International Affairs
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From Humiliation to Conflagration
A tidal wave of horrific images of mobs storming our embassies has flooded all media, from TV sets to mobile devices. The numbing truth, however, is that these images are only the most obvious signs of a foreign policy that not only endangers Americans abroad, but also threatens our national survival itself.
Washington is incapable of discerning friend from foe. In North Africa and the Near East, the result is the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood and other fundamentalist Islamic organizations which use fanatical mobs to lash out at America.
The same inability to recognize threats before they explode into disasters is blinding the Washington foreign policy elite and their media friends, to the peril of an expansionist China, a Soviet-style Russia, and the close alliance that binds them.
Russia and China support anti-U.S. regimes in North Korea, Cuba, Venezuela and the Islamic Republic of Iran. The leaderships in Moscow and Beijing have announced their mutual cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region, which is directed at displacing the United States from the area and forcing us to abandon long-time friends.
Both Russia and China are engaged in costly military buildups which include the future construction of several aircraft carrier task forces. The Moscow-Beijing alliance in the Pacific has one target: the United States Navy.
China humiliates Clinton and the US
China is already threatening war with U.S. allies Japan, Philippines and Taiwan over claims to a series of small, uninhabited - but potentially oil-rich - islands. Beijing has already warned the U.S. to stay out of the dispute, which in effect demands that America abandon these allies.
U.S. Secretary Hillary Clinton, who only a few days later so ineptly handled the challenge by Islamic extremists in Libya and Egypt, flew to China in early September seeking a meeting with Chinese leaders.
Clinton and Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping, who is regarded as the next leader of the Peoples Republic of China, had scheduled a press conference for the morning of September 5. Mr. Xi, however, did not appear. The meeting was abruptly rescheduled for later that afternoon, leaving Secretary Clinton - and the United States of America - humiliated. The diplomatic snub of Clinton was noted
around the world.
Clinton's trip to China accomplished nothing. China continues to act aggressively against U.S. allies, and is apparently unimpressed with America's willingness to protect itself or its friends in the region.
A regional war could easily erupt, which could draw in the United States, resulting in a world war with China and its ally, Russia.
A unforgivable mistake in Moscow
The spy-elite in the Kremlin is not as cavalier about the power of the United States as is China, but Moscow is still talking tough. The truth is that the Obama administration's "reset" of relations with Moscow has failed miserably.
The Obama administration's attempt to forge some sort of new relationship with Moscow began with a bizarre incident. Hillary Clinton presented Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov with a gift of a red button meant to symbolize a new start in Russian-American relations. The button bore the word "reset" in English and "peregruzka" in Russian. But the Clinton State Department
mistranslated the word in Russian.
Clinton made the weird remark that "We worked hard to get the right Russian word." "You got it wrong," said Lavrov. It should be "perezagruzka" [the Russian word for reset]. This says 'peregruzka,' which means overcharged."
No one in the media bothered to ask why Clinton had not simply conferred with a Russian linguist before making the button. It is also perplexing why the Russian word was in the Latin alphabet and not in the Cyrillic, which the Russians use. The entire incident was a farce, making the US once again a laughingstock and portending future disaster for United States policy.
Russian hardball escalates
As the American ability to understand the world around it sinks, the "new" Russia increasingly looks like the old Soviet Union both in its domestic politics and in a distinctly anti-American foreign policy. At home, the Moscow spy-elite destroys all real opposition, and, beyond Russia's borders, Moscow aids anti-American regimes. Moscow is even willing to boldly attack vulnerable American allies, as the Republic of Georgia found out first-hand during a five-day conflict with Russian forces in 2008.
Should Israel attempt an attack on Iran's nuclear facilities, their planes may find that they are facing Iranian anti-aircraft missile systems of Russian design.
Moscow is also playing hardball on the question of the deployment in Europe of a limited anti-missile system intended to protect against a rogue state attack. The system is of no use against a mass missile assault that the Russians could launch.
The Kremlin, however, recently issued a Soviet-era threat against Europe and the U.S. should the anti-missile system became functional. Moscow is threatening to build an intercontinental ballistic missile five times more powerful than the present R-36 generation of Russian missiles. The R-36 ICBMs are known to NATO as the SS-18, and were given the name "Satan" for their city-destroying potential.
The threat was issued by a retired senior Russian Army officer connected with Russia's Strategic Missile Forces, Colonel General Viktor Esin. The new missile would not be produced if the anti-missile system was not deployed, he said.
Moscow has already deployed the Topol-M, designed to evade anti-missile systems, which would easily overcome the anti-missile system contemplated for Europe.
For our national survival, we must recapture a sense of the dangers that are before us. The mobs attacking our embassies and personnel overseas are providing the United States the time and occasion to reconsider our position in the world and who is threatening us.
We must take advantage of this opportunity. Abasement and apologies do not work. Neither does a stunning ignorance about other nations. We must be informed and act on what we know. While other nations are building their military, we cannot afford to cut away at ours.
It is time to face reality. The growing might of the Moscow-Beijing axis will reach a point in the not too distant future where we will not have time to reflect and consider options. We must plan now to avoid catastrophe later. We must see things as they are, not as we wish they could be.
Posted September 24, 2012
Muslims burn the US embassy in Libya; below, dragging the body of ambassador Stevens through the streets
The same inability to recognize threats before they explode into disasters is blinding the Washington foreign policy elite and their media friends, to the peril of an expansionist China, a Soviet-style Russia, and the close alliance that binds them.
Russia and China support anti-U.S. regimes in North Korea, Cuba, Venezuela and the Islamic Republic of Iran. The leaderships in Moscow and Beijing have announced their mutual cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region, which is directed at displacing the United States from the area and forcing us to abandon long-time friends.
Both Russia and China are engaged in costly military buildups which include the future construction of several aircraft carrier task forces. The Moscow-Beijing alliance in the Pacific has one target: the United States Navy.
China humiliates Clinton and the US
China is already threatening war with U.S. allies Japan, Philippines and Taiwan over claims to a series of small, uninhabited - but potentially oil-rich - islands. Beijing has already warned the U.S. to stay out of the dispute, which in effect demands that America abandon these allies.
U.S. Secretary Hillary Clinton, who only a few days later so ineptly handled the challenge by Islamic extremists in Libya and Egypt, flew to China in early September seeking a meeting with Chinese leaders.
Clinton humiliatied by Xi Jinping's no-show
Clinton's trip to China accomplished nothing. China continues to act aggressively against U.S. allies, and is apparently unimpressed with America's willingness to protect itself or its friends in the region.
A regional war could easily erupt, which could draw in the United States, resulting in a world war with China and its ally, Russia.
A unforgivable mistake in Moscow
The spy-elite in the Kremlin is not as cavalier about the power of the United States as is China, but Moscow is still talking tough. The truth is that the Obama administration's "reset" of relations with Moscow has failed miserably.
Lavrov explains to Clinton the wrong word was used - peregruzka means overcharged...
Clinton made the weird remark that "We worked hard to get the right Russian word." "You got it wrong," said Lavrov. It should be "perezagruzka" [the Russian word for reset]. This says 'peregruzka,' which means overcharged."
No one in the media bothered to ask why Clinton had not simply conferred with a Russian linguist before making the button. It is also perplexing why the Russian word was in the Latin alphabet and not in the Cyrillic, which the Russians use. The entire incident was a farce, making the US once again a laughingstock and portending future disaster for United States policy.
Russian hardball escalates
As the American ability to understand the world around it sinks, the "new" Russia increasingly looks like the old Soviet Union both in its domestic politics and in a distinctly anti-American foreign policy. At home, the Moscow spy-elite destroys all real opposition, and, beyond Russia's borders, Moscow aids anti-American regimes. Moscow is even willing to boldly attack vulnerable American allies, as the Republic of Georgia found out first-hand during a five-day conflict with Russian forces in 2008.
Should Israel attempt an attack on Iran's nuclear facilities, their planes may find that they are facing Iranian anti-aircraft missile systems of Russian design.
Moscow is also playing hardball on the question of the deployment in Europe of a limited anti-missile system intended to protect against a rogue state attack. The system is of no use against a mass missile assault that the Russians could launch.
A Russian Topol-M intercontinental missile launched in the Plesetsk Cosmodome
The threat was issued by a retired senior Russian Army officer connected with Russia's Strategic Missile Forces, Colonel General Viktor Esin. The new missile would not be produced if the anti-missile system was not deployed, he said.
Moscow has already deployed the Topol-M, designed to evade anti-missile systems, which would easily overcome the anti-missile system contemplated for Europe.
For our national survival, we must recapture a sense of the dangers that are before us. The mobs attacking our embassies and personnel overseas are providing the United States the time and occasion to reconsider our position in the world and who is threatening us.
We must take advantage of this opportunity. Abasement and apologies do not work. Neither does a stunning ignorance about other nations. We must be informed and act on what we know. While other nations are building their military, we cannot afford to cut away at ours.
It is time to face reality. The growing might of the Moscow-Beijing axis will reach a point in the not too distant future where we will not have time to reflect and consider options. We must plan now to avoid catastrophe later. We must see things as they are, not as we wish they could be.
Posted September 24, 2012
International News Analysis - Today
An investigative and uncompromising weekly analysis of the world situation
Contact T. Westerman at
www.inatoday.com
or P.O. BOX 5182, Rockford, ILL, 61125-0182
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