May 09 2009
WHO SAYS WE HAVE TO SOLVE THE WORLD’S PROBLEMS?
This morning while scrolling through web pages, I found this absurd article written by Don Lambro. The article starts out with huge fallacy and grows exponentially worse. For the sake of clarity, I have reprinted the whole article to show how political writers help in shaping public opinion, no matter how absurd their work is.
The basic premise of the article supposes that the US is the police agency of the world, and must somehow, hold back tyranny, at all costs. The writer also shows his far right political slant in the first sentence of his writing.
WASHINGTON — The world’s terrorists and rogue nations have clearly become more dangerous since Barack Obama took office, and analysts say they’re testing him to see how much they can get away with.
North Korea, Iran, Al Qaeda in Iraq and the Afghan Taliban have gotten much more threatening in recent months, while the administration pursues a new foreign policy based on the belief that they can achieve much more through soft diplomacy — sitting down with our adversaries and having a “dialogue” with them.
In an ever more dangerous world, the Obama administration says it is practicing “smart power” instead of “hard power.”
“With smart power, diplomacy will be the vanguard of foreign policy,” Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told senators at her confirmation hearings.
That’s the message Obama has sent since his swearing-in, but so far it doesn’t seem to be working. On the contrary, it seems to be encouraging further bad behavior.
Communist North Korea has brazenly stepped up its development and testing of medium-range missiles and nuclear weapons that threaten its neighbors and eventually us.
Taliban forces have grown more aggressive, threatening Afghanistan’s weakened government and taking control of the Swat Valley and neighboring
areas in Pakistan, where they have moved their troops to within 60 miles of Islamabad.
Al Qaeda has ramped up its deadly suicide bombings in Baghdad and elsewhere in Iraq, amid reports the United States may slow its withdrawal plans if conditions worsen there.
Iran, too, is working overtime to support terrorists while pursuing its own nuclear programs in defiance of United Nations resolutions and economic sanctions. A CIA report to Congress says it has dramatically increased its uranium-enrichment program.
“This has to do with testing him. But in a larger sense, our adversaries and friends alike perceive a potential U.S. vacuum of leadership — and international leadership abhors a vacuum, and other people are going to do things to fill that vacuum,” said foreign-policy analyst Kim Holmes of the Heritage Foundation.
“In the case of North Korea, we are clearly worse off than we were a few months ago,” he told me. “What have we got by reaching out to the Iranians? Not much. They are working on their missiles; there’s not much change in their posture. Pakistan is certainly more of a worry now, not just in the tribal areas but in Pakistan proper, and the danger of getting control of nuclear weapons, which would be a nightmare.”
After reading the article, I ask one question; who says we have to solve the world’s problems? The evil empire of the Bush regime is long gone. It is time for change, change that doesn’t impose our belief system on every country in the world. What makes the writer think we have to continue fighting in foreign wars for weak causes. Sure, terrorism is important. But you cant go blow up everything and everybody in the name of cleansing for safety’s sake. You also can’t go around torturing suspects to gain better intel.
Everyone who makes a case for militarizing solutions always does so in the name of protecting our interests. They always start out and end up with talking about the buzz word “terrorists”. Of course this ploy has worked for the last eight years, but those days are over with. Other countries have their own interests to protect also, and they are alot closer to the terrorists than we are. Nuclear arms falling into the hands of rogue actors is bad, but Pakistan, Afghanistan, Russia, and a whole host of other countries that are on the mainland have alot more to worry about than we do.
Using terms like “Al-Qaeda in Iraq”, seperate the writer from the factual world most of us live in. Most terrorists in Iraq are nothing more than locals who have acquired some bomb making material from Iran. “Al-Qaeda in Iraq” was and is a Bush term used to sell the war to Americans. While Al-Qaeda may be in Iraq, the problem now rests with the Iraqis who want us out of there. Let the Iraqis, who demand sovereignty, take care of their problems.
Iran has consisently snubbed any efforts by the international community to cease nuclear activity. Iran has neither gotten better or worse as a result of Obama.The same thing went on when Bush was in office. What should we do? Blow them up too? How about letting the international community blow them up? What about Israel, who has way more to lose than we do, deal with Iran?
Articles written in this manner are seriously flawed, offer no solutions, and are not based on factually intelligent analysis. While I admire the writers ability to blow off steam, the consequences of poorly reasoned articles should be higher. I am upset this guy actually has a following and has offered nothing in the way of substance. While his article may strike a cord with some who think military solutions are the answer to everything, the writer has failed to give any credence to diplomatic efforts which are not developed or instituted overnight.
Mostly this guy is just wrong. North Korea has been trying and failing to threaten its neighbors for decades. The Taliban has not stepped anything up, they’ve been fighting us for 8 years. Iran nuclear weapons talk was going on before Obama. Obama simply wants to open diplomatic relations with countries, refuting the asinine policy of ignoring all countries we aren’t happy with, (unless of course one of those countries happens to be China who we are in hock to). I hope coalition forces do not leave Afghanistan though. Some desperate people are trying to create a better society, quietly and they will be mutilated, tortured and murdered without security. Good post.
Ok I will grant the writer is wacked. But how can you claim to know “Most terrorists in Iraq are nothing more than locals who have acquired some bomb making material from Iran” a bomb can be made from materials at any hardware store, Iran is not required for “bomb making material”. What for that matter makes someone in Iraq a terrorist? Is it the fact that they are resisting our occupation? Look, war is big business, it’s not about terrorism, it’s about control of strategic locations, natural resources and the profit that comes from war. Al-Qaeda is BS, 2 high school chemistry students with a $50,000 a year budget could have caused more havoc in the US over the last 8yrs than Al-Qaeda has, this is a con job, and has been since 9/11. Osama Bin Laden with his millions of dollars and sleeper cells inside the US, hasn’t done anything in 8yrs. Are you kidding me? Al-Qaeda is a shill. The war in Afghanistan is a waste of human life, it will accomplish nothing, with the exception of killing civilians in the conflict zone. We have been walked down the garden path, again. American families are giving their children up for no good reason. All this blood, all this propaganda and patriotic apathy has cost too much life. It’s time to rethink the entire US foreign policy, the soviets got their asses handed to them in Afghanistan and so will we, there is no exit strategy and no way to win.
Harrison,
Maybe you should recognize that the USA supported Osama Bin Laden. He didn’t become a bad man after we dropped our funding he was a bad man from the jump. But I guess you have selective amnesia. And for that matter what do you want to tell the families of victims of US aggression and “collateral damage”? Run the numbers Harrison, the US has killed more than 100times the number of civilians that Al-Qaeda has… But I guess that doesn’t mean shit to you since they are not Americans? Ethnocentric BS.
Harrison, part of the problem is that these people who defend Obama’s stand on Islam and muslims do not remember the Black September movement. Keeping our country safe should be Obama’s first priority, and not kissing up to every third world dictator he can find. It shames me to wee what I see happening to this country because our schools dilute the truth, avoid teaching history, and interject their own left agenda on students. Either remember all of history or throw away the books…what a mess!
http://gyroscope2000.today.com
When you say remembering history, you mean like the history that the US supported Saddam Husain, Osama Bin Laden and a list of brutal dictators and thugs that after time we found our nation fighting against and often fighting people with weapons that we provided them with? “Either remember all of history or throw away the books.” I suppose we should burn the books eh?
And if you recall, dsent, the U.S. also supported Stalin during WW2. Was that a good or bad thing?
leinbacker,
You wanna compare WWII support of Stalin to the support of Osama Bin Laden… OK . . . Well if you wanna combine war tactics with peace time politics, I’m still going to come down against supporting dictators either way. Maybe if the US wasn’t so busy chasing around the desert of N. Africa and opened a second front against the Germans in a more timely fashion. There are lots of subtleties of WWII that are worth questioning right down to the 8 point plan by McCollum that got us involved. But I would not compare that situation to peace time support of people like Bin Laden, Suharto or Husain if you don’t see a substantial difference then I think there are more than a few things about history upon which we would not agree. I think the comparison is totally bogus to be quite honest.
Harrison,
Are you so hysterical that you can’t even differentiate between Bin Laden and Obama? lol how lame you should try proof reading.
I have never seen “Charlie Wilson’s War” so I don’t know what your talking about, but for that mater neither do you.
In 1986, bin Laden brought heavy construction equipment from Saudi Arabia to Afghanistan. Using his extensive knowledge of construction techniques (he has a degree in civil engineering), he built “training camps”, some dug deep into the sides of mountains, and built roads to reach them.
These camps, now dubbed “terrorist universities” by Washington, were built in collaboration with the ISI and the CIA. (US support was funneled through the ISI to prevent Bin Laden having to openly accept support from the “infidels”) The Afghan contra fighters, including the tens of thousands of mercenaries recruited and paid for by bin Laden, were armed by the CIA. Pakistan, the US and Britain provided military trainers.
Tom Carew, a former British SAS soldier who secretly fought for the mujaheddin told the August 13, 2000, British Observer, “The Americans were keen to teach the Afghans the techniques of urban terrorism — car bombing and so on — so that they could strike at the Russians in major towns … Many of them are now using their knowledge and expertise to wage war on everything they hate.” (And the US is on that list)
Al Qaeda (the Base), bin Laden’s organization, was established in 1987-88 to run the camps and other business enterprises. It is a tightly-run capitalist holding company — albeit one that integrates the operations of a mercenary force and related logistical services with “legitimate” business operations.
Bin Laden has simply continued to do the job he was asked to do in Afghanistan during the 1980’s — fund, feed and train mercenaries. All that has changed is his primary customer. Then it was the ISI and, behind the scenes, the CIA. Today, his services are utilized primarily by the reactionary Taliban regime.
I have looked it up, apparently it is you who has not done your homework. And your question; “The U.S. killed tons of civilians in WW2 as well you against that one?” is so poorly phrased it doesn’t merit a reply. If you cant bring more game to this debate I will be forced to summarily dismiss you.
Respect Harrison