#1
Reidâs own SAMs on correspondence had been tightened in 2006 after the shocking discovery that three of the 1993 World Trade Center bombers at ADX, not subject to security directives, had sent 90 letters to overseas terrorist networks, including those associated with the Madrid train bombing. The letters, exhorting jihad and praising Osama bin Laden as âmy hero of this generation,â were printed in Arabic newspapers and brandished like trophies to recruit new members.
After years of failed diplomacy no one will be able to call an attack precipitous. By John Bolton
Legions of senior American officials have descended on Jerusalem recently, but the most important of them has been Defense Secretary Robert Gates. His central objective was to dissuade Israel from carrying out military strikes against Irans nuclear weapons facilities. Under the guise of counseling patience, Mr. Gates again conveyed President Barack Obamas emphatic thumbs down on military force.
The public outcome of Mr. Gatess visit appeared polite but inconclusive. Yet Irans progress with nuclear weapons and air defenses means Israels military option is declining over time. It will have to make a decision soon, and it will be no surprise if Israel strikes by years end. Israels choice could determine whether Iran obtains nuclear weapons in the foreseeable future.
Mr. Obamas approach to Tehran has been his open hand, yet his gesture has not only been ignored by Iran but deemed irrelevant as the country looks inward to resolve the aftermath of its fraudulent election. The hardliner winner of that election, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, was recently forced to fire a deputy who once said something vaguely soothing about Israel. Clearly, negotiations with the White House are not exactly topping the Iranian agenda.
Beyond that, Mr. Obamas negotiation strategy faces insuperable time pressure. French President Nicolas Sarkozy proclaimed that Iran must re-start negotiations with the West by Septembers G-20 summit. But this means little when, with each passing day, Irans nuclear and ballistic missile laboratories, production facilities and military bases are all churning. Israel is focused on these facts, not the illusion of tough diplomacy.
Israel rejects another feature of Mr. Obamas diplomatic stance. The Israelis do not believe that progress with the Palestinians will facilitate a deal on Irans nuclear weapons program. Though Mr. Gates and others have pressed this fanciful analysis, Israel will not be moved.
Worse, Mr. Obama has no new strategic thinking on Iran. He vaguely promises to offer the country the carrot of diplomacyfollowed by an empty threat of sanctions down the road if Iran does not comply with the U.S.s requests. This is precisely the European Unions approach, which has failed for over six years.
Theres no reason Iran would suddenly now bow to Mr. Obamas diplomatic efforts, especially after its embarrassing election in June. So with diplomacy out the door, how will Iran be tamed?
Mr. Gates mission had extraordinary significance. Israel sees the political and military landscape in a very inauspicious light. It also worries that, once ensnared in negotiations, the Obama administration will find it very hard to extricate itself. The Israelis are probably right. To prove the success of his open hand, Mr. Obama will declare victory for diplomacy even if it means little to no gains on Irans nuclear program.
Under the worst-case scenario, Iran will continue improving its nuclear facilities and Mr. Obama will become the first U.S. president to tie the issue of Israels nuclear capabilities into negotiations about Irans.
Israel understands that Secretary of State Hillary Clintons recent commitment to extend the U.S. defense umbrella to Israel is not a guarantee of nuclear retaliation, and that it is wholly insufficient to deter Iran from obliterating Israel if it so decides. In fact, Mrs. Clintons comment tacitly concedes that Iran will acquire nuclear weapons, exactly the wrong message. Since Israel, like the U.S., is well aware its missile defense system is imperfect, whatever Mr. Gates said about the defense umbrella will be politely ignored.
Relations between the U.S. and Israel are more strained now than at any time since the 1956 Suez Canal crisis. Mr. Gatess message for Israel not to act on Iran, and the U.S. pressure he brought to bear, highlight the weight of Israels lonely burden.
Striking Irans nuclear program will not be precipitous or poorly thought out. Israels attack, if it happens, will have followed enormously difficult deliberation over terrible imponderables, and years of patiently waiting on innumerable failed diplomatic efforts. Absent Israeli action, prepare for a nuclear Iran.
Mr. Bolton is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/30/2009 00:00 ||
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Scolding Americans for our various sins is proving popular among an elite group of self-appointed moralists....
...In the old days, critics for the most part of what we called the "system" were at least blue-collar workers, underpaid teachers, or grassroots politicians whose rather modest lives matched their angry populist rhetoric. Now the most vehement critics of America's purported sins are among the upper classes. And their parlor game has confused Americans about why they are being called polluters, racists, and exploiters by those who have fared the best in America.
Do the wealthy and the powerful lecture us about our wrongs because they know their own insider status ensures that they are exempt from the harsh medicine they advocate for others? Millionaire Gore is not much affected by higher taxes for his cap-and-trade crusade.
Or does the hypocrisy grow out of a sort of class snobbery? Do elites hector the crass middle class because it lacks their own taste, rare insight, and privileged style? Judging from the police report, Gates seemed flabbergasted that the white Cambridge cop did not know who he was "messing" with.
Or is the new hypocrisy an eerie sort of psychological compensation at work? Perhaps the more Al Gore rails about carbon emissions, the more he can without guilt enjoy what emits them. The more Professor Gates can cite racism, the more he himself is paid to spot it. And the more a Tom Daschle wants to tax and spend for health care, the less badly he feels about his own chauffer and tax avoidance?
Here's a little advice for all of America's aristocratic critics: a little less hypocrisy, a little more appreciation of your good lives -- and then maybe the rest of us will listen to you a little more.
Posted by: Mike ||
07/30/2009 10:12 ||
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#6
I was heading towards Nashville the other day and stopped at a rest stop. I saw a large monument to the Interstate Highway System. The monument credited Al Gore, Sr. with the interstate system. The Gores seem like to take credit for a lot of things. I thought of the line from the Eagles song "Don't let the sound of your own wheels drive you crazy" , or paraphrased; don't believe your own BS.
#7
how many things are named after that Robert Byrd? And don't forget Murtha. Must be a John Murtha Memorial Asshole around PA somewhere.
Hell we have robed princes in the Supreme Court, Queen Nancy, Dukes Frank and Reid. Baron Waxman, and other nobility in the halls of congress. And don't forget Emperor Zero.
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.
Scolding Americans for our various sins is proving popular among an elite group of self-appointed moralists....
Millionaire Gore is not much affected by higher taxes for his cap-and-trade crusade.
