Obama's Middle East problems (Updated 2/7)

IRANIAN OFFICIAL LAYS OUT ATTACK PLAN TO DESTROY ISRAEL IN NINE MINUTES
"lireza Forghani, an Iranian politician and staunch ally of the regime, recently released an article titled, “Iran Must Attack Israel by 2014,” according to the Middle East Media Research Institute.
"....“When the outrageous rhetoric from Ahmadinejad and people like Forghani is coupled with the capability, with nuclear weapons, to actually destroy the Jewish State of Israel, we can’t afford to dismiss what they are repeatedly telling the world,” said a Capitol Hill aide who tracks Iran. “The Hill is taking the threat from Iran very seriously.” "    Rick Moran comments on this source.


Update: Obama, Democrats Own Syria Failure  "In pursuit of the war on terror, the Obama administration has been willing to give up its sanctimonious moral posturing in the fact of military and political reality. Yet on foreign policy writ large, it still clings to its fantasies. Syria’s impending collapse presents both dangers and opportunities–but the administration is ill-placed to confront either, having diminished the American power that Obama never understood, and still bitterly resents."


Heritage: Morning Bell: Middle East Crumbles Around Obama’s Foreign Policy  "Thousands are dead in Syria, with more blood spilled each day. Iran is within arm’s reach of a nuclear weapon, threatening Israel’s very existence. And in Egypt, 19 Americans are banned from leaving the country, making them veritable hostages in an unfriendly land. All indications are that the Middle East is crumbling, and President Barack Obama’s foreign policy is collapsing right along with it."


Alan Caruba: Taking Hostages: Tehran in 1979 - Cairo in 2012  "Just as Jimmy Carter was seen as weak, so too is Barack Obama and, for America and the world, that is very bad news. I don’t care if the Iranian leadership and other militant Islamists don’t like America. I want them to fear us."
...."Our present problem is that Obama does not like America any better than our enemies do."


Ron Paul with Megan Kelly Discusses Iran Threat and Nuclear Scientist Assassinations  "Watch Megan try to get an answer out of Paul. Basically he says Iran isn't dangerous-they just want attention."

Rick Santorum's Big Night

Video: Santorum’s Victory Speech in St. Charles   "Last night was not only a great night for Rick Santorum, it a great night for conservatism. Although he was massively out-spent by the front runner, Santorum managed to win by huge margins in Missouri and Minnesota.
"The final numbers in Colorado, where Mitt was projected to win:"...

Althouse: Santorum one point over Obama in one poll  Comments to this post are mostly anti-Santorum since they appear to be Democrat commenters.

donkeyhotey

What to Make of Santorum’s Hat Trick and the Return of the Social Issues  "But Santorum understands something that few of the other candidates can put into words: that the power to mandate is the power to compel and compulsion must be grounded on something higher than the mere will of the sovereign. This is a very effective argument against Barack Obama, but it it also a very effective one against Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich...."


Romney dealt punishing blow by three-pronged defeat to Rick Santorum  "Santorum’s sweep of all three states also lent new credibility to questions about whether Romney’s appeal among conservatives is strong enough to win him the nomination."

Don't change horses... yada, yada, yada

There is a gold mine of meaning in this Rich Terrell, um, cartoon.

http://terrellaftermath.com/

Discussion forum on Obama's campaign strategy choices


This says about what you would expect: The Progressive Professor   "FDR chose to emphasize the progress made, and the idea why would anyone want to revert to the policies that had failed under Herbert Hoover.

"He would use the concept of “Don’t Change Horses in Mid Stream” as the argument to re-elect him.

...."Now in 2012, Barack Obama is using the same appeal: that with unemployment skyrocketing in 2009, and the rate raising to almost ten percent before declining, that great progress has been made in job creation, about 3.7 million jobs, with the chance of regaining ALL of the lost jobs by the time of the election, and with the rate now 8.3 percent, it could go down below 8 percent by November."

The sly bit of misinformation is that electing ANY Republican is a return to Bush policies. It is well to remember that most Republicans disagreed with President Bush over many of his policies and said they would not do things the way he did.

Remember also that the collapse of the economy was in large part of the housing crisis caused by Democrat policies. President Bush warned the Democrat- controlled Congress of this, yet Maxine Waters, Barney Frank, et al all said there was no housing crisis. 

What does it say about the ignorance of Democrat voters that the Democrat Party can cause all this damage, yet successfully campaign on the fact that a Republican president was in office when they did it?

Mr, Terrell's illustration hits the bulls-eye.  TD

Ron Paul Defends Iran Yet Again, Says U.S. Decision To Toughen Sanctions “Terrible”…

donkeyhotey

Weasel Zippers   "The Mullahs couldn’t ask for a better friend in Washington."
Quoting The Hill:

“I voted against them and I think they’re terrible and I think it’s going to hurt the people who are trying to overthrow [President Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad. People, when they’re attacked from the outside and made to hurt, become more nationalistic,” Paul said on Fox News’s “On the Record” Monday night.

Video at the link of Paul saying this on the Greta Van Susteren Monday program.


From the comments to this post:

Arabianmoondog says:February 7, 2012 at 12:32 pmThe Paul-bots are out in force at ‘The Hill” and other venues expounding his “brilliance” yada yada.I replied to one delusional woman “Ron Paul is “brilliant” IF it’s 1936 and Hitler hasn’t struck yet – in fact he’s the toast of the town when everyone gets together to bash old Winston Churchill (the “war monger”)..Paul is the kind of guy who would have been all for dividing up Czechoslovakia and letting Poland fall (whining “It’s none of our business”).”

My line of thinking exactly, but people with liberal points of view resent being made aware of history. 

TOP TEN RICHEST CELEBRITIES SUPPORTING ‘OCCUPY WALL STREET’

The Blaze  "It is difficult to gauge who is most hypocritical in this instance — the wealthy “1%’ers” supporting a movement that claims to revile everything celebrity represents, or OWS protesters for “selling out” and accepting help from the purported “enemy.”

"Perhaps the greatest, and, most obvious hypocrisy of all is that, unless born into privilege — as is the case with some of our celebrities below — it can be argued that none of these high net-worth individuals would be where they are today without having availed themselves of the advantages of capitalism."

Always room in the budget for white guilt   "Teachers are headed for a conference that brims with fashionable grievances."
...."The Lakeville schools are sending a delegation of teachers to the 12th annual "White Privilege Conference"..."

"But don't despair, he counsels. We must look beyond our "declining empire" to "exciting progressive developments" in Hugo Chavez's Venezuela -- among them, "land reform and redistribution of wealth, neighborhood committees, recognition of women's unpaid labor, end of spanking."

"I feel better already."

http://www.funnydb.com/Pictures/Cartoons/obama_president-3759.html

Britain had to plead with US to take part in Iran flotilla

UK Telegraph   "Britain was forced to plead with the US to take part in the flotilla challenging Iranian power in the Gulf after American commanders decided the Royal Navy had nothing to contribute to the mission."
....
"Failing to take part when the French were doing so might have raised questions about the Special Relationship, which has come under doubt during Barack Obama’s presidency. Mr Obama last year described France as America’s closest ally."
....
"A Whitehall confirmed the sequence of events and described the international negotiations over the flotilla as “humiliating” for Britain."   

This UK Guardian cartoon seems to picture the British point of view, I'd say.

 It seems our next president will need to go on an apology tour of our pre-Obama closest friends. He may need to take a page from Obama's foreign policy manual, blaming all ills on his predecessor and bowing low before the Queen.
How regrettable; Britain stood beside us in both Gulf Wars and in Afghanistan, but I fear Obama has poisoned the atmosphere, just as he has with American society and his class warfare. How much more damage can Obama do in another four years?  TD

I'm green, and morally superior to you

The odds are that these cars usually have Obama 2012 stickers on them. Oh, wait...I just profiled, didn't I? TD

http://townhall.com/political-cartoons/2012/02/06/96054

Obama: Israel's staunchest ally

http://townhall.com/political-cartoons/2012/02/07/96067

http://townhall.com/political-cartoons/2012/02/05/96052

I knew Obama would play the race card, just not this soon

Don't Fire Until You See The Whites

Groucho Marx once famously said "I would not join any club that would have me as a member." And while that is usually our policy too, we're sad that we're being excluded from membership in "African Americans for Obama," a new group created by Barack Hussein Obama for the purpose of unifying Americans by dividing them by race.
....
Which is why, in an exquisite bit of weasel-wording, the president's website claims he "has helped strengthen the African-American community by addressing issues like education, health care, unemployment, and taxes." The magic word being "addressing," which Webster's defines as "demagoguing at a teleprompter without actually doing a damned thing."

Clint Eastwood’s ad was bad history.

National Review Online"  "If Clint Eastwood narrated “The Cat in the Hat,” the words of Dr. Seuss would instantly take on a menacing authority. He could read the latest worthless United Nations condemnation of Syria and make Bashar Assad tremble."
...."Walking near the end of his tunnel, Eastwood assures us of our hoped-for national comeback: “Detroit’s showing us it can be done. And what’s true about them is true about all of us.” Yet if Detroit is the model for our future, we should prepare for national collapse. Yes, it is getting a boost from resurgent auto sales. Otherwise, it remains a byword for urban apocalypse. More than anything, the city is a standing warning of the perils of social disorder and unaffordable, dysfunctional government."  Rich Lowry

http://townhall.com/political-cartoons/2012/02/06/96078

Lower class! Work hard, handle your money wisely, get rich and become one of Obama's enemies!

Victor Davis Hanson: Are You ‘Them!’?   "After three years, I realize that lots of us are on the downside of about every one of the president’s new Mason-Dixon lines."....
....
"Mr. President, sermonize to others abroad, not to us at home, about judging people on the basis of “how they look.” In India or Brazil, Obama, as most of us, would be relegated to a caste. Yes, I am worried at the present desire to run up trillions of dollars in debt and redistribute income while ignoring the sources of traditional American material wealth. Yet I still see no reason to lead from behind. I accept no post-American anything—and am quite tired after three years of being lectured that I am supposed to."


Charles Krauthammer: Obama’s campaign for class resentment  (from December 8)
"Or, as the philosophers of Zuccotti Park call them, the 1 percent. For Obama, these rich are the ones holding back the 99 percent. The “breathtaking greed of a few” is crushing the middle class. If only the rich paid their “fair share,” the middle class would have a chance. Otherwise, government won’t have enough funds to “invest” in education and innovation, the golden path to the sunny uplands of economic growth and opportunity.


PJ Media: Obama’s Vision of ‘Fairness’  "Abraham Lincoln once argued that you cannot make a poor man rich by making a rich man poor. This axiomatic position seems to be lost on President Obama, who continually quotes Lincoln in his speeches. The hope for the national future cannot rest on a powerful and intrusive government manipulating the economy in the name of egalitarianism. In fact, the road to serfdom begins with the belief you can overcome natural differences to create a tie at the finish line of life."

 
Bill Kristol at Weekly Standard:  It’s Not  (Only) the Economy . . . and We’re Not Stupid
"Nonetheless, the slogan has become a talisman, ...an easy, safe, cookie-cutter campaign strategy. But it’s not safe. The belief that voters react in a simple-minded way to their current economic well-being leads campaigns and candidates to counterproductively dumb their message down. It’s also condescending, and voters often see it as such."

The debate over Afghanistan

A letter from Lt Col Daniel L. Davis, who is a fulcrum that can move a nation – should we choose to help him   "Summary:  Please read this letter from Daniel L. Davis (Lt Colonel, US Army).  He has set in motion forces that can change America, but only if we choose to help.  Pass this on to your Congressmen, Senators, local newspapers, associate, friends, and relatives.  If we stand together we can reclaim America. Today is an opportunity to start this process."  
Whoa, not so fast there...


Max Boot: Are We Losing the War in Afghanistan?  "If we pull out too quickly, the gains that have been made will be for naught. And that points to the greatest cause for pessimism about the war’s course: not the lack of progress on the ground, as Davis claims, but the lack of resolution displayed by a White House that seems determined to withdraw our forces as quickly as possible."

Lt Col Daniel L. Davis- Truth, lies and Afghanistan: How military leaders have let us down    The letter in question, which will please the anti-war left greatly. But do consider if his thoughts are valid or not, though it pains me greatly to provide the loony left ammunition. TD

RAWA

Reuters,2011- U.S. must stay in Afghanistan or risk more attacks: envoy " "With the Taliban will come al Qaeda, and we will have the same situation that we had pre-9/11, and that to me is an utterly unacceptable outcome," he said in his Kabul residence, in the heart of the heavily guarded embassy."


The President and the Generals  "Understanding the proper relationship between the president and his generals is essential both for the president and for Americans concerned about national security. The president has the right to make decisions about the conduct of war as he sees fit, but he jeopardizes America and brings his own fitness for office into question by dismissing the professional advice of commanders he has personally selected."


Michael Yon would agree with Col. Davis   But who can have faith in any exit prompted and planned by Democrats, most particularly Obama?  Remember that phrase from long ago, "leave with honor"? How'd that work out for us?


This post from yesterday's Tunnel Wall discussed the issue.