cold war sphere of power. In fact, negotiations dragged on for 18 months — but were completed only as old memories and new fears surfaced in recent days.
Those fears were codified to some degree in what Polish and American officials characterized as unusual aspects of the final deal: that at least temporarily American soldiers would staff air defense sites in Poland oriented toward Russia, and that the United States would be obliged to defend Poland in case of an attack with greater speed than required under NATO, of which Poland is a member.
Polish officials said the agreement would strengthen the mutual commitment of the United States to defend Poland, and vice versa. “Poland and the Poles do not want to be in alliances in which assistance comes at some point later — it is no good when assistance comes to dead people,” the Polish prime minister, Donald Tusk, said on Polish television. “Poland wants to be in alliances where assistance comes in the very first hours of — knock on wood — any possible conflict.”
Next up, the Baltic States - we really need to teach Russia a lesson about which nation is the super power and which nation is the rapidly declining power of the second rank. Putin and his gang seem to labor under the illusion that Russia has the strength to stand on her own in the world - she doesn’t. Russia either gives up her imperial ambitions and agrees to alliance with the United States (after, of course, becoming a full democracy), or Russia will eventually find itself the conscript ally of China. There is only one way Russia retains her Asian territories beyond 2050, and that is in alliance with the United States.
The world changes and things do shift - and one of the shifts has been the eclipse of Europe by the Americas and Asia. Europe has its choices to make, and the wisest choice for all of Europe is to cling tightly to the United States, the bulwark of western (ie, European) civilization. Poland has figured this out, and we pray that Russia will eventually figure it out, too.
Tags: Georgia, NATO, Poland, Russia, South Ossetia, Strategic Defense Initiative
August 15th, 2008
I guess if you know nothing, then its ok to have someone who also knows nothing giving you advice - from the Daily Mail via Hot Air Blog:
George Clooney once famously declared he could never run for public office because he’d ‘slept with too many women, done too many drugs and been to too many parties’.
But now the Hollywood heart-throb has entered the political arena at the highest level – by becoming an unofficial adviser to US Presidential front-runner Barack Obama.
Oscar-winner Clooney, 47, is said to be helping the Democratic candidate to polish his image at home and abroad.
But he is also sharing with Obama his strong opinions on Iraq and the Middle East.
A self-admitted philanderer and drug user to advise on polishing an image? Only in modern America would a Presidential candidate get within 10 miles of Clooney…
Sources say the actor has tried to hide the pair’s friendship for fear his Left-wing views and playboy image would hurt the Presidential hopeful’s bid for the White House.
But Democratic Party insiders have revealed that Clooney and Obama regularly send texts and emails to each other and speak by phone at least twice a week.
One said last night: ‘They are extremely close. A number of members of the Hollywood community, including Brad Pitt, Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, offered to help raise funds for Barack but it was with George that he struck up this amazing affinity.
‘George has been giving him advice on things such as presentation, public speaking and body language and he also emails him constantly about policy, especially the Middle East.
‘George is pushing him to be more “balanced” on issues such as US relations with Israel.
‘George is pro-Palestinian. And he is also urging Barack to withdraw unconditionally from Iraq if he wins.
‘It’s a very risky relationship. His hope of becoming America’s first black President depends heavily on winning over conservative voters and it would be suicidal for him to be perceived as a tool of a Hollywood Leftie, which is how they regard George.
‘But they text and email each other almost every day and speak on the phone at least a couple of times a week, often more.’
Its not so much Clooney’s leftism (after all, it’d be hard to out-lefty Obama, anyways), but the fact that he doesn’t know what he’s talking about. He’s yet another of those Hollywood liberals who latch on to fashionable causes and right now the fashion is to be pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel and, of course, opposed to victory in Iraq. Among the many people I would expect a President to get advice from on foreign policy, Clooney never makes that list - in fact, he wouldn’t make the list of people to advise on the color of the drapes in the Oval Office. Somehow, being an actor doesn’t seem to be the best training for figuring out whether Hamas is a partner for peace or a bloodthirsty terrorist organization. Perhaps Clooney has been doing some studying, but if he has he’s yet to register as someone who has offered his own opinion in a forum where criticism of same is possible. What we don’t need is a star-struck President going along with ill-informed advice simply for fear of offending a glittering pal.
Tags: George Clooney
August 12th, 2008
As I write this the latest news from Georgia indicates that Russia intends a complete subjugation of that nation and the imposition of a puppet regime.
While all decent people are disgusted with the Russian action, there is not much we can immediately do, at this point, unless we are prepared for full scale war with Russia. While Georgia is only about 300 air miles from northern Iraq, the real limiting factor on sending US forces to Georgia is the difficulty in getting American air power established in the area. The effort to do so would essentially mean challenging the Russians directly including, perhaps, bombing of Russian airfields near Georgia. A war between the United States and Russia would only have one conclusion - the utter defeat of Russia. Russia is playing the Great Power game but really lacks the military and economic wherewithall to play such a role - Georgia, quite honestly, is about the largest thing Russia can handle at the moment. Such a war, however, even with its foregone conclusion would be a long and costly struggle, with the risk that someone who is proving himself as insane as Putin might actually pull the nuclear trigger. So, while we must try to save an independent Georgia, our tasks for the future is to treat Russia in light of Russia’s actions.
It appears from Russia’s actions that Russia has embarked upon an attempt - in one form or another - to revive the Russian Empire. Given our ability to swallow hypocrisy these days, the Russians would present their new empire as a collection of independent States, just as the USSR pretended that the east European States were independent, and we went along with the fiction. In the year of 2008, we must not allow the world to slip back into a place and time where larger nations preyed upon smaller nations and made them colonies or protectorates - nor can we allow large countries to carve out spheres of influence amongst other nations. Russia is indicating it wants an empire, our task is to thwart them in this effort.
First and foremost is the exposure of the UN as entirely useless - if one member of the Security Council, wielding a veto over UN action, is determined to violate the UN Charter in letter and spirit, then the whole thing becomes an entire waste of time. There is no purpose in being in an international body which cannot do what it was designed to do. Of course, those who know realise that the UN long ago became moribund, but now its actually counter-productive, and its time for it to go. In its place should be - as long ago suggest by myself, and more recently by Senator McCain - a Leage of Democratic Nations. This would be a grouping of free nations and free peoples, pledged to the defense and expansion of freedom around the world - and most emphatically nations like Russia (and China, and Iran, etc, etc, etc) would have no place in it. Only by so doing will we have an international body which we can act for good in the world.
Secondly, we’ll want a larger military. Russia is feeling expansive, and so is Iran - meanwhile, China modernises its military and greedily eyes the wealth of Taiwan as a means of cutting its way out of the sea of bad debt China floats upon. We have to be prepared for a two front war requiring very large military establishments on opposite ends of the world. This will require several more active divisions for the army, at least one more for the Marines, quite a large number of aircraft for the Air Force and a major beefing up of the US Navy so that we can ensure absolute command of all the world’s seas no matter what combination of enemies we fight. Essentially, we’ll have to rebuild our military size to about where it was at the end of the Cold War, and perhaps even larger.
Third, we need to quickly strengthen the military side of our alliances in eastern Europe and do whatever we can to induce former Soviet Republicans to join NATO. We must surround the aggressor with such a large number of potential enemies that whatever military force he has at his disposal will be insufficient to meet all needs, and thus we can secure a cold peace. We’ll also give pause to Iran, China and other potential threats that we retain the power to deal with all contingencies.
As to why Russia has embarked upon this insanity, I don’t know - I hope they come to their senses, but we cannot rely on that. Russia has ranged itself, sadly, as an enemy of liberty, justice and basic human decency, and it is the task of the United States to contain this as far as possible and hope that some day the Russians will wake up and take full charge of their own future, no longer turning themselves over - body and soul - to whatever Czar promises to raise them to the peak of power in the world.
UPDATE: Richard Beeston at Times Online tells the true state of Russia in 2008, and it ain’t a pretty picture.
Tags: Georgia, NATO, Russia, South Ossetia
August 12th, 2008
Obama may have thought that taking a scripted trip to the Middle East was enough to boost his nonexistent foreign policy experience, but when a an actual international crisis occurs, Obama does little more than issue a vague, watery response, so he can get back to swimming and soaking up sun on the beach, while John McCain demonstrated which of the two contenders for the White House is truly ready to lead.
John McCain, the Republican presidential nominee, on Monday upstaged George W. Bush’s administration over the Georgia crisis with his strongest statement so far calling on the US and its allies to come together in “universal condemnation of Russian aggression”.
Mr McCain, who gave his first response early last Friday several hours before any official word from the Bush administration, said the US should take steps to assist Georgia and other democracies in the region that he said were threatened by Russia’s actions.
“Russia’s aggression against Georgia is both a matter of urgent moral and strategic importance to the United States,” said Mr McCain. “The implications go beyond their threat to . . . a democratic Georgia. Russia is using violence against Georgia, in part, to intimidate other neighbours such as Ukraine, for choosing to associate with the west.”
Mr McCain’s statement – his third since the crisis began – stood in clear contrast on Monday to the relatively low-key response of the Bush administration and the Obama campaign. Barack Obama himself issued a statement on Saturday but remains on vacation in Hawaii. President Bush, at the Beijing Olympics on Saturday, expressed “grave concern” about Moscow’s “disproportionate response” in South Ossetia, but did not follow Mr McCain in portraying the crisis as a watershed moment for democracy in the region.
Tags: Georgia, Russia
August 11th, 2008
This is getting rather threatening:
Russia sent forces into Georgia on Friday to repel a Georgian assault on the breakaway South Ossetia region and Georgia’s pro-Western president said the two countries were at war.
South Ossetia’s rebel leader Eduard Kokoity said there were “hundreds of dead civilians” in the main town Tskhinvali, Russia’s Interfax news agency quoted him as saying.
A senior Russian military commander said parts of Russia’s 58th army were approaching the rebel capital, where fighting raged between Russian-backed separatists and Georgian forces sent in on Friday to seize it.
A senior Georgian security official said Russian jets had bombed the Vaziani military airbase outside the Georgian capital Tbilisi, and President Mikheil Saakashvili said 150 Russian tanks, armored personnel carriers and other vehicles had entered South Ossetia from neighboring Russia.
“Russia is fighting a war with us in our own territory,” Saakashvili told CNN, calling on Washington to help.
Given that Russia is a dying nation, you’d think that Russian imperialism would be a dead letter - but the effects of Putin are far reaching and disasterous in the extreme. Russia, for Lord only knows what reason, seems to have imperial ambitions in the tiny, insignificant territory of South Ossetia and thus has backed a rebel movement in the area - the Georgian government, which is backed by the United States, has had enough of this and has moved agains the rebels, and now the Russians are moving in. Does Russia want war? Or is it that the Russian leadership doesn’t realise the level of contempt Russia’s military is held in (couldn’t even take Grozny without levelling the town) and thus they don’t realise that the world isn’t over-awed by Russian units on the move?
It is to be hoped that Russia will come to its senses soon as this is the sort of idiotic, blind but typical Russian move which in the past has led to large wars.
UPDATE: McCain weighs in with the exact right policy - from NRO’s The Corner:
Today, news reports indicate that Russian military forces crossed an internationally-recognized border into the sovereign territory of Georgia. Russia should immediately and unconditionally cease its military operations and withdraw all forces from sovereign Georgian territory. What is most critical now is to avoid further confrontation between Russian and Georgian military forces. The consequences for Euro-Atlantic stability and security are grave.
The government of Georgia has called for a cease-fire and for a resumption of direct talks on South Ossetia with international mediators. The U.S. should immediately convene an emergency session of the United Nations Security Council to call on Russia to reverse course. The U.S. should immediately work with the EU and the OSCE to put diplomatic pressure on Russia to reverse this perilous course it has chosen. We should immediately call a meeting of the North Atlantic Council to assess Georgia’s security and review measures NATO can take to contribute to stabilizing this very dangerous situation. Finally, the international community needs to establish a truly independent and neutral peacekeeping force in South Ossetia.
UPDATE: Russia is acting entirely insane:
Georgia demanded a cease-fire Saturday in the separatist province of South Ossetia, with the Georgian leader calling Russian attacks there “annihilation of a democracy on their borders.”
“This is 100 percent, unprovoked brutal Russian invasion,” Georgia President Mikhail Saakashvili told the BBC. “We on our own cannot fight with Russia. We want immediate cease-fire, immediate cessation of hostilities, separation of Russia and Georgia and international mediation.”
Russian President Dmitri Medvedev’s office said Saturday evening that Russia had not received the Georgian cease-fire proposal.
A defiant Russia is defending its actions in South Ossetia as fighting there threatens to escalate into a full-scale war between Russian and its fellow former Soviet republic, with at least 1,500 people reported dead.
Russia, which has close ties with South Ossetia, has sent hundreds of tanks and troops into the separatist province and bombed Georgian towns Saturday in a major escalation of the conflict, while Georgia, a staunch U.S. ally, has fought to regain control of the province.
This is the authentic Muscovite of old - demanding, brusque and determined to get his way regardless of the justice of his cause. That a dying Russia would try this indicates a level of desperation and paranoia in Moscow - South Ossetia is nothing to a Russia in terms of territory or wealth and certainly Russia could by international pressure get a lot for the South Ossetians in terms of automony, if that is really what Russia was after here. The worst thing about this is that Russia might not even know what it wants - this might just be an insane lashing out.
The world teeters on the brink of a large war, and I hope we can defuse this quickly - but Russia must leave Georgia.
UPDATE: It just gets worse and worse. At this point, I think that its time for NATO to present a demand to Russia to case forthwith their attacks on Georgia. There is no need for Russia to be bombing anything outside Ossetia, and no reason to be in Ossetia as the Georgian troops have withdrawn. This is now becoming a crime, pure and simple, on the part of Russia.
UPDATE: President Bush weighs in:
BEIJING (AP) - President Bush on Monday sharply criticized Moscow’s harsh military crackdown in the former Soviet republic of Georgia, saying the violence is unacceptable and Russia’s response is disproportionate.
The United States is waging an all-out campaign to get Russia to halt its retaliation against Georgia for trying to take control of the breakaway province of South Ossetia.
Bush, in an interview with NBC Sports, said, “I’ve expressed my grave concern about the disproportionate response of Russia and that we strongly condemn the bombing outside of South Ossetia.” He said he did so directly to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who’s here for the Olympics, and by phone to Russian President Dmitri Medvedev.
On Sunday, Vice President Dick Cheney told Georgia’s pro-American president that “Russian aggression must not go unanswered, and that its continuation would have serious consequences for its relations with the United States,” Cheney’s office reported.
While Georgia said its troops have retreated from South Ossetia and are honoring a cease-fire, Russia disputed the claim, and U.S. officials said Moscow was only expanding its blitz into new areas.
“I was very firm with Vladimir Putin,” Bush said. “Hopefully this will get resolved peacefully.”
Cheney spoke Sunday afternoon with Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili, Cheney press secretary Lee Ann McBride said. “The vice president expressed the United States’ solidarity with the Georgian people and their democratically elected government in the face of this threat to Georgia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” McBride said.
Tags: Georgia, Russia, South Ossetia
August 11th, 2008
Europeans Moslems can’t seem to decide if gays should be executed, or not; rather run of the mill stuff for Moslems these days, but the real problem is how the government of Norway reacts:
For a case in point, I will refer the reader to an episode I’ve mentioned previously in this space — an Oslo debate last November at which the deputy chairman of Norway’s Islamic Council, Asghar Ali, refused to reject the death penalty for gays. When Senaid Kobilica, the head of the Islamic Council (which represents 60,000 Muslims), was asked where he stood on the question, he replied that he couldn’t give a definitive answer until he got a ruling from the European Fatwa Council. This week it was reported that he’s still waiting…
…What’s most chilling about all this, however, is not the positions of these Muslim leaders but the reactions of the Norwegian establishment. Or, one should say, the lack of reaction.
Consider this. After last November’s debate, it emerged that Asghar Ali not only was deputy chairman of the Islamic Council but was also on the board of the Oslo Arbeidersamfunn, the largest and most influential association within Norway’s ruling Labor Party. Asked about Ali’s views, the head of the Oslo Arbeidersamfunn, Anne Cathrine Berger, lamented that some people “can’t see the difference between a board member’s views and the organization’s views.” Despite scattered calls for his dismissal, Ali remained on the board. (When a new board election was held in February, Ali chose not to run again.)
That’s not all: Ali is, in addition, secretary of the 37,000-member Electricians’ and IT Workers’ Union…
…As for the Norwegian government, there has been no serious effort, as far as I know, to rescind from the Islamic Council its half million kroner a year in state support.
Does anyone in Europe realise that these peoples’ intentions are serious? They do propose to out-breed and out-immigrate non-Moslems and eventually take over and force through Islamic law. While European governments put the final touches on gay marriage the Islamists look forward to the day when they can hang all the gay people - the decision Europe made after World War Two to entirely secularise and welfarise Europe has proven disasterous on all levels, but the worst part of it seems to be that the will to live has gone out of the European population (or is it that during two world wars the best and bravest sacrificed themselves so much that there wasn’t enough physical strength to continue?).
There still is a living remnant in Europe - that small segment of the population which refused to surrender its Christian European identity. What remains to be seen is whether this remnant will be able to take over from dying secularism before the Islamists do. And we’ll also find out whether the United States will have to come to Europe’s rescue, again.
Tags: Europe, Islam
August 10th, 2008
To the US dollar:
US stocks soared on Friday as the dollar saw its biggest one-day jump against the euro in eight years and oil prices plunged.
The moves marked a key reversal of a trend that many investors had followed profitably for months – betting that high commodity prices would keep the dollar weak.
The dollar reached its highest in five months against a trade-weighted basket of currencies, while oil fell more than $5 to $114.87, 22 per cent below its record high of $147.27 last month. The S&P 500 closed 2.4 per cent higher in New York.
The shift in sentiment was triggered by Jean-Claude Trichet, president of the European Central Bank, who warned on Thursday that third-quarter eurozone growth would be “particularly weak”. This sparked talk that the ECB would be forced to abandon its hawkish policy stance and start cutting interest rates, thereby weakening the euro.
“This is the watershed week for the US dollar,” said Marc Chandler, currency strategist at Brown Brothers Harriman. “The magnitude of the dollar’s moves and the breaking of key technical levels suggest that a major shift in the outlook towards the dollar is occurring as massive positions are adjusted.” Other analysts described the widespread buying of dollars as “capitulation”.
The dollar hit a five-month high of $1.5055 against the euro and climbed 1.3 per cent to $1.9189 against the pound – its strongest since November 2006.
Traders said the violence of the move was testimony to the extent to which the market had been surprised by economic weakness outside the US.
“Mr Trichet was unable to convince the public that the ECB had not been surprised by the eurozone’s economic downturn,” said Ulrich Leuchtmann at Commerzbank. “Therefore, the last remaining rate hike expectations were taken off the table.”
Why is this? Because if you’re looking for security, there’s nothing quite as good as the American economy and American law - we actually have the highest business ethics in the world (I know, hard to believe, but there it is) as well as very transparant requirements in corporate reporting which makes the investor confident that when he plunks his money into the United States he’ll know where it is and what can happen to it. Couple this with the largest economy in the world (I know, the Eurozone is supposed to be that, but that is mostly a mirage produced by massive Eurozone government spending), and you get the bank of last resort, the United States of America.
Bulwark of liberty, engine of economic growth, bastion of Judeo-Christian civilization - the United States serves many purposes, and with this comes a great responsibility. We simply must protect this great thing, the United States of America. We daren’t negligently throw it away in a bid for shallow popularity - hard as it may be to take, if what the United States must do is protect fools in their folly, then that is what we’ll have to do, in the hopes that the fools will learn wisdom. The people who complain about us the most are those who live most solidly lapped in the wealth and privilege built up by the long peace guarded by the United States (meaning, of course, that it has been because of us that no world war has erupted in the past 60 years). They glory in their wealth and power and know not where it comes from - its not so much biting the hand that feeds them, but biting the hand of a benefactor they don’t even recognise.
Its all good - those who have wisdom and strength are to use it for the benefit of others, and if all we do is what we can for the best, then we’ll have done all that is required of us.
