Between Two Worlds
We are somewhere between the old bipolar Cold War world, which we generally understood, and to which most of the rest of the world had adjusted, and something else, we know not what. The consequent chaos and uncertainty is remarkable, especially after the long peace and stable international environment that followed the Second World War. That is the underlying cause of an entire generation of leaders who either are obviously unable to master their challenges, or are applying ideological models from the recent past that are embarrassing anachronisms. Leaders like Putin, or Obama, or Mursi, for example, trot out various explanations for their behavior, but the explanations don’t “fit” the real conditions they are dealing with.
To be sure, there’s a comic side to the spectacle: the oracular class confidently laying out scenarios, most of which will be proven wrong in very short order. Can you count the number or times you have read a presumably well-informed prediction of the Israeli assault on Iran? Or stories of clandestine U.S. military actions inside the Islamic Republic? Or detailed analyses of the Iranian nuclear program, based on IAEA data, at least some of which, the head of the Iranian program has said, were lies?
So the oracles are unreliable, just as we should expect. Whenever some captain of industry asks me to do a “risk assessment” for him, I tell him to save his money for blackjack or craps; the odds are better than betting on my–or anyone else’s–crystal ball.
But businessmen and policy makers have to make decisions, and the stakes are often enormous. What to do?
When the old rules crumble, all we’ve got to go on are basic principles, which are most often in conflict with our desires, especially in the current politically correct, multiculti world of the oracles. We do not want to face the most basic fact about the real world, which is that a war is raging, and we are a prime target. We do not want to fight back, and so we are weakening ourselves, denying the existence of fanatical enemies, retreating from Middle East battlefields (thereby ensuring greater casualties, and stronger and more confident hostile forces, whether jihadi or radical leftist). The most recent case in point comes from the president and UN Ambassador Susan Rice and of course the hapless Hillary, when they say that attacks against Americans aren’t attacks against Americans at all, but attacks against a video.
And, lest we forget, such denials are echoed viciously by the leading media, who have long since ceased reporting about the real world in favor of promulgating the fantasyland of their fellow oracles. As I predicted last time, this did not earn them respect or honor from the American people. And that’s good news.
Even though Obama’s would-be successor does not seem to grasp the urgency of the moment, the American people seem to me to have a better grasp of things. You can spin all you want about government-managed statistics, but in our homes and schools, real Americans know that things are very bad. You can concoct all the fantasies you want about crazed killers of Americans, real Americans see the bloodshed and know that we are under assault. And I believe that we will make all that clear on election day. I know Romney’s not a great candidate, but he’s not Obama, and that’s the only issue.
I wish Romney would stop listening to the campaign managers, and listen more to his gut, which drove him to make a good, strong statement when our guys were attacked and killed in Egypt and Libya. I hope he finds the courage to speak truth to power in the next few weeks, and calls out this shameful administration for its fecklessness, its betrayal of our troops and our people, and its amazingly insouciant willigness to invent a new fable most every day. That would give us some hope that a President Romney might be able to navigate the tsunami approaching our civilization.
And yes, even master it. I think we’re ready to engage the war for our future. The bad guys have had a long, free run at us. Time to get serious.
The horizon of your analysis is extremely wide and deep but I observe that Romney’s plan to make America reach complete energy independence by 2020 has a strategic value. If the horizon of the future is the clash that you foresee, our ability to stand on our own feet is a decisive point.
Energy security is key and once we are exporting and competing with the likes of the Saudis it will indeed “change” the entire equation. Once we don’t need those Islamic bastards its all over for them.The money for nothing will end.
But that does not change the facts that Ledeen has made below:
We do not want to face the most basic fact about the real world, which is that a war is raging, and we are a prime target. We do not want to fight back, and so we are weakening ourselves, denying the existence of fanatical enemies, retreating from Middle East battlefields (thereby ensuring greater casualties, and stronger and more confident hostile forces, whether jihadi or radical leftist). The most recent case in point comes from the president and UN Ambassador Susan Rice and of course the hapless Hillary, when they say that attacks against Americans aren’t attacks against Americans at all, but attacks against a video.
Energy self sufficiency or not we are still the infidels in the eyes of the whacked out muzzie islamists. They still will want to slit our throats and cut our heads off. Its just who they are and what they have been brainwashed to do.
Chances are good Chris Stevens was CIA. We know he was gay and perhaps a muzzie/convert as well. He may have even have been involved in getting weaponry to the “rebel/freedom fighters” who “rescued” Libya from Quackdaffi.
Seeing what happened in the interim the CIA probably acknowledged the error of their ways in trusting the MB and other terror types to do the right thing in Libya and are now trying to get those same weapons back out of the hands of terror types.
It’s quite probable that those same weapons given in good faith at the time to supposed “freedom fighters” are the rpg.s etc that killed Stevens. Once again its the muzzie way. It’s what they do. Use our resources against us. We remain infidels,targets.We need more than just Ledeen to recognize this fact.
If the CIA did not know they were arming Muslim Brotherhood and Al-Qaeda operatives in Libya, then why are the still in business? Everybody else in the world knew it. If they did it just to get Gaddafi, they should off had a plan B. I don’t think its incompetence but something more sinister. We have spent Billions funding the CIA, and they fail us everytime.
Bureaucratic inertia. Find a copy of “The Armies of Ignorance” by William R. Corson. The CIA was born from bureaucratic infighting between Hoover(FBI) and Donovan(OSS). Turf wars. Truman used the FBI O-chart, staffed with OSS people.
it didn’t work, of course. The best plan was by a Congressman Smith. That plan had the CIA being a dozen clerks in the basement of the White House. no cabinet status, they just collated data and assigned tasks. State did the Spy stuff, Library of Congress did research and analysis, The military did the direct action stuff. Extremely difficult for enemy (or friendly) espionage services to penetrate. Easy to control by Congress. Hoover and Donovan killed it, with a little help from the SoS, who I think was Marshall at that time. Hoover saw the CIA as an expansion of the FBI and the opportunity to double or treble his political power. Donovan hated Hoover and was against anything Hoover was for. He saw the CIA as the OSS with new initials. The resulting battle produced an ugly child, lame and stupid that nobody wanted. Despite that the CIA grew in power and wealth. They managed to get the job done almost as often as they screwed the pooch……almost.
Unless headed off soon, armageddon between Islam and the USA is inevitable. My generation won’t do it because we have sworn off nuclear weapons. My children won’t either, they are happy killing Haji with hand tools. My grandchildren (those born after 9-11) will grow up with the constant drip drip drip of terrorism. I liken terrorism to the waterboarding of a nation. The individual drops do no harm, just as a terrorist attack killing even 3 thousand people does no real harm to a nation of over 300 million. However a never ending stream of drops will drive one crazy. a never ending stream of terrorist attacks will drive a nation crazy.
Driving a nation of 300 million armed with over 20,000 nuclear weapons pits crazy doesn’t seem like a survival oriented trait to me. Then again, I’m not a Mad Dog Mullah, sitting around waiting for some fool to crawl up out of a well.
PBUH- Place Bomb Under Hood
I did see an encouraging story from Foxnews today.
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/09/21/libyans-storm-ansar-al-sharia-compound-in-backlash-attack-on-us-consulate/
I would love to see good people rising up against militant Islamists all over the Middle East. It is not happening on any large scale as of yet, and the current policy of appeasement and ostrich imitation by Obungler and Hillbillary sure as hell does not encourage such actions.
Economically, militarily, strategically, and morally we are done as a great world power if ObamaRx gets his way for another term.
When “good people” rise up against militants in the Arab world, one of two things happens;
1. The militants kill them.
2. The government kills them to show the militants that it is on their side.
These are top-down, autocratic regimes, no matter who is nominally in charge. Which means that policies are set by whoever has the guns. Which the governments make sure consists of them, and the militants who are more interested in killing “infidels” than they are in killing off their own (putative) leaders.
This is why there is never a “democratic revolution” in Islam that ends with a truly democratic government. It’s not that the average person there doesn’t want it; it’s that every change of government is inevitably taken over by the most violent, radical, we-hate-everybody-all-gotta-die types in the neighborhood.
In Libya, the militants suffered a few casualties from Molotov cocktails yesterday. If the place runs true to form, everybody else will suffer more from the militants’ automatic weapons and RPGs in retaliation tomorrow.
The government, such as it is, will probably stand by and watch, unless they decide to openly help the militants, who scare them worse than public “disapproval” does. Low poll numbers are irrelevant in a state where the only “opinion makers” who matter are the guys with itchy trigger fingers.
These are not civilized states. Don’t expect that the rights, or will, of their people will be respected in any way. Either by their “leaders”, or by the bloody-minded maniacs who actually run things.
Sad to say, but true.
clear ether
eon
You can dress them up in fancy clothes and put them in nice neighborhoods but they are still neanderthals and have been taught to kill all infidels at any cost.ITs still “what” they do.
Yes, the future is becoming quite unpredictable. But a lot of this unpredicability derives from this unwillingness to acknowledge–and once acknowledged to assimulate in our daily lives and in our institutions–that war has been declared. And it is an existential war that, like Syria, will likely go on until one side or the other no longer has a “presence.” And like any war, it will be both costly and demanding; one suspects the “good times” are over as we buckle down to face reality. And out of this comes two good things: learning how to understanding reality (and apprehend bias, flights from understanding, etc.) and coming to know the real (as verifiable) roots of progress (as will be so evidently contrasted with decline). All together, a rather exciting time!
I dunno, the world is always a tough place, yesterday’s rules never quite work today, the competition gets after you whether you make cell phones or run an NFL offense. Leadership has always been about dealing with the world, not any specific world. You might even say Machiavelli’s Iron Rules are as Timely and Important Today as Five Centuries Ago. Oh, you already did.
Yes, and this time is definitely not different. The ‘leadership’ we see now is a product of a corrupted system, perhaps terminally damaged. As Clint Eastwood said, these guys work for us — yet the consequences of a dumbed down electorate too witless to know or care will be fatal.
If Obama dumped Biden for Paris Hilton, he’d be a shoo-in.
Actually, history gives us a good idea of what this non-bipolar world will probably settle into.
In the 19th century, and well into the 20th, the world was not dominated by singular nations, but by greater and lesser powers in coalition. Alliances, either for reason of mutual interest or of convenience, came into existence to further goals, or to oppose other alliances. No single nation, not mighty Russia, not world-spanning Britain, nor wealthy America, could singularly dominate with a single point of view.
It seems likely we will return to this. The USA’s absolute dominance militarily cannot last, and we are already only one among equals economically – first among equals, perhaps, but among equals nonetheless.
This is not a bad thing. We have paid a terrible price for our dominance, in uncontrolled government growth, in military expenditures that are basically unsustainable, in wars we did not have to fight and lives we did not have to lose. But as long as we stay true to the basic ideals and goals we have set ourselves – ever greater liberty and justice for all – we can still be a great nation even if we do not remain the dominant one.
Actually, I’d say we also need to look at the 18th Century.
The 19th Century resulted from the 18th, politically and militarily. England was the dominant superpower of the time, mainly due to a powerful navy and having avoided the damage suffered by the major continental powers in the Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648). As bad as the English Civil War (1642-45) was, it didn’t savage England’s economy or population the way the war between France, the German nobility, the German peasantry, and the Scandinavian countries did.
The weakening of the several continental powers, plus the loss of confidence their people experienced with their leaders, was a contributing factor to the multiple wars in the first two-thirds of the 18th Century, and the upheavals they helped cause in the last third. The result wasn’t just the American Revolution; it was the French Revolution and Napoleon, too.
The destruction wrought by the French revolutionaries (mainly for the sheer hell of it), and by Bonaparte (in his effort to reclaim France’s primacy which had been lost after the Peace of Westphalia in 1648), helped give rise to most of the European or European-related conflicts of the 19th Century. Yes, I hold the Directory and the Imperial Idiot at least partly responsible for the Mexican War, the Crimea, the Russo-Turkish War, and etc. To say nothing of the revolutionary movements of 1848, the Franco-Prussian War, and the Paris Commune.
The 19th Century really wasn’t a time of “alliances”. The only cooperative efforts of the time were the U.S. and British anti-slavery patrols off West Africa, and the French-British coalition against Russia in the Crimea. That’s it. The rest of the century consisted of nation-states honing their blades to cut each others’ throats at the first opportunity.
America was isolationist for most of the century. That is a posture that ceased to be practical the second we started powering warships with steam instead of wind, as the Spanish-American War demonstrated graphically. The biggest news then, that was overlooked by almost everybody, wasn’t the Battle of Manila Bay or San Juan Hill; it was the battleship U.S.S. Oregon‘s hell-for-leather charge across 14,700 miles of ocean from San Francisco to Florida to join up with the North Atlantic Squadron, in time for the Battle of Santiago, in 60 days flat. It presaged the “global reach” of the more advanced weapon systems that would come only a few decades later.
Those more advanced weapon systems, especially long-range ballistic weapons (ICBMs), plus the rise of various fanaticisms (notably religious ones- shades of 1618) make the concept of a “multilateral world” based on “co-equal alliances” a recipe’ for a replay of the 17th, 18th, and 19th Centuries’ worst conflicts. Except this time, they won’t be fought with smoothbore cannon and flintlock muskets.
Nature abhors a vacuum, the old saying goes. Another old saying is that a chain is only as strong as its weakest link.
Geopolitics also abhors a vacuum. If a superpower stops being one, it will not be replaced by a “coalition”- it will be replaced by another power trying to take over the top position.
And alliances work like chains. One weak link, and they fall apart, usually at the worst possible time.
Considering the two most likely candidates for superpower-wannabee status right now, namely the People’s Republic of China and Putin’s Russia, plus the dark horse coming up on the outside being a nuclear-armed (and borderline psychotic) Iran, this isn’t a good time to try to recreate an idealized past.
Especially one that never really existed to begin with.
clear ether
eon
We know not what we are between, because we are being subject to cognitive dissonance.
We are in the middle of a resurgent Islam brought about by the largest transfer of unearned wealth in history, which wealth has resulted in huge muslim population increase and the ability to jihad.
We are daily subjected to what we refer to ‘terrorist’ attacks but are in reality one continuous jihad- the struggle to make Islam supreme.
I have to laugh every time I hear or read about another group of muslims whose purpose is to kill the infidel, and spread the word.
They are all the same.
All of them.
New Obama slogan has long ties to Marxism, socialism Inside Politics By Victor MortonApril 30, 2012
http://www.washingtontimes.com/blog/inside-politics/2012/apr/30/new-obama-slogan-has-long-ties-marxism-socialism/
Well, speaking of back to the future and the pre-Cold War world, seems like we just had the American ambassador version of Lawrence of Arabia in the Middle East, only this time raped and killed in liberated Libya while facilitated by a fictional President, Kunta Kinte, bent on resetting the Wilsonian era: I don’t know if Jimmy Carter will be happy with his Camp David Accords getting torn up and tossed into the trash bin of history by a President fond of taking no prisoners in the Drone Wars. And then there is the war on women, which used to be called the battle of the sexes: apparently, it is reported, 20 percent, one fifth, of American female soldiers suffer from PTSD (a syndrome coined during the Vietnam War), although women are banned from combat units, while 20 percent, one fifth, of those returning from Iraq or Afghanistan report having been sexually assaulted or harassed. The report didn’t specify if those two 20 percent distributions entailed the same personnel data sets in the war against man made natural disasters. In any event, it can be hell in the new high testosterone Peace Corp even if’s not called a war. I think the British did empire better, but they didn’t have a Prime Minister channeling Frantz Fanon.
If by saying “our civilization” you mean the US, Europe, and Israel I agree with you. I’m not advocating isolation, but it makes a lot of sense to cut our diplomatic ties to almost all Middle East countries. Severely limiting immigration from every Muslim country might also be helpful. Of course Obama will have absolutely none of the latter, and even a President Romney might abjure. That they should at least consider the immigration issue makes even more sense because agitation here by Muslim advocacy groups will only grow as their numbers grow. Our politicians, being the vote-hungry moral cowards they are, have already been rendered wary over offending these hyper-sensitive people. Just as mandatory Spanish language classes are coming to a school near you, mandatory indoctrination in the wonderfulness of Islam is not far behind.
Idea: Western Newspapers Should Print A Mohammed Cartoon Every Day Until The Islamic World Stops Rioting… This is Brilliant.
http://weaselzippers.us/2012/09/22/idea-western-newspapers-should-print-a-mohammed-cartoon-every-day-until-the-islamic-world-stops-rioting/
The goal of the Father and son Bush team was to unite Islam with the west. If you give up on that goal what will happen? You give up by appeasement and you give up by isolation and this will lead to practical global dictators like this one http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Vespasianus01_pushkin_edit.png
Islam will be crushed .Christian will be crushed and the Jew will no longer interfere with anyone in the Middle East as we know from history from link above
Be wise and go back to the Bush plan and unite the three faiths before you run out of time instead of looking like Spartians battling Athenians and someone else is big BIG big winner from new land
There can never be a uniting of the Muslims, Christians, and Jews. For Islam is a religion that runs on fear, intimidation, and violence. And it works to dominate the world. We are currently in a civilization Jihad. Its Jihad by terrorism, Jihad by immigration, and Jihad by subversion of Western Nations; they’re traditions and laws. They will NEVER coexist; they don’t want to. What is so hard? They don’t want to be “westernized”and assimilated. They want the rest of the world to be “Islamized”; either convert, be a lesser citizen or dead.
And that includes those already in the U.S. Includes Louis Farrakhan’s lot, too.
Brilliant post! You said it exactly like it is.
Absolutely. That is why looking back to the 19th, the 18th, or the 17th Centuries is way off base. That is looking at international affairs based on western nation states.
The only place to look is the 7th century when the Arabs burst forth from the Arabian Peninsula and overran the Persians and North Africa. And then in the following century moved into Spain and threatened southern Europe.
When they arrived in the lands they conquered, they came with the Koran in one hand and a sword in the other, and they provided the residents the choice of conversion or death.
There were so many who wouldn’t convert, the Arabs eventually agreed to providing a three way choice: conversion, dhimmitude or death. Almost all accepted dhimmitude. It is my suspicion that the creators of the Arab Civilization were those residents who chose Islam – probably all from the elites who didn’t want to give up their good life. That is why most of the great edifices belong to the periods not long after the conquests, with little of worth being created afterwords.
It is expected that by 2030, over 50% of the population of Belgium, the home of the EU, will be Moslem, and that by that time, Sharia will be the law of the land.
And the same process is proceding apace in the rest of Western Europe.
There is no war. There is only a steady infiltration. Originally, it was men from North Africa and Turkey who arrived. But then by polygamy (with European women) and high birth rate their numbers are growing at a much higher rate than that of the native Europeans – who out of a loss of belief in themselves are not even reproducing at a population maintenance rate.
The most the US can do is keep the light shining during the several hundred years it will take for IslamoEurope to wither and decay. It will be another Dark Ages.
And this is how it will happen. Once they get rid of the Sunday people, having already gotten rid of the Saturday people, they will have no choice but to turn on the Friday people – themselves. Since they are by nature intolerant and beligerant, they will find just cause for making war on each other: Sunni vs Shia; Muslim Brotherhood vs Wahhabi; nationalist vs those favoring a caliphate; and on and on. If we are smart, we will just sit back and watch. Once we become energy independent there is no way we can profit from interfering. The one thing to worry about is Israel. We will just have to pray to God that the Muslims will be so busy kicking each other in the teeth that they won’t have the spare attention necessary to bother with Israel.
But regardless of how bleak the future looks to me, as we Jews are taught to choose life, I wish you all a good year – healthy, happy, prosperous and a Romney victory in November.
” For Islam is a religion that runs on fear, intimidation, and violence.”
This is what the Athenians say about the Spartans. Rome took over became a practical dictatorship and crushed Israel and their temple by the man in the link in my post above.
Who know? when this man arrive instead of empty threats he will crush modern Israel and this time we have the 2nd Coming of Jesus Christ the Lord and before he come a great mountain burning with fire hit the earth and we can get out the popcorn watch this on TV as long as great mountain not too close to our TV set
????
I think he is writing about part of G-d’s judgement on mankind. The mountain, or star is cast onto earth, and a third of the waters killed those who drank. It is in Revelations, and what John saw he wrote down in what language he had to explain it.
If John was alive today, he might say our nukes look like his vision Jesus gave him. Remember, the Bible reads a lot about the future, and what will happen. The Bible appears to only have a few stated things left before the wrath of G-d is poured out on a creature that has earned punisment.
The Bible reads about a regional war, that turns into a global war before G-d the Father sends the word made flesh to take what was won on the cross.
Iran is pouring men, and supplies into Syria. Israel is pouring men, and supplies to the Goland Heights.
punisment=punishment.
I believe the Great Mountain burning with fire like all falling stars is an act of God and has nothing to do with man’s playing god in Babylon and this ends Babylon which our nation is part
Read Our American Babylon
http://www.firstthings.com/article/2009/03/our-american-babylon—46
The calling of all the chosen ones take place to come out of Babylon . This then has to do with our own condition as aliens in a strange land called by God to be God’s temple
Yet while Babylon is here, the Spartans , the Athenians in Babylon they are wise to make better choices so they are nor swept away as God laughs at all the nations part of Babylon and our their pretense to greatness
I guess I question him saying that God will crush the modern state of Israel. The prophet Ezekiel had something very different to say. ( Ezekiel 38 )
I noticed that, but I thought it had to be that English was his second language.
Later,
Newt Gingrich says the same
“…..The Islamists cannot reconcile with a secular system of laws. They cannot tolerate a West that maintains a presence in the Arabian Gulf or that would defend Israel’s right to survive as a country. They cannot tolerate freedom of speech, freedom of religion, or freedom for women. In short, their demands are irreconcilable with the modern world.
“Politically correct secularists cannot understand that we are participants in a global civil war between the modernizing and irreconcilable wings of Islam. While the irreconcilable wing must be fought militarily, this is also a cultural, political, and economic war (as was the Cold War). This war is not primarily about terrorism, it is about an Islamist insurgency against the modern world.”
Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2012/09/newt_gingrich_on_the_islamist_challenge.html#ixzz27EvaHaj2
Charleston, Mr. Newt Gingrich is my favorite candidate, he is a great candidate, but unfortunately and sadly he is an unlucky to rule that Great country. damn!!!
“Between Two Worlds”.
Yes, it is a clash between two contradictory worlds, between two contradictory civilizations, between Good and Evil.
It is a clash between a culture of human freedoms like respect for life and right of the choice in faith and practice of daily life which is linked with real freedom in the West, and between a civilization and a culture of religious extremism, and backwardness and stagnation that seeks domination on people life throughout the world to change it in accordance with their violent and strict values.
It is a clash between a civilization and culture that respects and protects women and that curse and despise females. Between a culture of violence and terrorism and throwing shoes that terrorized the hearts and minds of people, and between a culture of scientific and technological advancement that has made people’s lives easy.
It is a clash between enlightenment and darkness, between a mentality of backwardness that is belong to the middle Ages and a mentality of enlightenment that is belong to the 21st century.
It is a clash between barbarity and rationality, it is a clash between Oppression and Freedom, between evil dictatorships that are protected by the bad Obama’s regime and between the Benevolent Democracy that led by the Great Neo-Advocates of the Great Modern America. It is time to destroy the evil at home and abroad!!! JUST VOTE AGAINST THE ENEMY OF THE GREATNESS OF THE USA “OBAMA’S REGIME!!!”
Jassem Othman – the Homeland of Death Camps, Poland!!!
Clinging to outdated theories is not unique to america’s newsies.
Forty years ago the KGB were frustrated that despite their best efforts communism did not quickly take root in Latin America.
Now the Russians have moved on from Communism and leftism remains en vogue in Latin America.
I think we’re ready to engage the war for our future. The bad guys have had a long, free run at us. Time to get serious.
Well, they currently control our government and our information stream, Michael.
Oh, you meant the OTHER bad guys.
We are being double teamed from the “inside/outside” forces. This is why I always end every comment to your essays with a wish for you to stay safe. I know you believe you are, and I hope and pray that always remains true. But, this world you speak of that has changed so dramatically doesn’t appear to have many safe harbors for us.
Europe is one-legged stool, so near to total collapse that a nudge from any direction would tumble it into a heap. Africa is a shambles. Australia is being run by an imbecile. Mexico is being run by drug cartels. South America is overrun with Communist satellites. China is feisty and incomprehensible.
Russia is up to no good. And, the Middle East is a tinderbox.
And, lest we forget, such denials are echoed viciously by the leading media, who have long since ceased reporting about the real world in favor of promulgating the fantasyland of their fellow oracles. As I predicted last time, this did not earn them respect or honor from the American people. And that’s good news.
There is no good news, Michael. There is no news. The information stream is poisoned. It is toxic. We keep calling treason, propaganda and lies “mainstream media”. If that’s the main stream, I don’t wish to drink from it. Yet, so many still do.
They will NEVER let Romney discuss…as we have here…the truth of our dire situation. They will NEVER let Romney expose the “inside” threats to our well being, since they are part and parcel of those very threats. I would submit they are at the top of the list of evils confronting us.
They will NEVER let Romney suggest that Russia, China and hardcore leftism is a virulent threat to our existence. That the communist-lite, or small c communism that invaded and has eaten away Europe is now destroying America.
No, they will scoff and say he is “stuck” in the Cold War.
They will continue to deride strong stances against terrorism and push the soft tyranny of appeasement and knee stroking of our sworn enemies. They will continue to slap our allies in the face and tell lies about them…and us…and our combined intentions.
They are not oracles, Michael. They are instead tentacles. Being wrapped around our throats. And strangling truth out of our existence.
Stay safe, Michael. Treachery is around every corner.
I’m not sure that anyone else has noticed but Mitt Romney has a habit of stating the raw unvarnished truth. He did it when he talked about the 47%, He did it at the Olympics. He did it when he talked about Palestine. The Beltway Bedwetter set all worry about the ‘optics’. (“How will this look?”) If they want facts at all, they want them sugar-coated. Mitt doesn’t sugar-coat anything.
This habit of stating the raw naked truth stems from a successful business career where there is a saying:
“The truth will set you free but first it will make you uncomfortable”
Once you’ve faced and accepted the real truth, then you can proceed to fix the problem. It’s time we had a president who will tells (and operate from) the truth no matter how painful it is.
I believe Mitt Romney will be a great president.
The turmoil in the Islamic world is a distraction. The greatest danger to the US is posed by China.
It has already devastated the US economy more than Islamist lunatics could ever dream of doing.
Getting bogged down in Afghanistan has distracted the US from the war China has been waging against it.
No more stupid Middle Eastern wars. There is no victory to be won in those places.
The major problem is time frame we use to make determinations.
The USA has been on straight line decline for over 50 years, since we handed power over our currency to Saudi’s in 1971. The Petro Dollar system Nixon created catapulted Saudi Arabia into drivers seat of greatest economic engine the world had ever seen. And they have taken full advantage of this, funding terrorist cells in Pakistan, the MB, Hamas, and funding the spread of Sharia law worldwide.
The odds are Saudi Arabia had much more to do with 9/11 than acknowledged, and there is legislation working through congress to open full investigations into the role the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia played in the attack. In any case we are funding our own Demise
Either American people are truly ignorant, or willfully refuse cause and effect, or are blindly happy watching reality television and don’t want to be bothered with truth. Either way someone at PJM needs to write the whole truth instead of selecting which part benefits whom.
Just write the ugly truth and stop worrying where the chips fall.
It is the same world it’s always been, at root. Under the Cold War, the rules were pretty clear. So we drilled as tots to hide under desks in kindergarten when the Russian bombs hit. Now there is TSA groping and ‘raying’ the five year olds.
What is the real threat to any citizen from the mega-threats? That’s hard to calculate. I remember, as a junior in high school, writing my History paper on the Cuban Missile crisis. Mr. McKenna, a really fine teacher, was thrilled with my effort. I was pleased with the grade, but what I remember most was realizing that a few years earlier we had all been on the precipice of being destroyed.
It’s dangerous out there. Hard to say, though, whether a jihadist from East Jerusalem is a bigger threat than a mini-van driver in the heart of the city.
Problem with all of the mega-analyses is that Western weakness has invited most of the current problems. So, what to do, what to do…enjoy life?
“Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public.”
“The demagogue is one who preaches doctrines he knows to be untrue to men he knows to be idiots.”
“Every decent man is ashamed of the government he lives under.” H.L. Mencken
Ah, in 2012, we’ve devolved into a mainstream media that makes apes look smart—and self-conscious!
I WANT to think a majority of Americans have at last got what Obama & co. are, and that if they put him in control for 4 more years, they’re choosing national suicide. Count me as dubious, though.
So many fat people, man! Fat bodies must imply lots of fat heads.
One way or the other, though, from the individual to the mega-corporation and nation state level, indeed especially the “religion” level, we’re bound for a great purging.
Change is a’comin!
An aside—I intuited that Clint Eastwood’s use of a chair was going to be important, going forward.
Now, we have some creative patriots lynching chairs.
Yes, Clint’s chair has (four) legs!
A further sign of the coming of an apocalypse—last week, Rush Limbaugh lurched into a killer application TRUTH. While ranting on about what a failure the MSM continues to be, in NOT doing its investigative job, he almost was in tears, when he said—
“We’re being cheated.”
Well, DUH!
Take a Slick Willie, and open the door to an Obama, who is Clinton to the nth power—cheaters, liars, thieves, in a powerful parade, in our face ripping us off.
Mencken has always been right—fools DESERVE fools as leaders, and get them, good and hard.
I can’t help but conclude that Mark Twain was prescient, in regards to this column of your’s Michael, when he said that a lie makes it half way around the world, when the truth is getting its trousers on.
Patience has its limits, and frankly counting on the US, to do the right thing, is an option that is diminishing in prudence.
I’ll facebook you, Michael, as to why.
It is indeed a time to get serious. The present incumbent in the White House has no sense whatsoever of the scope and extent of his responsibilities. He has one agenda and one agenda only: he wants to destroy the concept of constitutional government: in particular, the U.S. Constitution; and with it any restraints on executive power: i.e. Congress and the Supreme Court. The reelection of the incumbent as Presiddent of the United States will be a disaster; once thought to be inconceivable, but now a threat that is real. He is buying votes by unrestrained distribution of federal grants without anyone’s OK but his.
Tehran’s regime as yet is selling crude oil/petroleum, their selling crude to world decreased considerably, but it’s not enough to stop their nuke ambition. Crude oil and natural gas are the only power supply source for their satanic nuke ambition. The entire world must cooperate and attend and assist to stop bought petroleum of Iranian. They are using that money of any sort whether dollar or whatever else, for their military nuclear weapons not for peace or for their nation and ordinary life need. They are searching for evil, destruction and harm to the entire world. If any country after a while find that some self detonate nuke dropped on the hands of their gangs or extreme internal violent groups, it’s better to remember, one day in the past they don’t cooperate to global community to stop Iranian nuclear satanic ambition. Iranian’s whether their politicians or militaries, now on these days announcing they are going to start the global war, they declared intend to drag all the earth to evil and misery and war. They are not bluffing; they’ll do it at last as the same are doing in Syria now, see how they smuggle weapons to Syria by their passenger planes. They believe just only to Power, satanic power. They use the name of god and religion for their plots and conspiracies against the global peace. Stop to buy the oil from Iranians. Other OPEC agencies can easily support your needs to crude. This satanic insane is very dangerous for the entire world, if they run nuke production line facility as it is now in progress, you’ll be in real trouble, they smuggle the warheads everywhere to all the globe, easily as opium or cigarettes. Stop to buy oil of Iranians, even one drop, Please. The next step to force them quit and obey of global community, is to ban all the export to Iran’s country. Iranians depend in all the outside export. Everything Iranian’s have depend to importation that comes of outside. Forbid all the exports to Iran. Even their vegetables, fruits and wheat are exporting of outside. Their stomachs depend on you and your exports. Their wheat is coming from outside. Their bread is Made In Outside! They are weaker than you can imagine, but be careful do not let them get power by your exports, because with your exports they’ll dominant on you. Many times they declared “we don’t accept their culture, but we import their industries, their commodity, to use for our benefit to speed our advancement”. Progress and power imported comes of outside. Iranians think about their past history, their retrospect that wiped off many times repeatedly. But as yet they don’t get that continuously lesson taught by invaders. This regime is an evil type that must changed with a good one.
“If Iranians stomach gets full they will leaf the history”. Sir Winston Churchill.
”Iranians are not more than handful thief that live with each other brotherly”. Sir Winston Churchill.
If black reactionary run nuke production line they will incinerate the Middle East and other places globally.
Another great, great column. Regarding Romney — It is interesting to me that so many people describe him as mediocre when his resume demonstrates one extraordinary success after another. I am not accusing Dr. Ledeen of underestimating Romney; but many other experts systematically put him down. The only point I want to make here is that Romney’s aim is NOT to be the best candidate possible; it is to be the candidate most likely to win. They are not necessarily one and the same. If his campaign believes that he is already on a path to winning, and I believe that they do, then the sort of boldness that Dr. Ledeen advocates may not be the best course of action for the simple reason that it might put significant votes at risk without securing many others. I believe Romney will take a bolder stance in the debates and that he will ultimately prevail in the election — even (and perhaps especially) with the present campaign tentativeness.
I find it very disturbing that the Romney campaign is not using the opportunity it has now to blast Obama, Hillary, Susan Rice and his entire administration for its downright lie, deceit to the American people and the noxious cover up of its Libya events. Romney came out so great in the beginning attacking Obama’s response and all of a sudden all the energy fizzled and vaporized? Why?
Is it the failure of its campaign team? They need to be on offense and rightfully so and not sit back and play niceties. They need to be following the daily events and respond quickly with force by pounding at Obama, his failures and his bad policies.
It is really frustrating to see all of this being played out, Obama and the entire MSM on one side and us playing nice and on defense the other side.
Romney needs to come out of his shell and show strength. You can show strength of power while still show strength of character. If there was one President who possessed that it was Reagan, and Romney is not Reagan. But we still need to support him, cheer him on etc. Because Obama will bring us and our nation down if we do not.
The Big War (Global War) must occur because the bad human nature requires that, maybe I am really honest to the core. On this great platform (Faster, please) I say it quite frankly according to my nasty experience in the Homeland of Death Camps “Poland” : “the existence of Jews in Europe is highly threatened more than in the disgusting Muslim world.” Here in the bad Europe they considered Jews in Christ killers, they will never forgive you for that, Some stupid Jews should realize that.
Jews please (You) MUST support each other everywhere on the surface of the earth. You can not imagine how much you are an despised and cursed in ugly Europe. I have to say that honestly because my HEART AND SOUL WITH THE JEWS!!! the Jewish weakness is the end of the Jews!!!?? The Lion of Juda, if you are a weak, the European and Islamic wolves will eat you ruthlessly…Jews Wake up, please!!!???
When the world was unipolar after the collapse of the Soviet Union, how did the US express its leadership? Was the moon being colonized? Was the Superconducting Supercollider resurrected and funded? Were new sciences created? Did anything of artistic or cultural significance occur to ennoble the mind or soul? Or did the USA take the path of indolence and just let matters drift?
For what it’s worth, one of the key policy decisions happened when the USSR was beginning to go under. Namely, the Immigration Act of 1990. This Act, and its later amendments, helped to replace the American technological middle class. In other words, a top priority of American leadership when the chess-style pin of the USSR evaporated, was class warfare against the middle.
Leadership? A blue stained dress. Prince Henry the Navigator investing in a long range research project on the coasts of Africa? No, merely inheritance of the Empire of the Sea after pushing the British aside. And like an inheritor who does not realize a mountain of gold and silver like Potosi comes only once if at all, so the power slowly evaporates from the nerveless hand of an America that does not understand what good fortune it had had.
And this is an America that we now understand has been infiltrated and is in the process of being colonized by the historical and mortal enemy of Western civilization – the civilization that the USA was a pinnacle of.
Appeals Court Caves to TSA Over Nude Body Scanners BY DAVID KRAVETS 09.25.127
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/09/appeals-court-caves/
Cold War clearness is in the past.Peaceful mood preveils and the future predictions become unrealistic as the Friedman`s corporation`s ones.Strange book of military historian apeared about the contemporary state degradation and death,though the nuclear arms posession contradict this presumption as the absurd one.
Faster, please.
Kind of Spooky: OK, what if:
CIA decided to make a fool out of Obama before the election. So they feed his leftist, “hear no Islime terror, see no Islime terror, speak no Islime terror” with rubbish about a video.
But since Romney ran a scorched earth primary and scorched earth election campaign (convention), it did not matter that Obama looked/looks the fool on Benghazi.
Scorched earth means: trashing Gingrich and Santorum so many of their people voted by not moving their feet on Election Day. Dissing Ron Paul (big time) at the convention so his people stayed home on Election day. Ignore completely Palin and Herman Cain at the convention so their core people stayed home on Election Day.
Result: 2,000,000 fewer votes than McCain!
In three debates, Romney could not even accuse the president of being unable to say: Islime terror!
I thought McCain threw the election, I think Romney did too.