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MARCH 28,  2011

OH DEAR, OH DEAR – AT 8:09 P.M. ET:   Supreme leader has finished.  And maybe America is finished.    You know, he speaks beautifully.  No one denies that.  He's a powerful, effective speaker, reminding us of another Illinois politician, Adlai Stevenson.  Stevenson was the darling of intellectuals in the 1950s, and became more darling as he went down to defeat twice at the hands of Dwight D. Eisenhower.

Stevenson spoke beautifully and said nothing.  Obama speaks beautifully and says a great deal.  The trouble is, it's so garbled and self-contradictory that you'd need the best codebreakers of World War II to figure out what he means.

That, by the way, seems to be the consensus among the pundits we've briefly checked in the minutes after Obama finished his speech.

On the one hand, Obama declared what Wolf Blitzer correctly characterized as "the Obama Doctrine."  We intervened to prevent a massacre, and we're proud of our leadership.  On the other hand, Obama then told us that our leadership role is ending.

So, does this mean we intervene whenever there's a threat of a massacre?  What about Syria, where a massacre may be happening?  What about Iran, where another massacre can occur at any time?  When does the Obama Doctrine apply?

And Brit Hume pointed out that if our leadership was so important in preventing a mass tragedy, why is that leadership not important now, when our leadership role is handed to NATO?  Did we suddenly lose our leadership skills?  Do we really think the Europeans have become enlightened?

Oh, by the way, Obama actually came close in this speech, and it was a fine moment, to endorsing the concept of American exceptionalism.  He said that one reason for our intervention in Libya was "who we are."  We are not, he said, like other nations, who can turn our backs in the face of evil.  IN OTHER WORDS, OBAMA SEEMED TO BE SAYING, WE'RE BUSH!

Yes, the president finally acknowledged that are values may set us apart from Belgium.  I suspect some of his supporters on the left have now fainted, and will be taken to Obamacare emergency rooms to be treated for hearing unclean thoughts.  The treatment is a dose of stem cells from Dennis Kucinich.

But, on balance, the president delivered an eloquent but confused speech.  At the end, we really didn't understand what comes next, and how this precedent applies in the future.  That is what strategic thinking is about.  Only the Bushian parts were good.

March 28, 2011      Permalink

CAN'T WAIT – AT 7:21 P.M. ET:  We are anticipating, with almost no sense of excitement, the speech of dear leader Barack Obama, set to begin in a few minutes, in which this global thinker will outline our Libya strategy.

Our beloved supreme guide has agreed to speak to his subjects, but not from the Oval Office, as real presidents do.  Like the true demigod who was given to us, he is out amongst the masses, preaching thoughts that will last many millennia, assuming global warming doesn't roast the Earth.

We will not interrupt the flow of the magic with lowly posts of our own, but will wait until the end of the speech to comment, once we absorb the full majesty of the revealed word.

March 28, 2011       Permalink

NO LEADER HE – AT 10:12 A.M. ET:  The press coverage of the 2008 presidential campaign was one of the lowest moments in modern American journalism.  The media abandoned all pretense of neutrality and went in the tank for a small-time Chicago politician with a golden voice.  No serious questions were asked of Barack Obama.  He was the dream-come-true of the sixties generation, which dominates the media:

Now we know what that election created.  Arthur Herman, the distinguished military historian, takes Obama apart and declares him a non-leader, a conclusion more and more Americans seem to be reaching themselves.  From the New York Post: 

Polls show that President Obama's Libya intervention has the lowest public support of any US military action in three decades. That's not surprising, because Obama seems ambivalent about the enterprise himself. Whatever he says tonight to rationalize it, Americans are learning a sober truth.

America's chief executive isn't simply one step behind events in Libya; he seems determined to miss a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the free world in the Mideast.

From Tunisia to Iran, the region is in the midst of a democratic seismic shift as autocracies old and new, friend and foe, rock on their foundations. Like most earthquakes, it has no predictable direction. The motives for those in the streets run from wanting a less repressive government and lower taxes (what set the whole thing off in Tunisia in the first place) to religious fundamentalism and sheer boredom.

A Ronald Reagan or a Harry Truman would realize that this is a chance not only to foster a freer and more open Mideast but also to bolster America's long-term strategic interests -- perhaps even cut off radical Islamism at the knees.

Instead, we have a president so determined not to be George W. Bush that he has preferred to lapse into total passivity. Even worse, he seems to see his passivity as helpful restraint, when it is just the opposite.

And...

If anyone wanted the world to see America as weak and unreliable, this is how to do it.

So whatever Obama says tonight to answer our doubts about Libya, there's another more pressing question he needs to answer.

What if anything will you stand up for, Mr. President?

COMMENT:  Ouch.  That is not an endorsement.  Wouldn't it be nice to have a president who believed in his own country?  Truman and Reagan are two examples, cited by Arthur Herman, who did.  They produced important results.  This president is producing another election campaign.  As one pundit wrote, he's a good speaker but a poor communicator.

He'd make a great student-body president.

March 28, 2011      Permalink

SNIPPET OF THE DAY – AT 8:58 A.M. ET:

From The New York Times:  Harry Wesley Coover Jr., the man who invented Super Glue, died on Saturday night at his home in Kingsport, Tenn. He was 94.

There'll be no funeral.  He's stuck to his bed and they can't get him out.

March 28, 2011       Permalink

A MATTER OF FAIRNESS – AT 8:35 A.M. ET:  This may not seem like an important story, but in fact it's very important.  Fairfax, Virginia, is an influential community where many government officials live.  It also has Virginia's largest school system.

Many Americans do not realize that there has been a growing scandal in the way disciplinary proceedings are held in America's schools, especially at the high-school and college levels.  Yes, we periodically hear stories about "zero tolerance" policies used to torment kids who inadvertently bring a bottle of aspirin to school, but we often don't hear about more serious cases, which can destroy a student's life, or even move him to end that life.

In an age of political correctness, we have seen college disciplinary hearings turn into Soviet-style inquisitions, where students are guilty until proved innocent, and where propagandistic theories of the political left substitute for evidence.  One reason for horrible outcomes is that schools and colleges often refuse to keep detailed transcripts so outside observers can see exactly what is being done. 

Fairfax, Virginia, is trying to address some of these issues.  The stakes are high for every family with a child in school.  From the Washington Post:

A growing number of Fairfax school officials support the idea of creating audio recordings of student disciplinary proceedings as the district seeks to respond to parent complaints about fairness and tone in the hearing room.

The hearings, which have become a flash point in a debate over how students in trouble get punished in Fairfax, have been criticized by parents for being highly adversarial and straying from fact to suspicion.

Assistant Superintendent Barbara M. Hunter said Friday that both she and the hearings office support the concept of recording what happens during the system’s 600-plus such proceedings a year. Hunter said she could envision parents being given a tape or CD shortly after each hearing. Now, notes are taken during proceedings but are not intended as a transcript.

“We are listening very carefully to what the community is saying,” Hunter said. “One of the ideas that has emerged is this notion of recording the hearings, and we would welcome that. We think the idea is very workable.”

COMMENT:  There have been horrible cases, and suicides.  I was personally involved in an HBO project some years ago dealing with a scandalous "disciplinary" hearing at a major university, in which a student's life was almost destroyed.  The entire transcript of the multi-hour hearing consisted of an 11-line summary.  (By the way, I was fired from the project because I would not toe the politically correct line, which held that the boy under charge had to be guilty, since it was a charge of sexual misconduct.  According to the line, males are always guilty.)

I'm glad to see Fairfax address this issue.  Sure, kids do bad things and have to be punished.  But "educators" often make poor judges, especially educators indoctrinated in schools of education about what is acceptable in school settings.

There is a great organization called FIRE, Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, that was founded to combat abuses of students, and it has done great work in bringing colleges, in particular, in line with sanity.   But much more needs to be done.

March 28, 2011      Permalink 

LIBYA MILITARY REPORT – AT 8:19 A.M. ET:  From Fox:

Airstrikes and explosions were heard in the Libyan capital of Tripoli Sunday night, a sign that another round of attacks against strongman Muammar al-Qaddafi's military is under way.

The anti-aircraft fire comes as NATO agrees to take over control of all aerial operations -- including ground attacks -- in Libya. The U.S. will hand off responsibility for air attacks to the alliance in a power transfer that may take several days, according to a diplomat who asked to remain anonymous.

The North Atlantic Council -- the alliance's top body -- approved a plan to expand the previously agreed mission to enforce the U.N. arms embargo and no-fly zone by agreeing to protect civilians from attack.

"NATO Allies have decided to take on the whole military operation in Libya under the U.N. Security Council resolution," Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said in a statement.

And...

On the ground, Libyan rebels have taken a second key oil port as they continue their push west toward Tripoli. The anti-government uprising has gained newfound momentum after international airstrikes began targeting Qaddafi's military over a week ago.

After seizing Brega, a main oil export terminal in the eastern half of the country, the movement captured the oil refinery of Ras Lanouf on Sunday.

COMMENT:  Commander-in-chief Obama will address the nation tonight, seeking to explain his strategy in Libya.  Personally, I preferred the last commander-in-chief, who was ridiculed for using the word "strategery."  At least he knew what it meant.

We all want to see Qaddafi out of power, but we are very concerned about who replaces him.  We'll listen to see if Obama has any thoughts on that.  Or any thoughts.

March 28, 2011       Permalink

NO MATTER WHAT WE DO – AT 7:37 A.M. ET:  I am so sick and tired of hearing about the "Arab street" and "Arab opinion."  There is no such thing as the Arab street, and Arab opinion is a farce.

Public opinion in any country does not automatically blossom forth.  It comes from 1) cultural traditions, which, in the Arab case, are hundreds of years behind modern times; 2) the media, which in most Arab countries is controlled; 3) the educational system, also controlled by the state; and 4) religious institutions, which, in the Arab world, are, at best, problematical.

So this morning's story from Fox about Obama's deteriorating reputation in the Arab world should be looked at with caution.  We have often helped Muslims, and have never received so much as a thank-you.  We helped in Bosnia.  We helped in Lebanon.  Iraq is now a fledgling democracy.  We are trying to save Arab lives in Libya.  We have given billions in foreign aid.  Nothing ever matters.  A decadent civilization remains decadent, and we're supposed to worry about its "street."  Sadly, the hard left in America and elsewhere will side with the decadent elements because it will side with anything anti-American.

We are very critical of Obama at Urgent Agenda, and we hope he will learn a lesson from what's happening today – that nothing will change Muslim opinion of America until Muslim civilization itself changes.  We already are seeing signs that the Egyptian revolution is falling apart, and, despite the fact that we're ready to place blame on Obama for many things, that isn't his fault.  It's Egyptian civilization's fault.

Despite the garbage taught in our chic, lazy, overpriced colleges, not all cultures are equal.  I don't have to accept a culture that treats women as common property.  Neither do you.

From today's Fox story:

Two years ago, President Obama was cheered in the Middle East and around the world as he toured capital cities on a diplomatic mission of reconciliation following an administration defined by two wars.

Last week looked a little different.

Crowds shouted "down with Obama" in Mali, burned him in effigy in Sri Lanka and, in Spain, brought back a slogan once used to attack George W. Bush -- "no more blood for oil."

Obama's decision to enter Libya in hopes of preventing a slaughter at the hands of Muammar al-Qaddafi could, despite its best intentions, accelerate a public-opinion shift in some quarters of the world away from the U.S. president.

That shift has been under way for some time. Though polls showed Obama's popularity soaring as he prepared to deliver his speech to the Muslim world in Egypt in the summer 2009, that affection appeared to have waned by the following year. International polling conducted last summer showed confidence in Obama plummeting in key Muslim countries.

That is not going to change, in our view here, until there are decades of real democracy in the Arab world, a truly free press, and an educational system worthy of the name.  I'm not all that optimistic, not when Western "intellectuals" often side with the most backward elements of Muslim civilization, the better to be chic and with it, and to be invited to the best parties.

We have very tough times ahead in foreign policy, and we have a president entirely inadequate for the job.  If he can't dent the Arab world, with his Muslim middle name and endless groveling, then who can?

March 28, 2011     Permalink

MARCH 27,  2011

WHAA..? – AT 11:08 P.M. ET:  The secretary of state of the United States explains American foreign policy.  Urgent Agenda is thinking of offering a financial reward for any reader who can explain the explanation.  From Bloomberg:

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the U.S. won’t enter into the internal conflict in Syria the way it has in Libya.

“No,” Clinton said, when asked on the CBS “Face the Nation” program if the U.S. would intervene in Syria’s unrest. Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad’s security forces clashed with protesters in several cities yesterday after his promises of freedoms and pay increases failed to prevent dissent from spreading across the country.

Clinton said the elements that led to intervention in Libya -- international condemnation, an Arab League call for action, a United Nations Security Council resolution -- are “not going to happen” with Syria, in part because members of the U.S. Congress from both parties say they believe Assad is “a reformer.”

They do?  I'd like to know who these members of Congress are.  Name the names.  Assad runs a complete police state.

“What’s been happening there the last few weeks is deeply concerning, but there’s a difference between calling out aircraft and indiscriminately strafing and bombing your own cities,” Clinton said, referring to Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi’s attacks on the Libyan people, “than police actions which, frankly, have exceeded the use of force that any of us would want to see.”

COMMENT:  So Assad is the slightly misguided good guy here?  Does anyone understand what our policy is?  You just get the feeling that it's amateur night in Washington, with the president hoping that the mainstream media will cover for him once again.

The Mideast is burning.  We really have no policy.

March 27, 2011      Permalink

THE SILENCE OF THE PRESS – AT 10:29 P.M. ET:  The Jerusalem Post reports the beatings of journalists in Gaza.  The story is written by courageous Arab journalist Khaled Abu Toameh, who also writes for the Hudson Institute website. 

A number of Palestinian women journalists complained on Sunday that they had been beaten and tortured by Hamas security forces in the Gaza Strip.

They said the assaults occurred in recent days when they and their colleagues tried to cover pro-unity rallies in different parts of the Gaza Strip.

Hamas policemen used force to disperse the protesters, who were calling for an end to the dispute between the Islamist movement and Fatah. The rallies were part of a Facebook campaign organized by Palestinian youth on March 15.

At least eight journalists were beaten by the Hamas police officers during the rallies.

Some had their cameras and laptops confiscated, while others were taken into custody and made to sign a document pledging to refrain from covering such events in the future.

Later, Hamas security personnel raided the offices of a number of media organizations and confiscated equipment and documents. Among the offices targeted were Reuters, CNN and a Japanese TV network.

COMMENT:  Have you seen anything about this in the mainstream press?  Have you seen anything on CNN?

There is an ugly history of CNN, and other outlets, making deals with Arab dictatorships to play down their cruelty in exchange for access.   CNN made a deal like that with Saddam Hussein.  When it was exposed, a CNN executive, a sacrificial lamb, had to step down. 

It's a sickening picture.  On balance, I think the press has done a decent job of reporting the recent upheavals in the Mideast.  But when it comes to the "Palestinians," a vague term at best, there too often has been a free pass.  A few days ago Dan Rather complained that some members of his crew were subjected to humiliating security checks in Israel, and I think his complaints may have some merit.  But on Hamas beatings of journalists, only a curious silence.

March 27, 2011       Permalink

A CRITICAL RELATIONSHIP – AT 11:20 A.M. ET:  Again, it is so easy to be distracted by all that is going on in the Mideast.  Let's not forget that American forces are fighting in Afghanistan, and that next-door Pakistan, a nuclear power, is one of our most critical relationships, anywhere in the world.  That relationship is in big trouble, with potentially catastrophic results.  From ABC:

Even in diplomatese, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton makes it clear that the U.S. relationship with Pakistan is not in an ideal place.

On “This Week,” ABC News’ Senior White House Correspondent Jake Tapper asked, “Has this relationship gotten worse in the last six months, U.S.-Pakistan?”

“Well, Jake, it's a very challenging relationship because there have been some problems,” Clinton said. “We were very appreciative of getting our diplomat out of Pakistan and that took cooperation by the government of Pakistan,” she said, referring to the release of Raymond Davis, the American CIA contractor recently released after months in a Pakistani prison on charges of murdering two men in Lahore.

“We have cooperated very closely together in going after terrorists who pose a threat to both us and the Pakistanis themselves. But it's a very difficult relationship because Pakistan is in a hard position trying to figure out how it's going to contend with its own internal extremist threat,” she said.

COMMENT:  Translated:  There's a lot of support for Al Qaeda in Pakistan, and within the Pakistani government. 

If Pakistan slips to the other side, with its arsenal of nuclear weapons, we will face an unprecedented threat.  It will also be a sharp rebuke to those who say we've exaggerated the danger of terrorism.  These political ostriches never seem to consider the potential for terrorists to get their hands on atomic weapons, already built and store-bought. 

Look at what's happening all over the world.  And then look at who's in the White House.

Remember bomb shelters?  Start digging.

March 27, 2011      Permalink

ONE HAND CLAPPING – AT 10:43 A.M. ET:  Libyan rebels, according to AP, are making progress, following NATO-led air attacks on government forces:

RAS LANOUF, Libya -- Libyan rebels seized back two key oil complexes and pushed west toward Tripoli on Sunday, gaining momentum after international airstrikes that tipped the balance away from Moammar Gadhafi's military.

The coastal complexes at Ras Lanouf and Brega were responsible for a large chunk of Libya's 1.5 million barrels of daily exports, which have all but stopped since the uprising that began Feb. 15 and was inspired by the toppling of governments in Tunisia and Egypt.

On the eastern approach of Ras Lanouf, airstrikes apparently hit three empty tank transporters and left two buildings that appeared to be sleeping quarters pockmarked with shrapnel.

"There was no resistance. Gadhafi's forces just melted away," said Suleiman Ibrahim, a 31-year-old volunteer, sitting in the back of a pickup truck on the road between the two towns. "This couldn't have happened without NATO. They gave us big support."

COMMENT:  We write "one hand clapping" because of recent, cautionary reports that rebel forces have been infiltrated by Al Qaeda supporters.  If the rebels win, and Al Qaeda becomes a major influence in the Libyan government, we'll be in a worse spot than we were in before.  We really don't have much good intelligence on who the rebels are, and we desperately need it.

March 27, 2011       Permalink

WHERE OBAMA STANDS – AT 10:29 A.M. ET:  The public has now had a chance to absorb President Obama's non-performance in the Libya crisis.  Normally, Americans rally 'round the president when our forces are sent into action.  This time, the launching of U.S. air strikes on Libya has not resulted in any important change in Obama's poll numbers, which remain the general range they were in last year.  From Rasmussen:

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Sunday shows that 23% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as president. Thirty-nine percent (39%) Strongly Disapprove, giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -16.

And...

Overall, 46% of voters say they at least somewhat approve of the president's performance. Fifty-three percent (53%) now disapprove of his performance.

COMMENT:  What's interesting is that, while the president's support is soft, and well below his level on inauguration day, he still retains some support in the mid-40s.  It doesn't really change all that much.  In part this is because Obama retains overwhelming support among several key groups, especially minorities, who will not abandon him no matter what he does.  And the mainstream press, while generally more critical of him than it has been in the past, still will not savage him the way it savaged Bush.

As an incumbent, Mr. Obama retains advantages for 2012.  He's a botch master, one of the weakest presidents I've seen, but he will still be difficult to beat.

March 27, 2011      Permalink

AND IN IRAN – AT 10:17 A.M. ET:  Our friend Banafsheh Zand-Bonazzi, an Iranian human-rights activist of the first rank, yesterday reported the following:

On Monday, March 13th, the Iranian regime executed, in secret, a Jewish-Armenian (Orthodox Christian) couple along with three other individuals in Tehran’s Evin prison. Ms. Adiva Mirza-Soleiman was of the Jewish faith who along with her Armenian husband, Varouzhan Petrossian, was executed. The Iranian regime has refused to disclose the specific charges against the five, that lead to their execution.

Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) reports that though Iranian court part 28 confirmed that the five were in fact executed, they refused to surrender their bodies to their relatives for burial. The families of the couple who had planned to bury each of them according to each of their faith’s funeral customs have been threatened and arrested.

COMMENT:  It is easy, with all that's happening in the Mideast, to forget the cruelty of the Iranian regime toward its own people.  It's also easy to forget that Iran is emerging as the great power in the region, thanks in part to the ineffectivness of American foreign policy.   Obama's meekness in the face of a general revolt of Iranians in 2009 set the tone, and sent a signal to the Iranian mullahs that we weren't going to do much, or even say much, in defense of democracy in Iran.

And the Iranian nuclear program forges ahead.

March 27, 2011     Permalink