Thursday, January 14, 2010

This Is Ludicrous

Apparently, the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists (or they who turn the hands of the Doomsday Clock) announced today that we are now at 6 minutes to midnight, or still very close to Armageddon.



Want to know who they credit with this?

That's right, like the Nobel Committee, they credit President Barak Obama with the rollback of the doomsday clock.

Huh?

Are we not still fighting two wars in Asia? Are we not conducting a semi-covert campaign against Muslim terrorists operating from safe havens in Yemen and the Horn of Africa? Have we not abandoned missile defense systems in Europe? (You'd think that was a good thing right? Wrong!) Are we still allowing a state sponsor of terror to develop nuclear weapons?

The answer to all those is yes.

Let's start with the basic premise that since the Second World War, there have been a number of wars being fought around the globe every hour of every day. Most are not even noticed by the American public. And yet in a way, they continue to fester, acting to spew out those who cannot or will not give up the fight and take it elsewhere.

Think that Al-Qaeda came out about on its own? Check out the Soviet Occupation of Afghanistan. These wars breed instability because we do not resolve them in a way that all parties realize that war is no longer a viable alternative.

But I digress. So what has President Obama done that helped turn back the doomsday clock? Aparently, he has made "a change in the US government's orientation toward international affairs, [.]"

The only change I've detected is one for the worst. He accepts the status quo of nations. Tolerating and even praising those who would crush individual liberties for their own gain. He has failed to adequately support those who yearn to be free.

His policies do not make us safer. Instead they make us more vulnerable by surrendering the position of strength. In foreign affairs, equals may trade. They may contract. They may discuss. But they do not accomplish things. To be effective in international affairs, one must have strength and demonstrate the willingness to use that strength, even if it is never actually used.

Theodore Roosevelt grasped this.

John F. Kennedy had to learn the hard way how to do it properly.

Ronald Regan managed it better than anyone ever thought a washed-up actor could.

But the longer this presidency goes, the more and more it looks like it is a repeat of all the failures of the Carter Administration. What's worse, the backlash that will come is not going to be pretty. And those policies that were put off by the Bush Administration are going to rear their ugly head.

Frak me. The only person who fails upward this well is Lane Kiffin.

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