Wednesday, June 24, 2009

from NY to Israel Sultan Reveals The Stories Behind the News






from NY to Israel Sultan Reveals
The Stories Behind the News


Link to Sultan Knish








Why Iran's June Revolt Emphasizes Obama's Absence of Leadership


Posted: 23 Jun 2009 07:46 PM PDT


The Bush Administration's guiding policy on the Middle East was
that stability comes from aiding and promoting the spread of Democracy.
The Obama Administration's guiding policy on the Middle East is that
stability comes from discarding or even outright suppressing Middle
Eastern democracies, particularly if they are not run by Arab Muslims, as
sources of instability in the region.






The Bush Administration pursued a military war to overthrow a
tyrant and liberate Iraq. The Obama Administration is pursuing a
diplomatic war against Israel to overthrow a democratic government and
establish a terrorist state. The contrast between the Bush and Obama
administrations is the contrast between America's ideals in action and the
same cynical pandering to Muslim dictatorships, such as Iran and Saudi
Arabia, that has the Middle East a source of terrorism in the first
place.

The advocates of stability naturally turn out to be the
greatest supporters of appeasement, giving the murderous squeaky wheels
whatever grease they think will keep them from going on homicidal purges.
This failed policy dominated the Clinton Administration, which shelled out
aid to the Taliban, took nothing but cosmetic action when Saddam attempted
to assassinate a former United States President and actually wound up
going to war to create a new Muslim state in the Balkans. Naturally
pressuring Israel to create a Palestinian Arab terrorist state in the
middle of one of the most prosperous countries in the Middle East was high
on the agenda, and was Bill Clinton's most admired foreign policy
accomplishment.

17 years later, the Palestinian territories are a
festering sore filled with Islamist terrorists who are continually
innovating new terrorist tactics that have then been used against Allied
troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. Meanwhile the breakup of Yugoslavia has
led to a vast drug and human smuggling pipeline into the heartland of
Europe. Members of the Clinton backed KLA, which financed itself through
the drug trade, have become crime bosses all through Europe... those who
haven't gone on to become Islamist terrorists that is. It was left to the
Bush Administration to deal with Saddam Hussein and with Osama Bin Laden,
but not before the latter managed to kill 3000 Americans.

So much for stability.

As an advocate of bringing stability by appeasing
tyrants and terrorists, Obama's fumbling response to the Iranian street
protests is exactly what one would expect from a man who took Democracy
off the table in Cairo and pushed diplomacy with the regime of the Mullahs
as his foreign policy agenda.

The Iranian June Revolt has badly
upset the Obama applecart, which was working to appeasing Muslim tyrannies
by forcing concessions from Israel, while pandering to the Iranian regime.
And now in the absence of leadership America has no useful response to
make. Rather than demonize the Iranian street protests against
Ahmadinejad, the way that it demonized the Venezulean street protests
against Chavez, the left has increasingly chosen to side with them. This
leaves Obama stuck fumbling for increasingly bolder statements on the
riots to appease his domestic supporters, even as he tries to reassure the
rest of the Muslim tyrannies that the United States would never interfere
in their internal affairs. (A privilege apparently reserved by Obama for
Israel, Greece, Germany and other Democratic nations.)

The June
Revolt in Iran is bursting through the illusion that Obama is any kind of
leader. The illusion of Obama's leadership has been maintained through
scripted speeches, head thrust back poses and prominent liberal figures
enthusiastically praising his leadership. But the real test of leadership
is a crisis. And in this crisis, Obama has sat on the sidelines, gone for
ice cream, fumbled and done absolutely nothing.



During the election, Biden predicted, "It will not be six months before the world
tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy... Remember, I said it
standing here, if you don’t remember anything else I said. Watch, we’re
going to have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the
mettle of this guy... He’s going to have to make some really tough - I
don’t know what the decision’s going to be, but I promise you it will
occur."


He then called on the donors to be prepared to
rise to Mr. Obama’s defense because he will need to make some difficult
and unpopular choices in response.
"And
he's gonna need help. And the kind of help he's gonna need is, he's
gonna need you - not financially to help him - we're gonna need you to
use your influence, your influence within the community, to stand with
him. Because it's not gonna be apparent initially, it's not gonna be
apparent that we're right."


Biden's likely reference was to the Bay of Pigs, which
occurred several months after JFK took office. It was sabotaged by
Kennedy's refusal to provide aid and naval support to the Cuban liberation
forces, resulting in the deaths of both Cuban fighters and American
personnel on the ground. That "difficult and unpopular" choice was only
partially later redeemed by Kennedy's actions during the Cuban Missile
Crisis.






In 1940 Kennedy had responded to Churchill's While England
Slept, a warning against appeasement, with Why England Slept, a defense of
the appeasement propounded by his father, Joe Kennedy. As President,
Kennedy discovered that America did not have the luxury of sleep, and
learned from his mistakes. What he did not need however, was the
uncritical support that Biden asked on behalf of Obama. Real leaders don't
need to be pandered too or given uncritical support, they need to be
challenged.

That is why Obama is not a leader. Beneath his media
haze, Obama is a little man sitting in a big chair, distributing graft to
his backers, and tiptoeing around the world to promise America's enemies
that America is no longer a threat.

But the fight for freedom is
not limited to America. It never was. Obama chose to keep America on the
sidelines, to enable tyranny and suppress freedom. Nevertheless with the
June Revolt, freedom has sprung up anyway.













No comments:

Post a Comment