North Korea Crisis: Obama’s Crisis Team Isn’t Exactly the Dream Team
Remember this ad, from the 2008 campaign?
It’s the Hillary 3 am ad — there’s a crisis somewhere in the world, the phone rings in the White House, and we need someone there who knows what to do, knows all the world’s leaders, etc.
The irony at the time of that ad’s release was that a) it came from Hillary Clinton, whose chief claim to competence was having been married to a president whose own foreign policy was weak and often driven by domestic, rather than strategic, concerns, and b) that it was nevertheless right about Obama and raised a very valid point about his experience, or lack thereof.
Here we are a couple years later, and President Obama is awakened at 4 am by a call regarding one of the world’s most dangerous flash points: Korea. A messy succession plus the usual Pyongyang chain-yanking results in an artillery barrage, killing two South Koreans and wounding 14 more. East Asia’s a rough neighborhood, and Obama’s relations with our strongest allies there, Japan and South Korea, are weakened thanks to his consistent disdaining of strong U.S. allies in general, and in particular his bungling of a trade deal with South Korea during his last Asian swing.
So Obama gets the call. One of the first things he did was to convene his national security team. Jake Tapper lists them over on The Note. Having read it over, I have one reaction: Be afraid. Be very afraid. This national security team is as weak as the president who created it.
- National Security Adviser Tom Donilon;
- Vice President Biden’s National Security Adviser Tony Blinken;
- Secretary of State Hillary Clinton;
- Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg;
- Secretary of Defense Robert Gates;
- Deputy Secretary of Defense Michele Flournoy;
- US Ambassador to the United Nations Dr. Susan Rice (via secure video teleconference);
- Director of National Intelligence James Clapper;
- Deputy CIA Director Michael Morell;
- Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen;
- Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. James Cartwright;
- Adm. Willard, Commander, U.S. Pacific Command (via secure video teleconference);
- Gen. Sharp, Commander U.S. Forces Korea (via secure video teleconference);
- Deputy National Security Advisor for Homeland Security John Brennan;
- Deputy National Security Advisor Denis McDonough;
- Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communication Ben Rhodes;
- National Security Staff Senior Director for Asian Affairs Jeff Bader;
- Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy Counsel to the President Mary DeRosa;
- Director for Asian Affairs Daniel Russel; and
- Senior White House Coordinator for Weapons of Mass Destruction, Counterterrorism and Arms Control Gary Samore
To be sure, there are a number of strong national security minds in that group, chiefly the military figures and SecDef Robert Gates. But picking out a few of the others –
National Security Adviser Tom Donilon: He just rose to his current post in October, replacing Jim Jones. Prior to his tenure in the Obama administration, Donilon was chiefly … a Democratic operative. And a lobbyist for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, for six years. Aren’t you glad a Fan-Fred lobbyist is advising POTUS on dealing with the wildly unpredictable, violent, and dangerous Kim family in North Korea?
Vice President Biden’s National Security Adviser Tony Blinken: Blinken’s national security resume is arguably a little stronger than Donilon’s, having worked around the national security apparatus a bit more than Donilon has. On the other hand, VP Biden calls Blinken “one of the smartest guys I’ve ever worked with,” (coming from the man who opposed the surge and wanted to divide Iraq into three separate states and leave them for Iran’s pickings, that’s quite a statement!) and he has the unabashed endorsement of violent-fantasy prone rabid left-wing blogger Spencer Ackerman, who calls Blinken an “energetic progressive.” Seriously.
Senior White House Coordinator for Weapons of Mass Destruction, Counterterrorism and Arms Control Gary Samore: Among the chief architects of the controversial START treaty, which, according to its opponents like the Heritage Foundation, is tipped to heavily favor the Russians against U.S. interests. Samore also does a good job of misunderstanding the roots of strife in the Middle East. Hint: Arab states attacked tiny and barely armed Israel repeatedly before “arms control” was even a glimmer in Nixon’s eye.
US Ambassador to the United Nations Dr. Susan Rice: Where to start? How about Rwanda. Rice was in the Clinton administration’s State Department when that genocide occurred. She reportedly learned a lesson from that, which was that the U.S. should have intervened. But for some reason that same lesson didn’t apply to Iraq, where the U.S. had actual security interests at stake and from which Saddam Hussein threatened the region and the world. She appears to be one of a long line of “progressives” who advocate for U.S. involvement in international crises in inverse proportion to our national security interests that might be at stake (such thinking elevates Darfur above, say, Iraq). She was John Kerry’s senior foreign policy adviser during his 2004 run for the presidency.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton: She boasts an undeserved reputation for international competence; her tenure at State got off to a rocky start with the Russian “reset” faux pas (which was an attempt to placate KGB man Vlad Putin & Co by taking a cheap shot at former President Bush while she was on foreign soil) and has only gotten smoother in direct proportion to her silence. That’s because like her boss, when she does speak, she tends to go around making apologies for the very nation whose interests she is supposed to represent.
These folks and a few others surround our young and inexperienced president as he picks up the crisis phone. Gird your loins, as they say.
Why does he even bother to assemble a team? He was an international affairs major at Columbia and spent hours in his dorm rooms playing Risk and smoking dope. He has to tell ya, foreign safairs is one area where he REALLY doesn’t need any help.
We have the right guy for this job, if only he doesn’t get distracted by reviewing the body scans and learning how to play golf like a male.
A. They are progressives.
B. They are part of Obama’s group and approved, it not chosen directly by him.
== shite meisters (can I post that?) that will only make things worse. I expect a buy off, we hurt their feelings, they are misunderstood, or there is simply a miscommunication.
”LET ME BE CLEAR”: HE KNOWES SH@#.
Those poor down trodden dictators, we have to give them lots of borrowed cash to keep them from doing bad things because we mistreated them in the recent past by call them the axis of evil. May we kiss your butt? Our politicians have left us impotent on the world stage because of our out of control spending and unsustainable national debt. It is hard to tell your note holder to muzzle his mutt, when your need to borrow more money
Sandy Salt;You Got It Right.North Korea Has Nuclear Weapons Because Bill,Hillary,And Madelyn ALLNotSoBright,Provided North Korea With Nuclear Reactors,And 100′S Of Millions Of TaxPayer Dollars,In The Name Of;Will You Play Nice,If We Kiss Your Butt.So Bill,And Hillary,Can Kick The Can Down The Road,Making It The Next Generations Problem.South Korea Is No Ally Either.They Have Gotton Rich Off Of Unfair trade Practices,Against America.Just Like Their Big Brother China.Yet Here We Come Spending again Wasting Taxpayer Money,And Possibly Even American Blood.To Protect A Country,That Has Shown No Respect To America,Commerce/Fairtrade etc.China Could Stop North Korea With One Phone Call.This Is Nothing More Than Another How Much Will You Pay Me,If I Promise To Be Good Con Game.The Same As The Palestinian/Israeli Conflict.The Middle East Muslim/Arab Country’s Have Been Playing America,Like A Fiddle For Decades.Neither Will Ever Change Unless They Fear Their Own Survival More Than Their Ideaologies.With Muslims That Will Never Happen Until Someone Comes On The Scene,That Muslims Believe Is Their Messiah Prophet,”Mehdi”Unless America Stops Trying To Buy The Love,And Cooperation,Of These Sick,And Disturbed Tyrannical Lunatic Leaders.And Start Treating Them As The MOSQUE Ito’Blood Suckers,And Genocidal Madmen On Humanity,That They Are.We Lose,And They Win.I Know The Naysayer Peaceniks Will See This And Accuse Me Of Being A Warmonger.I would Rather Put It All On The Line,In Preservation,Of Human Life,And Liberty,Just As Our Founders Did.Than Eventually Bow To The Alter Of These,Genocidal,Predatorial Freaks Of Nature,And Bloodsuckers On Society.To Deny We Are Not In An All For One,Us Against The World Situation.Thanks To Liberals Worship,and Tolerance Of Evil,And Refuse To Prepare.Is Insane.All We Have Had Running Our Country,Is Elitist Arrogant Professors Of Marxist Communism.Doing The Same Thing Over,And Over Again,Expecting A Different Result.Instead Of Ronald Reagans Soviet Union Type Policies.For Which If We Did,We might not even Be In This Mess.Repeating Of Stupidity Foreign Policy Blunders,Of Cash For Terrorist,And Dictators Stimulus Programs.If These Thugs,And Their Pimps,And Prostitutes At The U.N.Actually Believed What We Keep Saying We Will Do.But They Don’t,And All Laugh At Us,While Our Government Keeps Redistributing Our Wealth,And Power Over To Our Enemies.Either Through Cowardice,Being Utter Fools,Or Collaboration.But We Won’t Do Nothing,As Usual.So America The Choice Is Yours Either Arm-Up,And Get Ready To Defend Yourselves,Or Stock-up On Knee Pads.Because Your Government Won’t Do Anything But Suck-up,To Those Who Wish Us Death.Jimmy Joe/”The Liarfryer”
Dr. Susan Rice… advocate for US involvement in international crises in inverse proportion to our national security interests that might be at stake
So the more important something is the less we should be involved?
Are you kidding me? Really? That’s idiotic.
We have to show the world that we are interested in truly humanitarian acts (hence our present foreign policy) instead of the imperialistic jingoists that we were (like under Bush).
*yeah…that was sarcasm
Never underestimate the puritanical fastidiousness of the Left. They have a desperate need to believe themselves holy.
Well she ahd a mentor and longtime family friend Madeleine Albright! So what more can be said? Well I am trying to think about that Hillary Clinton comes to mind as another worthless moonbat holding a position that exemplifies the Peter Principle!
Even if every one on that list were intensely competent, it’s still far too many. Twenty people can’t advise on what to serve for lunch. This isn’t a crisis team, it’s a cacophony.
Dianna,
“This isn’t a crisis team, it’s a cacophony”.
Dead on!
A leader leads…this guy is no leader. If you call up that many people, you have no confidence in yourself…
Call 3-5 at most, decide, then get the word out to the rest what the decision WAS.
What an embarassment this guy is
Sir he is only an embarrassment to himself and family and possibly his party but to feel embarrassment usually you need to have shame, which most liberals seem not to have.
No he is in fact a shameless representative of his office and never should have been there in the first place, but since he is he deserves all the criticism that can be applied until he breaks and is deemed unfit for duty of his position or resigns in disgrace, if in fact he could feel that he is truly a failure in his own narcissistic and arrogant mind!
like obama even cares.
the whole administration is liable to get sued by a two bit circus for imitating a cadre of clowns.
Gen.
“like obama even cares.”
You, sir, are a mind reader. The.Man.Could.Care.Less.
Brian: Does my post meet with your approval?
General, I’ve written that one down!
thanks
obama’s lack of a forceful public statement tells those who don’t already know how little he knows or cares about anything ..not just america …anything that isn’t obama.
I have seen that circus. I think they will win the suit!!
Look- the North Koreans acted stupidly. Clearly, the obvious solution is to get the South Koreans to pull back from the DMZ. If that doesn’t work, send the NK’s billions in foreign aid. If that doesn’t work, blame Bush, then head out to the links at Andrews AFB for some serious brainstorming.
What can I say? There were a large number of us who warned about Barack Obama’s utopian inclinations and lack of foreign policy experience. We were simply ignored. The man is also poorly educated and lacks the ability to think at a high level. I consistently pointed out that a softer discipline Ivy League education is often of little value. Grade inflation is the norm and one is encouraged to be an intellectual whore if they desire to “make it.” Our nation is in deep danger. The Republicans only have control of the House of Representatives. Obama is still our nationally elected leader. Elections matter.
President Obama has proved he’s a incompetent leader with his fecklessness during the entire Gulf Oil Disaster from this past Summer; therefore, a real threat from a fellow Communist wacko will only get the detached One a little less out of his comfort zone without his teleprompter. His letter to Kim Jong Il was pointless & showed a completely emasculated Obama. Obama will be playing Kabuki theater with the media to project leadership when he’s not. Obama always attacks a crisis as a PR stunt rather than leading. Community organizers can’t lead as we have found with President Carter, I mean, Obama.
some folks were wondering why the Founding Fathers stuck in that crazy part about the p.o.t.u.s. being a natural born. every day i am reminded just exactly why they did such a strange thing. guess you really ‘just had to be there’, huh?
THIS IS A DANGEROUS NEIGHBORHOOD.
gosh, the computer just capitalized that entire line. oops.
let’s put the most awful bunch we can think of in charge in a world about to explode. what a plan.
“Millions for defense; not a penny for tribute.” – Thomas Jefferson with regards to the Barbary Pirates
“The bully will be back again tomorrow for your lunch money.” – Me
Not to pick nits, but I’ll pick a nit. Actually I think those words were originally spoken by Robert Harper and then repeated by Charles Pinckney.
I agree with #5, Dianna, that’s too large a group to enable a coherent decision. Plus, we must acknowledge that Obama is absolutely incapable, on his own, of thinking through a situation, analyzing it, and coming to a decision.
He is not merely ignorant of history, of societal structures, of economies, but he is intellectually barren. By this I mean that Obama’s ‘modus operandi’ throughout his life has not been to act by means of reasoning about a situation. Instead, his actions have been solely persuasive. He persuades people to follow a policy- one that he himself did not come up with – and that’s all he does.
So, he’s a community organizer, who can exhort his activists to ‘go out and get it done’. But the things they are getting done, are developed by somone else. Obama cannot develop a policy, a plan…he can’t deal with issues. All he can do is: campaign. All he can do is go out on a stage and charm the cheering crowds. If the cheers stop – he’ll disappear like a spent cloud.
Now, he’s meeting ‘his advisors’. Remember, he can’t himself judge what’s best. He’ll let them argue it out among themselves, and accept the winner of the in-group fighting. Without any evaluation. Then, he’ll go out and ‘speak to the public’. He can’t answer questions because he himself doesn’t analyze or develop a policy.
What should be done about N. Korea? Obama is already doing his usual tactic of ‘I’ll charm them with my talk’. So, he’s talking about ‘negotiation’ and ‘the Six Nations Talk’. N. Korea has been slithering past these tactics for years – extorting money from the West to maintain its decrepit economy. China and S. Korea both are worried about a collapse of N. Korea; they don’t want millions of starving refugees streaming across their borders.
At some time, the nations have to be unified. China, Russia, S. Korera and Japan are the ones to deal with this; it’s in their region. It will take a generation or more to deal with the enormous gap between N. and S. Korean economies.
But now- Obama should be insisting that these Asian nations get involved.
No more money poured in to keep N. Korea afloat, while it busily cements its new dictatorship.
…just in case there was someone out there that wasn’t convinced that obama is easily holder of the worst president ever tittle.
agreed—- worst president in history
HOWEVER, time will spin obama as the “great unifier” and the history books will gloss over the fact that obama’s success was that he unified everyone AGAINST HIM, he brought about the evolution of the tea party, and demonstrated to all americans that you’ll be successful if you do the exact OPPOSITE of anything and everything he ever did.
I got a really bad feeling about this.
Why don’t we just turn Korea over to the TSA?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VURkL-01cc
Dr. Frank Lippenheimer wrote, “Why don’t we just turn Korea over to the TSA?”
I doubht it’s going to happen. The South Korean administartion still cares about the psycholigical health of their children.
Isn’t it unfair to link to the Amateur Hour video? Some of those people on that show are really good! (Unlike, say ….)
So what if they are clueless? Obama will simply have the UN draft a “very stern” letter to Kim Jong Il/ Un /et al. In fact, they don’t even need to draft it – simply scratch out “My Dearest Mamoud:” and pencil in “My Very Most Dearest Il and son:”
That will take care of it.
Oh, gosh, whatever shall we do?
How about recognizing that this is an act of war? How about naming it as such. How about retaliation? How about understanding the legalities of our more than 50-yr-old ceasefire agreement? Who CARES what the Chinese think?!? You have to show that you will shoot back.
That stupid group will ask or answer all the wrong questions. Democrats never know history. It will also be completely tainted by the Chinese owning our debt. Stupidity abounds. “Chickens coming home to roost.”
Bet the farm this administration will botch this crisis, and badly. How bad is hard to predict due to many variables. They are so incompetent that the outcome would be better if they do absolutely nothing. Whatever action the nincompoop we call the President takes is sure to be wrong and exacerbate the situation. Let’s all pray that he repeats what he did on the Gulf oil spill, which was pretty much nothing.
Can you see eight helicopters crashing in the dessert? It’s deja vu 1979 all over again.
Yes I remember it quite well, I was still in the U.S. Navy and just before that Jimmy Carter got attacked by a rabbit in a canoe, it was the damnedest thing I had ever seen.
Seeing a sitting President getting attacked by a rabbit showed what even a docile creature thought of him as a leader!
It’s hard for Obama. He is envious of Kim Jong Il’s power over his people. It’s also difficult because he’s pulling for the Communists.
N. Korea is starving again, that is the underlying reason in their military actions lately…they do not want to give up their nuclear weapon program, Europe and USA refuse to engage in talks without Nuclear program as part of negotiations, buy N. Korea is desperately seeking food shipments to feed its people, this winter will be very difficult for them due to continued hardship brought on by their inept leadership.
So they Bomb, sink ships, and will continue doing so because this is the only alternative from their perspective to get negotiations back on the table.
The best result may be a collapse of N Korea and China assuming control of their Nation. It would bring stability to the region and stop the nonsense. the DMZ can be dismantled, a few million mines can be removed, and the N. Korean infrastructure can be rebuilt, providing jobs and employment to thousands of companies worldwide.
Some of you suggest that Obama doesn’t even care! How could you say that? Of course he cares! He’s thinking, “What do they have against ME?”
Your analysis is only partly correct. The rest is:
“How can they be an enemy? The people of North Korea have such a low carbon footprint!!!!!”
It ain’t just their carbon footprints that are smaller, their regular footprints are too.
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2008/sep/27/john-mccain/yes-south-koreans-taller/
North Koreans are so underfed that they are significantly shorter than South Koreans. Kim Jong Il has literally been breeding a race of miniature people.
Michelle Obama is taking notes!!!!! “A Swell way to end Obesity!!!”
John Bolton for president! I could go with Sarah Palin as VP or Secretary of Energy.
I could also go with President Palin and John Bolton as Secretary of State. I’m flexible when it comes to the continued existence of the republic.
What we’re about to see develop in the Far East is the result of yet another “entangling agreement”, or treaty, made and signed, albeit with earlier good intentions, during a previous crisis. Now we’re still committed to defend S. Korea and Japan even though years have passed after the signing, and the original crisis has passed.
Times change. Treaties remain in effect.
Democratic elections cause different personalities to emerge with different ideas. Look what we’ve got now: A man possessing what passed for “charisma” during his election campaign who was a law lecturer and ‘community organizer’ as our current President, and an ambitious, scheming woman for our Secretary of State whose previous experience was centered upon being the meddlesome wife of a former President.
All future “agreements” or “treaties” should have very short term limits. That won’t end our ‘entanglements’, but it will shorten their duration to manageable proportions in the event of our own mistakenly chosen national leaders, such as right now.
what happened in Germany when they unified? instead of giving the nkorean demigod money to change shifts in the administration. get ready to feed, house and educate those starving masses.if they take over the north like the south should do, wheat, corn, and rice futures should go thru the roof in the next year. what would chairman Mao do with a bothersome subordinate?
Nothing is ever what it seem on the surface! While I can appreciate the authors intent to further diminish this incompetent Obama fella over the newest events in Korea, it falls short on the facts.
The long term strategies of Iran, Vietnam and Korea were developed in the late 40′s and implemented in the 50′s going forward. For Vietnam and Korea, China has been the “kingpin” of the strategies for that region since the turn of the 20th century and remains so today as the major player. Only problem is, that China has NEVER been a [signator] to ANY strategy or alliances (only verbal agreements and promises) and that has never seemed to bother any administration from the 40′s to present.
The Reagan Administration was the ONLY to serve notice to all of Communist States and threats from tryant regimes with a new American strategy. Post Reagan America’s administrations have reverted back to the old era strategies. Daddy Bush reverted to Iran and the Middle East while a friend of China, leaving them to police the communist regimes of that region under the old strategy. Clinton, another foreign affairs incompetent took on Korea with carrots and no stick while appeasing the whims and wishes of China’s new industrial revolutionary strategy, convinced ti would become a new gold mine for America’s intellectual and long term economy. Baby Bush followed in the Clinton-China-Korea strategy. Talk, give, talk, and give. Then, right or wrong, came what continues to be two long ongoing wars in the Middle East.
Then comes the early days of the American economic collapse and a new incompetent Obama into the Presidency. In two short years, America’s military continues to be bastardized from restructing, caught in two long costly wars, economic disaster and a disrespected government around the world by foreign leaders of all stripes.
When we allow ourselves a weaked miltary, economy and an incompetent government administration, old foes come a knocking with new strategies of their own. That is now playing our around the world on a daily basis from our old post WWII foes…except for Vietnam, thus far. North Korea, when it misbehaves forces the hand of China and China is an adversary of South Korea and Japan America’s long time Post WWII allies, which really puts a monkey wrench in the old long term American strategy. Throw into the mix the new Russia and many of its former but still somewhat allied republics in the face of a useless NATO.
Obama is facing what could materialize into a new and even more dangerous foreign relations front…a three prong front! Six and a half decades of poor strategy and and failure in that strategy is coming to roost on this incompetent Presidents watch.
WE ARE IN BIG FOREIGN RELATIONS AND MILITARY TROUBLE POTENTIALLY!
Ditto T.T. Thomas.Regarding China Being The King Pin.Same As In The Middle East,With Iran,Syria Etc.Problem Is Barack Obama,And His Administration,.As Well Most All Liberals.Ninety Percent Of Our Colleges,And Media Are All Proud”Mao Se Tung,Che’Rivera,Fidel Castro,Hugo Chavez,Muhamar Khadafi,Yassar Arafat,Hamas,And Hezbollah,Larasa,And C.A.I.R.Self Proclaimed,Victim Advocates,And Idol Worshippers,Of These False Prophets Of,Fear Mongerers,Death,Doom,Gloom,Terrorism,Murder,Rape,Pillage,And Destruction.Our Greatest Threat Is With-in Our Own Borders.Their The One’s That Constantly Call,And Demand To Take From Us One Of Humanity’s Greatest Gifts.”Survival Instincts”Which They Call,Profiling,Prejudice,Racism,Sexism,And Biggotry;First They Take Away Our Independence,Our Individualism,Our God/Religious Freedom,Our Resources,Our Rights,Our Liberty,Our Opportunities,Our Property,Our Families,Our Defenses,And Then Whats Left Of Our Country.Then You Either Submit,And Reform,Or You No Longer Have The Right To Exist;Jimmy Joe/”The Liarfryer”,
Thank you, I was waiting for someone to admit that China is the one pulling North Korea’s strings, we need someone in the White House that realizes this fact. As North Korea keeps ratcheting up the tensions until the South has no choice but to attack we need to look and see what China will get out of a renewed Korean War? And we have to remember that 1) China has been stockpiling strategic minerals for several years, and I mean creating enormous stockpiles. 2) We only have China’s word that their economy is booming so they are probably facing economic troubles and need something to keep the subjects quiet. 3) China has a massive imbalance in the sexes and needs to find a source of women for their young men. This is not going to be a stable region for a long time, and I am afraid that we may see the Korean War become hot once againl
Jimmy & Richard….
Most of the “old strategy” was pretty good common sense development of the Asian security and economic rim. U.S. administrations were the first to be slow and deficient in administering agreements post WWII. We turned a blind eye to China while reconstructing Japan into a formidable economic force. Secondly, we failed to be consistantly involved in pressuring China into finalizing a “demarcation treaty” with North Korea and Vietnam. Thirdly, we adopted a failed policy when we terminated the SEATO agreement without a finalization of North Korea and Vietnam, at the consistant request of China.
In the early 80′s we began to finally help China develop a dometic agricultural expansion program directed at producing edible meats such as beef, poultry and swine along with feeds manufacturing and nutrition programs to be supported with U.S. Exports and limited intellectual rights.
During the 90′s President Clinton’s administration began completely developing China’s econmic base with light to heavy manufacturing, intellectual rights and expansion of U.S. partnership rights to operating in China. In other words, Clinton removed most all restrictions from China and by over regulating and taxing America’s industrial and manufacturing base America’s private sector was able to relocate to China in massive new partnerships….included the most up to date intellectual properties. The rest of the story is pretty common public knowledge. We sold out our strong traditional economic security to China leaving us to be their Super Market.
In the meantime and as a consequence we gave away most all our strategic and negotiating power throughout the world and especially during time of economic downturns in our domestic economy. Now we sit here with less than one thiord of our traditional economic security and recovery mechanism while China now holds all the chips. Furthermore, without those new age unsustainable “bubble” economies, America no long has the traditional economies to sustain low unemployment and revive our economy…for a long time to come….if ever!
We have given our most vital heart and soul to Japan and China! This means severe troubles for America! All because American Administrations mismanaged and squandered our own Asian treaties and agreements for decades. The chickens are now coming home to roost!
Jimmy & Richard….
Most of the “old strategy” was pretty good common sense development of the Asian security and economic rim. U.S. administrations were the first to be slow and deficient in administering agreements post WWII. We turned a blind eye to China while reconstructing Japan into a formidable economic force. Secondly, we failed to be consistantly involved in pressuring China into finalizing a “demarcation treaty” with North Korea and Vietnam. Thirdly, we adopted a failed policy when we terminated the SEATO agreement without a finalization of North Korea and Vietnam, at the consistant request of China.
In the early 80′s we began to finally help China develop a dometic agricultural expansion program directed at producing edible meats such as beef, poultry and swine along with feeds manufacturing and nutrition programs to be supported with U.S. Exports and limited intellectual rights.
During the 90′s President Clinton’s administration began completely developing China’s econmic base with light to heavy manufacturing, intellectual rights and expansion of U.S. partnership rights to operating in China. In other words, Clinton removed most all restrictions from China and by over regulating and taxing America’s industrial and manufacturing base America’s private sector was able to relocate to China in massive new partnerships….included the most up to date intellectual properties. The rest of the story is pretty common public knowledge. We sold out our strong traditional economic security to China leaving us to be their Super Market.
In the meantime and as a consequence we gave away most all our strategic and negotiating power throughout the world and especially during time of economic downturns in our domestic economy. Now we sit here with less than one thiord of our traditional economic security and recovery mechanism while China now holds all the chips. Furthermore, without those new age unsustainable “bubble” economies, America no long has the traditional economies to sustain low unemployment and revive our economy…for a long time to come….if ever!
We have given our most vital heart and soul to Japan and China! This means severe troubles for America! All because American Administrations mismanaged and squandered our own Asian treaties and agreements for decades. The chickens are now coming home to roost!
Why was there an emergency meeting AFTER the fact? This kind of pin-prick provocation was entirely predictable, and indeed evidently foreseen by the South Koreans themselves – they wisely turned Yeongpyeong Island into a fortress (look up “Quemoy”).
A competent administration would have listed this incident as one of 100 likely international contingency, and would have been ready with 5-8 preplanned action plans.
How many of the people at the meeting regularly follow classified and published information FIRST-HAND in Chinese? In Korean? In Japanese?
With all of his vast collective experience, how do you think he’ll go organizing the Asian Community in their own neighborhood?
As this is potentially serious, can’t we just go straight to the top – to the TelePrompter?
I’m just surprised that Obama hasn’t handed over the whole North Korea problem to the United Nations. You know the United Nations, that “great” organization that was to solve all of the world’s problems. Why is it that now Obama does NOT trust the UN to protect the South Koreans? If the UN is so great, why doesn’t Obama just let them handle this whole mess? You mean, there ARE times for direct US intervention in a foreign crisis? Well, I’m sure North Korea will really tremble when this whole matter is handed over to the security council for debate. That will show them. For me, I think you’ll get better results by sending two carrier battle groups off the coast of North Korea. That will have a much bigger impact than a “non-binding” security council resolution that nobody will read, let alone pay attention to. I guess Susan Rice is WRONG yet again.
The only way this bunch would be considered a “crisis team” is that whatever they do will take a crisis and turn it into an utter disaster, or take a normal problem and turn it into a crisis.
I hope the solution is for Obama to step down as president as he and his team are total misfits!
The irony at the time of that ad’s release was that a) it came from Hillary Clinton, whose chief claim to competence was having been married to a president whose own foreign policy was weak and often driven by domestic, rather than strategic, concerns, and b) that it was nevertheless right about Obama and raised a very valid point about his experience, or lack thereof.
I just can’t let this pass. The sheer stupidity of that commercial astonished me when I saw it in 2008 and I’ve never took the opportunity to vent about it then so I will take just a moment now.
I have no problem with the obvious point that Obama had no experience whatever with foreign affairs in 2008 and was thus a very weak choice for President and Commander-in-Chief. That was self-evident. But to use that point to infer that Hillary Clinton was a far more appropriate choice for President is just ridiculous. She was NOT the President during her husband’s time in the White House! She was the woman who (sometimes) slept with him! Sleeping in the same bed (assuming they shared a bed and did not maintain separate bedrooms as some Presidential wives have done) did not give her the same experiences as her husband did. Unless she was actually in the Situation Room during crises, she has no more credibility as a potential Commander-in-Chief than the White House gardener who was also close by but not actually in the room either.
I don’t doubt that Bill would have shared some information about what went on in the meetings after the fact and that would put her ahead of the gardener to a small extent as a potential Commander-in-Chief. But not much! A world famous surgeon may share some details of his latest exploits with his wife after the fact too but would you then trust the wife to perform surgery on you? I certainly hope not if just hearing a summary of the surgery afterwards was her only qualification for doing surgery herself.
You’re straight up correct about all that. Hillary should never have been a serious choice for President, or Secretary of State.
Back when she was campaigning, she used her Kosovo trip on her resume to prove her foreign policy bonafides. Leaving aside the stupid comments from her about “landing under fire”, let’s just ponder for a moment exactly what that trip was: She travelled in the company of Sinbad the comedian and Sheryl Crow the singer.
Pretty much by definition, any trip that includes comics and pop stars is not an actual diplomatic mission. For her to claim it as such was a patent absurdity. In fact, Hillary did not have a single meaningful responsibility on that, or any other of her trips abroad.
I remember at the time, I made a few snarky blog comments that, if such a trip qualified her as a President, it must also have qualified Sinbad to be Secretary of State.
Seeing the Obama adminstration’s foreign policy in action, I’m willing to make that an official proposition… Sinbad for Secretary of State!
Or, we could just go all the way to the top. At this point, he would be a better choice for President.
AXIS OF EVIL NORTH KOREA STRIKES SOUTH KOREA AGAIN
After doing nothing to punish the nuclear bullies of Communist North Korea for the sinking last March of the Cheonan, killing 46 of its South Korean crew, expect more of the same or worse from our weak, incompetent bungler-in-chief in response to today’s unprovoked attack on Yeonpyeong Island. I say “worse” because North Korea’s economy is imploding and Kim Jong Il wants a new round of concessions from Obama and the West and will likely get them thus continuing Bill Clinton’s dangerous policy of extreme appeasement-which is greatly responsible for the sinking of the ship and yesterday’s provocative attack . The numeric signs that I’ve discovered seem to confirm as a warning to Obama the consequences he will suffer to his presidency and legacy for following the failed policies of the past and chosing weakness over strength in dealing with Kim………
Click my name for the rest of this article on my widely posted NUMBER ONE blog at townhall.com
obama wont send the childish nutter a tweet on his birthday. that will show them.
And the big ‘cherry on top’ of this crap sandwich is China and Russia renouncing the U.S. dollar. Sure, they could come back.. but why.
So ‘glad’ to see Obama’s Asian trip ‘cemented financial confidence’ in the U.S. dollar.
*uck the Fed and the appeasing, economic know-nothing residing at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.. self destruction seems to be their ultimate achievement.
Obama reminds me in many ways of actor Martin Sheen’s sociopath persona in the movie, ‘Dead Zone’.
“Gentlemen, the missiles are flying. Hallelujah.”
An all-time classic movie line. Of course, that president was a thinly disguised Ronald Reaganite.
We’ve got to stand with our North Korean allies.
That’s right! All 57 states are behind you on this!
Yup, she sure is dumb. We know that because only officially approved smart people never, ever, make speaking mistakes. Everyone on the non-approved smart-people list are just idiots.
Right, it’s OK for her, just not anybody else. Tell me, what’s it like to live without principles?
Crisis what crisis, Obama is even copying what Hitler did on D-Day by staying in bed. The only thing that Obama and his top notch staffers will do with their vast worldly experience. They will get together and write a nasty, nasty, nasty, letter to North Korea, then it is 18 holes of golf. I just wander who has to write the letter for Obama?
That is what North Korea says about the latest incident.
http://wp.me/p11mt3-NI
Here is an objective view on North Korea.
http://redkorea.wordpress.com/
What a joke America has become. If we do not turn our military free to do what they were trained for. Then this great country is doomed because of idiots like obama, who hold our military back from doing their jobs. Our own military generals and admirals have become to political. They look like pompous as-h-les at a frat party!
This is the perfect team. Ask Jimmy Carter. Don’t you know its Seoul’s fault. The nerve they have keeping a standing army and getting upset when one of their frigates gets torpedoed. Its America’s fault for intervening in the great patriot stuggle of Kim Il Sung to bring justice to the whole Korean pininsula. Obama just needs to go to Pyongyang and bend over deeply at the waist infront of the that fattie son of Kim Jong Il and all will be forgiven.
All of this shifting-back-and-forth between the United States and China, both Koreas, and including our former enemy Japan, over these past sixty years would have been avoided had we instituted and strictly observed time limits on our paying for the defense of Korea, Taiwan and Japan. This Cold War necessity has long past.
South Korea, Taiwan, and Japan are currently economic powerhouses, yet we continue to massively support their defense expenditures. We have, I think, 32,000 American troops still stationed in South Korea…since….1953. This type of American taxpayer-supported defense efforts of Asiatic countries has got to stop. America is printing cash in the hopes that the Chinese will continue to buy it, giving us Americans a measure of leverage over the Chicoms. [...they don't want to see their hoard of USD devalued..]
So….let’s let both Koreas and China settle this complicated three-way nuclear “face” exercise strictly between themselves. We “foreign devils”…old name for us, still very applicable, have nothing more to contribute.
Absolutely, we should stop shedding American blood to effect temporary solutions in Asian wars.
Remember…there are no permanent solutions to Asia’s violence involving two billion people of multiple conflicting ethnic groups and religions overlapping disputed borders. ….and…more evolving rapidly. China couldn’t care less if it lost a few millions of their population……why include more of us Americans?
Obama’s 2012 campaign slogan:
“R we a grate Nashun, er whut?”
Well, shoot. So now you’re telling us that he’s not the smartest man to walk the face of the earth who would cause all of our enemies to love us, fall on their faces adoring us and speak nicely to us and about us henceforth and forevermore just because himself was in the White House? So now it’s hitting print–all over the world: He’s an empty fool who couldn’t fight his way out of a wet paper bag if his life depended on it. This.is.not.news.
Look people, the “Anointed One” makes his chess move’s and us babbling humans need to realize that the unbelieving conspiracy “heathen” understate the issues when they say that Obama is a radical. Alas, they know not the secrets we are all going to witness. The “Anointed One” is amazing (and according to Biden: he’s so brillant), and takes the people at the highly efficient Post Office and sends them right over to the Student Loan Program. The “Anointed One” knows all. Twitter messages were machine-gunned to cell phones at mach speed. Facebook and MySpace groups spread across the Internet like digital fire. YouTube videos featuring celebrities ricocheted across the globe and into college students’ in-boxes with devastating regularity. All the while, the Obama mega-money-raising engine whirred on at high speed, until the result became inevitable: an unthinking mass of young voters marched forward to elect the “Anointed One.”
I am not surprised to hear these stinking lies about our “Anointed One,” it should be apparent to anyone that this was coming down the pike. I do have a couple questions about future process steps concerning these developments? When the “Annointed One” decides to start bar-coding everyone, will we get to decide if the mark is on our hand or forehead? Allot of people will prefer the hand, (especially women of course), unless your a porn actress or something along those lines. Also, my girlfriend was wondering if the Administration will be getting fashion advice from Hollyweird or the New York City crowd? We are both agree that the Administration “Maoies” as the “Anointed One ” so lovingly calls them,will be getting uniforms similar to the SS uniforms in Germany in WW2. With big letters abreviating “Barack’s Socialists.” So shall we start calling them the BS?
Typical racist ignorant idiots. the same people who believe palin is president material wouldn’t know much about a crisis or what the right procedures are. but what do you except from a buch hypocrite racists here?
Luckily for the Big O, he has two years of contrast ahead with what promises to be the most yahoo House of Representives in living memory. And the fact that all the Republican presidential frontrunners are stiffs or idiots won’t hurt either. He’s just lucky like that, for example, his presidency following that George WPE Bush.