After many about faces (lies), the Obama change you can believers march on, white flag waving for the world to see:
“Obama orders Pentagon to prepare for complete withdrawal from Afghanistan”– Washington Post
“Obama Administration Ignores Russian Nuclear Violations” – Washington Free Beacon
“Get real, Hagel tells nation in proposing military cuts” – CNN
“When Failure Is Success”– Victor Davis Hanson
More later……. don’t want to ruin your day 🙂
Filed under Culture Wars, Foreign Policy, General Interest, Military, Politics
Came across this December 2013 Washington Post article by Max Fisher, “This one map helps explain Ukraine’s protests“, which gives a breakdown of the ethnic/political divide in Ukraine. Sometimes a map is worth more than a thousand words.
Filed under Foreign Policy, General Interest, History, Politics
Psst, I found this blog post, “Victoria Nuland and Ukraine” , by Steve Sailer, written in an even more contemptuous tone than even I could manage, on all these crazy family connections. I have to bookmark his blog and read some more.
Filed under Foreign Policy, General Interest, Politics
“The political divide in Ukraine has deep historical roots and can’t be wholly blamed on Putin’s interference. Many Ukrainians, mostly in the eastern part of the country, feel an affinity for Russia, while others long for integration with Western Europe. Ultimately, Ukrainians will have to resolve their political identity crisis themselves, but other nations, including the U.S., can play a constructive role in defusing the current conflict and holding the Ukrainian government to international standards of civil conduct. That requires diplomacy that is deft as well as determined.”
Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2014/02/21/218952/ukraine-must-not-become-a-front.html#storylink=cpy
The above quote is from an opinion piece at www.mcclatchydc.com, which came from the LA Times on Friday. Lest we forget, President Obama places his trust in people like Victoria Nuland, of “F – the EU” fame, to manage delicate diplomatic issues, like this Ukraine crisis. Considering Nuland’s leaked phone conversation displays her complete contempt for our European allies, it seems very unlikely that the US has a leg to stand on in this unfolding crisis. Angela Merkel and many other of our EU allies would be more likely to listen to Vladimir Putin than they would listen to President Obama. So, we’ve got the diplomat, who brushed off criticism over her leaked phone call (about Ukraine’s situation btw) by asserting she is the most “undiplomatic diplomat”, trying to handle a crisis in need of diplomacy “that is deft as well as determined” – not likely from this administration. Even more alarming is how this recording shows Nuland trying to dictate which opposition forces in the Ukraine should play a role in the government and which shouldn’t (good rundown of events here). So, the Obama administration’s girls at work strike out – again.
Here’s a little family round-up. Ms Nuland’s sister-in-law, Kimberly Kagan, started the Institute for the Study of War – oh remember them – they put forth Elizabeth O’Bagy, the faux expert on Syria. I reported on her in several posts. Just a short note that the photos of Ms O’Bagy in her other job as the political director for the Syrian Emergency Task Force were removed on their web page, but a real journalist, Bryan Preston, took pictures of that webpage on September 5, 2013(good thinking Bryan, and I learned something useful:-), Here’s my piece:
“Stumbling upon some facts in 5 minutes…….” – September 3, 2013
Here’s a piece I wrote on Ms. Nuland’s brother-in-law, Frederick Kagan, another geopolitical expert in the family :
“Better than none”…….the leading from behind refresher course – September 7,2013
Remember the Institute for the Study of War fired Ms O’Bagy and for those of you with short memory spans, here’s a reminder of who then hired Ms O’Bagy to work on his staff:
“John McCain staff requirement – just be a liar” – September 27, 2013
Certainly, Ms Nuland has nothing to do with Ms. O’Bagy (at least I hope not), but lest I remind you the map Ms O’Bagy presented on the Syria resistance was accepted, without question, by the movers and shakers in Washington and it sure looked like even John Kerry was using that map. Here’s another odd connection, between the State Department and Ms O’Bagy, another report, “State Department funds O’Bagy’s Pro-Rebel Lobbying”. Yikes, Ms O’Bagy sure hobnobs with the movers and shakers in Washington, for a young university grad…. Heck, she flew to prominence almost as quickly as Sandra Fluke and on about as many intellectual feathers. Oh my, at this point what difference does it make (oh no, I’m channeling that other foreign policy guru now, stop libertybelle, just stop). Back to being serious, Ms O’Bagy was presented to the world by the mainstream media as the expert on Syria (again, without question).
So, now we have Ms O’Bagy working on John McCain’s staff and she sure gets around – she had even signed an affidavit asserting that Eric Harroun, an American of Arab descent, who traveled to Syria to fight with Al-Qaeda connected terrorists, was not a terrorist. Debbie Schlussel wrote a good piece on this little amazing incident,“OUTRAGE: Jihadist Who Went Overseas to Help Terrorists Wage Jihad Gets $100 Fine, Probation”
Hummm, this Harroun case was in, wait, don’t hold your breath, Arizona, home of John McCain. That’s odd and Ms O’Bagy , whose stated topic for her Georgetown thesis by the way was “female militancy” (I could not invent this crazy crap, really I couldn’t) provided a sworn affidavit for Harroun. Ok, nothing odd there libertybelle, just walk away… Then recently, February 13,2014, “John McCain tweets horrific Syria pictures” , where he’s still pushing for the US to help the rebels in Syria (wonder who provided him these photos btw). Fast forward and here he goes again as the Republican voice on the crisis in Ukraine: “John McCain slams Obama on Ukraine: “Most naive President in history”. Now, isn’t that the pot calling the kettle black, we have total dupes and nitwits running our foreign policy into the ground, heck, make that running our country into the ground. Oh, my googling Ms O’Bagy started out , because, Bailey O’Bagy (another of her aliases when she was on the Egyptian women’s soccer team.) reminded me of another young woman who managed to make some pretty high connections….. Monica Lewinsky, lol.
Such is the level of American foreign policy and our geopolitical experts….
Filed under Foreign Policy, General Interest, Politics
Over the past several days the airwaves have been filled with loud demands that we do more to support the Ukrainian protestors (frequently dubbed a struggle for freedom against the evil Russians). This reaction comes quite natural to America, with our long Cold War history, but I have some questions about the situation that I haven’t found clear answers to yet.
First, let me say I am weary of the American media latching onto these international crises and presenting everything as a “fight for freedom”, without providing much in the way of historical background information. It’s very easy to jump onto foreign causes when they are presented as “struggles against Russian oppression” or “fighting against tyranny”, but truthfully the internal politics in these areas usually are fraught with corruption with a capital C, excesses of violence, abuses of power, and long-held ethnic animosity. The situation in the Ukraine is no different. You can go read about the Holodomor, where the Soviets starved millions of Ukrainians to death, to get a taste of the animosity that still ripples below the surface among many ethnic Ukrainians.
In this latest violence, it sure looks like the protestors are the ones who have been on a torching buildings spree in Kiev, not the government. Not sure how I would feel if protestors in America started setting buildings ablaze, because those 1-percenters with their destruction of other people’s property sure angered me – urinating and defecating anywhere like animals… Why does no one in the West tell the protestors to quit torching Kiev, yet all you hear about are how the police need to calm down? I am not condoning police or military forces shooting unarmed civilians, I’m merely asking why our reporting always champions protestors, even when the protestors are setting a city aflame?
The CIA Factbook offers these statistics as to the demographic make-up of present-day Ukraine: “Ukrainian 77.8%, Russian 17.3%, Belarusian 0.6%, Moldovan 0.5%, Crimean Tatar 0.5%, Bulgarian 0.4%, Hungarian 0.3%, Romanian 0.3%, Polish 0.3%, Jewish 0.2%, other 1.8% (2001 census)” As to the 2010 Ukrainian presidential election, irregularities ran rife, as usual. International monitors gave varying accounts. A report by a group of monitors which included Russia, Poland, France, Armenia, Kyrgyzistan and Belarus (Centre for Monitoring Democratic Processes) offered their verdict here. A Christian Science Monitor explanation of the election can be found here. Yanukovich won with a less than 50% of the vote, but it seems like he had a good bit of ethnic Ukrainian support or the ethnic Ukrainians didn’t turn out in sizable enough numbers given this huge ethnic Ukrainian numerical advantage. Here’s a NY Times report on the 2010 election, replete with plenty of criticisms – (NY Times story here). Any theories, facts or information on this numerical question, anyone?
Now, as in all these other hotspots, American politicians like to get on their soapbox and berate the evil Putin for his undo influence in other countries political affairs and in the Ukraine this charge accompanies almost every report in this latest flare-up. What you don’t hear much about is how American political groups get actively involved in actually managing campaigns (paid political consultants) in many foreign elections – from Israel to the Palestinian Authority to Iraq to Afghanistan to the Ukraine, and so it goes. Here’s a link to which American political consultants were hired to work for the respective Ukrainian candidates in the 2010 presidential election in the Ukraine. Now, what this means is American politicians and their cronies pick sides in many foreign elections, their consultants make big bucks organizing campaigns in foreign countries and our “American” foreign policy ends up being as divided as our internal politics due to this partisan-charged environment. None of the folks in Washington will step back from their partisan talking points and spoon-fed politicized dogma to actually think about America, in the big picture sense – as one country, needing one voice abroad, to promote our national interests. We can’t even agree on what our own national interests are, yet here we go again trying to jump into other countries internal affairs – half-cocked. Naturally, John McCain is at the forefront. Our politicians are just as much trying to influence internal affairs in the Ukraine as the Russians are – let’s at least be honest about that.
And let’s look at the Obama administration flip-flops dealing with foreign hotspots – completely incoherent. Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Israel – totally embarrassing and colossal failures. In Syria, Madame Secretary Clinton proclaimed Assad a “reformer”, President Obama declared red lines, and in the end John Kerry and President Obama handed over control of the situation to Putin. CNN reported: “U.S. talks tough, but options limited in Ukraine”, indicating that even at CNN the real world seems to be crashing through their idolization of President Obama as more hype than actual “change you can believe in”.
Before Americans get too fired up by the likes of John McCain with his denunciations of Putin (here’s a pretty typical rant of his), be fully aware that a financial crisis precipitated this latest Ukrainian unrest, when Yanukovich went with a Russian bail-out offer rather than a lesser European offer. Here’s a quick background on the real source of Ukraine’s continual corruption problem within it’s natural gas and energy industries: “Ukraine’s $19-billion question of debt and corruption”. So, while McCain is bellowing about sanctions against the Yanukovich government, be aware that what’s really going to be asked of us, to secure a European-leaning Ukraine, is a huge bail-out for the Ukraine, which is ranked 144th by Transparency International on corruption – tying with countries like the Central African Republic and Iran and scoring worse than Uganda. The Ukraine is the most corrupt country in Europe. If you still feel dismayed at Obama’s bailouts and haven’t had any satisfactory answers as to where all that money went, imagine tossing money into this Ukrainian gambit?
Finally, the Russians have a legitimate interest in the Ukraine based on centuries of ties. The Russians have based their Black Sea fleet at Sevastopol since the time of Catherine the Great, so it’s not like they just decided to meddle in the Ukraine on a whim. NATO has pushed toward integrating the Ukraine and Georgia into it’s sphere and there are many Ukrainians who would welcome aligning with Europe. There are also many ethnic Russians in the Ukraine who want a closer Russian alliance. The Russians brokered a deal with Yanukovich in 2010, extending the lease for the Black Sea Fleet for 25 years (story here), putting a kibosh on the NATO dream. As I stated in a post the other day, in real terms, the Russian national security framework shattered with the collapse of the Soviet Union and if you’re Putin standing in Moscow today, his European adversaries are a thousand miles closer – with no natural geographic roadblocks. Unlike President Obama, I am confident that Vladimir Putin understands military strategy, geopolitics and has a keen grasp of map-reading (remember O and his 57 states…), so in clear strategic terms, Putin’s moves make perfect sense, while our meandering posturing creates more chaos and international instability. I’m not for or against either side in the Ukraine. As an outsider, I’m just trying to make sense out of the chaos and understand what the respective sides are demanding and demolishing.
Filed under Foreign Policy, General Interest, History, Military, Politics
Our media likes to run with stories offering one-sided, very poorly researched reporting on many foreign events and the Ukraine is another in a long line. First, let’s realize the Cold War era is over and a new, shifting geopolitical map exists. George Friedman describes this best:
When the Soviet Union collapsed, its western frontier moved east nearly a thousand miles, from the West German border to the Russian border with Belarus. From the Hindu Kush its border moved northward a thousand miles to the Russian border with Kazakhstan. Russia was pushed from the border of Turkey northward to the northern Caucasus, where it is still struggling to keep its foothold in the region. Russian power has now retreated farther east than it has been in centuries. During the Cold War it had moved farther west than ever before. In the coming decades, Russian power will settle somewhere between those two lines.
– Friedman, George (2010-01-18). The Next 100 Years: A Forecast for the 21st Century (p. 70). Allison & Busby. Kindle Edition.
To understand this in geopolitical terms, Moscow now sits with the west poised almost a thousand miles closer to Moscow. That, combined with the dramatic loss of control over large swaths of the former USSR, makes it imperative for Russia to try and exert influence in its neighboring countries. Of course, Putin wants to regain Russian standing in the world, so we see him in the Middle East, working on Sino-Soviet cooperation, trying to turn Sochi into a Russian PR win, and even moving in Central America. At least this is my take on matters.
Stratfor, George Friedman’s excellent global intelligence site, offered a very good analysis of the history and background to the latest uprising in the Ukraine: “Protestors in Lviv Raise the Stakes in Ukraine’s Crisis”, which will help make sense out of the fever-pitched reporting on TV.
Kforce Government Solutions, Inc. (KGS) offers a free analysis of open source information that provides excellent background to events around the world (thanks JK for that link a while back). Their report is called Nightwatch and the report for 2/19 offers some excellent information to help make sense of the Ukrainian protests.
To hear President Obama’s mundane commentary on the Ukraine, check out Politico’s, “President Obama: Russia disputes not ‘some Cold War chessboard'” (*yawn*). Don’t expect any clear geopolitical explanations from this story – same old, same old and who knows next week he may have a different foreign policy take on the Ukraine. Afterall, his foreign policy guru is on record as saying, “I actually did vote for the $87 billion, before I voted against it.” Yep, they’ve got to remain flexible…
Filed under Foreign Policy, General Interest, Politics, The Media
Marc Thiessen wrote a very interesting piece, “No miracle on ice in Sochi”, on the US hockey victory at Sochi, harkening back to the Cold War era US win at Lake Placid. If you remember the Reagan years, as fondly as me, Thiessen’s piece will cheer you up this morning. Sometimes unlikely events serve to unite us under one flag and the Lake Placid win endures as one of those shining moments, where the American spirit soared, all because, as Thiessen says:
“Then, suddenly a band of college kids wearing the red, white and blue restored our confidence.”
Of course, Ronald Reagan followed that event and I certainly credit him a great deal for the rejuvenation of the American spirit too, after those dismal Carter years.
Filed under American History, Foreign Policy, Politics
Thomas Sowell offers a column he dubs ,“Random Thoughts”, where he offers up short paragraphs on wide-ranging topics. I suspect that unlike most people’s random thoughts, his really probe matters of great import and offer keen insights into current happenings. Here are a few gold nuggets from his latest musings:
“Anyone who wants to read one book that will help explain the international crises of our time should read “The Gathering Storm” by Winston Churchill. It is not about the Middle East or even about today. It is about the fatuous and irresponsible foreign policies of the 1930s that led to the most catastrophic war in human history. But you can recognize the same fecklessness today.”
and
“It is fascinating to see academics full of indignation over the “exploitation” of low-wage workers by multinational corporations in Third World countries, when it is common on their own academic campuses to have young men get paid nothing at all for risking their health, and sometimes their lives, playing football that brings in millions of dollars to the college and often gets coaches paid higher salaries than the president of the college or university.”
and
“Once, when I was teaching at an institution that bent over backward for foreign students, I was asked in class one day: “What is your policy toward foreign students?” My reply was: “To me, all students are the same. I treat them all the same and hold them all to the same standards.” The next semester there was an organized boycott of my classes by foreign students. When people get used to preferential treatment, equal treatment seems like discrimination.”
Moving on, I purchased a 20 page little pamphlet, “How To Analyze Information: A Step-by-Step Guide To Life’s Most Vital Skill”, by Herbert E. Meyer on Amazon.com this morning. His advice, although seeming like common sense, laid down the simple steps to take to find the hidden needles, in the fields upon fields of haystacks in our information-filled, high-tech world. The punditry and political classes in America should heed his advice What a pleasant surprise this short read turned out to be and I highlighted something in just about every paragraph. For only $1.99, well, I certainly got my money’s worth this time, so here’s his recipe (psst, he uses several food analogies):
first
“Until you know “where you are” you cannot make good use of the available information. That’s because you cannot know what specific information you’ll need next, or what the information you’ll be looking at when you get it will mean. So take the time to figure out “where you are” – literally or metaphorically — before moving on to the next step.” (Meyer, Herbert E. (2010-10-10). How to Analyze Information: A Step-by-Step Guide to Life’s Most Vital Skill (Kindle Locations 67-70). Storm King Press. Kindle Edition)
then
“The key to seeing information clearly is to make certain there isn’t a prism between you and whatever you are looking at. You may not know whether the population of San Francisco is 500,000 or one million – it’s about 740,000 – but you ought to know it’s a big city. You shouldn’t think your best friend is a saint if he’s a crook, and you don’t need to be an expert in world economics who can reel off India’s current economic growth rate – it’s about 9 percent – to know that the image of India as a hopelessly backward sub-continent is long since outdated. And if you’re dealing with political issues, never let yourself be blinded by ideology.” (Meyer, Herbert E. (2010-10-10). How to Analyze Information: A Step-by-Step Guide to Life’s Most Vital Skill (Kindle Locations 97-99). Storm King Press. Kindle Edition)
finally
“My seventh-grade history teacher in New York, Mrs. Naomi Jacobs, never let a day go by without hammering into our heads a sentence that is so insightful it ought to be painted onto the walls of every classroom and office in the world: “The question is more important than the answer.” She was right; it is. If you don’t ask the right question, you cannot possibly get the right answer.” (Meyer, Herbert E. (2010-10-10). How to Analyze Information: A Step-by-Step Guide to Life’s Most Vital Skill (Kindle Locations 107-110). Storm King Press. Kindle Edition)
Not to quit there, he states, “By studying the information you’ve collected until you have determined the facts and seen the patterns it contains, you have turned raw material into a finished product. You have turned information into knowledge.” (Meyer, Herbert E. (2010-10-10). How to Analyze Information: A Step-by-Step Guide to Life’s Most Vital Skill (Kindle Locations 228-230). Storm King Press. Kindle Edition.). Mr. Meyer offers sage advice as to why our official intelligence full course meal often falls short:
“Judgment is the sum total of who we are – the combined product of our character, our personality, our instincts and our knowledge. Because judgment involves more than knowledge, it isn’t the same thing as education. You cannot learn judgment by taking a course, or by reading a book. This is why some of the most highly educated people in the world have terrible judgment, and why some people who dropped out of school at the age of sixteen have superb judgment.”
(Meyer, Herbert E. (2010-10-10). How to Analyze Information: A Step-by-Step Guide to Life’s Most Vital Skill (Kindle Locations 232-236). Storm King Press. Kindle Edition.)
He ends by talking about a fascinating dinnertime conversation with Dr. Jonas Salk, the developer of the polio vaccine, where they discussed Darwin. To find out the brilliant insights Dr. Salk offered after a few moments of thought, you’ll need to read the book, trust me, that insight alone is worth way more than $1.99 (once again, it’s available here).
A week late, but here’s a link to a Politico story, “Why Does America Send So Many Stupid, Unqualified Hacks Overseas?”, written by James Bruno, a career Foreign Service officer, about the embarrassing testimony from some new ambassador appointees that President Obama selected – political cronyism, *sigh*. Alas, Mr. Bruno, none of these latest less than stellar appointees will likely provide nearly as many gaffes as the current Secretary of State, the Vice President, or even this President.
These latest clowns join this three-ring circus late in the performance and much of the world has already learned to bypass America as much as possible. Even our allies openly diss us: “Merkel, Hollande to discuss European communication network avoiding US”. It must be noted that President Hollande just visited America and President Obama hailed France as our oldest ally (official posting of their respective remarks from the White House). So far, President Obama has presided over some the of the most damaging national security leaks, failures, and a complete muddling of foreign policy. Let’s see if President Obama accepts Hollande’s invitation to attend the 70 year D-Day anniversary commemoration, June 6, 2014, as befitting the President of the United States of America. His track record for showing due respect for WWII allies is dismal, so I wonder if he will make the effort to attend.
This post started with Winston Churchill and it will end there too, remember President Obama’s return of the Churchill bust and the ensuing Obama administration protestations that the bust hadn’t been returned to the British ambassador, whilst the British stated the bust was now residing in their ambassador’s residence? Maybe, President Obama will even take the time to read up on the Churchill’s WWII contributions (The Churchill Centre site) and when it comes to speeches, sorry, Mr. President, Winston Churchill far, far surpasses you (another great Churchill site, The Churchill Society here):
But if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of pervert science. let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties and so bear ourselves that, if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will say,
‘This was their Finest Hour’
Filed under American History, Foreign Policy, History, Politics, The Media
At long last, a map of US forces in the region on the night of the Benghazi attack, from the In From the Cold blog. Their post includes a link to a Townhall.com article from April 2013, that’s worth a read too.
Filed under Foreign Policy, Military, Politics
libertybelle diaries 