Can Obama's Foreign Policies Suck Any Worse?

By Alan Caruba

Other than the sound bites on the TV news, I doubt that most people have actually read Mitt Romney’s Monday speech at the Virginia Military Institute. It was extraordinary and demonstrated a grasp of the many regions of the world that pose problems for their citizens, their neighbors, and, in some cases, the whole world.

The world always has been and likely always will be a dangerous place somewhere. When I look at the United Nations headquarters in New York, what I see is a place that would make a decent condominium, complete with its own theatre, because it is the most failed international institution on Earth.

Even though the UN has 192 members, the U.S. in 2010 contributed on average between 22% and 27% of the budgets for thirty-seven UN organizations, agencies, commissions, and programs. With the exception of Western member nations, the UN is a cruel charade about peace, human rights, and democracy.

There’s an independent watchdog organization called Freedom House that performs a valuable service by surveying the nations of the world to identify those where freedom is still struggling to emerge. In its recent report, “Countries at the Crossroads 2012” it spells out where the trouble spots are and, without intending to, it is also a global map of Obama’s pathetic foreign affairs policies.

If you put the Freedom House report side-by-side with Mitt Romney’s speech text, you would discover that he has a remarkable grasp of the realities of the shifting dynamics of world affairs. As he said in his speech, “Hope is not a strategy.” If anything, Obama’s strategies—assuming he even has any—have demonstrably weakened America’s role in the Middle East and throughout the world. A President who does not attend daily intelligence briefings as those before him did is quite simply absent without leave.

Freedom House analyst, Vanessa Tucker, says bluntly that “The weakness of the governance institutions in the Middle Eastern and North African countries can be seen in the riots occurring across the region and the authorities’ inability to respond effectively to unrest. After decades of corrupt and repressive rule, citizens in these states are facing brutal and ineffective security forces, habitually divisive and confrontational politics, and a lack of productive avenues through which to lodge their grievances and assert their rights.”

Most Americans cannot even imagine living in such places, but most Americans have not lived in nations where Islam, an inherently oppressive faith system, is the rule and where often secular despots enforce it to their personal gain.

It’s not just the Middle East. In Latin America there has been a surge of violence and organized crime—drug cartels—have not hesitate to kill journalists in Mexico and Honduras, affecting as well the political process in Mexico and in Guatemala. In Asian nations, particularly Sri Lanka and Vietnam, Indonesia and Cambodia, the governments continue to restrict freedom of expression. South Africa is suffering the dominance of the African National Congress and there are electoral abuses in Malawi and Uganda. Tanzania and Zimbabwe are cesspools of corruption.

Romney’s speech was filled with specifics, but you would not know that from the way it was generally under-reported.

# Romney identified the attacks in Libya and against our embassies in “two dozen other countries, mostly in the Middle East, but also in Africa and Asia” as evidence of widespread anti-Americanism. They were, he said, the work of those “who seek perpetual war on the West.” Can you spell j-i-h-a-d? Romney can.

# Romney said, “I will put the leaders of Iran on notice that the United States and allies will prevent them from acquiring nuclear weapons capability.” By contrast, Obama has done everything he can to reduce the U.S. nuclear arsenal.

# Romney said, “I will roll back President Obama’s deep and arbitrary cuts to our national defense that would devastate our military. I will make critical defense investments that we need to remain secure. The first purpose of a strong military is to prevent war.” That is a lesson that even the Romans understood when they said “Si vis pacem, para bellum” If you want peace, plan for war.

# Romney said “I will champion free trade and restore it as a critical element of our strategy…the President has not signed one new free trade agreement in the past four years. I will reverse that failure.”

I have never lived in an America that was not a world leader and, following WWII, a superpower. For more than four decades the U.S. faced off against the former Soviet Union until its collapse. The U.S. Navy has kept the sea lanes of the world open. The U.S. has gone to war when it was deemed the only option.

Obama has been the first President since George Washington to assert that “any world order that elevates one nation or group over another will inevitably fail.” A world that looks to the U.S. for leadership has witnessed the failure of Obama’s foreign policy.

We can only continue our exceptional role if we get our fiscal house in order and that means ridding the nation of the most profligate chief executive in our history. We can rebuild our military and create thousands of jobs in the process. We can tap our enormous energy reserves and create more thousands of jobs. We can lift the regulatory burden from businesses large and small. We can reform our tax laws.

We can make ourselves and our allies safer in an ever-dangerous world, but not if we have a President whose only strategy for peace and security is “hope.” It is no substitute for leadership and preparedness.

© Alan Caruba, 2012

75 Years of Age

By Alan Caruba

With a birth date of October 9, 1937, I tell people that I was born in the midst of the Great Depression and have lived long enough to be in another one. There are other similarities because, as oft been noted, history does repeat itself. Only the faces, names and places change.

In 1937 troops of the Japanese Empire were advancing toward Nanking, China and it would become known as the “rape of Nanking” for their brutality. The nations of Europe were growing increasingly anxious about Germany’s militaristic ambitions and, within two years, World War II will confirm those fears. Germany, Italy and Japan would join in what became known as the “Axis.” The Spanish Civil War was raging in 1937 and fascism would eventually hold Spain in its grip for decades.

There were different enemies of freedom than today, but freedom has always had its enemies.

The Russians had overthrown their czar in 1917 and embraced communism. Following WWII, the Chinese would do the same. The Soviet regime would collapse in 1991 after a disastrous invasion of Afghanistan. The U.S. has been there for eleven years without success and our generals want to leave. Like the U.S., Europe is in a financial crisis. And the rise of Islamic fanaticism is threatening the West and all other sectors of the world.

After living through thirteen presidents, you gain a pretty good idea of who did a good job and who failed. I thought Carter was the biggest failure until Obama came along.

Living through such history which included the Korean conflict, and the Vietnam War, along with the necessity to push Iraq out of Kuwait and the invasion to overthrow Saddam Hussein, suggests that some wars are necessary and others are optional and, in hindsight, they tend to trigger unforeseen consequences, unexpected outcomes.

The current administration’s foreign policy has triggered the overthrow of several Arab regimes that were tolerated and some of which were even allied to the U.S. The result has been turmoil resulting in the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood and the resurgence of al Qaeda. Neither can be ignored and neither will yield to modernity in the foreseeable future. It will take generations for the Middle East and other Islamic nations to tire of the enslavement it imposes.

The United States has been largely fortunate in its choice of presidents. Names like Washington, Lincoln, and Reagan leap off the pages of history for their moral integrity and courage. Franklin D. Roosevelt dominated the 1930s until his death in 1945. Much of the nation’s financial problems are directly tied to the “entitlement” programs, Social Security and later Medicare that were initiated by the Democratic Party during his time in office. Eight decades later, half of the U.S. budget is allocated to these programs, plus Medicaid, before any money can be spent on domestic or defense needs.

The newest generation cannot imagine that when I was a teenager there was no television until the 1950s. Most of my life was spent before personal computers existed, before cell phones, and the wonders of modern communications technology. All new technology drives out older technologies and that promotes change; the only constant in life.

I am unsure that age confers wisdom. People tend to hold on to the beliefs with which they grew up and in the case of liberals they are mostly myths about poverty and “fairness.” Life is not fair. A job, work, educating oneself, and personal motivation are still the key to success. A bit of luck helps, too.

Just as in the days before the Civil War, the nation is seriously divided. It is reflected in Congress and the result has been a ruined economy, an incompetent president; let alone one that was and is constitutionally ineligible to hold the office.

I was fortunate in having parents who gave me their unconditional love. For a long time I was too young to appreciate their personal achievements, but I was able to reciprocate as I grew older. Those are wonderful memories, but since they both lived into their 90s, the odds are that I will too and, then, 75 will seem young to me.

© Alan Caruba, 2012

Obama Recycles Lies from 2008

Liar-in-Chief

By Alan Caruba

The fabled British Prime Minister, Benjamin Disraeli has oft been quoted for saying “There are three kinds of lies: Lies, damned lies, and statistics.” Later another Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, said “A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on.”

The Ten Commandments includes the admonition, “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.” All parents strive mightily to teach their children to tell the truth and Mitt Romney, in the first debate with Barack Obama dissected the lies being told about his proposed policies.

The journalist, H.L. Mencken said, "The men the American people admire most extravagantly are the most daring liars; the men they detest most violently are those who try to tell them the truth."

The current political campaign is replete with fact-checkers, a growing doubt regarding the accuracy of polls and news reporting, and charges of lying flying back and forth between candidates and political parties. Lies do not go unnoticed.

Political campaigns require people to sort out the lies from the truth and on Wednesday, an audience of millions seemed to suddenly discover that President Obama was not telling the truth as Mitt Romney skillfully presented facts and statistics that undermined his record in office and the lies he has been telling about that record.

Stunned by Romney’s presentation, the Democratic Party responded with a news release claiming that he had lied. “But when the dust settles, Romney’s dozen flat-out falsehoods will be the only thing remaining…” If Romney had been lying, it would have been front-page news. It is the same Democratic Party that has run ads saying Romney is a felon and a murderer!.

The simple, undeniable truth is that Barack Obama has set new records for lying, often when there was no need to. It isn’t just casual lying. It is pathological to a point where entire books have cataloged them and there are Internet sites that keep a record of them.

During the 2008 campaign Obama claimed that the civil rights march in Selma, Alabama inspired his birth, but Selma was in 1965 and Obama had been born in 1961. He said his father had been a goat herder in Kenyan, but he had been a privileged, well-educated youth who went on to work for the Kenyan government. He claimed his Kenyon grandmother was Christian, but she was a Muslim and Christianity would not have permitted her to have been one of 14 wives.

Obama even lied about his name Barack, saying it was Swahlli when, in truth, it is Arabic as is his middle name, Hussein. He claimed the school he attended as a child from age 6 to 10 in Indonesia was Christian. It was Muslim. He lied throughout the 2008 campaign and it should be no surprise that he has lied throughout his presidency.

In July, Human Events published a list, “Top Ten Obama Lies”, noting the lie that his mother who had died of cancer after being denied insurance coverage for a preexisting condition, using the lie to sell Obamacare, but Ann Durham had health insurance through her employer and was only denied disability insurance.

Human Events noted that Obama had claimed during his campaign that he would not raise taxes on families making less than $250,000 but “Obamacare’s individual mandate will hit many under the $250,000 mark and the Supreme Court would later rule that the mandate was a tax, not a penalty.

He has repeatedly said Americans could keep their doctor, but Obamacare will cause many employers to dump their health plans and force many workers into health care exchanges. The bill, over 2,500 pages long, was passed along strict party lines and then House Majority Leader, Nancy Pelosi, told Americans they would have to pass it in order to learn what was in it!

Obama’s “stimulus” was based in part on the claim that there were many “shovel-ready construction jobs” but he would later admit that there were far fewer than claimed saying “There’s no such thing as shovel-ready projects.”

Obama promised an open and “transparent” federal government, but by mid-2011, his administration had refused to grant one-third of the Freedom of Information Act requests. Most famously, when the Fast and Furious gun-running scandal broke, Obama invoked executive privilege to protect his Attorney General and Justice Department from a congressional probe.

We accept that politicians often “shade the truth” but Obama’s election and service in the office of the President was based on a huge matrix of lies about his personal life and the legislation that imposed a hugely unpopular health care law, the waste of billions on “clean energy” firms that swiftly went bankrupt leaving taxpayers with the bill, a failed stimulus, and myriad other programs.

The latest lies involved the September 11, 2012 attack on the Libyan consulate and the murder of a U.S. ambassador and three of his staff. His United Nations ambassador went on five Sunday news shows claiming it was due to an amateur film no one had seen and was “spontaneous.”

John F. Kennedy once said, "The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie---deliberate, contrived and dishonest---but the myth--- persistent, persuasive and unrealistic."

He was right. The myths woven by Barack Hussein Obama about his life and about his intentions, combined with his blaming of everyone and everything for his failures, are coming unravelled despite his co-conspirators, the Democratic Party, and many in the mainstream press.

© Alan Caruba, 2012

EPA's "Science" Evokes Nazi Death Camp Memories

By Alan Caruba

The “EPA has admitted to a federal court that it asks human guinea pigs to sacrifice their lives for regulatory purposes—and $12 per hour.” That was a recent news item reported by JunkScience.com’s founder, Steven Milloy.

“EPA has responded to our emergency motion for a temporary restraining order against its ongoing human experiment (called ‘Captain’) involving the air pollutant” known as “fine particles.”

In a declaration to the court by an EPA clinical research studies coordinator he said that participants were provided with information about them, noting that “if you are a person that for example lives in a large city like Los Angeles or New York” where on a hot summer day one can often see a haze in the air “and you have an underlying unknown health condition, or, you may be older in age, chances are you could end up in the emergency room later on that night, wondering what’s wrong, possibly having cardiac changes that could lead to a heart attack; there is the possibility you may die from this…”

“You may die from this.” That did not, however, deter the EPA from conducting the study in which participants were exposed to such particles.

Milloy points out that “Every law, regulation and code developed since World War II strictly prohibits human sacrifice (i.e., significant injury or death) for no health benefit to the patient” and the $12 per hour payment is not deemed a benefit. “Moreover,” said Milloy, “EPA has repeatedly stated in numerous regulatory documents and public statements that there is no safe level of exposure to particulate matter”, and that any exposure can kill within hours or days.

A Wall Street Journal article on June 16th and titled “EPA Seeks Tighter Standard on Soot” reported that “The Environmental Protection Agency on Friday proposed tighter national standards for soot pollution” deeming it “the latest chapter in a long-running battle between the Obama administration and industry over environmental restrictions.”

“Particulate matter forms in the atmosphere as a result of smokestack and tailgate emissions” and the EPA wants to set a new level of 12 to 13 micrograms per cubic meter.” The current standard is 15 micrograms. We are talking about things so small it would take an electron microscope to measure them. The notion of protecting people about anything at this level is absurd. Next thing to go would be children’s sandboxes.

In practical terms, tightening the standards would make it even more difficult for industrial facilities to get permits to operate. Milloy warns that “The EPA is a government horror story that is responsible for trillions of dollars in lost economic growth, trampled rights and liberties and perverted science.”

There is, however, something far more ominous about the EPA’s particulate study.

In an AmericanThinker.com article, Mark Musser, the author of “Nazi Oaks”, a book about the environmental zealotry of the leaders of the Nazi regime, connected the sweeping Nazi environmental legislation that preceded the racially charged anti-Semitic Nuremburg Laws that led ultimately to “the final solution”; the deliberate murder of millions of Europe’s Jews and millions, too, deemed enemies of the state.

Referencing Milloy’s exposure of the EPA human experimentation in which diesel fumes were piped from a running truck mixed with air into the lungs of participants. In his commentary Musser noted that “They even had a gas chamber set up to accommodate the environmental research project that shockingly recalls the death camps of Poland.”

“The whiff of the Jewish holocaust is thus unmistakable,” notes Musser. “When the Nazis found out how difficult it was in practice to shoot so many Jews on the Eastern Front at the outset of the war, they switched to gassing them in mass at death camps with engine fumes. Such gassing methods became infamous at Treblinka where almost one million Jews were killed.”

The commandant of Auschwitz, another death camp, was Rudolf Hoess. He belonged to the SS whom Musser describes as “the greenest faction of the Nazi Party. It was run by Heinrich Himmler who was an animal lover, vegetarian, and organic farm enthusiast” and Musser says it was the environmentalism that was “at the heart of the holocaust at death camps like Treblinka.”

There is a very thin line between the EPA’s particulate experiments and the death factories of Treblinka and Auschwitz, and it is more than just a hint of the kind of thinking at the EPA that would condone it.

Environmentalism is synonymous with a hatred of humanity, an oft-stated wish that millions must die to protect the Earth.

© Alan Caruba

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