Tag Archives: foreign policy

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.

Of Gas and Men

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From historian Andrew Roberts, in The Wall Street Journal, comes this:

There is a long and honorable history of the civilized world treating those dictators who use poison gas as qualitatively different from the normal ruck of tyrants whose careers have so stained the 20th and 21st centuries.

President Obama, who talks endlessly of the importance of civilized values, must now uphold this one.

What he said.  RTWT.

A White Line

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…with just a tinge of pink.

Since Obama declared last August that chemical weapons would constitute a “red line,” the administration this past June did conclude that the government used chemical weapons.

Now, a year later, and after additional CW attacks (which our allies have tended to confirm, even though our government will not admit of this), comes this:

…Syrian activists are accusing Bashar Assad’s forces of killing hundreds in a gas attack—in what would be the worst and deadliest chemical attack to date.

The attack raises new concerns that the so-called “red line” in Syria has been crossed, violated and effectively ignored.

That a major gas attack, with hundreds of casualties, occurred has been confirmed by video, symptom suites, and eye witness accounts.  Intelligence sources confirm that the Syrian rebels are very unlikely to be capable of mounting a chemical attack of this magnitude.  Beyond that, the political consequences, even in Syria, of being found out render a rebel CW attack of this size even more unlikely.

President Barack Obama, though, had this to say, through his secondary spokesman, Josh Earnest:

The United States strongly condemns any and all use of chemical weapons.  Those responsible for the use of chemical weapons must be held accountable.  Today, we are formally requesting that the United Nations urgently investigate this new allegation.  The UN investigative team, which is currently in Syria, is prepared to do so, and that is consistent with its purpose and mandate.

Yeah, that’ll show ’em.  Assad is shaking in his loafers.

What do “held accountable” or “unacceptable” (another favorite Obamatalk word) mean when there are no consequences?

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.