Thursday, March 26, 2015

Petulance on stilts

Turns out that the administration recently declassified a Defense Dept. report on Israel’s nuclear program. Stephen Green lays out the significance of this action:
If you want to know why Tehran has been so successful in stalling against Obama and SecState John Kerry, look no further than right here. They — and the rest of the world — were given, courtesy of the Obama Administration and free of charge, some of Israel’s most vital national security secrets.

And that was when there was still six weeks of negotiation time left to go. The mullahs must be drooling at the prospect of what Obama/Kerry might let them have going into the final hours. The March 31 deadline is just days away, and Obama and Kerry are more desperate than ever for a deal, any deal, no matter the cost to Israel’s security.

Never have such two sold out so many for so little.
Yes, a couple of shrewd yankee traitors traders, no doubt about it.

Update: Glenn Reynolds has a couple of sharp observations on the subject: “Two thoughts: (1) If the Obama Administration wants to ensure that no ally will trust the United States again, they’re doing what it takes; and (2) If I had as much to hide as the Obama Administration does, I’m not sure I’d start a leak-war.”

7 comments:

rinardman said...

Remember the concept of MAD? That might work, when you have two powers that look at the death of millions of their own citizens as a really bad thing.

When one of those powers just sees death as their ticket to paradise, it loses a lot of it's effectiveness.

Obo the Clown can't be that stupid, can he? [/rhet]

HAL9000 said...

"The March 31 deadline is just days away, and Obama and Kerry are more desperate than ever for a deal, any deal, no matter the cost to Israel’s security. "

And no matter the cost to America's security. Iran is not building ICBMs to deliver nukes to Tel Aviv. No doubt Israel is first on Iran's target list, but Washington and New York are right behind Tsl Aviv.

RebeccaH said...

That bastard in the White House is doing his best to start WWIII.

Paco said...

And unlike almost everything else he attempts, his "best" may actually be good enough in this case.

Robert of Ottawa said...

Obomber is fighting Al Queda, ISIS and Assad in Syria,
supposedly against Iran in Lebanon and the two "Palestinian" states, but also against Israel. He is fighting with Iran in Iraq and against Iran in Yemen and negotiating with Iran in Switzerland. He also did not support the potential overthrow of the Iranian government by the popular rebellion.

Oh yes, he supported Al Queda in Libya and the Muslim Brotherhood Egypt.

Whoever side he is on, it's not America's, Paco.

Paco said...

Robert: That's a fact.

HAL9000 said...

I think Obumbler is on Iran's side. He's in the process of giving away the family jewels to them in the nuke talks. As Robert notes, he missed an opportunity to support democrats against the ayatollahs in 2009 (he's not keen on democracy in the US, why should he support it elsewhere?).

Obumbler seems to have the idea that he can make a grand bargain with Iran in which Iran will become the Big Dog in the Middle East and act as the hegemon there, providing order in the Persian Gulf. In fact, it's the same strategy the US had going when the Shah ruled Iran.

He overlooks some crucial differences between then and now. 1. The Shah was our ally, the ayatollahs are our enemies. What part of "Death to the Great Satan" does Obumbler not understand? 2. The eternal Sunni-Shi'a war was muted then, now it is expanding in area and virulence. 3. We were not faced with Muslim jihadist terrorists operating as non-state actors then (although there was the PLO but it was acting for some Arab dictators and the USSR). 4. Nuclear proliferation was much more limited and nuclear weapons harder to build.

In his arrogant narcissism Obumbler convinced himself that his personal presence would make the crucial difference in bringing Iran round to being an ally. He does not take seriously that the ayatollahs have their own goals and their own way of thinking, neither of which Obumbler understands. He probably thinks of them as being like Chicago Aldermen or some similar crooked pol he's familiar and comfortable with.

One problem we have (and had during the Cold War too) is mirror-imaging. We think that our enemies think the same way we do. The Ayatollahs and their consiglieri (like Ahmedimejad) think and speak in terms of Islmaic Shi'a apocalypticism. Because of this, people in the West do not take seriously what they say and do. If they spoke in Christian idiom, our elites would recognize what madmen they are and we'd have the whole of them up in arms to do something about it, the stronger the better.Why you hear Iranians talking about the 12th Imam and all, this is what you should translate it as:

"Jesus is about to come again and boy, is he pissed. It's our duty to start the War of Armageddon in order to hasten His coming. These nifty nukes are just the thing for the Battle of Armageddon. Conveniently, those damn Jews live right where it's supposed to take place, so we're gonna kill them first."

The ayatollahs keep telling Obumbler that they aren't building nukclear bombs, but it's a lie. They've been boasting for a decade and a half that as soon as they get one they're going to lob it at Tel Aviv. Further, they don't need those ICBMs they're building for destroying Israel. Those are for extending their ability to threaten with nukes to intimidate Europeans and others beyond the Middle East, and to provide a strike force against the US when they deem the time right.

Obulbler's treaty with them is what Muslims call a Treaty of Hudabiyah. Modeling themselves on Muhammed, it is a treaty to buy time until they feel strong enough to break it and destroy their interlocutors. That's what Muhammed did, and that's the example they follow.