David

Karki

Read David's bio and previous columns here

May 27, 2009

The Anti-Teddy Roosevelt: Obama Blathers On and Does Nothing

“Speak softly, and carry a big stick.”  – President Theodore Roosevelt

Blather on and on and on about action, while doing nothing whatsoever.  – President Barack Obama

As the rest of us were barbecuing to commemorate America's fallen soldiers, North Korea and its lunatic Dear Leader Kim Jong Il were setting off – underground – a nuclear bomb half the yield of Hiroshima (10 kilotons), as well as test-firing three short-range ground-to-air missiles to add to its long-range missile test of April 5.

In related news, Iranian nutjob Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced that Iran would no longer participate in any direct talks about its nuclear program. (Gee, you think they might just be planning to take delivery of the goods North Korea just put in the front display window?)

And what was Obama's response to these twin upraised middle fingers given to him, and by extension, to all of us? From FOX News:

President Obama accused North Korea Monday of "recklessly challenging the international community" with its underground nuclear test.

"The United States and the international community must take action in response. We will work with friends and allies to stand up to this behavior. The danger posed by North Korea's threatening activities warrants action by the international community."

He said the United States would continue working in multilateral talks and will hold consultations with members of the U.N. Security Council.

Uh, I thought you said we must take action? If the corrupt, impotent United Nations had its way, Saddam Hussein would still be sitting in his palace in Baghdad, with Hans Blix blindly stumbling around playing Whack-a-WMD for the seventh consecutive year, rather than rotting in hell for all eternity.

The sad thing is that Obama really thinks the U.N. can accomplish something. Just like he thinks you can reason with psychotic dictators, that they're men of their word when they sign treaties, and that they'll be intimidated by anyone who uses phrases like “international community.”

It begs the question: Who's the real crazy person? The nuclear bomb-wielding wackos like Kim and Ahmadinejad, or the one who honestly thinks they'll never use them and keeps taking their word for it when they sign yet another treaty, 30-year track record of flagrantly defying them notwithstanding?  

Or the one who is determined to cut America's missile defense at a time when North Korea has shown it has both warheads and missiles, however rudimentary by our standards, capable of reaching Alaska and Hawaii? And the one who doesn't give a damn about the possibility that North Korea's knowledge and materiel could easily be handed off to Iran, so Ahmadinejad can indulge his little fantasy of wiping Israel off the map?

According to the Jerusalem Post, CIA chief Leon Panetta recently traveled to Israel to "read the riot act" to the government warning against an attack on Iran.

The Post also reports (likely from sources high up in the Israeli government) that ". . . we have learned that the (Obama) administration has made its peace with Iran's nuclear aspirations. Senior administration officials acknowledge as much in off-record briefings. It is true, they say, that Iran may exploit its future talks with the U.S. to run down the clock before they test a nuclear weapon. But, they add, if that happens, the U.S. will simply have to live with a nuclear-armed mullocracy. As far as the (Obama) administration is concerned, if Israel could just leave Iran's nuclear installations alone, Iran would behave itself."

It's a textbook case of how weakness encourages aggression, not that Obama and his fellow naïve peacenik liberals who think Gitmo motivated terror will ever figure this out. Their attempts to make nice are only read as the opportunity to get away with stuff, knowing Obama isn't going to respond. 

Then nations who see this have to respond defensively in kind, from Japan and South Korea acquiring nuclear weapons of their own, to Israel inevitably being forced to attack Iran (which, if nuclear, is an existential threat to them, Obama's ludicrous head-buried-in-the-sand denials notwithstanding).

Pretty soon, multiple nations will have weapons where they didn't before, a situation inherently less stable and more dangerous than before. Far from ensuring the peace, such silly attempts to placate the implacable ensure the very war one was hoping to prevent.

"It will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama . . . " So said then-vice presidential candidate Joe “Diarrhea-of-the-Mouth” Biden. I guess this was one of the two times per day the stopped watch was right.

And here we are. Don't worry about that light at the end of the tunnel; it's just the oncoming freight train.

© 2009 North Star Writers Group. May not be republished without permission.

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