How do you feel about the American hostages in Iran?
No, not the guys back in the Seventies, the ones being held right now.
What? You haven’t heard about them?
Odd that, isn’t it?
Very much so, especially since we’re planning on negotiating with them regarding their nuclear program. Read the whole thing.
Technorati Tags: Iran, hostages, Mark Steyn
Surprisingly (to me) but welcome is the news that North Korea is shutting down its plutonium processor. Wasn’t this supposed to be impossible with a president that talked tough to enemies rather than appeasing them with food and money? And wasn’t this what the Carter administration was supposed to have accomplished?
Washington’s chief negotiator on North Korea outlined a dramatic programme of rapprochement with America’s long-time Stalinist foe yesterday after international inspectors verified that it had closed its main nuclear reactor at Yongbyon.
Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, confirmed a North Korean statement that the reactor, which processed the plutonium for the country’s nuclear weapons test last October, had been shut down.
In response, Christopher Hill, American assistant secretary of state, said talks to sign a formal peace treaty between the two countries, which ended the 1950-53 Korean War only with an armistice, could begin next year.
America would also consider removing North Korea from its list of “state sponsors of terrorism”.
“We’ll see when we can complete that because we’ll see how far the North Koreans are prepared to move on denuclearisation,” he told reporters in South Korea, where he held talks.
For perspective, Saddam Hussein did not do this when given the chance.
Technorati Tags: North Korea, terrorism, Mohamed ElBaradei, Christopher Hill, Korean War, Saddam Hussein, disarmament, nuclear weapons
A couple short items for Monday morning.
* Heard a caller on “Bill Bennett’s Morning in America” talk about an idea for a bumper sticker. “If you liked The Killing Fields, you’ll love The Killing Dunes.” And I would ask Democrats, if you didn’t like the former, why would you want to do something to allow the latter?
* “Iran to invest in $4 billion Venezuela oil JV” Just what we need; an Iranian foothold in the western hemisphere.
Technorati Tags: Bill Bennett, Killing Fields, Democrats, war on terror, Iraq, Venezuela, Iran
When I returned from vacation and caught up on my news reading, a couple of items caught my eye.
Farfur the Mouse is dead. Back in May, I talked about the Hamas children’s show “Tomorrow’s Pioneers” and it’s main character Farfur the Mouse, an obvious Mickey Mouse knock-off, that told kids of the wonders of martyrdom and of the ultimate destruction of the terrorist state of Israel. Fun for the whole family, no? At the time, the head of the Palestinian version of the FCC (a Fatah fellow) said the program would be removed and reviewed. The Hamas station basically said, “Nuts to you” and kept it on the air. Well now, for whatever reason, the station did cancel the show. According to this Jerusalem Post report, it had nothing to do with the government; they’re just making room for new programs. Either that’s a final statement of defiance just before succumbing to a government order, or it’s the actual reason and the government really was toothless in this area.
Regardless, the mouse is dead. Literally. In the final episode (click here for the video) Farfur is martyred by a Jewish character in sunglasses when Farfur won’t sell him his land. He’s punched out on camera, and the little girl who co-hosts the show announces Farfur’s martyrdom. Remember, this is the official TV station of the government that the Palestinian people voted to be their representatives to the world.
Hugo Chavez is still…Hugo Chavez. He’s making common cause with Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in an “axis of unity” against North America, he’s making enemies of his South American neighbors after they rightly criticize his silencing of dissent, and he’s asking Russians to remember the lessons of Lenin. Chavez is talking about Lenin’s anti-imperialism views (though the Soviet Union certainly had its imperialist streak), but I think there are other lessons of Lenin that millions of the dead in Russia would like to teach us.
And here’s an interesting tidbit.
Insecurity, “malignant narcissism” and the need for adulation are driving Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s confrontation with the United States, according to a new psychological profile.
Eventually, these personality traits are likely to compel Chavez to declare himself Venezuela’s president for life, said Dr. Jerrold Post, who has just completed the profile for the U.S. Air Force.
Chavez won elections for a third term last December. Since then he has stepped up his anti-American rhetoric, vowed to accelerate a march towards “21st Century socialism” and suggested that he intends to stay in power until 2021 — a decade beyond his present term.
But Post — who profiled foreign leaders in a 21-year career at the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency and now is the director of the Political Psychology Program at George Washington University — doubts that Chavez plans to step down even then. “He views himself as a savior, as the very embodiment of Venezuela,” Post said in an interview.
“He has been acting increasingly messianic and so he is likely to either get the constitution rewritten to allow for additional terms or eventually declare himself president-for-life.”
Post portrays Chavez as “a masterful political gamesman” who knows that his popularity largely rests on being seen as a strong leader who takes on the United States, the Venezuelan elite and a host of other perceived enemies — often with public insults that are rarely used by other leaders.
“To keep his followers engaged, he must continue outrageous and inflammatory attacks,” Post said.
Even Chavez’s most determined opponents concede that he is a gifted orator and has a rare ability to mesmerize audiences. In the language of political psychology, this is a “charismatic leader-follower relationship.”
We’ve watch this script played out enough in history. Are we just going to sit back and watch the next act, or are we going to resist it?
Technorati Tags: Farfur, Farfour, Hamas, Tomorrow’s Pioneers, Palestinians, Hugo Chavez, Venezuela, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Vladimir Lenin, Dr. Jerrold Post
“It is so comforting to people to say there was an error made in the planning. Someone didn’t spot what was going to go on,” he told the House of Commons liaison committee, made up of all the chiefs the lower chamber’s scrutiny bodies.
“That is not what has created the problem. What has created the problem is that the people we are fighting have decided to give us a problem.
“What they have decided is that if they can hang on long enough in Iraq, or in Afghanistan, or anywhere else, then we will lose the will.”
He said that Islamist militants purporting that Muslims were being oppressed by the West had a “difficult argument to make” if Muslims were being given a free vote for the first time.
“If we end up saying that because these people are committing these acts of terrorism in Iraq or Afghanistan, that we shouldn’t have done the removal of Saddam or the removal of the Taliban, then we are making a fundamental mistake about our own future, about security, about the values we should be defending in the world.”
Technorati Tags: Tony Blair, Afghanistan, Iraq, war on terror, Islam, Muslims
An insurgency. A civil war. A collapsed government. No, not Iraq.
Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas has appointed a new prime minister, a day after dissolving the Hamas-led unity coalition, officials say.
Former Finance Minister Salam Fayyad, an independent, has been asked to take over and form an emergency government.
The move comes amid political upheaval in Gaza, where Hamas has forcibly taken control from its Fatah rivals.
But Ismail Haniya, of Hamas, says he is still prime minister and has vowed to disregard Mr Abbas’s decisions.
It’s interesting how many Democrats are willing to work with the Palestinians and want them to have their own country, but are more than ready to throw the Iraqi government, which is holding together far, far better and making much more progress, to the wolves.
Technorati Tags: Hamas, Fatah, Mahmoud Abbas, Salam Fayyad, Gaza, Ismail Haniya, Democrats
Twenty years ago today, the President of the United States did what every single diplomat told him not to do, but he did it because he believed it was the right thing to do.
And it was.
Powerline highlights Peter Robinson’s story of how he researched and then wrote a speech to be delivered by Ronald Reagan at West Germany’s Brandenburg Gate. It was Robinson who wrote the lines, “Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate. Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.” No one at the State Department or the National Security Council liked it because it was too confrontational and raised false hopes.
Indeed it was confrontational, but you don’t slink away from confronting evil. It only raised false hopes if you had no faith in your cause and a belief in the ultimate victory for what was right. If you didn’t want to offend evil, and if you didn’t think winning was really possible, you really wouldn’t like that tone.
But that tone was what was needed then. And too many haven’t learned the lesson even today. Read the whole thing to find out what Robinson learned in Berlin that gave him the idea for the line.
These days, the world talks tough to countries like Iran and Syria, and groups like Al Qaeda. But the difference is that Reagan acted on his words. He walked away from the table in Iceland when he determined the Soviets were acting in bad faith. The Left was hysterical, condemning this action as confrontational. They were right, it was. But they were wrong, because they didn’t realize that that’s the language the Soviets understood. They learned that Reagan would act on what he said, and they respected it. And thus, without the nuclear exchange the Left was sure Reagan was leading us to, very soon the gate did open and the wall did come down.
Bin Laden’s lesson from observing America’s retreat from Somalia was that we would tuck tail and run at the first sign of a serious resistance. That is why he was bold enough to plan the 9/11 attacks; because a different President sent a different message.
BIN LADEN: We experienced the Americans through our brothers who went into combat against them in Somalia, for example. We found they had no power worthy of mention. There was a huge aura over America — the United States — that terrified people even before they entered combat. Our brothers who were here in Afghanistan tested them, and together with some of the mujahedeen in Somalia, God granted them victory. America exited dragging its tails in failure, defeat, and ruin, caring for nothing.
America left faster than anyone expected. It forgot all that tremendous media fanfare about the new world order, that it is the master of that order, and that it does whatever it wants. It forgot all of these propositions, gathered up its army, and withdrew in defeat, thanks be to God.
To bin Laden and his supporters, this is not a policy war, nor a political war, but a religious war. It must be fought differently than the Cold War, but some things never change. Speaking truth to evil, and backing up your words with confident actions, whether on the diplomatic field or the battle field, are required to defeat that evil. Reagan understood that. It’s a lesson that needs to be relearned by the diplomats of our present time.
Technorati Tags: Ronald Reagan, Peter Robinson, Gorbachev, Osama bin Laden, terrorism, diplomacy, Somalia
An Kenyan expert in economics, James Shikwati, was interviewed by the German magazine Der Spiegel. The interview got off to a quick start as Shikwati surprised the journalist.
SPIEGEL:Mr. Shikwati, the G8 summit at Gleneagles is about to beef up the development aid for Africa…
Shikwati: … for God’s sake, please just stop.
SPIEGEL: Stop? The industrialized nations of the West want to eliminate hunger and poverty.
Shikwati: Such intentions have been damaging our continent for the past 40 years. If the industrial nations really want to help the Africans, they should finally terminate this awful aid. The countries that have collected the most development aid are also the ones that are in the worst shape. Despite the billions that have poured in to Africa, the continent remains poor.
Massive injections of money, good intentions, and virtually nothing to show for it. Sounds just like the welfare state here. The journalist is confused, bewildered.
SPIEGEL: Do you have an explanation for this paradox?
Why is it a paradox if it simply a case of doing what doesn’t work on a much larger scale? This exposes the incredibly simplistic assumption on the part of liberal ideology that throwing money a a problem really should work…in theory. As conservatives have been arguing for decades, however, an understanding of economics helps explain this “paradox”. In answer to the question, Shikwati explains.
Shikwati: Huge bureaucracies are financed (with the aid money), corruption and complacency are promoted, Africans are taught to be beggars and not to be independent. In addition, development aid weakens the local markets everywhere and dampens the spirit of entrepreneurship that we so desperately need. As absurd as it may sound: Development aid is one of the reasons for Africa’s problems. If the West were to cancel these payments, normal Africans wouldn’t even notice. Only the functionaries would be hard hit. Which is why they maintain that the world would stop turning without this development aid.
Being taught to be beggars, dependence on government, dampening entrepreneurship, and government corruption involved in the cash transfer. Sounds just like the welfare…well, you get the idea.
Well, now our journalist is flummoxed. Doesn’t someone have to help them? Shikwati slaps down this dependency thinking, and explains how food shipments both prop up corrupt governments and at the same time destroy the local economy’s incentive.
SPIEGEL: Even in a country like Kenya, people are starving to death each year. Someone has got to help them.
Shikwati: But it has to be the Kenyans themselves who help these people. When there’s a drought in a region of Kenya, our corrupt politicians reflexively cry out for more help. This call then reaches the United Nations World Food Program — which is a massive agency of apparatchiks who are in the absurd situation of, on the one hand, being dedicated to the fight against hunger while, on the other hand, being faced with unemployment were hunger actually eliminated. It’s only natural that they willingly accept the plea for more help. And it’s not uncommon that they demand a little more money than the respective African government originally requested. They then forward that request to their headquarters, and before long, several thousands tons of corn are shipped to Africa …
SPIEGEL: … corn that predominantly comes from highly-subsidized European and American farmers …
Shikwati: … and at some point, this corn ends up in the harbor of Mombasa. A portion of the corn often goes directly into the hands of unsrupulous politicians who then pass it on to their own tribe to boost their next election campaign. Another portion of the shipment ends up on the black market where the corn is dumped at extremely low prices. Local farmers may as well put down their hoes right away; no one can compete with the UN’s World Food Program. And because the farmers go under in the face of this pressure, Kenya would have no reserves to draw on if there actually were a famine next year. It’s a simple but fatal cycle.
And it just gets better after that. It included an admission from a tyrant that they indeed waste the aid, a exposure of exaggerated AIDS numbers for profit, and an African biochemist stuck being a chauffeur to aid workers. You simply must read the whole thing. It really turns on its head the idea that huge amounts of aid helps a nation, or even a continent. Giving to the poor is one thing. Destroying the individual spirit by destroying their livelihood is entirely another. The interview concludes with the journalist, playing the part of the liberal to the hilt (and, based on the full interview, not really play-acting) asking in desperation…
SPIEGEL: What are the Germans supposed to do?
Shikwati: If they really want to fight poverty, they should completely halt development aid and give Africa the opportunity to ensure its own survival. Currently, Africa is like a child that immediately cries for its babysitter when something goes wrong. Africa should stand on its own two feet.
Rugged individualism, combined with personal, not massive, charitable giving. That is the responsible position.
Technorati Tags: Africa, James Shikwati, foreign aid, United Nations, World Food Program, Kenya, AIDS, poverty
Iran is boasting that they’ve developed advanced weaponry in spite of sanctions designed to prevent that,
Iran has mastered the most advanced armaments and military technologies despite sanctions by the West banning arm imports to the Islamic Republic, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said at an annual military parade.
…
“Some highbrow powers believed that by imposing sanctions banning armament deliveries to Iran our army would be weakened. But young Iranian scientists have been able to meet the military needs of our armed forces in all areas,” Ahmadinejad said on the occasion of Iran’s National Army Day.
…
The parade that followed Ahmadinejad’s speech was held near the Tomb of Ayatollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic, and displayed Iran’s modern weaponry, including missiles of various range, mobile air defense systems, drone planes, combat aircraft, the armor and electronic warfare.
Well, that worked well. Although, it’s not surprising, considering how many countries were working under the table with Iraq during its own pre-war sanctions.
So what’s the next step?
The UN Security Council voted unanimously March 24 to impose new sanctions against the Islamic Republic for its refusal to halt uranium enrichment, which the country resumed in January 2006 for what it claims to be a civilian nuclear power generating program.
The new UN Security Council resolution was passed following Tehran’s refusal to comply with the previous resolution adopted December 23, 2006.
The old sanctions didn’t work, so we’re imposing more sanctions. One worthless piece of paper following a trail of others, none of which actually accomplish anything. Welcome to what passes for “action” in the 21st century.
Technorati Tags: Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, United Nations, sanctions
Recently on the Public Radio program Open Source, Christopher Lydon did a show on Iraqi Kurdistan, or, as it’s PR campaign calls it, “the other Iraq”. You can listen to the show and read the show notes here on Radio Open Source. He interviewed Qubad Talabani, Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) Representative to the United States and son of Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, Bayan Sami Abdul Rahman, KRG Representative to the United Kingdom, and Peter Galbraith, former (and first) Ambassador to Croatia under Clinton, Senior Diplomatic Fellow at the Center for Arms Control, and Non-Proliferation Advisor to the KRG.
For some, it may be an eye-opening program. From the discussion of how Americans were indeed greeted as liberators, to the economic prosperity, to the lack of sectarian violence among the Sunni, Shia and Christian Kurds, this program should give pause to those saying we should get out of Iraq ASAP. In fact, both the Kurdish guests warned against a withdrawal too early. (Ambassador Galbraith, predictably, disagreed. More on that in a moment.)
The program was quite a departure from Lydon’s show’s usual fare. As is typical for public radio, the slate of guests is often slanted liberal, and many time 100% so. Lydon calls his show a “conversation”, but it usually is a monologue from the Left. To have a program extolling the good things that have come from the war (even if the host can’t bring himself to agree, insinuating that some of the responses sounded like “fantasy”) is equal time that has been sorely missing from the media at large. Kudos to Lydon and the PRI folks for finally, if really belatedly, bringing the news.
The cognitive dissonance was deafening when Peter Galbraith did disagree at the end of the show with the idea of staying in Iraq. Here were the very people he’s working to help asking for our continued help, and all he can do is shill for Hillary Clinton’s presidential bid (by name) and say that, as she does, we need to get out of there because the Iraqi experiment has failed.
I’d ask him, and anyone else who said that the war in Iraq was and is a failure; what do you say to the Kurds? Were they and all other Iraqis not worth the effort to get rid of Hussein and his terror supporting and practicing regime? Just because some may not be handling freedom as well as we’d hoped, should we have left them all to the designs of the Ba’athists? If you blame the US for the violence in the south, are you prepared to credit the US for the peace and prosperity in the north?
Technorati Tags: Iraq, Kurdistan, Radio Open Source, Christopher Lydon, Qubad Talabani, Bayan Sami Abdul Rahman, Peter Galbraith
