Spoke John Bolton, AEI; Mark Landler and Alan Cowell, NYT, re the Tripoli stand-off and the increasingly anarchic Libya from the Benghazi free town in the east to the fortress of Tripoli to the west. Bolton asserts that if and when Qaddafi is brought to justice, it is best done by Libyans rather than by the Obama administration's choice -- expecting the ICC in the Hague to clean up the mess with distant courtroom ceremonies. Mark Landler noted that the White House is moving slowly and hesitantly, because it is concerned that the Libyan rebellion will come to be seen as an American puppet. The US Navy is moving assets closer to Libya, but not perhaps as a platform for intervention, rather to be prepared to deal with large-scale evacuation. There is talk of a no-fly zone, but it is sluggish talk, as the Russians have rejected it at the UNSC (the Chinese are silent). Egypt rejects any armed intervention. This points to continued anarchy -- Somalia with oil on the Med, years of civil war and refugees and UN blue helmets. Am told that the Obama administration hesitates to speak against Qaddafi because of the long-established connection between Tripoli and radical elements in Chicago. Am told that POTUS is unsure how hard he can press Qaddafi without alienating POTUS's own Chicago radical supporters.
If any should doubt that we are deeply entrenched in a clash of cultures - a war, if you wish - I direct you to Caroline Glick’s opinion piece entitled “The West’s proxy war against the Jews” in yesterday’s Jerusalem Post. She lays it out clearly as few can and have. The crucible, in her view, is Israel. That is to say, the fate of Israel is the metric that will define the ultimate winner of the struggle.
To live side by side in relative peace (like sticks of furniture in an otherwise empty room) with the current Islamic/communist coalition assault now underway is out of the question. It is now fully in attack mode. One of its goals is to push Israel into the sea. (Envision anything I might mean by that.) It’ll mark the defeat of the West. The victorious coalition will at first gather ‘round to congratulate themselves; then, they will begin fighting each other, for they are only united on one issue: their hatred of Israel and the West.
Whereas America will remain relatively unscathed by the fall of Jerusalem into Arab hands, Europe will likely not be so lucky. To be sure, America will have its own problems. For one thing, it will be difficult to convince the entire country to salute the red flag. This will play out over time.
In today’s WSJ, Mark Helprin tells of America’s retreat from the high seas in an article entitled “The Decline of U.S. Naval Power” We see it ourselves in the continuing saga of pirates successfully negotiating ransoms and killing civilians. It seems incredible that we cannot do much about it. Similarly, as pertains to Libya (or any other trouble spot on the globe), our hands appear to be tied by outside interests and internal concerns (and distractions).
The media has been gearing up to tell us just how bad Kaddafi is (and has been). This is the likely view of the Obama administration as well. It makes me suspicious, however. It’s been a long time since either the media or the government has told us the truth about anything. It may simply reflect Obama’s calculation as to what it believes Kaddafi’s staying power to be, and this administration’s scrambling to get out in front of the curve for once (of course hindered somewhat by - as JB points out - Tripoli’s long and well-established connections to radical elements in Chicago (Farrakhan).
Realistically, you’ve got to go all the way back to 1988 when Pan Am flight 103 crashed at Lockerbie following an in-flight explosion, killing all on board and scattering wreckage all over the area to pin anything of substance on Kaddafi. Since then, I’ve been under the impression that Kaddafi has undergone semi-successful rehabilitation and earned his way back into the fold of the human community. In light of what else is going on in the world today, the springing of bombing suspect Abdelbaset al-Megrahi from a Scottish hospital/jail recently seems more of a prank, designed to redden the faces of the pompous, than a full-blown crime against humanity.
There is no doubt in my mind that the relatively recent upheavals we are witnessing in the Middle East and elsewhere is due to America’s deliberate distancing itself from its traditional international obligations. This has, at the very least, left a vacuum for sinister forces to exploit. The end result continues to be the chaos of birth. We definitely appear to be on the cusp of something momentous. This (chaos) is only the first step. What will eventually emerge is anybody’s guess.
http://peterkoelliker.blogspot.com/
http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/
"There is no doubt in my mind that the relatively recent upheavals we are witnessing in the Middle East and elsewhere is due to America’s deliberate distancing itself from its traditional international obligations. This has, at the very least, left a vacuum for sinister forces to exploit. The end result continues to be the chaos of birth. We definitely appear to be on the cusp of something momentous. This (chaos) is only the first step. What will eventually emerge is anybody’s guess."
Did you read America Alone by Marc Steyn?
JB,
Podcast not downloading . . . what will I do when I eat my Big Mac?
JD
No, I didn't, Joe. I sometimes catch Steyn when he substitutes for Rush. What are you telling me?
Your thought above is very similar to his conclusion. Essentially we are coming to a point were America and the modern world must answer this:
To be or not to be?
Link to a few bits of his book:
http://www.amazon.com/America-Alone-End-World-Know/dp/0895260786
Score one for the Constitution! Supreme Court upholds First Amendment rights 8-1 (Alito dissenting) in Snyder v. Phelps.
I think the protesters' signs were disgusting and outrageous, and I think life will square matters with them in the not-too-distant future, if it hasn't already. But I applaud the Supremes' decision here. In fact, I take it as a reassurance that the new Obama apointees can read the Constitution and not just do what seems right or expedient at the moment.
Has anyone noticed how active the state governors have been this last year? I can't remember at any time in my life having heard so much talk about what governors are doing. Maybe it would be an interesting topic for one of the political or history experts to talk about where this fits in in the history of the US as far as gubernatorial activism, and what they make of it. I think the logical explanation is that they're filling the breach for what is in essence a non-leader in the oval office.
Larry Kudlow knows about as much about economics as our beagle does ... but our beagle is MUCH cuter.
Well, the whole welfare schitck came from NY whose governor was Al Smith. He'd tried and tested the concept in NYC around the turn of the century. How's that for a laboratory?
"Score one for the Constitution! Supreme Court upholds First Amendment rights 8-1 (Alito dissenting) in Snyder v. Phelps."
The only part of this case that interests me, since the conclusion was foregone, is the fact that the defendant's daughter argued the case before SCOTUS. You don't see that very often.
I see by their wiki entry that they have been declared a hate-group by the Soutern Poverty Law Center. That's almost, almost, enough to make me think the church is the salt of the earth. Even better the daughter has been banned from UK entry because she says unkind things about gays. Never mind that EU has policies about religious freedom, religious expression, and free speech. That's the kind of hypocritical response that makes me like the target group immensely. They can't be all bad if the prissy Brits don't like them . . . . The latter and all the similar EU PC patrols need to start paying more attention to the consequences of their unrestrained immigration policies and stop worrying about non-violent speakers. The church has never advocated violence that I'm aware of, yet people treat them like they are Anwar al-Awlaki. In fact, I'll bet they would fete the latter, on the grounds that nothing was ever proven against him in a court of law, and arrest the former because she says bizarely idiotic things.
Wouldn't it just be easier to have some principles ... that way you wouldn't have to go through all the 6 degrees of bacon to get to the pig?
"She's got a way, about her, don't know what it is, (but I suspect that I could live without her), anyway...." {Billy Joel, based on "She's Got A Way"}
http://dailycaller.com/2011/03/02/congressional-bosses-from-hell-sheila-jackson-lee/comment-page-1/#comments
Yeah, speaking of getting to the pig.
The Senate is now officially aware of rising gas prices. They're all working it into their speeches now.
Some years back I came across the true story of an artist who had always wanted to have a work of his exhibited in the Museum of Modern Art. To that end he donned a pair of workman’s coveralls, thereby rendering himself effectively invisible to Manhattan’s cultural elite, and simply strolled inside with a hammer and hung his painting on a wall. It took the Museum’s administrators almost six weeks before they noticed his ruse. In the meantime he spent many happy hours discussing with fellow art lovers this most recent addition to MOMA’s collection.
The media hate Matt Drudge, bloggers, and other internet figures because they, like that artist, are self-selected. They do not seek permission from their putative betters to practice journalism, something that greatly distresses the establishment.
Some would have us believe that the mainstream media are a meritocracy, with its various filtering mechanisms serving a function analogous to the blood/brain barrier, so as to protect us from toxic memes. But they fail to explain how Thomas Friedman, Larry Kudlow, and various other embodiments of mediocrity attained their lofty positions.
No, the mainstream media are bureaucratic in nature, like academe, and seek out new members from among those who work and play well with others, never challenging the conventional wisdom.
Harry made a bareback rider proud and free upon a horse
And a fine coalminer for the NCB that was
A fallen angel and Jesus on the cross
A skating ballerina you should have
seen her do the skater's waltz
Some people have got to paint and draw
Harry had to work in clay and stone
Like the waves coming to the shore
It was in his blood and in his bones
Ignored by all the trendy boys in London and in Leeds
He might as well have been making toys or strings of beads
He could not be in the gallery
And then you get an artist says he
doesn't want to paint at all
He takes an empty canvas and sticks it on the wall
The birds of a feather all the phonies and all of the fakes
While the dealers they get together
And they decide who gets the breaks
And who's going to be in the gallery
No lies he wouldn't compromise
No junk no bits of string
And all the lies we subsidise
That just don't mean a thing
I've got to say he passed away in obscurity
And now all the vultures are coming down from the tree
So he's going to be in the gallery
Dire Straits