Archive for category Foreign Policy
Stratfor Dispatch: Currency War and the G-20
Posted by Tom in China, Europe, Financial Policy, Foreign Policy, Monetary Policy on November 10, 2010
Today’s Stratfor summary of the currency brouhaha is the best and most succinct I’ve seen in a while. I heartily recommend subscribing, http://www.stratfor.com
Here is the link: http://www.stratfor.com/analysis/20101110_dispatch_currency_war_and_g_20
Socialistic Dreams From B.H. Obama Sr.
Posted by Tom in Economics, Foreign Policy, Presidency on September 18, 2010
Dinesh D’Souza’s Forbes article, How Obama Thinks, takes analysis to a new level cataloging, comparing, and contrasting the President’s memoir, Dreams From My Father, with his father’s article, Problems Facing Our Socialism, and the President’s history and actions in office since his election.
In essence, D’Souza contends that the President wants to be the embodiment of his father who fought neocolonialism in Kenya advocating some form of socialism in the reforms attendant to its independence. “…our President is trapped in his father’s time machine.”
Newt Gingrich calls D’Souza’s insight, “most profound” and suggests it’s predictive of the President’s future behavior. Are we being governed by a ghost?
I’ve read D’Souza’s article and highly recommend it. I’ve also read Problems Facing Our Socialism and confirmed the historical facts Dinesh builds upon.
Dangerous U.S. Debt Management
Posted by Tom in Deficit, Economics, Entitlements, Financial Policy, Fiscal Policy, Foreign Policy on September 12, 2010
Over 60%, $5.2 Trillion of the $8.3 Trillion, of U.S.debt will mature within the next three years! Financing long term obligations with short term debt is crap shooting. Tim Geithner is one helluva gambler! The upside is low cost, 1.21% effective rate, according to Jason Trennert’s op-ed in Friday’s WSJ.
But the downside!
- $133 Billion added annual interest costs at the 10 year average of the five year yield of 3.77%, or
- $190 Billion added annual interest cost at the 20 year average of the five year yield of 4.87%
Conservative debt management would stretch the maturities to meet the obligations as closely as possible; in other words approach match funding. The Obama deficits are choking: 2009-$1.9 Trillion, 2010-$1.3 Trillion, and 2011-$1.1 Trillion. So why crap shoot with such high risk consequences? Is it to hide or minimize true deficits? Or, is it because our creditors at the margin fear Obama’s profligacy?
Whatever the answer we do know a couple of things: One, we are burying our grandchildren and now our great-grandchildren in debt and committing them to a much worse life than we have enjoyed. It seems unnatural to steal from future generations! Two, as Secretary Clinton suggested recently, “…our rising debt level poses a national security threat and it poses a national security threat in two ways: it undermines our capacity to act in our own interests and it does constrain us where constraint may be undesirable. And it also sends a message of weakness, internationally.”
So this progressivism, Obamaism, socialism, or whatever other leftist ism we are suffering under is robbing future generations and putting us at risk internationally.
Pray that Obama gets sensible and starts to reform Medicare and Social Security, and repeal Obamacare. Hopefully the November elections will help him see the light.
Remembering 911…Then Imagining Islam
Posted by Tom in Defense, Foreign Policy, Homeland Security, Military Policy, National Character, Terrorism on September 11, 2010
On this 9th anniversary of 911, I think back to that early morning phone call–”turn on your television.” Dede and I watched in horror from our California home, smoke and flames from the gaping tear in the WTC North Tower, then a plane hitting the South Tower. The Pentagon explosion and the heroic flight 93 Pennsylvania crash followed. Our planned vacation that morning was cancelled….no matter, I did not feel like a vacation.
There were plenty of good memorials posted today. Some will bring tears, like “Remembering Patrick Sullivan” by Jack Dumphy who tells of a brother naming his kids “Mary Patrick and Shane Patrice.” You get the picture.
But the one that impressed me most is less poignant and more accusatory, more an indictment of our progressive, politically correct, and invincibly naive ignorance. Andrew McCarthy’s NRO post “Imagining Islam” is a wake up call to all sensible Americans, no all sensible Westerners.
Andy posits a fantasy Islam that is secular and moderate. This religion is dedicated to human rights, against slavery, modern and tolerant of other religions and cultures. Arguably such a religion would have condemned the murderous killing of innocents that preceded and followed those of the WTC. It would have issued those condemnations loudly and en masse for at least the last nine years.
But for the last nine years we have heard nothing but silence.
“What excruciating truths have we yet failed to grasp on this ninth anniversary of 9/11? The first is that such an Islam does not exist. The second is that, despite this fact, American foreign and domestic policy continues to proceed as though it does exist — and as though it were the only real Islam. That is, nine years after Islamists made their commitment to our destruction as unmistakable as possible, nine years after the non-occurrence of all the wonderful things that would certainly have happened if the Islam of our dreams were the Islam of our reality, our national-security strategy is still steeped in fiction.”
Hussein Obama has put America on a foreign policy of “self delusion.” We no longer wage a “war on terror” but instead engage in sporadic “overseas contingency operations.” If we avoid saying whom we are fighting and why, we soon forget. Our president, our commander in chief, goes through the Arab world bowing and appeasing. He fights our natural allies and weakens our defenses. He now tolerates a nuclear Iran whose president shouts “Death to America!” He has our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan pursuing “nation building” with Shria law! This the law that stones women and kills homosexuals and bans religious minorities.
In the U.S. we defend the Islamists monument to the 911 slaughter at ground zero proffered by an imam paid by the U.S. State Department. This part of the religion of peace intends to take over our country not by violence but by out populating us and enacting Shria law as it is now doing in Europe.
But the violent wing of this fantasy religion of peace is still alive and healthy: “At home, even as al-Qaeda continues its efforts to reprise 9/11, a network of Islamist organizations — coordinated by the Muslim Brotherhood and financially backed by our friends, the Saudis — proceeds with what it calls its “grand jihad” to eliminate and destroy Western civilization by sabotage. This is not a secret. The Brotherhood’s internal memoranda were seized by the FBI. They boldly announce these claims in black and white. Two years ago, the Justice Department aptly labeled the constituent organizations — including the Islamic Society of North America and the Council onAmerican Islamic Relations — as unindicted co-conspirators in a terrorism-financing case in which several of their partners were convicted of funneling millions of dollars to Hamas. Today, those Islamist organizations are right back in business, with an open door to “engaging” government policymakers, as if nothing ever happened. In our imagination, they’re moderates, too.”
Hussein Obama’s policies weaken us. By failing to recognize our enemy and the values it seeks to impose, we eventually fail to recognize our own values and will soon lose them, to our regret.
Understand Islam, Fail To At Your Peril
Posted by Tom in Europe, Foreign Policy, Homeland Security, Law, Morality & Religion in the Public Square, Statism, Terrorism on August 2, 2010
I recently received a You Tube video entitled “Three Things About Islam.” It is long but provides good source references at the end. In sum, it makes three points: 1. Islam has not been hijacked. Westerners have been told and assume that it has been hijacked by violent jihadists, how otherwise could a religion be so violent. The Qur’an has both peaceful and jihadist verses often thought contradictory but it provides a rule for resolving apparent conflicts, the last in time governs. Unfortunately, the violent jihadist verses are later in time than the peaceful verces.
2. Sharia Law is a duty for all Muslims. Sharia is the anthesis of separation of church and state, indeed the anthesis of freedom. It combines religion and political aspects into one totalitarian society commanded by the Qur’an. The law is ancient commanding eye for eye justice, stoning, and dismemberment for proscribed offenses. It governs contracts and commerce. The world will not be at peace until all nations are governed by Shria Law. So creeping Shria as in the UK where Shria courts already exist is indeed a danger. At current birth rates Europe will be majority muslim within our children’s lifetimes. So whether through the bed room and creeping Shria or through 911 type jihad, Muslims are installing Shria worldwide.
3. Muslims lie to non-Muslims. The Qur’an sanctions these lies in order to convert infidels and advance Shria Law. This principal is called TAQIYYA. To say one thing to non-Muslims and the exact opposite to Muslims is frequently used in the Arab world today. This is the very means of calling Islam the religion of peace!
Hussein Obama has curried favor in the Arab world bowing to its leaders and apologizing for the United States. He is an advocate of the “religion of peace” view of Islam. He even urged the NASA director to reach out to Muslim countries. Methinks Hussein’s Muslim roots are getting in the way of his job as president!
The YouTube video is long and made for a British audience so I did not embed it in this post. If you are so inclined to further study, the link is here.
Gingrich on the Islamic Terrorist Threat
Posted by Tom in Defense, Foreign Policy, Homeland Security, Military Policy, Terrorism on July 23, 2010
America’s Twilight? Or, Is There Anyway Out?
Posted by Tom in Defense, Economics, Foreign Policy, Military Policy on July 8, 2010
Niall Ferguson’s discussion of the Future of America’s Economy was recently given at the 2010 Aspen Ideas Festival. It is brilliant and I would embed it here but am unable to do so, thus I link it and strongly commend it. As a financial historian teaching at Harvard, he asks whether the Western Ascendency is finished. He reviews the empirical evidence supporting that proposition. And, it is strong.
“My working assumption is that the financial crisis that began in the summer of 2007…has accelerated a fundamental shift in the economic balance of power. Even before the crisis, Jim O’Neill and his team at Goldman Sachs were forecasting that China’s gross domestic product would exceed that of the United States in 2027 at half past four on October the 15th, which is just a little pinch of salt to remind you that all such projections need to be taken with a pinch of salt. Still, whether it’s 2027, ’28, ’29 or ’30, the interesting thing is the first time they made that projection, they thought it would be 2040. Every time I see Jim, I say, “Have you moved the date forward yet?” because he made that 2027 call before the financial crisis.
“The financial crisis unquestionably has hit the United States much harder than China. Their stimulus worked much better than ours…The first point I just want to put out there is: it’s hard to believe, under these circumstances, that the acceleration, the shift, if you’d like, from West to East hasn’t been speeded up by this crisis.
“The second point is: Of course, power is not just about GDP. It’s not just about the economy. Power is also about the ability to project hard power through military means. And some people in Washington like to comfort themselves by saying, “We can still do that way more than they can. Count their aircraft carriers, count ours.”
“But one point that follows from the financial crisis which is terribly, terribly important is that by combating our crisis of private debt with an extraordinary expansion of public debt, we inevitably are going to reduce the resources available for national security in the years ahead. Because as the debt grows, so the interest payments you have to make on it grow, even if interest rates stay low. And on current projections, the federal debt is going to be absorbing around 20 percent, a fifth of all the taxes you pay, within just a few years. The item of discretionary federal expenditure most likely to be squeezed is, of course, defense. And there are lots of historic precedents for that. So, I fear that the financial crisis doesn’t just impact on the economy. It actually impacts on American power in the hardest sense.”
This is just a taste, and he does offer some hope, so I won’t spoil his offering but suggest you link to the talk.
NASA’s New Role: Diplomacy
Posted by Tom in Defense, Diplomacy, Foreign Policy, Terrorism on July 6, 2010
Stretch goals are important, they compel reaching, thinking outside the box, innovation, risk-taking; yes and ultimately excellence. Where better to expand U.S. horizons than at the space agency, NASA? Kennedy challenged a shot for a man moon landing in 1961, a dramatic stretch goal. This to answer the Russians unmanned landing in 1959. The challenged worked: on July 20, 1969 Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the moon.
What’s Obama’s stretch goal for NASA? Well …, er …., it’s diplomacy. Yes, you heard right, diplomacy. Obama wants better relations. With whom you ask. The Muslims! Not the English, the Poles, the Germans, nor the Israelis; no, the Muslims.
According to this Fox News item, “NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said in a recent interview that his “foremost” mission as the head of America’s space exploration agency is to improve relations with the Muslim world.” Bizarre! Mars? No, the Muslim world!
And, note the contrast with Kennedy. JFK was answering the USSR. It was an “in your face” response to an enemy seeking to burry us. Obama confronts Islamists seeking to burry us. What’s he do? Well, he goes about the Middle East bowing, scraping and apologizing for the United States. Oh, and he gives NASA a charge to improve relations with Muslims.
Hussein Obama is well named!
Unprotected Against Jihad
Posted by Tom in Defense, Foreign Policy, Homeland Security, Individual Freedom, Law, Morality & Religion in the Public Square, Military Policy, National Character, Terrorism on June 1, 2010
Hussein Obama’s counterterrorism tzar, John Brennan trivializes the danger of Islam according to Andy McCarthy in today’s NRO post, An Islam of Their Very Own. The article is a must read with only two conclusions possible: Obama is stupid or naive or he is converting the U.S. to sharia, that is Islamic law. In essence, become Muslim or die, so ruled Mohamed after his militant successes.
“Brennan admonished that we must not “describe our enemy as ‘jihadists.’” Why not? “Because jihad is a holy struggle, a legitimate tenet of Islam.” Right again. There is no gainsaying that jihad is deemed to be a divine injunction in Islam. If one regards all forms of Islam as “legitimate,” then jihad, too, must be legitimate. Yet “legitimate” is a slippery concept. It could mean that something is good. Or it could just mean that something is authentic — something that really exists, for good or ill.
“Islam falls into the latter category. It exists. In many of its iterations — not just al-Qaeda’s ideology but Islamist ideology, which is quite mainstream — Islam means the West existential harm. This is why we are supportive of reformist Muslims, however pessimistic some of us may be about their prospects. The point, though, is that Islam is not going away. It is part of the hand we are dealt, like it or not. We don’t need to trash-talk it gratuitously, but neither should we pretend that it is an asset on our security ledger. It’s not.
“Alas, the Hope administration doesn’t see it that way. For Brennan, as for Obama, Islam is immovably in the first category: “legitimate” as in “good” — end of discussion. To sculpt this alternative reality, two things are required. First, we must ignore Islam’s many troublesome elements — e.g., its supremacism, inequality, intolerance, denial of freedom of conscience, endorsement of violence, etc. Second, to the extent that the resulting atrocities can’t be ignored, we must pretend that what ails the Islamic world is our fault, not Islam’s.”
Andy’s point echos the points made during Herman Pirchner’s presentation and discussion at our last Reno Hayek dinner, namely that radical Islam and its Jihad is closer to the Koran than any reformist/secular branch of that “religion.” I put that in quotes to denote that it is more than just our concept of “religion;” it is government, society and religion in the sense that Mohamed imposed upon his conquests.
Here’s my empirical observation: not many, if any, Moslems have condemned the Jihads, the terror, the 911 carnage, the call to exterminate Israel.
These people are backward, immoral, intolerant, and violent. They advocate or tolerate “supremacism, inequality, intolerance, denial of freedom of conscience, endorsement of violence, etc.” For them, the end justifies the means, no matter how distorted either end or means in reality are. They blow themselves up in hopes of “virgins in heaven.” Pity those few virgins in number! But, that is the level of their intelligence.
Hussein Obama apparently ignores “man caused disasters.” Islam is good because he wishes it so. This is contrary to the reality that we witness every day. Islam is bad.
“Our political leaders can continue to trivialize jihad as if it were some benign struggle to brush after every meal. They can continue to ignore the core tenets that make sharia antithetical to a free, self-determining society. But they can’t do that and do the only job we need them to do: protect our lives and our liberties.” Andy McCarthy’s article is a must read.
Hussein Obama is hell-bent-for-leather to “hope and change” the United States into an Islamic nation under Sharia law. Be very fearful for our nation.