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Showing posts with label nuclear proliferation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label nuclear proliferation. Show all posts

Sunday, October 4, 2009

The New Geopolical Paradigm: A Vacuum Filled With Narcissism

The Postmodern philosophy is turning out everything it promised to be: hot air, empty rhetoric, yada yada, sticking labels ... that's it! It produces nothing, because it is nothing.

Only God can create ex nihilo, something out of nothing. Oh, it works okay in campaign mode, as long as people's minds can be manipulated, but contrary to the Postmodern premise that thought creates reality, it is concepts that lead to molecules and atoms!

Consider Lawrence Eagleburger's recent laments in an interview with FoxNews' Greta van Susteren during which he rather concisely summed up the problem (btw, he must be another one of those racists!):



(...) This President has spent his time talking in public every chance he gets, yet I see nothing that comes out of that talk that leads to anything concrete (...) Eagleburger mentions as a classic example the debate over health care reform.
(...) The Democrats have control of the Congress and one would think they can pass any legislation they wanted within a short period of time. Instead it goes on forever. (...)  We still have no idea what the Bill may be in the end and the reason we don't is because when it comes to the right place to make some decisions - make it clear that this is what the President wants - it disappears (...) Shut up until you've decided what it is you want (...) there's no direction ...
In a recent post entitled "The O Team: Mental Babies With Razors" we explained it as follows:

Their skewed philosophy rests on the error that universals are but a figment of man's imagination. From this fallacy follows that
concepts and essences - being universals - also do not exist. As a result, some arbitrary attribute may attach itself to - for instance man or a system - and mistakingly serve the purpose of an essence: what to think of systems that take decisions (no parenthesis there, and taken quite literally)  or an angry mob. 

- Caption: pomo concept of 'a running nose' - 

If you think this mushrooming of nothing is harmless, think again. As the empty suit is vaporizing hot air, enemy clouds are gathering. Consider this article by Jennifer Rubin in Commentary Magazine, "No Master Plan at All":

"As the media and political observers pick over the remains of the failed Olympics-bid debacle, the debate has boiled down to this:  (...) Suddenly, the entire country realizes that there is no “master plan” behind what Obama does. In fact, there may be no plan at all."

Rubin mentions the Obama's upending of the Clinton machine in the Democratic primary, the Reverend Wright flap, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid crafting the stimulus as examples during which the Obama mystique held sway: "There must be a reason ... he was laying the groundwork for something or other (...)"
And all that genuflecting on the world stage and those unilateral concessions—there must be a game plan, a secret deal, with Russia. He’s got it wired. The same with that secret Iranian nuclear plant. Sure he knew about it and didn’t say anything, but it really was better—and he knew this all along—to delay the revelation and let months and months pass as the Iranian mullahs worked diligently to cement their regime and advance their nuclear program. Can’t you just hear the gears whizzing in the White House? (...) Observers were convinced that the deal to give it to Chicago was set, because no president would go—and no staff would let him go—to Copenhagen to be humiliated, right? Uhh, no."
I'm no card carrying member of the O personality cult, but as late as last week our entry in the Articles dossier on nuclear proliferation read:

"The Iran conundrum: This doesn't make any sense - at all! How does one gell the fact that only last week Obama tossed the Czech Republic and Poland under the bus (not to mention the 2007 NIE, that political construct dating back to the Bush years, that denied Iran has nuclear capability altogether) with the following? Update: add this to the mix: Robert Spencer: "Iran test-firing missile that can reach Israel" ...

But now we know better. Narcissism instead of nukes may well be the real killer ... Charles Krauthammer in NRO The Corner: "Obama’s French Lesson":

"When France chides you for appeasement, you know you’re scraping bottom (...) On September 24, Obama ostentatiously presided over the Security Council. With 14 heads of state (or government) at the table, with an American president in the chair for the first time ever, with every news camera in the world trained on the meeting, it would garner unprecedented worldwide attention.

Unknown to the world, Obama had in his pocket explosive revelations about an illegal uranium-enrichment facility that the Iranians had been hiding near Qom. The French and the British were urging him to use this most dramatic of settings to stun the world with the revelation and to call for immediate action. Obama refused. (...) “The administration told the French,” reports the Wall Street Journal, “that it didn’t want to ‘spoil the image of success’ for Mr. Obama’s debut at the U.N.”

Image? Success? Sarkozy could hardly contain himself. At the council table, with Obama at the chair, he reminded Obama that “we live in a real world, not a virtual world.” He explained: “President Obama has even said, ‘I dream of a world without (nuclear weapons).’ Yet before our very eyes, two countries are currently doing the exact opposite.”

Sarkozy’s unspoken words? “And yet, sacre bleu, he’s sitting on Qom!” (...) Bismarck is said to have said: “There is a providence that protects idiots, drunkards, children, and the United States of America.” Bismarck never saw Obama at the UN. Sarkozy did."

Sunday, September 20, 2009

Obama's Paradigm Shift in Geopolitics (Updated)

Update: Sen. Kyl brings up another important aspect of this case. It brings back to life the Cold War paradigm of the "spheres of influence" through which swathes of the globe were either on the East or on the West's side. No wonder the Poles are upset. What's more, they were informed about the decision about the same time as the news broke. I have a feeling this mistake may cast a very long shadow.



Newt Gingrich also weighing in. This looks worse by the hour. The program was apparently scrapped without any quid pro quo and Obama on Russian insistance "correcting an American mistake". Incidentally, I think this administration will find the Russians quite racist and very insensitive to their notions of political correctness. 



Almost simultaneously news is breaking that may well define history. 

On the eve of the Soviet Union invading Poland 70 years ago US President Obama has made it formally known he's flinging Europe under the appeasement bus. How sensitive and empathic! After the debacles of the Iran uprising and the Honduras enormity, Obama is now pandering to the next autocracy. It is unmistable. Obama is not the champion of liberty-hungry peoples.

Our valued contributor, Dr Sam Holliday, director of the Armiger Cromwell Center just sent in this:

It is too soon to know all of the implications of today's announcement by the Obama administration scrapping plans for a Ballistic Missile Defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic. But the timing of this announcement is interesting. Today marks the 70th anniversary of the Soviet invasion of Poland on September 17, 1939, sixteen days after the beginning of the German attack. I doubt that Obama and his postmodern experts gave it much thought, but I'm certain that the timing of this announcement was not lost on the Poles. This will be seen as another betrayal of Poland by a great power.
At the same time news is breaking that one of the main reasons the Bush administration proposed the missile defense shield, is one disastrous step closer to apocalyptic reality.

Times Online: "Dismay in Europe as Obama ditches missile defence"

President Obama dismayed America's allies in Europe and angered his political opponents at home today when he formally ditched plans to set up a missile defence shield in Poland and the Czech Republic.

The project had been close to the heart of Mr Obama's predecessor, President Bush, who had argued before leaving office in January that it was needed to defend against long-range ballistic missile attacks from rogue states such as Iran and North Korea. (...) >>>

It's no surpise the German Spiegel Online is able to report:

Sense of Triumph in Moscow

"Euphoria over Obama's Decision To Shelve Missile Shield"

Moscow is triumphant over Obama's decis
ion to cancel his missile shield plan. But it is no foregone conclusion that Russia will harden its line against Iran. And Poland and the Czech Republic will also expect overtures from the United States. (...) >>>

Manure hits the fan on the Iran nuke front as well, as IAEA in a secret report admit Iran has now enough info to plug the holes in its program!

The Yeshiva World News: "Secret Report: IAEA Says Iran Can Make Nuke Bomb"

A breaking news report released by the Associated Press just moments ago, claims that they have seen a “secret report” in which the International Atomic Energy Agency agrees with Washington’s fears that Iran has the capabilities to manufacture a nuclear bomb. The “secret report” also concludes that Iran is currently working on producing a missile which is capable of carrying a nuclear warhead.

Additionally, the AP reports that the highly secret IAEA document which the USA claims IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei withheld, says Iran has “sufficient information” and will “overcome problems” on missile technology.

The US, France, and Israel have recently accused the outgoing head of the IAEA, Mohammad ElBaradei, of concealing information regarding Iran’s nuclear program. ElBaradei rejected the allegations, saying they had political motives. >>>

Charming!

Update:

The Washington Examiner: "Obama helps strengthen General Electric-Putin ties", by Timothy P. Carney

Reuters reports an interesting nugget in the wake of President Barack Obama's decision to grant Vladimir Putin his wish and kill the Eastern European missile shield:

Shortly after the pullback on the shield programme was announced, Russia's government said Prime Minister Vladimir Putin would meet several U.S. executives on Friday from firms including General Electric, Morgan Stanley as well as TPG, one of the world's largest private equity firms.

General Electric may be the company with the closest ties to the Obama administration (if not, GE is second only to Goldman Sachs) (...) Reuters paints the broader picture (...) GE CEO Jeff Immelt sits on Obama's Economic Recovery Advisory Board, and GE owns MSNBC, the network famously friendly to Obama. (...) Read it all >>>

Russia, for obvious reasons, but other opponents of the plan as well, want us to forget that we're talking here of a defensive system.  They like to present it as if the missile shield is an offensive weapon.

For his part Czech President Václav Klaus can't say he's surprised. The signals have been coming for some time (indeed).

Der Spiegel's complete coverage of the missile shield contraversy and an interview with former Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski. And then there's this comment:
US President Barack Obama has scrapped his predecessor's plans for a missile defense shield in Eastern Europe. German editorialists hope the move will encourage Russia to back tougher sanctions against Iran. But while some praise the decision as hopeful and brave, others dub it naive and dangerous.
They can't be serious! German editorialists hope the move will encourage Russia to back tougher sanctions against Iran ... completely unhinged ... are there no grown-ups in the place anymore?

Here's a reaction from Poland just in.

Saturday, September 19, 2009

Weekend Movie: The Fate of Saddam's Pride and Joy

















In The Lighthouse Movie Theater today a story from way, way back when the grown-ups were in charge: "Israel's Raid on Saddam's Nuclear Reactor in 1981"

 
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