Even More Feckless Leaders And Warm Fuzzy Diplomacy

 

This post first appeared eight years ago to commemorate the beginning of World War II in 1939. I never dreamed, as our leadership continues negotiations, known or unknown, with fanatics who seek our destruction, that I could post it today, changing only the players and their georgraphy. 

This is going a brief post about the most important September 1 in the twentieth century. Today in 1939, Adolph Hitler launched a massive invasion of Poland and plunged the world into war. Eleven months earlier Hitler had signed the Munich Agreement pledging to end his aggression in exchange for certain borderlands in Czechoslovakia inhabited by German-speaking people. Most of us know this history in the context of British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain triumphantly returning to London and waving the agreement while declaring "peace for our time."

In the coming months our government may have an opportunity to pass judgement on a nuclear agreement with Iran and perhaps a cease fire in Russia's war against Ukraine. We don't know if these steps back from the brink will produce peace for our time. We almost assuredly know any agreement with Iran will produce, with the assistance of the West, an advanced nuclear program and possibly nuclear arms for a nation in the hands of religious fanatics. The prospects have already produced a nuclear arms race in the Middle East. Those who recognize the phrase, "balance of terror," may see a new parallel developing in the region. With history as our example and virtual wholesale trust as our principle, I believe those who accept such agreements  and proudly wave them over the heads of their admirers will become the feckless Chamberlains of the twenty-first century.

Many writers have warned us about the perils of ignoring history. Even in plain sight, we don't seem to listen well.


Sources

Photo: huffingtonpost.com

Feckless Leaders And Warm Fuzzy Diplomacy

This post first appeared seven years ago to commemorate the beginning of World War II. Never dreamed, as our leadership negotiates another nuclear agreement with fanatics who seek our destruction, that I could post it today without changing a single word.

This is going a brief post about the most important September 1 in the twentieth century. Today in 1939, Adolph Hitler launched a massive invasion of Poland and plunged the world into war. Eleven months earlier Hitler had signed the Munich Agreement pledging to end his aggression in exchange for certain borderlands in Czechoslovakia inhabited by German-speaking people. Most of us know this history in the context of British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain triumphantly returning to London and waving the agreement while declaring "peace for our time."

In the coming months the United States Senate will have an opportunity to pass judgement on a nuclear agreement with Iran. We don't know if this agreement will produce peace for our time. We almost assuredly know the agreement will produce, with the assistance of the West, an advanced nuclear program for Iran, and possibly a nuclear armed Iran. The prospects have already produced a nuclear arms race in the Middle East. Those who recognize the phrase, "balance of terror," may see a new parallel developing in the region. With history as our example and virtual wholesale trust as our principle, I believe those who accept the agreement and proudly wave it over the heads of their admirers will become the feckless Chamberlains of the twenty-first century.

Many writers have warned us about the perils of ignoring history. Even in plain sight, we don't seem to listen well.


Sources

Photo: huffingtonpost.com

September 1, 1939: Feckless Leadership And "Peace For Out Time"

This is going a brief post about the most important September 1 in the twentieth century. Today in 1939, Adolph Hitler launched a massive invasion of Poland and plunged the world into war. Eleven months earlier Hitler had signed the Munich Agreement pledging to end his aggression in exchange for certain borderlands in Czechoslovakia inhabited by German-speaking people. Most of us know this history in the context of British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain triumphantly returning to London and waving the agreement while declaring "peace for our time."

In the coming months the United States Senate will have an opportunity to pass judgement on a nuclear agreement with Iran. We don't know if this agreement will produce peace for our time. We almost assuredly know the agreement will produce, with the assistance of the West, a advanced nuclear program for Iran, and possibly a nuclear armed Iran. The prospects have already produced a nuclear arms race in the Middle East. Those who recognize the phrase, "balance of terror," may see a new parallel developing in the region. With history as our example and virtual wholesale trust as our principle, I believe those who accept the agreement and proudly wave it over the heads of their admirers will become the feckless Chamberlains of the twenty-first century.

Many writers have warned us about the perils of ignoring history. Even in plain sight, we don't seem to listen well.


Sources

Photo: huffingtonpost.com

Reservations, Please!

Iran Air Flight 744 operates twice a month between Tehran and Caracas. The airplane is a Boeing 747SP, a shortened version of the 747, capable of carrying a maximum capacity over a long range with superior performance. An former Israeli intelligence agent says you or I could never reserve a seat on this flight. It's for Iranian agents. Do you really think they fill up that big cargo hold with luggage? And I wonder what goes back to Tehran?

William Katz (Urgent Agenda) has some comment on this story and a link to the original report from WTOP in Washington.

Will Israel Stop Iran From Going Nuclear On August 21?

Word hasn't yet reached the usual democrat media homepages--NYT, WAPO, CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS--but comments made by John Bolton, former interim U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, continue to rumble around conservative news sites on the Internet. Drudge is linking to this Yahoo report from the AP. According to Bolton, Israeli forces--anyone's for that matter--have until August 21 to take out Iran's capability to build a nuclear reactor. His reasoning focuses on Russia's delivery of nuclear fuel to the Iranian reactor they have helped construct. Once the fuel is loaded into the core, an attack on the reactor will likely spread radioactive materials throughout the region. Furthermore, an attack on a functional nuclear reactor would violate international law.

News sources report that Bolton thinks the opportunity to stop Iranian nuclear efforts has already been lost. He doesn't expect Israel to attack by August 21. Still, when Bolton talks, I listen very carefully because he remains one of the nation's most significant and, better yet, rational voices on the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

It could be a most interesting week in the Middle East. Stay tuned, my friends.

A Species Of Insanity

The writers at Powerline are wonderful with words, so on point, just enough copy, faultless logic, and a nice diversity of interesting topics, among other positives. Today, John Hinderaker writes about how Iran, as a newly "elected" member of the UN Commission on Women's Rights, has faced the stoning sentence of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani. If anything can drive a stake through the heart of multiculturalism, this post and its link should do it.

Seeing The Real Iran

William Katz (Urgent Agenda) notes a very significant editorial on Iran appearing in today's Times of London. I really love the historical references here. Too bad the American press has forgotten the past.

Iran: Scenario For Disaster

Peter Robinson has another important series of Uncommon Knowledge interviews in progress at National Review Online. This week, Victor Davis Hanson and Richard Baer discuss Iran's intentions and their impacts on a free world. The interview, even early in the week, has caught the attention of several bloggers. Your link is here.

Iran's Surprise

National Review Online has Victor Davis Hanson's comments on the latest news on Iran's "other" nuclear project. As always, he is spot on analyzing this dangerous situation. Read it.

Time Running Out On Iran?

According to recent polls, only 4% of Israelis believe the Obama administration supports their interests in the Middle East. This is also a measure of the perception of our effectiveness in extending an olive branch to the Islamic world. It may also create an effective impression that Israel stands alone in any action it takes to eradicate an Iranian nuclear threat, That action may be much closer than we imagine following a clandestine trip to Moscow by Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyehu on Monday.

There's virtually nothing about it in the mainstream media or blogosphere, but William Katz (Urgent Agenda) picked up the story and connected the dots.

UPDATE: As of 1:30 EDT, this story is up on the Drudge Report.

All Talk And Pending Action On Iran?

There's been plenty of speculation this weekend on a pending air strike against nuclear facilities in Iran. Some reports say that Saudi Arabia would not protest the attack as they have reason to fear Iran's nuclear weapons as much as other nearby nations. Vice President Joe Biden made similar "suggestions" that the U.S. could not prevent another nation from taking unilateral action against Iran. All of this was a backdrop to President Obama's statement in today's papers that there was no "approval" of such an attack by Israel. Actually, the statement, as reported in the Jerusalem Post, is a nice blend of interests. For now, the middlegame continues.

Iran Unrest Grows: World Watches Live

Hot Air has a full roundup of today's events in Iran here. A few days ago, I commented about the information singularity. It would appear the post-election turmoil in the streets of Tehran and elsewhere in the country may be an illustration of this phenomenon. As the regime crushes dissent and slaughters its own people, sounds and images from hundreds of cell phone flash around the world at the speed of light. News reports and commentary cannot be written fast enough to address the moment. In its place, there is a stream of observations captured by the participants. As of 11:00PM, EDT, almost 1000 hits addressing the protests are available on YouTube.

Millions 0f viewers form their own conclusions from the raw input. This is the face of personal empowerment. The Western ancients would be pleased.

UPDATE: The state-run media operating in the U.S. cannot get away with falsehoods in light of the new empowerment. Bruce Kessler, blogging at Maggie's Farm, exposed The New York Times on its rigging of a nationalized health care poll appearing in today's edition. Gateway Pundit has the story here. Times readers may be liberal, but they're not stupid. Even they will tire of this arrogance and deception.

Krauthammer Speaks Volumes

Charles Krauthammer has become one of the most significant voices of our time with his tight logic, common sense, and knowledgeable commentary on events, foreign and domestic. Here is his latest take on Iran along with comments from William Katz at Urgent Agenda. Krauthammer and Katz: two powerful forces for real journalism.

"Student Of History" Blows It Again

It seems President Obama called himself a "student of history" during his speech in Cairo yesterday, then went on to declare that "the United States played a role in the [1953] overthrow of a democratically elected government in Iran." Wrong again. There was an overthrow, but it was far from a democratically elected government that U.S. and British forces destabilized. The historian, Judith Apter Klinghoffer, has the details in her post at History Network News. Please note her reference to the Wikipedia article that, I might add, includes 44 references, 14 sources for further reading, and 15 external links regarding what was called Operation Ajax.

Friends, though this coup is not a piece of history waiting to fall from our lips, it is by no means so obscure that it cannot be fact-checked by an apprentice among the president's speech writers. I will be interested in seeing if the White House press corps and the dinosaur media follow up on this error. Better still, will the White House issue a clarification? Somehow, I doubt we'll see much of a response. Instead, we'll see another error accepted as fact because it came from a respected source and a respected media had no response. To me, the question is, "At what point does the accumulation of historical error and distortion no longer matter to the executive or the electorate. Some would say we have already passed that point and moved comfortably into the arena of erasing historical fact to suit our personal ends. It most certainly will not be the first time in recorded history; however, that history also tells us a republic choosing to ignore truth does so at its peril. I suspect we'll need to be vigilant these next 1000 or so days.

Story Credit: Gateway Pundit
Photo: Tribunal of the Inquisition, by Francisco de Goya. I wonder if our unlucky wearers of the dunce caps capitulated to "the truth?"

Space Stations and Mullah Missles

Last night, I went outside about an hour after sunset to watch the International Space Station (ISS) pass over my house. Atlanta was in the last grasps of an arctic dome of cold, clear air, so the pass was exceptional, rising in the northwest, reaching a height of 61 degrees, and disappearing at the horizon in the southeast after 112 seconds. Earlier in the day, I noticed that my source for the flyover time - Spaceweather - also listed the near tandem passes for the new Iranian satellite and its booster rocket. That reminded me of another story in yesterday's news: President Obama's intention to carry out his campaign promise to pursue a policy of no weapons in space, e.g., no "Star Wars" projects. There was also news of his proposal to reduce our nuclear weapons stock to something like 500 warheads, if Russia would agree to do the same. I think there was some indication of a unilateral action to give others some incentive.

With Iran working hard to develop some nuclear capability with assistance from the Russians, our defense systems should take on new meaning. It is one thing to deal with an old adversary who shares many of your Western values. It is quite another to coexist with a society bent on martyrdom as a pathway to salvation. I hope we are looking beyond Russian missiles when planning our tactical response to threats from the sky. The Iranian space program may have more in store for us than opportunities to watch their latest achievements in space drift over my house.

Granted, it has been a very rough two weeks for the new administration, undoubtedly the worst in my 50 years observing such transitions. We can afford neither the instability nor the soft leftist thinking that appears to be seeping into our defense policy. The world is watching every move, every minute. Let's not give them opportunities to see weakness. As my life unfolds, I want to be assured that the bright fast-moving "star" coming over my horizon is the ISS or another object I can enjoy watching.