Tag Archives: defense policy

Mr Panetta Misunderstands

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Ex-Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta had an opinion in a recent Washington Post.  As he went on about how disastrous the sequester is (while ignoring the salutary effect it’s having in reducing government spending even trivially while the apocalypse of spending cuts is not destroying our economy), he also made this remark:

…US citizens will lose trust in our system of governing….

Thus, his misunderstanding: Americans haven’t, at all, lost trust in our system of governing.  We’ve lost trust in the present government, given its blatant, years-long, and cynical deviation from our system of governing.

Oddly separately, Panetta had these remarks, too, but I’m not sure he fully understands what it is he said:

If leaders are willing to take the risks associated with leadership, it’s at least possible to avoid crisis. But if leadership is not there, then we will inevitably govern by crisis. Today, unfortunately, we are governing by crisis after crisis after crisis.

…

the world will view the United States as less able to back its word with power.

Indeed.  Yet President Barack Obama insists on leading from behind.  Or not at all.

Playing With Guns

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…in this case, just another version of Obamatalk.  Here’s President Barack Obama’s latest [emphasis added]:

If we are saying in a clear and decisive but very limited way, we send a shot across the bow saying, ‘stop doing this,’ that can have a positive impact on our national security over the long term[.]

“Shot across the bow,” indeed.  Another example of avoiding doing anything of substance, but rather of satisfying himself with “sound and fury.”

Despite his ego telling him otherwise, no one in the world takes him seriously.  But his playing-with-guns ego trip will kill people.

Responsibility

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First, there was “It’s all Bush’s fault.”

Then there was “The situation is much worse than we thought.”

Then there was “It’s those obstructionist Republicans.”

Then there was “What difference, at this time, does it make?”

Then it metastasized, and he drew a red line: “Movement of chemical weapons is a red line.”

Then it was “We have to evaluate the data.”

Then it was “We’re still weighing the situation.”

Now our Secretary of YachtingState John Kerry, doing is level best to sound like what he thinks a statesman sounds like, says of al Assad’s use of chemical weapons on his own people last week,

 What is before us today is real, and it is compelling.

Now it’s two things: Obama’s red line was about movement, not actual use.  And it’s

…the international community must respond to the use of chemical weapons.

Responsibility.  This administration should try accepting some.

China is our Friend?

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What’s the likelihood of that?  The new President of the People’s Republic of China, Xi Jinping, is actively reviving the cult of Mao Tse-Tung that was so destructive of China and of Sino-US relations in the last century, which continue to taint our relationship today, and which poison now is being refreshed.

Early, public symbols of the revival include

  • a visit to a village from which Mao attacked Beijing in 1949 and from which Xi vowed that “our red nation will never change color.”
  • a visit to a lakeside villa where Mao summered.  At the opening of a new exhibition there, Xi declared that the villa should be a center for educating youth about patriotism and revolution.  Notably, the exhibition wholly elides the 10s of millions of Chinese butchered by Mao, particularly during the mass starvation he inflicted with his cultural “revolution.”
  • echoing Mao, Xi  is launching a “rectification” campaign to purge the Communist Party and limit discussion of ideas such as democracy, rule of law, enforcement of the constitution, and other such evils.  This is how Mao presaged his cultural revolution.

In a reflection of Mao’s “reeducation” programs, both explicit and through state media, Xi has

  • commanded army generals and senior officers to reconnect with the “masses” by serving as privates for 15 days minimum.
  • ordered officials to combat the spread of such evils as universal values, press freedom, civil society, and judicial independence.
  • through his Communist Party, with its purification in progress, warned officials to combat “dangerous” Western values.
  • related to this, officials have been instructed to “cut off at the source channels for disseminating erroneous currents of thought.”
  • published attacks on “civil society” and the concept that Party power actually should be subject to constitutional limits.
  • had police detain political activists (although this represents no actual change).

Mao was a steadfast enemy of the West and of us in particular.  His successor is showing himself to be disinterested in friendship.

Man-Caused Disasters

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…and the men who cause them.  The disasters are no big deal, certainly aren’t actual terrorism, so the men who cause them also are no big deal; certainly they’re not terrorists.

Of course we should continue to release them from Guantanamo.  That’s what President Barack Obama said last May at the National Defense University.

I am lifting the moratorium on detainee transfers to Yemen, so we can review them on a case by case basis[.]

Never mind that the ones he has in mind are Saudi citizens, and that they’ll go to Yemen.  Or these minor details:

  • Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the al Qaeda affiliate in Yemen…is now the greatest al Qaeda threat to the US homeland according to US intelligence
    • formed in part by several former Guantanamo Bay detainees who were released in 2006.
  • Merger between former GITMO detainees from Saudi Arabia and the AQ escapees in Yemen formed al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula
  • Recent spate of prison breaks across the Middle East and North Africa…such escapes by al Qaeda often lead to the formation of the next affiliate
    • July 21 in Iraq at Abu Ghraib, many of the most hardened al Qaeda prisoners [escaped]
    • Second prison north of Baghdad was breached at about the same time with similar results
    • 1,000 inmates in Libya, many incarcerated on terrorism charges, escaped in late July from a Benghazi prison in an operation coordinated with gunmen from outside the prison walls
    • July 30 Taliban fighters…broke 250 prisoners out of a Pakistani jail
  • Recidivism rate of released GITMO detainees reaches 25%

But these are just guys doing bad things; they’re not actual terrorists.  The war against terror is winding down, and al Qaeda is on the run.

Sure.