President Obama wants a new era of dialogue with the Arab/Muslim world. He is correct when he opines that the USA has often dictated policy. The problem is that this misguided humility ignores historical, moral and political reality. Foreign policy is crafted with our nation's interests in mind! Of course we have economic and ideological interests. US policy has been the fairest and most judicious of any nation's. We want Israel to live peacefully in secure borders and we want to insure a supply of oil for our economy. This is why we have been the only real "honest broker" in all the negotiations since 1949!
To speak officially with the current regime of Iran with no preconditions is stupid at best and subversive at worst. To suggest that Obama's Muslim background makes him better able to understand the enemies of Israel and the USA is naive and dangerous. First of all, Obama's conversion to Christianity technically makes him an apostate to Islam and a potential target for persecution and even execution. Second, the Islamic radicals are laughing all the way to their secret meetings in the mosques as they have found the perfect tool for their plans to destroy the West - however long it takes.
In the midst of Obama's interview with the Arab world, Iran continues to spew out Holocaust denial and set forth a policy of Israeli destruction. There is no reasoning with an evil, illegitimate and immoral regime that oppresses its own people and has designs on a new Islamic Caliphate embracing the world. Let me clear: there is no moral equivalence between Israel and the current leadership groups of the besieged Gazan/Palestinians. A two-state solution (with Nobel Peace Prizes) has been offered multiple time and rejected - by the Arab leaders who will not acknowledge Israel's right to exist. I am not saying Israel is blameless; however, their willingness to dialogue is on record. They have a lively democracy that includes Arabs in the Knesset. Their own Left has offered numerous solutions - then Hamas or Islamic Jihad or Al-Queda kill civilians, Israel retaliates and the fearful caterers to Islamic radicalism call on Israel to make concessions.
The real problem is that Obama's entire adult life has been in the ideological hothouse of radical political ideology, revisionist history and visceral self-hatred of America. He wraps himself in the Civil Rights cloak of the great Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. while rejecting the race-free, universal principles that led to real civil rights. Obama's advisors seem to be content to let Israel bear the blame for the "cycles of violence" (a euphemism for Islamic killing and Israel survival responses) and cater to parties still entrenched in the anti-Americanism of the 1960s.
I call on all thoughtful people to demand that our President stop apologizing for being an American and use our moral and military strength to begin real talks toward peace. Iran is welcome - if they renounce nuclear weapons, reject Holocaust denial and acknowledge Israel's right to exist. Short of these preconditions, they should be marginalized and we should support real efforts to topple a regime that does not reflect the beauty, grace, tolerance and wisdom of the Persian people. Lest we forget, it was a Persian Emperor who supported the building the Second Temple (539 BC) and restored the Jews to their land. Cyrus and Darius are honored by the prophets of Israel. Persian history, even after the Islamic rule began in the seventh century, is full of great toleration and cooperation among people of all faiths. Even the hated Shah allowed more freedom of conscience and religion that the current mad mullahs. I am not defending the oppressive rule of the Shahs imposed by the British and supported by the USA until 1978; however, I am suggesting that history demonstrates that there is a better way forward than the current vitriol coming from Tehran.
President Obama, stand with Israel and our nation will be blessed. Participate in her demise and you will hasten ours as well.
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Monday, January 26, 2009
Betrayal
Well, we are one week into the regime of President Barack Hussein Obama. Already there are causes for great concern, not just for conservatives, but for all who value timeless principles and the future of our Republic. Principled, thoughtful people have been triply betrayed. First, Obama's radicalism is destructive to our future and we must oppose several policies that are about to be implemented. The new administration is betraying all the devout voters who trusted that the President would still sanctify life and moderate some of his rhetoric and support traditional families. It turns out that his "guns and religion" disgust toward regular folk really does reflect his attitudes and values and that the pandering to evangelicals was mere window-dressing. Already we see
* The export of death by Executive Order. Liberals cannot see that economic freedom and opportunity stabilize populations, not draconian abortion efforts.
* Ending torture is good, but closing Gitmo without a plan and opening civil courts to military matters are reckless and self-destructive plans.
* Economic policies with no specifics or substance and with the record of 20th century history that refutes them all! Some intervention is needed, but not indefinite deficits and national control of the world's greatest economy. Why are we now more liberal than France and constructing socialism even as many nations are dismantling some facets of their centralized economies?
* The planned destruction of the traditional family, with policies (straight from the White House website itself) designed to trump the individual state's regulation of marriage and pander to the LGBT elites.
* Environmental policies that will hasten our serfdom. This regime is committing the "Either/Or" fallacy on a grandiose scale. We can become more green - AND drill for more oil. We are burning cleaner coal and diesel than ever, AND investigating new energy sources. We do not need to remove millions more acres of our land from potential productive use.
* Moves to end secret ballots for union elections. Why don't we just invite Jimmy Hoffa to come back and rule?
This list, alas, can go on almost ad infinitum, ad nauseum.
There is another betrayal, just as serious, that thoughtful folks must consider in order to place all these disturbing decisions in context. This is the betrayal of principles by both Bush Administrations, especially with the economy and immigration. Democrat or Republican, until the 1930s and especially the 1960s, living within our means was the aim, if not always the practice. Local and State governments actually had some resources of their own. Democrats and Republicans have always disagreed on some budget priorities, but all affirmed a real budget. Beginning with the failure to reign in spending and regulate our borders, and ending with the "Business Buddy Bailout" of 2008, thoughtful people have been betrayed. Why is legal immigration so difficult, along with insistence that our friends south of the border obey our laws?
The third betrayal is found in a Congress (and Californian Legislature) unable to regulate itself or control its lust for power. Wall Street helped hasten the current crises, but they were aided by a Congress that pushed loan policies so unrealistic that the warning signs since the late 1990s were simply ignored. The fact the Clinton appointees made tens of millions off these bad loans barely registers in a media so enamored with Obama and still nursing visceral hatred of Bush.
Triple betrayal: Bush's failures, Congressional lunacy and Obama radicalism - all dome while we amuse ourselves to death and wonder what happened.
There are positive ways forward that transcend party lines and narrow ideologies and will not please all conservatives or progressives. In the next entry I will propose plans that can take us "back to the future" as we reaffirm our timeless values and take quantum leaps forward.
* The export of death by Executive Order. Liberals cannot see that economic freedom and opportunity stabilize populations, not draconian abortion efforts.
* Ending torture is good, but closing Gitmo without a plan and opening civil courts to military matters are reckless and self-destructive plans.
* Economic policies with no specifics or substance and with the record of 20th century history that refutes them all! Some intervention is needed, but not indefinite deficits and national control of the world's greatest economy. Why are we now more liberal than France and constructing socialism even as many nations are dismantling some facets of their centralized economies?
* The planned destruction of the traditional family, with policies (straight from the White House website itself) designed to trump the individual state's regulation of marriage and pander to the LGBT elites.
* Environmental policies that will hasten our serfdom. This regime is committing the "Either/Or" fallacy on a grandiose scale. We can become more green - AND drill for more oil. We are burning cleaner coal and diesel than ever, AND investigating new energy sources. We do not need to remove millions more acres of our land from potential productive use.
* Moves to end secret ballots for union elections. Why don't we just invite Jimmy Hoffa to come back and rule?
This list, alas, can go on almost ad infinitum, ad nauseum.
There is another betrayal, just as serious, that thoughtful folks must consider in order to place all these disturbing decisions in context. This is the betrayal of principles by both Bush Administrations, especially with the economy and immigration. Democrat or Republican, until the 1930s and especially the 1960s, living within our means was the aim, if not always the practice. Local and State governments actually had some resources of their own. Democrats and Republicans have always disagreed on some budget priorities, but all affirmed a real budget. Beginning with the failure to reign in spending and regulate our borders, and ending with the "Business Buddy Bailout" of 2008, thoughtful people have been betrayed. Why is legal immigration so difficult, along with insistence that our friends south of the border obey our laws?
The third betrayal is found in a Congress (and Californian Legislature) unable to regulate itself or control its lust for power. Wall Street helped hasten the current crises, but they were aided by a Congress that pushed loan policies so unrealistic that the warning signs since the late 1990s were simply ignored. The fact the Clinton appointees made tens of millions off these bad loans barely registers in a media so enamored with Obama and still nursing visceral hatred of Bush.
Triple betrayal: Bush's failures, Congressional lunacy and Obama radicalism - all dome while we amuse ourselves to death and wonder what happened.
There are positive ways forward that transcend party lines and narrow ideologies and will not please all conservatives or progressives. In the next entry I will propose plans that can take us "back to the future" as we reaffirm our timeless values and take quantum leaps forward.
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