“One of the things that surprised me was the ease with which an entire press corps could accept the most obvious untruth, usually convenient to some interested party or other, without any external compulsion to do so. I can only suppose that one of modern education’s purposes is to prevent people from thinking for themselves.”
Category Archives: Foreign Policy
Theodore Dalrymple’s Excellent Essay
Filed under Foreign Policy, General Interest, Politics, The Media
How to become a Ukraine crisis expert in 5 minutes
Here’s a moment of levity, “Ten handy phrases for bluffing your way through the Ukraine crisis“. In fact, with just minor tweaking these phrases can become your universal toolkit to present that informed image, amongst even the most boorish foreign policy experts. Presenting the right body language required, so be sure and practice delivering these lines with confidence. And of course, plan ahead with some fail-safe, quick escape lines, when questioned for more details…. like:
“Oh, I’m so sorry, my phone, I must take this call, if you’ll excuse me, please.”
“Excuse me, I see my partner/ wife/husband/significant other waving over there, sorry I can’t continue this fascinating discussion.”
Deep sigh, then, “These situations are always very complex and without a great deal of time to provide historical context, I can’t do the subject justice.” Then bolt.
I am sure you can provide more. And if you need more ideas, just flip through the cable news channels for a few minutes or listen to our leader-from-behind equivocate.
Filed under Foreign Policy, General Interest, Politics
Ancient Chinese Wisdom
The experts on foreign policy and military matters spewed forth with, well, expertise, much bellicose Cold War era rhetoric and thinking, but what else can one expect from Cold War era-trained experts. My hair is standing on end from so much highly-charged chatter swirling on the air and online about the next steps the US and NATO should take to thwart more Russian aggression. First, let’s take a deep breath and calm down. We need to realize that Putin isn’t some madman, who heedlessly grabbed Crimea, just for the hell of it or because he’s an evil, former-KGB colonel. He moved, because events were transpiring in Ukraine that he perceived as threats to a vital Russian national security interest.
What moves the US made prior to Putin’s military move remain cloaked in secrecy by President Obama and his oh-so-tough warrior princesses. It would behoove all these experts to ascertain what exactly our own State Department did prior to this escalation. Yes, folks, it looks like we were meddling bigtime in internal Ukraine affairs, perhaps even training and arming Ukraine rebels (early February CBS report here). Judging by this administration’s penchant for fast and furiously arming foreign rebels, Al-Qaeda aligned zealots, and even Mexican gangsters, who would find this story out of the realm of possibility? Perhaps, that sycophantic, Obama-idolizing press might want to muster a little journalistic inquisitiveness and find out??? Are some of these freedom-fighters in Ukraine neo-Nazi fascists? Did Victoria Nuland meet with them in Kiev and did our government provide training or arms to these thugs? We’re so good at ginning up the Cold War bluster, but so mealy-mouthed about demanding some straight answers from our own government.
All water under the bridge, you say, yes,yes, so true, but it’s all relevant to understanding the context of events unfolding there and for formulating a way to deescalate this crisis. I’ve read many thoughtful opinion pieces on what the US should do and frankly, I disagree with most of them to a large degree. When you have a weak leader-from-behind, like we have, the last thing I would suggest is reactionary military posturing, because he will either overreact and we’ll find ourselves in a hot war quicker than you can say Russian reset (hehehe) or he’ll wimp out and make the US look even more impotent. That latter option would bolster an already prevalent impression in the world that President Obama is, yes, no other better word comes to mind, a wimp. The former option, well, no one wins in that option and it’s really not necessary to blunder our way into a hot war. Some deft diplomacy (please don’t send that vulgar twit Victoria Nuland) maybe he should find some good speechwriters to help him try to teleprompt us out of this mess.
Here are a few interesting opinions (mind you, I don’t support them, but they’re worth a read). From the failed Bush democracy project, Condi Rice weighs in with a lengthy piece that at least they did something during the Georgia 2008 invasion. She mentions that we should do something about Syria, opining about continued inaction, while remaining mum as to the details about what action on/in Syria would look like. Egads, no more cakewalks in the ME, please.
Here’s a Cold War era military type playbook response from The XX Committee, harkening to strengthening NATO and insisting that the Europeans grow a spine. It’s a well-thought out piece and in normal times, with a normal American CINC looking to promote American interests, well this would be a good idea. Alas, this isn’t the best of times, although I fear, we haven’t quite reached the worst of times, yet, (or nyet, both work) with this President. That said, there’s no way Vietnam-protesting John Kerry and mom jeans Barack Obama will push to expand NATO, after already signing away our nuclear superiority and announcing the gutting of the US Armed Forces. Unless it’s to rally the troops for the gay parade, this CINC doesn’t want to give marching orders. And besides that, he only has warrior princesses in the White House, so far, and none to field a US charge of the ladies brigade in Crimea (so fitting for another suicide mission).
Here’s another well-thought out response for the US to follow, if we had a pro-American leader in the White House. We don’t and Eric Edelman’s, “Confronting Putin’s Invasion”, sits predicated on building up the US military, which Obama just announced he’s cutting.
Being libertybelle, with my fondness for Sun Tzu, the odds are:
Know the enemy and know yourself; in a hundred battles you will never be in peril.
When you are ignorant of the enemy, but know yourself, your chances of winning or losing are equal.
If ignorant of both of your enemy and of yourself, you are certain in every battle to be in peril.
Let’s heed that final assessment, with this President and his macho girls, ready to fight:
Such people are called ‘mad bandits’. What can they expect if not defeat?
Timeless ancient Chinese wisdom, that’s my suggestion…
Filed under Foreign Policy, General Interest, Military, Politics, Uncategorized
Short Libya Update
“ROME (Reuters) – Western countries voiced concern on Thursday that tensions in Libya could slip out of control in the absence of a functioning political system, and they urged the government and rival factions to start talking.”
The American press rushes to cover the “breaking news”, while showing little inclination to stick with stories. I wonder where Colin Powell is on the Libya debacle, since he so adamantly berated the Bush administration that “if you break it, you bought it”. Guess, that rule only applies to the Bush foreign policy adventures. With this administration’s topsy-turvy gun policy, where this president wants to disarm American citizens, while secretly arming rebel factions in far-flung foreign locales, who can make sense of it all. Was this President arming Ukraine rebels in the lead up to this crisis? Anyone investigating this allegation? No, of course not, this administration wouldn’t lie about gun-running……
Filed under Foreign Policy, General Interest, Military, Politics
This one’s for the girls – short and sassy links
First, GMD wrote two pieces in The American Thinker this week :
“Vulgar Amateurs at the State Department” deals with the oh, so lovely, Victoria Nuland (sister-in-law of Kimberly Kagan from the Institute for the Study of War, which foisted Elizabeth O’Bagy on the American public). GMD offers some links worth checking out. He sheds light on all of Victoria’s secrets… Oh, wait she doesn’t know about loose lips or Putin’s ships, but she went to Kiev to coach protestors…..
“Uk-Raine Terrain” goes beyond the signature braid and lets down this Rapunzel’s hair. Thanks to JK for providing this link to Anna Raccoon’s excellent blog post. Anna dishes on Julia Tymoshenko’s big makeover:
The billions she had amassed came in handy though. She hired Oleh Pokalchuk, a social psychologist, to give her a make over from hard nosed brunette business woman to – pagan mother goddess of the Ukrainian peasants. Somewhere between ‘Eva Perón’ and the ‘Princess Leia’ character from the Star Wars and Evita DVDs that she had imported into a chain of Ukrainian cinemas. Said Oleh in 2007:
“It was necessary to work out and implement an image that would block out the image […] of wealth, of envy, hatred. I created an image of a modest village teacher. A visual type, clothes and haircut, a retro image evoking memories of childhood and schooldays… simple clothes, simple haircut, a Ukrainian archetype, […] She didn’t speak Ukrainian so well then and it was necessary for parts of the country, where nationalism is a powerful force, that she should appear one of us.”
Okay, GMD wrote another piece, “Bimbo Politics”, but alas here at libertybellediairies, I beg to quibble, because “bimbo” evokes the image of an attractive dimwit, like one of those harmless, bubbly pieces older men like clinging to their arm. These women seek power and learned it’s easier to attach themselves to men with more political savvy, because it’s easier to use men than to compete fairly with them. Yes, yes, my catty streak is fighting against my demure, good-mannered self and winning……… pssst, these women are a bunch of harping witches. Phew, that felt better blurting that out 🙂
Filed under Culture Wars, Foreign Policy, General Interest, Politics
Expect the Russian marble game
What to do, what to do about the villain, Vladimir Putin? Well, first, while it may sound like I am supporting Putin’s takeover of Crimea, I’m not. I do understand Putin’s moves and respect how adroitly he made his moves though. NATO or any combination of Western leaders will not act and aside from hollow rhetoric and ineffective sanctions, Putin won’t pay much of a price for securing Russian control of Crimea.
How far he dares to encroach further into eastern Ukraine remains to be seen, but if past is prelude, sometimes the Russians push further to give themselves some negotiating space for later. They may move further into eastern Ukraine, so they can pull back later and look reasonable, while still holding on to Crimea. The Russians love playing games like this, “Here I took all your marbles, but hey, I’m a magnanimous sort, so I’ll give you back 2 and keep the other 10.” Really, this is how the Russians bargain and it works for them among the ill-informed western media.
By and large, our leaders are outclassed and due to our internal political partisanship, our politicians remain impotent. President Obama can’t make tough decisions and has surrounded himself with clueless, far-left loons, who have no grasp of history, geopolitics or strategic-planning. It’s a complete bust for us. Heck, the Russians are the likely source of the leak of our foul-mouthed diplomat’s phone conversation with our ambassador in Ukraine, thus spreading distrust of the US among our European allies, again. They know how to play the game and we aren’t even in the game anymore – sitting it out …. again.
We aren’t in a position to do much about Ukraine – that’s the reality. What we need to do to prevent more provocative Russian moves or other countries deciding the US is no longer relevant is get our own house in order. Here are some steps we need to take. Energy independence needs to be a national security premiere objective. Time to rebuild our relationships with our allies and we’ve got to start acting like a trustworthy ally. Now, isn’t the time to start gutting our military. We need to get our fiscal house in order and that will mean some painful, hard choices. If we want to act with one voice abroad, we’ve got to find some common ground between our warring partisans at home. To remain relevant will require a complete home remodel effort. We need to rebuild the American team and so far, I don’t see that happening among our feuding political class.
Strength comes from being in a position to act, not react. Putin knows how to act and others will watch this latest episode of American ineptitude and follow suit. To thwart this, America needs to master a steep learning curve and I doubt this administration even understands the events unfolding around the world and their integral part in creating the atmosphere where the West, and particularly America, is seen as a lot of irritating background noise, to tune out. Weakness is provocative and this administration excels at projecting weakness.
Filed under Foreign Policy, History, Military, Politics
Ring of idiots
Oh my God, I don’t know how much more tripe I can take, yes, I am referring to the American chattering class – those pundits. I will write more later today, but really, “A ring of democracy” to surround Russia – more like a ring of idiots spouting this crapola. Meanwhile, our own State Department was meddling and Victoria Nuland was dictating to our ambassador to Ukraine, which protestors can be part of the new government… Anyone else, see the hypocrisy??? The Russians will not cede control of Crimea and we shouldn’t expect them to. We can’t expect them to cede their Black Sea Fleet to western democracy, some vague protestors chants of freedom or whatever it is these various groups in Ukraine want. Do we even know what “freedom” looks like to people who only know corruption and living on government subsidies? They’ve had plenty of time to form a viable democratic government and they’re still a basket-case, so what’s going to change with the new regime? Any western reporters checking out the Russian claim that 675,000 ethnic Russian have fled from Ukraine in the past month – to Russia? (Russian claim mentioned in Nightwatch) Any truth to that? We need more facts and less overblown rhetoric. Time to let go of he Cold War era thinking and use some new approaches. More later.
Filed under Foreign Policy, General Interest, Military
Speaking truth to insipid reporting
Here’s a must read on Ukraine: “Ukraine Is Hopeless…But Not Serious”, in David P. Goldman’s, Spengler column at PJ Media.
Best lines:
“Ukraine isn’t a country: it’s a Frankenstein monster composed of pieces of dead empires, stitched together by Stalin. It has never had a government in the Western sense of the term after the collapse of the Soviet Union gave it independence, just the equivalent of the family offices for one predatory oligarch after another–including the “Gas Princess,” Yulia Tymoshenko.”
Here’s another:
“As for the Crimea: Did anyone seriously think that Vladimir Putin would let the main port of Russia’s Black Sea fleet fall into unfriendly hands? Russia will take the Crimea, and the strategic consequences will be nil. We couldn’t have a strategic confrontation if we wanted it. How would we get troops or ships into the Black Sea area in the first place in order to have a confrontation? Perhaps the Belgiums will send in their army instead. I suppose we need to denounce the Russians for violating Ukraine’s territorial integrity.”
He offers a great solution for what we should do, but go read the entire article, to get the full impact. Bravo, Mr. Goldman, for daring to speak truth to insipid reporting!
Filed under Foreign Policy, General Interest, History, Military, Politics
Putin: the geopolitical adventure capitalist
“Still, the influence of all that youthful television-watching is present today. In a book on the inner workings of Obama’s presidential reelection campaign, Politico’s Glenn Thrush reports that although Obama’s biographers “have been more enamored with his complexity,” Obama himself “seeks shallower waters, especially in times of crisis.” When the going gets tough in the White House, Thrush says, the president plays sports and watches ESPN. Indeed, while Obama’s administration was beset by scandals regarding improper IRS investigations and the death of U.S. officials in Benghazi, the New York Times’s Peter Baker reported that Obama “talked longingly of ‘going Bulworth,’ a reference to a little-remembered 1998 Warren Beatty movie about a senator who risked it all to say what he really thought.” Thrush, it seems, was right that movies and TV served as Obama’s version of “comfort food.”” –
– Commentary Magazine – “The Pop Presidency of Barack Obama”, 10-01-13
So, once again the President is nowhere to be seen yesterday, as the situation escalated in Crimea. Reports surfaced that the National Security Team huddled at the White House for a meeting, but the leading from behind captain of the team skipped the meeting. Of course, his handlers rushed to assure America and the world, that the President was briefed.
Anyone with some functioning brain cells should have seen Putin’s moves in Crimea coming. Putin comes from the Cold War era geopolitical school, where he learned from hard school of knocks experiences. He reads history, he studies maps, he actually takes his leadership responsibilities deadly serious. Russian influence in Crimea looms vastly important to Russian national security and obviously, he will not cede control of Sevastapol to protestors or Ukrainian authorities hostile to Russia or blustering Western Neville Chamberlains (thanks to David Duff for bringing up Chamberlain). They won’t allow a power vacuum to threaten their Black Sea Fleet and beyond that Putin surely possesses some grand strategic visions for Russia and at the moment, who in the West will do more than issue hollow threats?
For a pragmatic view of Ukraine’s crisis, here is David Duff’s, ‘In which I laud, the One and Only Obama’. The Russians have had their Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol for centuries, so let them keep it. If you want to get your dander up, start paying attention to Russian, Iranian and Chinese military moves in the Western Hemisphere (Monroe Doctrine, anyone)- where they’re creeping up on us. If the Europeans want to do more about Ukraine, let them muster up more than rhetoric. The world stage offers plenty of room from some upstarts to take center stage, since President Obama prefers to loaf in the spectator seats, surreptitiously munching on his chips. Definitely more concerned about hiding from Michelle’s food police than he is about international crises.
Power vacuums keep expanding and unlike our leader from behind, many of our adversaries don’t wait for polite discussions to fill them. Rant all you want at Putin, but it’s President Obama and wimpy western resolve that Putin gauged and he sure understands this sort of capitalization. The cost of acting is minimal and the potential rewards are great, wow, Putin the adventure capitalist …. the world gone mad, I say.
Oh yes, “the past is prologue”.
And, as the world spins closer to chaos, let us remember that oft-quoted sage once more – “I believe it is peace in our time.” Let’s at least give President Obama credit for surpassing Henry Kissenger’s measure of a country’s diplomacy, “No country can act wisely simultaneously in every part of the globe at every moment of time.” President Obama, the inept, doesn’t act at all….. but Putin the new adventure capitalist takes all the risks. Don’t worry though, this waffler-in-chief, hiding somewhere in the White House watching ESPN, can sure stand tough on gutting our military, even though he can’t read a world map and he doesn’t have time for international crises. Simultaneously, Putin is securing his Black Sea Fleet and Russian influence in Ukraine.
Filed under Foreign Policy, General Interest, History, Military, Politics
Flubbering about on the world stage…… again
Busy week in the real world, so here goes with another libertybelle contrarian view.
Paul Rahe, highly respected academic, penned a piece on Putin, “Vladimir Putin: The World’s Greatest Fool”, which I disagree with and where it struck me that in America, this inability to objectively evaluate our own moves and how others around the globe perceive them, permeates the intellectual movers, who influence American foreign policy. Rahe states:
“After Chechneya came Georgia. Then, Syria. And, of course, now it is the turn of the Ukraine. Do not kid yourselves. The masked gunmen who seized the Parliament building in the Crimea earlier today were not locals. They were Spetznatz — special-purpose forces — dispatched by Moscow to carry out a coup d’etat and prepare the way for Russia’s seizure of that Ukrainian province, and the odds are tolerably good that they will succeed in doing just that. Vladimir Putin knows that words of warning from Barack Obama mean nothing at all.”
All these charges fail to take into account the Russian view on these areas and it pretty much fits the pattern of accusing the Russians of interfering in their neighbors business, while we tirelessly push NATO and western predominance among those very same neighbors. In Syria, no mention is made of how important Tartus is to the Russians. Just like in Crimea, well, the Russian Black Sea Fleet resides there, so of course the Russians have a legitimate and vital national security interest in how events play out in Ukraine. If the Russians rely on hardball tactics, now, that’s a fair charge, but failing to at least acknowledge that from a national security stance they do have legitimate interests does a real disservice to ever being able to find some common ground when dealing with the Russians. All this resurrecting Cold War era level rhetoric about Putin being the progeny of the “evil empire” keeps us from realistically viewing events. The Russian moves make perfect geopolitical sense. Our own personalizing this about Putin as an evil nemesis, misses the point completely. We had to know that the Russians would use force to secure their Black Sea Fleet access and assert themselves there. Turning this into a soap opera rather than a look at the maps and pieces on the board doesn’t help us forge a way forward. Negotiations, just like real conversations, have got to start by respecting your adversary’s point-of-view and listening to the concerns. Issuing threats, ultimatums, highly charged rhetoric backs us into a corner from the start. The Obama administration has no clear objectives, no ability to formulate a coherent policy and plays low-ball politics – just read Nuland’s leaked comments to see how the Obama administration was trying to dictate which protestors should play a role in the future government in Ukraine. Putin is behaving like the leader of Russia, while Obama putts one more time. I respect Putin’s abilities and while I am fully aware how brutally the Russians react, it would behoove us to look at: USSR in 1989 and Russia today, then imagine if you were responsible for Russian national security planning. I wish President Obama would put half as much effort into promoting our national security interests as Putin does to promote his country’s interests. Putin isn’t the problem here – it’s American fecklessness and particularly Obama’s total failure of leadership. Endless saber-rattling and shouting threats at the Russians won’t get us anywhere and frankly, how embarrassing was the Syria debacle, where even Assad’s kid pegged Obama as weak. And after that flubbering about, President Obama tossed the reins to Putin anyway. The US acts like a spoiled brat, constant assertions of moral superiority, temper-tantrums and endless demands (red lines) and it’s way past time to grow up and actually behave with a bit of humility and treat other countries with some respect – not likely to happen with this narcissistic crowd.
I assessed the personalities over a year ago: “Putin By A Mile”
Filed under Foreign Policy, General Interest, Military, Politics
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