Obama, Greasing the Skids

Is that what diplomacy in the middle east has come to? We have to literally bribe Israel into honoring its agreements and behaving with some civility? If Israel accepts this agreement I guess it tells you how serious their need to expand and build to support its growing population real is…

Exhibit A:

Last week’s news. This week’s news is…

“Graham told host Christine Amanpour on ABC’s This Week today that he could not support the treaty ‘in its current condition’ because of ‘two obstacles’ — nuclear modernization and missile defense[...]

The only problem with Graham’s ‘stumbling blocks’ is that they don’t actually exist. While ‘security experts’ like Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ), Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT), and former Bush administration Ambassador John Bolton insist that Obama is ‘risking our security’ by supposedly not focusing on modernization of America’s nuclear arsenal, the actual rocket scientists of an independent defense advisory panel determined that not only are the weapons completely reliable, but that our current ‘nuclear warheads could be extended for decades, with no anticipated loss in effectiveness.’ To make sure this remains the case, the Obama administration devoted $7 billion to maintain the nuclear-weapons stockpile — $600 million more than Congress approved last year and 10 percent more than what the Bush administration spent.”

So, basically, in order to approve this ‘no-brainer’ of a treaty, some Senators are blackmailing the President for an additional $4 billion handout to the defense and nuclear industries for services that aren’t necessary.

Let me know how I’m wrong. Please.

Not on subject, exactly, but I’m getting very frustrated with Obama’s “horse trading”*.
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If Obama agrees to an extension of the Bush tax cuts unmodified, I declare my intent to vote against Obama in the next primary in 2012. He’s given away enough.
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Either he lets the law sunset, and I’ll pay my increased taxes, along with the rich, or he passes a modified version excluding those freeloaders.
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And, for me to say that…
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*it is beginning to become a euphemism for “spinelessness”

Some takeaways from Juan Cole’s contribution to the TomDispatch:

http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175319/tomgram%3A_juan_cole%2C_the_asian_century/

“The odd American urge to invest heavily in perpetual war abroad, including ‘defense-related’ spending of around a trillion dollars a year, has been a significant factor further weakening the country on the global stage.”

“Meanwhile, its economy, burdened by debts incurred through wars and military spending sprees, and hollowed out by Wall Street shell games, is becoming a B-minus one in global terms.”

“Unsurprisingly, beneath the pomp and splendor of Obama’s journey through Asia has lurked a far tawdrier vision — of a much weakened president presiding over a much weakened superpower, both looking somewhat desperately for succor abroad. If the United States is to remain a global power, it is important that Washington offer something to the world besides arms and soldiers.”

“In some ways, the darkest vision of an American future arrived in 1991 thanks to President George H. W. Bush. At that time, he launched a war in the Persian Gulf to protect local oil producers from an aggressive Iraq. That war was largely paid for by Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, rendering the U.S. military for the first time a sort of global mercenary force. Just as the poor in any society often join the military as a way of moving up in the world, so in the century of Asia, the U.S. could find itself in danger of being reduced to the role of impoverished foot soldier fighting for others’ interests, or of being the glorified ironsmiths making arsenals of weaponry for the great powers of the future.”

Obama is really taking the wood to the right and Israel isn’t he?

What a joke.

You’re hardly alone:
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“Among Democrats, 47 percent say Obama should be challenged for the 2012 nomination and 51 percent say he should not be opposed.”
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The bad news IMO:
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“Those favoring a contest include most who backed Hillary Rodham Clinton’s unsuccessful faceoff against Obama for the 2008 nomination.”

Sorry:
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/30/AR2010103004260.html

90 days? 90 days? Israel agrees to a freeze for 90 days and gets rewarded with a $3B arms deal?

Let’s just say that a permanent freeze will be very expensive.

Not wrong so much, but you forgot to mention that the blackmailers asking for the extra $ are fiscal conservatives.

…the blackmailers asking for the extra $ are fiscal conservatives.
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No they aren’t. The meaning of the phrase ‘fiscal conservative’ no longer means what it used to.

Senator Pat Geary: I want your answer and the money by noon tomorrow. And one more thing. Don’t you contact me again, ever. From now on, you deal with Turnbull.
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Michael Corleone: Senator? You can have my answer now, if you like. My final offer is this: nothing. Not even the fee for the gaming license, which I would appreciate if you would put up personally.
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I wonder what made me think of that?

So let the Republican fools rot. When the only real confrontation occurred (that we know of), Kennedy and Khrushchev settled it on their own, and, hint, it wasn’t the Americans who resolved the threat, it was Khrushchev by calling the Harvard cowboys on their hypocrisy leading to withdrawal of missiles in Turkey. Let the Republican fair weather war lords fiddle. They don’t own the trigger. In fact, the idiots have abrogated their ownership of declaration of war, relying on wobbly-kneed resolutions. Obama and Medvedev forming a personal agreement is sufficient, and as Commander-in-Chief, Obama owns the military stockpiles. Screw the Republicans.

OT slightly, but if you’ve ever marveled at how Rusty and the Rusty Clones can all somehow believe the exact same lies at the exact same time, read this excellent piece from Andrew Sullivan:
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http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2010/11/the-rights-accuracy-problem.html

Actually, given the way they echo him as a warbling chorus, maybe we should just call them “the Rusty Trombones.”
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No, no. I’ll show myself out.

kevin, interesting link. I think Republican exceptionalism is an even bigger lie than their fabricated American one. The Big Lie Machine.

You libs are getting pretty testy. Remember, we have Presidents, not Kings. Obama IS going to extend all of the tax cuts. He has no choice. You lefties keep up your mindless whining you will incent Bloomberg and Fiengold to run from the left and ensure Obama retires in 2013.

We are 5% of the world people producing 25% of it’s GDP. That’s exceptional. You can’t argue otherwise.

That’s disgusting, but given the quality of the opposition I can’t really expect Robert’s Rules of Order.

The only way I can make sense of these polls is to think that people don’t know what they want, they only know that they don’t want what they’re getting.
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And if Fitty is thinking about voting against Obama in the primaries, that’s worrying.

You never paid for the two wars, the drug benefit and several tax cuts, you blew away the surplus and managed the economy into the great recession. Why would we expect you to pay for another round of tax cuts?
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I suspect you will be whining about fiscal responsibility as you are adding another 3.7 trillion to the grand children’s bill? The bill to clean up the Republican frat party.

Obama ran higher deficits in two years than Bush in eight. Man up. Admit you elected an incompetent.

We’re exceptional, all right –in a good and beautiful way– but that ain’t it.
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Once again, you’re too busy bowing and genuflecting before the rich to see the truth about this amazing, singular country.
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If you’d stop worshiping rich folks for just a few moments, you might notice that the truly exceptional status of America lies in our ability, time and again, to wring meritocracy out of the fabric of our nation, despite the best efforts of those would-be aristocrats who so awe you.
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Other nations define themselves through religious tradition, or ethnic identity, or imperial boundaries.
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We are a nation of people who believe some pretty optimistic things about other people –about each other. Everybody gets to contribute to our culture. Everybody can be judged on the strength of their efforts and ideas…at least that’s the way we’d like to be, when we’re at our best.
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Our strength is in our meritocratic impulse, in our natural distrust of privileged elites, and our belief in a progress to which each individual contributes.
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That’s the beauty of America, not our percentage of GDP.
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It’s not that we’re rich that makes us exceptional, it’s that we’re exceptional that makes it possible for us to be rich. If we don’t screw it up by getting the former mixed up with the latter, we may stay exceptional –in a good and beautiful way.
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Liberals know these things because we love our country.

Obama has added approx. 2 to 3 trillion to the debt., compared to Bush’s 5 trillion. Bush left him a 1.3 trillion deficit, an economy losing 700,000 jobs a month, two unfinished wars, an unpaid for entitlement, the worst recession since the great depression and an opposition determined to filibuster and obstruct everything he tried to do to save the country.
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The Right is now demanding the country borrow another 3.7 trillion, to finance further useless tax cuts, adding trillions more to the debt, that they will blame on “libtards,” as they wrap themselves in the flag and brag about how much they love their country.

Obama ran higher deficits in two years than Bush in eight.
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That’s a very shallow interpretation, considering that a) the 2009 budget was set in 2008, when Dubya was in office, and b) [spending has increased at a steady rate while receipts have dropped substantially].
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(side note: In 2010, the first year of budget-making under Obama, the deficit shrank 9% and revenues were up.)
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Man up.
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You first. Admit that you don’t have a clue as to what you are talking about, rdw.

Is “horse-trading” the new “triangulation”?

Interesting read on the GDP for those who, like me, aren’t overly articulate on the topic.
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http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/09/05-2

The settlers have just filed to obtain the permits for Phase 3 of Jerico Acres. It’ll take 3 months for them to be processed, so might as well use the downtime for some fundraising…
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I guess this is a check on Obama – right Eric?

10.2
“Interesting read on the GDP for those who, like me, aren’t overly articulate on the topic.”

I liked this:

‘In her camp is the environmental advocate John Muir, who once said that he was better off than the billionaire E. H. Harriman. “I have all the money I want,” Muir explained, “and he hasn’t.”‘

Replace Harriman with the Koch brothers.

You know, SZ, it’s a testament to Obama that hopeful, eloquently delivered rhetoric makes me cringe, initially at the least. But one of my heroes was never so casually cynical:
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“To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness.
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What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places—and there are so many—where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction.
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And if we do act, in however small a way, we don’t have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.”
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Howard Zinn

herby002: What a wonderful quote. It sort of speaks to Stuart’s comment.

8.2, you give yourself and your little liberal anti-American buddies away, my friend. Sssshhhh you’re blowing it man. The link was bragging about how Obama is proud of America; he’s not. But, then you go and seal the deal by your comments. Oh well, another liberal lie will come along soon and you can redeem yourself.

April, a simple question: would you rather be sleeping outside in Yosemite right now with no money or in a nice cosy warm home heated by fossil fuels and not freezing to death trying to forage for fire wood?
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Never mind, you have already answered the question.

liberal,

1. Another false slam at apr. Muir had a comfortable home in California. He did not advocate that people freeze to death, etc., nor does apr2563. He chose not to sell out to developers who would have paid big money to him if he would advocate “privatization” of the lands that were or became national parks and wilderness areas. BTW, his home is now a National Historic Site.
‘The “Father of the National Park Service”
John Muir was many things, inventor, immigrant, botanist, glaciologist, writer, co-founder of the Sierra Club, fruit rancher. But it was John Muir’s love of nature, and the preservation of it, that we can thank him for today. Muir convinced President Teddy Roosevelt to protect Yosemite (including Yosemite Valley), Sequoia, Grand Canyon and Mt. Rainier as National Parks.’
http://www.nps.gov/jomu/index.htm

2. As for 8.2, he’s not anti-American, nor are the rest of us here (presumably even you). Obama does love America (presumably even you). The Republicans are BIG LIARS (presumably even you).

Michael–
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Are you proposing that the US confiscate the money paid to Lockheed for the Israeli purchase? Because that’s the only way you little joke makes any sense.
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The US doesn’t make arms sales. It approves arms sales. Oh, yeah, and negotiates the deals on behalf of the manufacturers. Oh, and that’s right, sometimes lends US taxpayer money to other countries so they can buy the weapons.
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One way to get the money back would be reduce aid to Israel by the $3 billion. You wanna suggest that to AIPAC?

Thanks, JC.
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I know, Obama has done a great deal of damage to so many people’s cynicism threshold. I’m affected, absolutely.
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Fortunately, it’s a cynicism that mostly applies to rhetoric, and not to the program of saving the country.

sorry fellas, just using your rules. Remember how that recession that started 6 weeks after Bush took office was charged to Bush? Of course you do. Well if that’s GWBs recession then the 2009 deficit belongs to Obama.

Are you even close to realizing how devastating this election was in terms of economic ideology? We are beginning phase two of the Reagan Revolution. Obama and the MSM assumed they’d be able to add 20% to spending and the great unwashed would recognize the largess of the elites was out blessing and we would then support the tax increases to support this new spending.

In fact Americans are repulsed at the idea of big govt. We do not want it. At least 30 of the 50 states are now walking back to 2003-2004 levels of spending reversing the last 5+ years of increases and we want the same done at the federal level. The GOPs biggest Rock Star now isn’t Sarah Palin but Chris Christie, the budget cutting Governor of NJ. Ironically he wasn’t a child of the tea party but is their greatest hero.

This is what Obama has to look forward to. He is by no means irrelevant but he is at a disadvantage. He is almost worse off having kept the Senate but having at least 10 Senators paralyzed in terms of supporting any new spending or taxes. There will be reductions in spending and nasty battles over even small things like the NEH and NPR. They are simply too valuable as targets to ignore. Get ready for some big time liberal bashing.

“Reagan Revolution”
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The only revolutionary element of his presidency was the recognition that the media are powerless in the face of the Big Lie.
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http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2010/11/where-did-our-debt-come-from/66530/
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No Republican congress, senate or president has ever proposed a reduction in spending. The government under the GOP has grown as much or more than under Democrats. There is one difference, though. The Democrats pay more of current expenditures with current taxes–in contrast to the profligate, wasteful deficits that Republicans invariably increase by extraordinary amounts.
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These are just lies. And the media dutifully prints them out every cycle.

Understand military aid to Israel is a thorn on the paw of every liberal. Many seem to think Israel is the source of all problems in the middle east and even in the world. If not for our support they’d not be independent and thus there would be peace with them living under the enlightened rule of peaceful muslims. The reason they despised the fence it would make them safer and thus without a gun to their heads (in the way of suicide bombers) would be less likely to negotiate. How cruel.

History is going to be extraordinarily kind to GWB for supporting Israel. How cool is it the smartest man in the world left Bush a disaster and Bush turned it into a golden age for Israel. So clueless is Time on a recent trip they just realized the Israeli people are bored and uninterested in the talks Obama finds so critical. Moreover, they’re pretty comfy. That’s due to the support of GWB and the leadership of Sharon and now Netanyahu,

And then look at what the next smartest man in the world is doing now in Israel. He’s a putz. All of the momentum is with Israel. They’re not just dominant militarily and economically their widening the gaps. The advances in military technology and tactics, many advanced by Petraeus, fit Israeli needs perfectly. Drones for example become more lethal every two years allowing new tactics keeping soldiers safer behind the lines, often in an office. As Israel reduces it’s footprint in the WB it lowers the expense and stress on their manpower requirements without sacrificing security. .Because Sharon was able to get the economy booming he was able to increase military spending at the inflation rate but cut military spending as a percent of GDP. BiBi is following the same pattern and by 2015 will probably be able to get it down to a very manageable 6%.

What liberals find odd is the bizarre devotion to a foreign country that runs so counter to US interests, and is so wasteful, extravagant, and counter-productive –for us Americans, I mean.
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That the centrists can’t pull their heads out of the establishment orthodoxy sands is somewhat understandable, given their limited abilities, but what’s the rightists’ excuse for ignoring the premier advice of George Washington?

“the bizarre devotion to a foreign country that runs so counter to US interests, and is so wasteful, extravagant, and counter-productive –for us Americans, I mean.”

au contraire. It should always be US Policy to support free market democracies especially one surrounded by backwards, totalitarian states. Israel is a flourishing democracy serving as a beacon of light in a dark part of the world. The serve as an example of people living under despotic regimes that life doesn’t have to be miserable.

As far as George you are going to have to find someone a tad more contemporary. We did avoid foreign entanglements for a very long time. Until they stopped avoiding us. The thing to do is as we’ve always done. You support democracy and free markets and as long as your peers are respect you then you return their respect. At the same time if someone threatens you then you exterminate them. Israel is now a permanent fixture in the middle east. They cannot be removed without turning region into a toxic waste dump. The end result of the wealth and success of the jews will be seen and demanded by their neighbors of their governments.

BTW: The wealth data is quite stunning. Israel has made up a large gap in per capita income with the EU-3. I believe they’ve just or are soon to pass France and the UK and for the next decade will grow at 3x’s to 5x’s the rate. So by 2015 per capita incomes in Israel will be 20% higher and by 2020 50% higher than in France. Defense spending will probably be less than 5% and one can see Israel contracting a lot of their most dangerous jobs to mercenaries such as Blackwater.

Your rejection of the wisdom of the Founders is duly noted.
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What’s so interesting about your awe of Israeli wealth data is how thoroughly, intolerably socialist (certainly for us movement liberals) the state of Israel’s policies are.
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I will leave your incredible, reality-denying claims about Israel’s “beacon-of-light”-hood alone, as I’m not particularly inclined to favor or not favor this foreign nation’s government, and so do not feel compelled to defend or argue against it –because America’s interests come first, as they should to Americans.
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The thing that’s so bizarre is how you conflate “support” in this particular case with “serve the interests of” or “defer to the will of” or “act in unswerving, devoted fealty to.”
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One would think your “democracy is on the march” pipe-dream ideology would be slightly more restrained in light of the realities of current circumstances, but it is shocking –appalling, even– how your devotion to that ideology overcomes what should be the basic impulse of every American to support our country first, above all else.
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One would think at least that lesson of the Founders would never become outdated, at least not to real conservatives. It’s a principle that’s still very much alive in the hearts and minds of liberals, at least, even while it is apparently abandoned by some conservatives.

Israel is not the issue here, aside from that AIPAC crack, which was not part of the substantive point. I would have said the same if the customers had been Saudi Arabia or India.
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The point is that arms sales are routinely portrayed as sales by the government, sending money into the Treasury, as in Michael’s post. This is not so. Arms sales are by the contractors who make the weapons, under guaranteed profit contracts, that are then pitched by the US Government, often subsidized by the US government.
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I don’t like any of this, being something of a neo isolationist. rdw, you are not? You disagree with the tea party’s putative isolationist libertarianism? You support US wars of imperialism and choice, like Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen etc etc etc?

You’ve lost me,

I’ve rejected nothing of the founding fathers wisdom. Supporting free market democracy is so obviously in our best interests I didn’t think I needed to spell it out. That is as true in Afghanistan and Iraq as it is in Israel. JFK said it as well as anyone.

As far as Israel’s wealth the point is the success of capitalism and democracy and as a result it’s endurance. Although liberals expected the USSR to last forever Reagan told them the facts. When you look at how far Israel has come since Clintons disasterous talks and project it out another year it’s simply astonishing.

The fence and rapidly advancing technology will serve to essentially privatize the conflict within Israel and make it a profit center. The booming economy is allowing Israel to shrink defense as a percent of GDP yet still invest heavily. They are now moving some security responsibilities to the private sector to add efficiency, develop more commercial opportunities and to reduce the demands and stress of military service. It seems pretty obvious that things like border security will require progressively fewer hands and many of those hands can be outsourced. Again, Time was horrified when it went to Israel a month ago to learn the Israeli’s were bored by Obama’s talks and quite prosperous. Palestinians were equally bored if less prosperous. What they want is what the jews have, a strong economy and that is what will lead to peace.

Keep your eye on Iraq. They have a very difficult task in very difficult circumstances but have a very solid shot at a viable, prosperous democracy. They will develop their oilfields and invest in their infrastructure in a way that benefits everyone. It’s still a region in the world where corruption is rampant and tribal identities are still strong but democracy will take root and they will be more open and prosperous than every totalitarian nation in the region including Iran and Egypt.

I will leave your incredible, reality-denying claims about Israel’s “beacon-of-light”-hood alone

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Kind of give the game away here. You really are not going to deny Israel is far freer and open society than it’s neighbors are you?

This is one of those tremendous success stories of GWBs that he never touted because that was in part a key to his success. GWB was very shrewd in his support of Sharons diplomatic and economic policies in a way that gave Sharon a lot of cover from the American left and helped ruin his own left. The fence would never have been built without GWB. Today Labor is the 4th ranked party and the old far left is about 1/3 it’s former size. This has allowed a lot of the economic restructuring supporting the booming economy and this success will only further strengthen the right in Israel. Obviously as arabs watch the jews prosper they will start to demand the same policies from their leaders. That’s the beacon. Not the poverty socialism provides but prosperity.

You disagree with the tea party’s putative isolationist libertarianism? You support US wars of imperialism and choice, like Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen etc etc etc?

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I haven’t the slighest idea of what ‘the tea party’s putative isolationalist libertarianism” means. Nor do I care. The Tea Party is a grass roots movement concerned with reversing Obama’s expansion of govt. That’s all it is. Many will try to hijack it for their own purposes but to little effect. They’re about cutting spending.

I’m far from an isolationist but I have no interest in solving the worlds problems. Eventually free market capitalism will be the rule but other cultures will get there at their own pace. Afghanistan and Iraq were the result of 9/11 and Kuwait. We didn’t go looking for trouble. It found us. I am in favor of making sure when trouble finds us we hunt down and kill those who caused it. That doesn’t mean we need Bin Ladens head on a spike but we must deal his movement such a blow it never comes back. I think we’d done a great job. Osama’s actions were a disaster for al Qaeda, the taliban and radical islam. Bush supported Israel so aggressively because the Palestinians were using terrorism. They have no support in the USA as a result.

History is going to be very positive for GWB on this. For all of the angst over his military and national security policies Obama has endorsed every one and strengthened some. His kept his entire Defense Dept team intact. Radical Islam is reviled the world over and there’s no longer any such thing as terrorist chic. Most Americans recognize Che was a sociopathic butcher and Castro as an evil buffoon. Cuba is another one of those socialist paradises where the economy is a wreck and they don’t have homosexuals. I’m of the sense Osama is more valuable alive as a symbol of this leftist rot. He clarifies the evil of totalitariansim and terrorism.

It’s ironic how the left has so poisoned the well regarding our use of military power yet wishes to use it places like Africa where there is real genocide. I would not be against protecting the targets of genocide in places like Darfur but I find the left so intellectually dishonest I don’t trust them to get it right.

BTW: I think you are off script calling Afghanistan a war of choice. The left always called that the ‘good war’. I do think people like Obama were being cynical in their support doing it only for political posturing. Understaning support was very broad and deep and not wanting to feed the stereotype of liberals as wimps he supported Afghanistan. It has to be devastating for you that Obama hasn’t just doubled down ordering the surge but walked back from his pledge to start a drawdown next year.

Jay, this is off topic but I am interested in how the left views the last decade especially clintons debacle at camp david and 9/11.

I am convinced these were total disasters for the left in Israel, in the USA and in Europe. The politics inside Israel have been amazing. If not for Ehud Barak as a defense minister and war hero the Labor party might be defunct. As it is former leftwing parties that once received over 15% of the vote were down to 4% in the last election while a new right wing party passed Labor into 3rd place. The Likud is merely right of center.

In the USA the anti-war left is little more than an amusing zoo. They did nothing to slow or prevent Afghanistan or Iraq and then even after Iraq got ugly and Bush got hammered in the 2006 elections he adapted a far more aggressive policy over a Democrat controlled Congress. Further, in Obama you have the most liberal/left President in US history and he’s proving to be an aggressive warrior. Bush didn’t authorize drone wolfpacks. We are far more aggresive in assassinations in Pakistan now than at any time under Bush.

I think the infatada was brain dead. It was made possible by this sense, supported by the left, that terrorism was somehow justified as an act of frustration by an oppressed, exploited minority, usually by rich white guys. It was terrorism chic. I still have lefty pals try to explain to me they understand why terrorists do what they do as if there is justification.

I also think Arafat knew 9/11 was going to be a total disaster for him because Americans would be done with terrorism and go after it full force. It wasn’t long after that Sharon clamped down on the WB essentially putting Arafat under house arrest and destroying much of his infrastructure. It’s clear now Abbas learned from that beating terrorism is not a useful tool and were he to go back to it he probably would not survive and he certainly would not be comfortable.

The other lesson of Iraq can be taken from the Image of Saddam getting his teeth checked after his capture. Worse than his hanging is that humiliation of being treated as cattle. Kadaffi and every other smuck made damn sure they didn’t have terrorists scrambling about preparing to launch an attack on the USA from their countries understanding they might join Saddam.

Che is no longer chic. Castro is a buffoon. Arafat a Kleptomaniac, Osama a fool. I found the topic of the Ground Zero Mosque very cool. Of course they have the right to build it. And the left want’s it done. But Obama isn’t about to support it and it’s not going to get done. I believe Joe Klein and everyone at Time is livid and for the right reasons. They’ve failed.

How does the last decade look to you? Do you see the failures of the left regarding national security and defense especially as regards terrorism and Israel? I think for Joe Klein all of these things are an open sore.