Russia announces it will withdraw from a post-Cold War deal to dismantle nuclear and chemical weapons when it expires next year. Is this what President Obama meant by a "reset" in U.S.-Russian relations?
The so-called Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction program, which had been renewed twice by the U.S. and Russia, was a major post-Cold War success.
It led to the deactivation of more than 7,650 strategic warheads from the old Soviet Union, and seemed to put the former USSR onto a far more peaceful path. It helped seal President Reagan's hard-won U.S. victory in the Cold War against its former foe.
But after four years of Obama's weak stewardship of our nation's national security, the Russians are saying "nyet" to renewing the deal in 2013. It's easy to see why.
Everywhere they look, they see U.S. weakness and a failure to respond to overt provocations by others.
They see world affairs as the U.S. retreats from previous strong alliances, such as those with Britain and Israel, and ignores or downplays others, including our ties with Japan.
Why continue to disarm after losing a cold war if your enemy is already busy disarming itself?
In announcing the move, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov seemed to take a contemptuous dig at both the U.S. and the president. "The agreement doesn't satisfy us," he said, "especially considering new realities."
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Those "new realities" no doubt include Obama's feckless "reset" -- another word for U.S. capitulation to the New Russia's neo-imperialism under its strutting dictator wannabe, Vladimir Putin.
It's enough to make you wonder, isn't it? From the very beginning, Obama's "reset" has included a series of diplomatic moves that clearly weaken the U.S. position in the world, particularly against Russia.
One of the first things Obama did on entering office was to break America's promise to its allies in Eastern Europe, Poland and the Czech Republic, to place missile interceptors and radar on their soil. This was a huge gift to Russia.
Not a year later, at the New Start talks in 2010, Obama gave away America's nuclear edge, agreeing to disastrous cuts in our nuclear arsenal far in excess of what Russia promised and putting missile defense on the negotiating table.
The idea, Obama says, is a nuclear-free world -- a utopian idea that has proved dangerous as Iran, North Korea and other rogue nations pursue nuclear weapons. Not only is the world not "nuclear-free," but some of the most dangerous regimes on Earth are now on the verge of threatening us with nukes.
I suggest the United States and Israel grow a set of those and I agree with g(r)omgoru "What about it?" without Iran to support the Hezbollah, which was established and constantly supported by Iran, the whole organization goes down like a house of cards within six months.
Posted by: Spats B. Hayes the First ||
10/13/2012 3:49 Comments ||
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#3
Opening Pandora's Box: If Israel Strikes Iran, What About Hezbollah?
Yep. Strike them too.
#4
I suspect a strike would create an opportunity for a flypaper strategy. In order not to lose face, those organizations which are predicated upon the destruction of Israel will have to do something which in turn exposes them to targeting, degrading, and crippling.
#6
Hizballah is known to have infiltrated sleeper agents to the United States. If the U.S. gets involved in attacks against Iran, these sleepers are sure to be activated and will conduct terrorist attacks in the United States. Don't you people see the mess that getting involved in Iran/Israel/Syria/Lebanon regional conflicts will create??? And we may be unable to avoid it, but these "so what" comments are very ignorant. So what is American deaths at home and abroad for very limited strategic gains....
#7
Hizballah is known to have infiltrated sleeper agents to the United States. If the U.S. gets involved in attacks against Iran, these sleepers are sure to be activated and will conduct terrorist attacks in the United States. Don't you people see the mess that getting involved in Iran/Israel/Syria/Lebanon regional conflicts will create???
The US has been involved in that region since at least 1956. Hezbollah sleeper agents would be, at best, a speed bump on the road to the immolation of Islamic Iran.
#8
Hizballah is known to have infiltrated sleeper agents to the United States. ...So what is American deaths at home and abroad for very limited strategic gains....
Yes, and no doubt some of those agents were identified long since, ispyonyou. I posted an article just the other day about the New York City police department gearing up for that very risk, on the assumption that the 1.5 million Jews living in their area will be meaningful to the bad guys beyond New York being the target it already is. Wikipedia says
According to extrapolated U.S. Census data and other independent surveys done by Iranian-Americans themselves in 2009, there are an estimated 1-1.5 million Iranian-Americans living in the U.S.,[6] with the largest concentrationabout 720,000 peopleliving around Los Angeles.[6][26] For this reason, the L.A. area with its Iranian American residents is sometimes referred to as "Tehrangeles" or "Irangeles" among Iranian-Americans.[27] Beverly Hills has a large community of Iranian Americans.[2] Other large communities include New York/New Jersey (9.1%), Washington D.C./Maryland/Virginia (8.3%) and Texas (6.7%).[2][1]
I believe it was Spengler who speculated that the real reason Iran wants nuclear weapons is to gain control of the Saudi and Bahraini oil fields as the Iranian ones dry up in the near future, with the evaporation of the Jewish nation as a lagniappe. Otherwise, between the rapid aging of the population and the end of the country's major source of income, Iran my find itself over the cliff and in the crevasse within a decade or two. So this is something we will have to face sooner or later, and sooner is when Iran won't have nukes to back up their opinions.
We are indeed unable to avoid it. We know the people responsible for such things are doing their jobs, as occasionally small bits of information land in the open for us to see. Forgive the crudeness of the metaphor, but when rape is inevitable, one either lies back and endures or removes the gentleman's masculinity so he is neither tempted nor able to do so again. I vote for the latter.
#9
Come to think of it, immediately following 9/11/200, a large number of Muslim males, many here illegally, were picked up and sequestered by the federal authorities. Many of them were subsequently quietly deported, to the dismay of NPR's reporting staff -- I'm sure it's in the Rantburg archives. No reason we could not do so again. As it is said, there are no true secrets in a world that has the internet.
#10
"one either lies back and endures or removes the gentleman's @sshole's masculinity so he is neither tempted nor able to do so again. I vote for the latter."
Hear, hear, tw!
Posted by: Barbara ||
10/13/2012 15:36 Comments ||
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#11
#7 Hizballah is known to have infiltrated sleeper agents to the United States. If the U.S. gets involved in attacks against Iran, these sleepers are sure to be activated and will conduct terrorist attacks in the United States. Don't you people see the mess that getting involved in Iran/Israel/Syria/Lebanon regional conflicts will create???
That's a timid, tepid, fainthearted response. Not the stuff of our forebearers. I would worry more about the sleepers' survival--particularly after 911 and 911 part b. I would expect it would be more than tar and feathers. I think people might just go medieval.
#12
As per the "Great Game" + "Global Jihad/
Caliphate", Hezbollah is likely to initiate asymmetric doestic TerrOps agz the US + NATO-EU, ETAL. anyway iff significant weakness is perceived or detected on the part of the US-West + aligned.
SUPERPOWER, HYPERPOWER, OR MAJOR POWER - NO NATION IS IMMUNE.
Should King Abdullah II become the next Arab ruler to fall as part of the upheavals that have swept through the region now for almost two years, it will mark another major setback for the United States in the region. For Israel its significantly worse news.
IMO, the biggest mistake in Israel's history was (i) not helping Paleos take over Jordan in 1970 and (ii) running Paleos out of Judea and Samaria into Jordan. Sometimes you get a second chance.
#2
...If Jordan goes under, all bets are off. Abdullah and his father may not have been Steadfast Friends of Ours, but they were reasonably intelligent and moderate, not to mention the fact that they have the one truly modern and PROFESSIONAL military in the Middle East. Losing them will mean Israel is well and truly up against the wall.
That cannot end well.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
10/13/2012 9:41 Comments ||
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#3
House of Saud close behind. This Arab Spring effort has not run its course as yet.
#4
If Jordan starts to fall Israel would be best served by relocating all the Paleos to Jordan, declaring that they now have their state and annexing/defending the west bank.
Biden's debate behavior and the reception it received is just one more example of hate and disdain expressed by the left towards anyone who disagrees with them. It stands in a long line of behaviors like "hating Bush", Occupy Wall Street and recent Tweets/Youtube of people pissing and sh*tting on Romney/Ryan signs.
But for me it was the proverbial straw on the camel's back. And it has motivated me in ways the Veep never intended.
Nuclear Iran? Resurgent al Qaeda? 'Let's all calm down.'
The Wall Street Journal's editorialist notices critical details from the VP debate. A taste:
Joe Biden's unbounded id is the talk of the nation after Thursday's debate. But the Veep is also the elder Democratic statesman on international affairs, and in between his snickers, guffaws and "malarkey," he shed newsworthy light on Obama Administration foreign policy. Let's roll the tape.
On Iran, Mr. Biden broke new ground, though most of the media missed it. To a question about the Administration's willingness to stop the Tehran regime from going nuclear, he said what matters isn't Iran's ability to enrich uranium to weapons grade. It's whether it can build and deliver a bomb..
"They are a good way away," he said. "When my friend [Paul Ryan] talks about fissile material, they have to take this highly enriched uranium, get it from 20% up. Then they have to be able to have something to put it in. There is no weapon that the Iranians have at this point."
"Let's all calm down a little bit here," Mr. Biden said a few minutes later.
In other words, Iran may have made progress toward enriching enough uranium to sufficient strength to build a bomb in the past four years, but that's immaterial. Based on the Vice President's intelligence, Iran isn't close to getting the trigger mechanism, missiles and all the other things needed to deploy a weapon. So don't worry.
Hmmm. For a decade, the U.S. and Europe have focused on coaxing and coercing the Iranians to stop enrichment above all else. That's because this is the hardest thing about building a bomb. Iran has in any case worked to develop missiles and triggers with help from Russians, North Koreans and others. In a clearer moment this summer, Mitt Romney said he would insist that Iran not enrich any uranium, even ostensibly for peaceful purposes. He failed to repeat this demand in his foreign-policy speech this week.
To hear Mr. Biden tell it, the Obama Administration now has a new red line on Iran. The mullahs can enrich as much uranium as they wish as long as they "don't have something to put it in." This isn't the red line Israel's Bibi Netanyahu had in mind during his recent speech before the United Nations. Nor are Turkey, Saudi Arabia and others looking for proof of an Iranian ICBM before they decide to go nuclear themselves. Iran becomes a regional nuclear power when it demonstrates its ability to get the bomb at almost a moment's notice, which is when it has developed enough fuel for it.
#3
sometimes ya gotta break a few cities eggs to get re-elected make an omelet
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/13/2012 11:07 Comments ||
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#4
So, according to Mr. Biden, our intelligence assets can decisively ascertain the nuclear capability of a secretive, paranoid Iran with its remote facilities buried deep in the earth, but can't figure how 200 men attacked a consulate in a city in a relatively open and semi-friendly Libya?
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.