Obamas generated crises
In the last days leading up to the election, now Vice President Biden warned us, "It will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama...
[We're] gonna have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test
the mettle of this guy... They may emanate from the Middle East. They
may emanate from the subcontinent. They may emanate from Russia's newly
emboldened position."
Even he probably did not believe the test would be within the first few weeks and a generated crises would come from all three of the areas specified. The effect? Obama has thus far failed the tests and even within such a short period of time as three weeks, the perception of American power has dissolved and our enemies are emboldened throughout the world. In the period of time Obama has been President he has put an end to US global predominance.
Within his first week in office he had announced his hopes of negotiating a nuclear disarmanant treaty with Russia, reducing our stockpiles by some 80%. Biden, while in Munich, also made overtures, stating the USA would like to "push the reset button" and be friends. Last week President Dmitry Medvedev hosted Kyrgyzstan's President
Kurmanbak Bakiyev in Moscow. After their meeting the two announced that
Russia will give the former Soviet republic $2 billion in loans and
assistance and that Kyrgyzstan will close the US Air Force base at
Manas which serves American forces in Afghanistan. Russia, however agreed to permit the US to resume its shipment of nonlethal military supplies for Afghanistan through Russian territory. Due to the aggression of Russia in Georgia, that avenue had been closed. Russia has now opened it, but only on their terms. The Obama administration is delighted.
The situation in Pakistan is not Obamas fault totally, as the Bush administration shares the majority of blame in Pakistan with the propping up the government of and subsequent removal of Gen. Pervez Musharraf. Now, the pro-jihadist are in control of the intelligence apparatus and the military. Both are centered on the border with India, leaving much of the country in the hands of the Taliban and al-Qaida which has resulted in increased operations in Afghanistan. Obama created a problem with Pakistan due to his strident rhetoric concerning Pakistan during the election. They had to test him and they did. The Pakistani Supreme Court freed A.Q. Khan, from
the house arrest he had been under since his nuclear proliferation
racket was exposed by the Libyans in 2004. Through his nuclear
proliferation activities, Khan is not only the father of Pakistan's
nuclear arsenal - but of North Korea's and Iran's as well. On Sunday, he announced he is preparing to travel abroad. The Pakistani courts have said he is free to resume his scientific research.
Iran? President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton have offered many olive branches to the Iranian government. Each time, the Iranian government gets more bombastic and has more conditions. It has humiliated Washington by refusing visas to America's women's
badminton team to play their Iranian counterparts. It has announced it
will only agree to direct talks with Washington if it pulls US forces
out of the Middle East, abandons Israel and does nothing to prevent
Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. It has rudely blackballed US
representatives who are Jewish, like House Foreign Affairs Committee
chairman Howard Berman, at international conclaves. And it has
announced that it will refuse to deal with Obama's suggested envoy to
Iran, Dennis Ross, who is also a Jew. In all of its actions, Iran has
gone out of its way to embarrass Obama and humiliate America. And
Obama, for his part, has continued to embrace Tehran as his most
sought-after negotiating partner.
How far will it go with Iran? What do they want? The Iranians have an upcoming election and if Ahmadinejad wins, it will be pretty clear the Iranians do not want the Western influence in Iran and they will pursue their nuclear ambitions. If he loses, then Obama and Clinton can still pull off a victory in Iran. An item of interest regarding their nukes; Gary Samore, Obama’s point person on weapons of mass destruction in the
National Security Council, believes Iran is only one or two years away
from acquiring a nuclear weapons capability. Then it’s only a question
of when Iran might have the ability to deliver that weapon.
I haven't forgotten North Korea. In January, just before the election, North Korea renounced all military and political agreements with South Korea after
accusing Seoul of pursing policies that could push the neighbors toward
war. They then increased pressure by moving an ICBM to its launch pad. According to Human Events.com U.S. officials announced that satellite imagery detected a North Korean
train carrying a cylinder-like object believed to be a Taepodong-2
ICBM, which has a range of more than 4,000 miles, capable of crossing
the Pacific and striking targets in Hawaii or Alaska. The suspected
missile was moved to a launch site where preparations will likely be
completed in a month.
This all provides a very full plate and a very busy first couple of weeks of "mettle testing" for the new President. And he was the first to blink far too many times.
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