Thursday, March 25, 2010
china confidential
US Softens Stance on Iran Sanctions
Preparing to "live with but never accept" a nuclear-armed Iran--the notorious Brzezinski formula--the Obama administration is softening its sanctions plan in an attempt to win more international support.
No matter. Even the initially proposed, supposedly tough new sanctions are inherently flawed and have no chance of halting Iran's atomic advance. Appeasement (packaged as "engagement") failed to stop Iran. Sanctions--an act of war in Iran's view--will be followed by containment, the policy that Obama, influenced by Brzezinski, has already decided on as the best way forward.
The Obama/Brzezinski line will be that just as the United States contained the Soviet Union, with its stockpiles of nuclear weapons, throughout the Cold War, Washington will also be able to deter Iran from overreaching or attacking the U.S. or Israel and other Western allies. An analogy with containment of nuclear-armed Maoist China will also be drawn--over and again.
Nonsense. Iran is not the Soviet Union (which, in spite of the conventional wisdom concerning the peace-preserving accomplishments of the doctrine of mutually assured destruction, known as MAD, actually came close to causing a nuclear war as a result of Moscow's mad installation of nuclear missiles in Communist Cuba). Nor is Iran China (whose monstrous Great Helmsman, it should be recalled, once weighed the pros and cons of nuclear war with the U.S.). At the end of the day, the two Communist powers (and rivals) mainly acted according to their perceived national interests and not in line with their ideologies. They therefore could be accommodated--without appeasement--and contained. This was clearly the case in Europe, where successive Soviet governments knew that crossing an American line in the sand--which ran through Germany--would trigger an American nuclear response, and less obvious in the Third World (Vietnam being the prime example), where the separation lines were blurrier and the superpower rivalry was more reckless.
Iran Can't be Contained
But Iran can neither be contained nor appeased. Like Nazi Germany, Islamist (Islamonazi) Iran is pursuing an imperialist foreign policy--meaning, in this usage, a policy that aims to overthrow the status quo, or power relations among nations, regionally and internationally. Hence, Iran's backing for Hamas and Hezbollah, ominous dealings with North Korea and Venezuela, courtship of Brazil, and establishment and sponsorship of Iranian/Hezbollah terrorist, sabotage, and espionage cells in South America--a strategy that recalls the Nazi penetration of the continent prior to World War II.
Iran's repeated vows to annihilate Israel and calls for "a world without America and Zionism" should not be taken lightly. Iran means what it says. It will not be deterred by diplomacy or sanctions. Barring a miraculous event, such as a revolution or coup in Iran that would end the regime of the atomic ayatollahs, there is only a military solution to the Iran problem.
In fact, there is no deterrent--none at all--against an anonymous Iranian nuclear attack against the U.S. Whereas Israel would automatically obliterate Iran should any sort of nuclear device explode within the borders of the Jewish State--its presumed nuclear arsenal is more than capable of doing the job--the Obama administration would be more likely to respond to an anonymous nuclear attack on the U.S. homeland with an investigation, prayer and healing sessions, quotations from the Koran, and appeals for calm and reason.
An anonymous nuclear attack on Israel would certainly not trigger U.S. retaliation against Iran--not by the Obama administration. No way. Iran knows this; and so does Israel. A sovereign state with the mightiest military in the Middle East, Israel will do what it must, reactively or preemptively, to prevent a repetition of the Holocaust that Iran's president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad publicly denies but secretly celebrates.
As China Confidential Predicted, Obama, Emboldened by His Health Care Victory, Escalates Against Israel, Isolating and Weakening US Ally
As China Confidential predicted, the Obama administration is trying to isolate and weaken Israel in the wake of the President's historic health care overhaul victory. Haaretz reports:
At their White House meeting, Obama made clear to his guest that the letter Netanyahu had sent was insufficient and returned it for further corrections. Instead of a reception as a guest of honor, Netanyahu was treated as a problem child, an army private ordered to do laps around the base for slipping up at roll call.The revolution in the Americans' behavior is clear to all. On Sunday morning Obama was still anxiously looking ahead to the House of Representatives vote on health care - the last thing he wanted was a last-minute disagreement with congressmen over ties with Israel.The moment the bill was passed, however, a victorious Obama was free to deal with his unruly guest.The Americans made every effort to downplay the visit. As during his last visit in November, Netanyahu was invited to the White House at a late hour, without media coverage or a press conference. If that were not enough, the White House spokesman challenged Netanyahu's observation at AIPAC that "Jerusalem is not a settlement."The Americans didn't even wait for him to leave Washington to make their disagreement known. It was not the behavior Washington shows an ally, but the kind it shows an annoyance.
It is clear where all this is leading: toward an imposed settlement on Israel. Obama's intention is to force the Jewish State into surrendering all the lands it gained in the defensive Six-Day War of June 1967--to pull back to indefensible lines--in order to make possible the creation of a Palestinian Arab mini-state comprised of the disputed West Bank territories, including the eastern portion of Jerusalem, Israel's capital, and the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip. Palestinian Arab refugees and their descendants would either be allowed to return to Israel or compensated heavily for resettlement in the new state--which would actually be the second Arab state in historic Palestine, the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan being the first such entity.
Obama and his left-wing supporters long ago signed onto this plan, which has been endorsed by the Saudis. In fact, Obama's views on Israel and Middle East peace have not really changed since his undergraduate days at Columbia University, just as his views on nuclear disarmament have not changed since he was a college student.
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