If Only Stalin Knew
Alan Dershowitz’s belated realization that he’s been swindled would have been funny if it were not so tragic. He writes that Chuck Hagel’s nomination as secretary of defense “risks increasing the likelihood that Iran will develop nuclear weapons. It poses that risk because Hagel is well known for his opposition both to sanctions against Iran and to employing the military option if necessary.” In this he is undoubtedly correct.
The burden is now on Senator Hagel to persuade the Senate, the American people, and the leaders of Iran that he is fully supportive of the President’s commitment not to contain a nuclear armed Iran, but to prevent such a catastrophe from occurring, even if that requires the use of military force to achieve that commendable goal.
But as to causes he is completely wrong. Dershowitz’s statement ignores the obvious. If the president were so committed to preventing a nuclear Iran, then why did he nominate Hagel in the first place? The president could have selected any qualified candidate. That he chose Hagel can only indicate that is the true policy he wants to implement.
Words may be true or false, but actions rarely lie. And Dershowitz recognizes the danger, but not the truth. Not yet anyway. His problem is not with Hagel, a mere creature of Obama. The problem is with Obama himself. This must be obvious to a man of his intelligence. But to admit this would be to concede a fundamental error in judgment on his part. It would mean eating not just a little bit of crow, but four courses of it.
Dershowitz supported Obama. He now laments that:
Those of us who voted for President Obama and who want to be certain that Iran is never allowed to develop nuclear weapons, as the President promised, have legitimate concerns about this nomination. We hope that these concerns can be allayed by the President and his nominee, but if they are not, it will be the highest of patriotic duties to oppose Senator Hagel’s nomination.
It’s kinda late for that.
In this matter he can compare notes with Noam Chomsky who fruitlessly asked Hugo Chavez of Venezuela to release a judge whom El Commandate Presidente summarily arrested for having defied him. The Judge, Maria Lourdes Afiuni, ruled for one of Chavez’s opponents “who had been detained longer than the time allowed under Venezuelan law.” So she got thrown into the calaboose.
Several international groups have expressed concern about the arrest of Judge Afiuni. In December 2009, three independent human rights experts of the United Nations’ (UN) Working Group on Arbitrary Detention called for Judge Afiuni’s immediate and unconditional release …
On 8 July 2010, the European Parliament stated that it “Condemns the public statements made by the President of the Republic of Venezuela, insulting and denigrating the judge, demanding a maximum sentence and requesting a modification of the law to enable a more severe penalty to be imposed; considers that these statements are aggravating the circumstances of her detention and constitute an attack on the independence of the judiciary by the President of a nation, who should be its first guarantor.”
In July 2011, Noam Chomsky—who according to The Observer “Chávez has long considered … one of his best friends in the west”—published an open letter asking the government of Venezuela for “a humanitarian act that ends the judge’s detention”. Chomsky stated, “I am convinced that she must be set free, not only due to her physical and psychological health conditions, but in conformance with the human dignity the Bolivarian revolution presents as a goal. In times of worldwide cries for freedom, the detention of María Lourdes Afiuni stands out as a glaring exception that should be remedied quickly, for the sake of justice and human rights generally and for affirming an honourable role for Venezuela in these struggles.”
Perhaps Chomsky thought Chavez would heed his letter or at least read it. That Chomsky, who “Chávez has long considered … one of his best friends in the west” should count for less than nothing underlines the delusions of those who think gratitude, reciprocity, or promises count among rogues. You cannot make a deal with knaves. But you can make a fool of yourself trying.
It is not as if one could oppose Hagel because he could conduct an independent defense policy. He cannot. The only logical basis for objecting to his nomination must that in him the administration has concretely manifested its actual intentions. Thus, Hagel is just the beginning ‘the first sip, the first foretaste of a bitter cup which will be proffered to you year by year unless, by a supreme recovery of moral health you wake up and smell the coffee’ because he is an indicator of where Obama wants to go. There’s more — much more where that came from.
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Perhaps Americans told themselves stories, sung themselves lullabys and pretending that the right things were being done, fell asleep. Maybe narratives, delusions and play-acting suffocated clear eyed understanding and reality driven action.
The Hollywood entertainment and celebrity culture, the perversion of the justice system, the looting of the education system and the rise of Bully Government have much to answer for.
The whole debacle puzzles me and I can’t put my finger on when the switch was thrown to downgrade the old America to the new America. Was it after Nixon? After Reagan? After Clinton? After 9/11? After the ascendancy of the Boy King?
When will the “oh s..t!” moment come that saves the day?
The reason the “oh s**t” moment never happens is because it is preceded by the belief that “it won’t happen to me”. When you pay someone to get ahead of the line there’s always the possibility that if the scalper can cheat others then he might cheat you. About the only thing you can be sure of when a grifter takes your money is that he’s got your money.
Maybe Obama can turn the Hagel nomination into a fund raiser. What’s it worth to you for Obama not to nominate Hagel? Well Alan, what is it worth? To think this is Hagel’s fault is wrong. He’s just the piano player.
@ 1 stevesmith
put my finger on when the switch was thrown…
It was a boiling frog event. Easy to miss, but spotted well in advance:
“The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public’s money.” Alexis de Tocqueville.
When will the “oh s..t!” moment come that saves the day
Oh dear, this time it will be really bad. It will be some non-event in the great scheme of things. Most likely when some Islamist oversteps the mark with a nuke somewhere. The more the containment, the greater the release.
ADE
I’d say the “oh s..t!” moment was when FDR recognized the Soviet Union back in the day. The day being November 16, 1933, actually. Roosevelt had a series of negotiations D.C. with the Soviet for Foreign Affairs Commissar, Maxim Litvinov. After WWII (in 1951) Stalin had Litvinov killed in a car “accident” (apparently Uncle Joe liked to kill people this way, hence General Patton’s death via the same MO).
The Soviets filled the US with agents then, post 1933, and by WWII, actual Soviet spies occupied the government government throughout the entire system–even Harry Hopkins was one. If FDR himself was a Soviet spy, they could hardly have done any better.
So, November 16, 1933. It’s as good a date as any, I’d guess.
An Préachán
There are so many unappealing things about Obama that Dershowitz was willing to overlook. When the Constitutional Studies Professor Obama was running for President, and he told Joe the Plummer that he wants to spread the wealth around, where was the Constitutional Studies Professor Dershowitz to point out that that is not the duty of the President? Obama has been flouting the Constitution for years, where was the outrage? The outrage was with those who loved the Constitution, those whom Dershowitz and the media call “Right-wingers”.
@4 The Crow
The “oh shit” moment is not about the soviets, it is about us.
ADE
I bet Dershowitz still sleeps soundly at night knowing that he opposed the racist, sexist, fascist, homophobic Bush and Romney. He has gotten what he wanted. Now he, and the rest of Obama voters, will get what they deserve. Can’t make the future without breaking down the past. Support for Israel is so AmeriKKKan.
Are you sure you want to compare Obama to Stalin? Obama hasn’t had the life opportunities Stalin had.
Vanity is, according to “The Devil’s Advocate” Lucifer’s favorite sin.
Dershowitz and Chomsky thought that they were players in “The Inner Circle” but they were only the Projectionist.
“A man may do his best, but he cannot succeed in a task which from greed, or more likely from sheer stupidity, has been made too great for anybody’s strength.” Joseph Conrad-’SOME REFLECTIONS ON THE LOSS OF THE TITANIC’
If a man believes he can jump the Grand Canyon and tries it, the world is short one man out of seven billion. If he persuades someone to sit on his shoulders and come along, we have two less fools to deal with. But if he says ‘I can jump the canyon with the whole nation on my back’, he’s a bold man of vision and we make him president.
Perhaps it the modern notion that nothing is outside our ability not just to influence, but to control completely.
Bush’s sin was that he didn’t command Katrina to turn about and leave New Orleans alone; or that he didn’t call up the leaders of the Jihad and speak reassuring words to the little frightened child within their tortured souls.
There are a lot of people who believe that somewhere there is a switch or lever that if thrown will set all things right. A combination of words or a winning smile that will tame the savage beasts that ring us.
By themselves these notions are harmless, even amusing.
But when a man who truly believes them is given the wheel, ships sink, people die, nations fall.
I wonder – Obama is nominating so many outrageous people. Do you think he is gettign people to do so much sreaming now so that when the real screaming is needed – when the Supreme Court comes up – we won’t be able to?
Just the fact that the man used the term “Jewish lobby” as opposed t o”pro-Israel lobby” tells us a lot about both Obama and Hagel.
Lincoln said: ” You fool some of the people all the time, all of the people some of the time, but you can’t fool all of the people all of the time.”
Well Mr. Lincoln all you need to do is fool half of the people on election day.
A discussion on Fox News last night relative to Hagel was interesting.
One analyst said that it was simple. Hagel was for the stuff Obama is for even before Obama was for it.
Another, a former Democratic pollster, said, with considerable disgust, that it was simply that Obama was the most divisive President in history and by nominating Hagel, he could be even more divisive. “He actually enjoys this kind of thing.” is the way he summed it up, adding “One of these days one of these things is going to blow up on him.”
Another said that perhaps after Rice got shot out of the saddle before they even let the horse out of the barn that this was an “in your face” moment for Obama, along the lines of, “Well, if you didn’t like that one, you’re really gonna love this one, a-holes!”
But maybe it’s because no matter what happens, even when “one of those things blows up on him” he never even gets singed by the fireball. He still squeaked through after 4 disastrous years. A complaint MSM backed up by legions of low-information voters and combined with the always-subdued Repub makes sure he never suffers the consequences. Obama is Wile E. Coyote, except that he really can walk on air and the fake tunnel painted on the wall seems to be a real one when he hits it.
I think David Brooks is spot on: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/08/opinion/brooks-why-hagel-was-picked.html
Hagel was picked as GOP cover for coming fiscal evisceration of DoD. That mullah support and Israel-bashing is a side benefit.
Hagle’s nomination was just another way for 0 to pick a fight, now that the “fiscal cliff” battle is over. 0bama is so filled with hate he makes war for no reason; he just likes the sound of political gun fights and air strikes. He is a sore winner. I think Podhoretz wrote a book trying to explain why Jews vote the way they do; I don’t usually read mysteries, but I might try that one.
And I don’t think there will ever be the Oh Sh*t moment for most of our countrymen. After all, to reach an epiphany, one must be ascending. All the left does is burrow themelves deeper into the swamp, regardless of the realities unfolding before us all. Some individuals will self-rescue. David Horowitz climbed out when the Black Panthers murdered his friend who did their bookkeeping. Dennis Miller flipped when the planes hit. But the rest simply became truthers.
Interesting that Hagel is known for being so abusive that he can’t keep staff. So if Reid gets his way with the filibuster block and shoves Hagel into the Sec. Def. slot just how well will even the Perfumed Princes tolerate him. I predict he’ll piss of the wrong non-com and bad things will happen.
RWE- Pat Caddell was right – The Boy President Buraq relishes this sort of thing. And yes, Hagel is a sicko. Birds of a feather flock together.
Stephen B. – Bingo, All the better to destroy that evil Colonial Power, Amerika.
I have come to think of Democrats as a part of a cult. It practically takes a pysch intervention to pull a Democrat away from their cult. Pat Caddell is one of the rare ones who still can think straight. Alan Dershowitz has moments of clarity, but before long falls back into that same ol’ Democrat voodoo zombie trance.
Flexibilty! Just wait til his 2nd term actually starts…
One must always try to ignore the superficialities (what a person says; what a person does) and look at the deeper game.
When Hillary and Pelosi and Kerry (and the rest of the usual suspects) sucked up to Bashar al-Assad and viewed him with smiles (and head scarves) as the next best thing—the reformer!!—they were glorified as going that extra mile for peace, as thinking outside the box, as going where George W. Bush had never gone before (well at least they got the last one right).
At the same time, they were pilloried (by the other usual suspects) as being hopelessly naive, ridiculed as foolish dreamers, criticies as being dangerously ignorant of the nature of the Ba’athist regime in Damascus, as laying the ground for failure; weakening America’s prestige. Hanging Israel out to dry….
Well, just look at where that good ole’ Syrian regime is now!!!… (And it cannot be denied: credit must be given where credit is due.)
So back to Hagel in the here and now: The appointment of Hagel is an extraordinarily shrewd move by our Confabulator-in-Chief (who knew?).
Hezbullah is a social/political organization devoted to good works? Check.
Iran’s been misunderstood—in reality, the mullahs are realists who can be talked to and worked with (and who love their children)? Check.
Hamas is OK? Check.
(And for added effect: The US will not, I repeat will not, IOW WILL NOT be pushed around by the Israel/Jewish Lobby? Check and double-check!)….
(One might think that Hagel is, in fact, over-qualified for the position of SecDef…)
…Nevermind. Just wait a year or two….
Oh baby!
Remember, the deeper game. The DEEPER game? That’s right, the mullah’s are toast. Hezbullah’s toast. Hamas’s toast. It’s inevitable.
So don’t underestimate Hagel’s absence of qualifications or his goofy grin (even if it might remind one of the neighborhood drunk—a bit embarrassing but harmless enough).
Nope. He and Obama (and the rest of that extraordinary crew on the ship of state) have it all figured out: Give the gangstas what they want…and the poor bastids won’t know what hit ‘em (proof of which is Iran’s official gladhanding of Hagel’s nomination—hmmm wonder how Prof. Walt might want to spin that!!…but of course, one already knows.)
That’s right. We gots ‘em where we wants ‘em.
(If we only knew it…)
I can’t put my finger on when the switch was thrown to downgrade the old America to the new America
I would nominate Switch Day as March 6, 1857. That is decision day for the Supreme Court case of Dred Scott v. Sandford. Ostensibly the case was about the limit of Federal authority in the territories. What makes it my Switch Day is that the Supreme Court of the United States established as the law of the land that the State alone has the power to determine the worth of each human being, indeed, that the State alone shall have the power to determine who is to be a human being.
Utility trumped human dignity as the foundational basis of society. Nothing could be more Hobbesian.
Dred Scott v. Sandford has been modified but it has never been overturned. The awful consequences of structuring society to value human beings by their usefulness and not their dignity has never been addressed. The winning argument in Roe v. Wade (1973) is nearly an exact mirror of the argument made in Dred Scott. 50 million souls, and counting, have paid the blood price for that one decision alone.
The great divider strongly dislikes most Americans. In this light the Hagel nomination is what could be expected. Only the most committed progressives and Obama himself are prefectly satisfied with the constant internal war. Once they have made every function of government a battle then they can isolate the enemy and each graduating outrage will diminish in scale and eventually be lost in the noise. America now represents the Party and the Party only.
#18
I have come to believe that backing Assad may have been the right move. His survival depends on his ability to defeat the Muslim Brotherhood and its militant Al Qaeda wing. That is probably why the administration flipped on him and not his use of force. The Obama administration is committed to supporting radical Islam as a solution to stability in the Middle East.
In the summer of 2001 the National Intelligence Officer for the Middle East wrote an opinion peace in the NYT in which he proclaimed that we had nothing to fear from radical Islam because it was a democratic movement. John Brennan, who drives the Administration’s Mideast policy, is a CIA/DI Arabist who supported and probably still supports this view. Let us not forget the institutional anti-Semitism of the Arabist clique at CIA and State also underpins this view of the Muslim Brotherhood.
Assad is going to lose because he cannot overcome the Arab hatred of the Jews. The Sunni Palestinians have gone over to his real enemies in the Muslim Brotherhood. If Assad were smart he would tell the Palestinians to piss off and make a deal with Israel. Between Putin and Netanyahu he would be sure to survive. To paraphrase Abba Eban “the Arabs never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity.”
Regarding Iran, I’m all for negotiations, though I don’t expect them to work. I’m also against sanctions, which certainly don’t work and tend to hit the wrong people. I also don’t want to put American troops on the ground there. It is a huge question just what we should or can do Maybe Hagel has some suggestions, above and beyond talk? But here’s the thing, how much of that comes under the purview of a Secretary of Defense anyway? What does Mr. Rifleman with two purple hearts, know about strategic weapons, logistics, C3 systems, DoD contracting, etc? We know he’s the worst staff manager in Washington, wonder how he is reporting to a President? Maybe he’ll walk off in a snit or get his ass fired in the first 90 days anyway, or roll his desk chair over a Claymore mine.
As for Dershowitz, what can one say about him, he should just go over to J Street and say their shahada and have peace.
Sure I’m against Hagel. Yet, I don’t see how my opposition makes any difference. Alan Dershowitz has personally made sure that none of my opposition can make any difference.
As harsh as this sounds, Alan Dershowitz made his bed with Obama. He deserves Obama and everything Obama dishes out to him – including Charles Hagel. Senator Hagel may not be good for my country, but so what? Barack Obama has been effectively telling me that my country isn’t my country.
If a majority of American Jews would prefer to vote for an administration that functions as a puppet of the Muslim Brotherhood than anybody who would help them or help Israel, there is a limit to how much they can be helped.
Charles Hagel is a signal of future policy. Iran will be allowed to develop a nuclear arsenal, and Israel will be restrained from doing anything about it. If Alan Dershowitz doesn’t like it, he should have thought of that before either of the last two presidential elections.
All nominations, except court nominations, are only a dog and pony show in the court of Obama. Why would any sentient conservative imagine that they can affect events by a nomination? Perhaps they just want to be part of the show.
stephen b @ 13 – So the Republicans need to bite the bullet and accept sequestration as the cost of non-defense fiscal restraint.
Tell everyone that they have already cut Pentagon spending in a proportionate manner to how they intend to cut non-defense spending and then reduce the salaries of GS employees 5% a year for the next ten years. At the end of that period, government payrolls with be about 60% of what they are today, with the resultant reduction in future pension costs. (The miracles of baseline budgeting!)
What is sauce for the goose (the Pentagon) is sauce for the gander (the government employee unions).
Poll voters and ask them if they would mind if we cut the salaries of government bureaucrats by a measly 5% a year (a negative COLA)? Let the public sector employees join arm-in-arm with their private sector brethren! SOLIDARITY FORVER!
Then the Republicans can “Lead From Behind” the pollsters, who have proof that the American People want reduced government spending!!! And they are willing to “pay” for it via reduced salaries for bureaucrats!
#21.
The “funny” thing about the M.E. is that it almost so often converts some of the most clever minds to blithering incoherence, even parody. Of course, their hearts are in the right place. (Of course they are.)
(To be sure, other, less astute minds require no alchemy; but then, their hearts are no doubt also in the right place.)
Several points to keep in mind:
1. Arab political leaders all too often provide one with sets of alternatives, one being worse than the next.
2. Assad himself, and his regime, foments hatred of Jews. It is nothing that he would like to—or intends to—overcome. On the other hand, one may, perhaps, view the entire catastrophe that is the Arab world as “blowback” pure and simple for the hatred—whether of Jews, of Christians, of the West, or of one another—they hold so intensely (it’s a cultural thang).
3. As for making a deal with Israel in order “to survive”—um, well, what can one say? Is that parody?
4. As for Arabs “missing opportunities”, are you quite sure that your definition of “opportunity” is the same as their definition of “opportunity”? (Yes, this was Eban’s problem as well, nifty sounding epigram as it is….)
Once again, it’s a region that does not make a lot of people—how should one say this?—look their best…even if their hearts are in the right place, etc….
No, it’s not parody. Assad is gambling that he can stlll survive with Russian support alone. This is a dubious proposition. He would have a much better chance if he made a deal with Israel. What are the Sunnis going to do? Revolt?
A very informative interview which I think sheds much light on the real dynamic between US/Israel relations:
http://youtu.be/rc-sdTUuERM
The problem is with Obama himself. This must be obvious to a man of his intelligence
Dershowitz is the same boob who stated that Bill Clinton was “a centrist with libertarian tendencies.” If this “intelligent” man doesn’t know his ass from a hole in the ground on matters of ideology, why expect him to be clear-headed about Obama?
Hagel will make a great secretary of defense as long as he understands what his job is. I think the interview went like this:
Obama: Chuck I am considering you for Secretary of Defanse. I know you must feel just bursting with joy and somewhat intimidated to be sitting here with me, but tell me what plans you would have.
CH: Well to start with I think we can trim the budget for new Ships That Go Underwater, but we should expand our bases in the Pacific. Then I think…
O: Ahhh, hmmm very intersting but I do not see how that relates to your job.
CH: But there is more, you see…
O: Let me explain. A Secretary helps a boss to do his job. I am the boss so your job is to defend…me. Like for example you know those flashy things from Men In Black that makes people forget stuff like that mess in Benghazi? You could work on getting those thingies. Or maybe you could develop a ‘stealth apologizer’ so I can use the element of suprise towords those I may have offended.
CH: Well I do have a list of the 15 most dangerous enemies and issues facing our country around the world. I could just change the title to “15 things that do not exist and don’t even want to mention – ever”
O: Now you got it! (hi five)
And so another smart American Jew may slowly come to the realization that he is a fool. Sad, but hardly surprising. Unfortunately, Alan Dershowitz has no excuse. No one who voted for Obama had any excuse, really. Obama demonstrated repeatedly by word and action that he is objectively pro-Muslum and anti-Jew, full stop. He bows to Muslum tyrants and cannot be bothered to act civily with the elected Prime Minister of Israel. He guts defense spending, cuts weapons and troop levels, takes no action in response to Iranian terrorism and opposes sanctions that Congress passed over his objections – If Mr. Dershowitz did not draw any conclusions from all this, it was because he did not want to.
As for the Hagel nomination, well, this is Obamas show. And, this is what the American people want, as demonstrated by their votes. The inevitable result will be a poorer, weaker, less safe America that may end up being a victim of Iranian nuclear terrorism – but the American people have made their choice clear.
As to the larger issue of when the rot began to set in, well, I would say that was when the US began to make the transitin from a constitutional Republic with majority rule linked to minority rights with a real Democracy based on little more than the whim of the majority. If you want a reference point, I would say that the introduction of the progressive income tax would be it, because it introduced the idea that you could treat people differently based on nothing more than a popular whim. The minute you start to treat individual rights as something optional, you are asking for trouble.
At some point, we will join with Kurtz…”the horror, the horror…”
The response will be That Smug Smile crowing “I Won.”
Why after last elections I often recall ancient event in Rome’s history when some emperor (Caligula?) sent his horse to the Senate?
32. Joan
“The response will be That Smug Smile crowing “I Won.””
Not necessarily. Obama and his ilk are playing with a two edged sword called “Nobody Here But Us”. By that I mean the American people. In the U.S. there is no-one else who matters.
Because there is Nobody Here But Us then Obama is entirely dependent on the compliance of Americans for his power. North America is not Russia where they had a few months of a democratically elected government headed by poor old Kerensky. North America is frigging North America where the U.S and Canada have known self elected governments since 1758 (First General Assembly of Nova Scotia).
If Nobody Here But Us, becomes non-compliant then Obama is screwed. He can scheme and scam all he wants and right now the majority is going along with it. The day will come when Nobody Here But Us has had enough and because he or his doppelgangers have no one else to turn to, his era will end.
See how optimistic one gets once there is a deep base on the ski-hill?
IMHO switch was thrown during Clinton administration when Democrats went to mat arguing it was “only about sex” and “everybody lies about sex” so it was OK for political leader of a major party, and leader of our country, to be exposed as a blatant adulterer, unashamed to use power of his office to seduce a young intern, and it was all OK.
I think this was a turning point in country, one that let Democrats know if you fought to bitter end you could achieve your ends, really at no ultimate cost. “Winning” became all that was important.
Re #32. Joan “The day will come when Nobody Here But Us has had enough and because he or his doppelgangers have no one else to turn to, his era will end.”
Color me skeptical: at that moment they will announce “bold initiative” and flood country with cheap domestic energy pumped from federal lands and thus buy off enough votes again.
grrr #36:
Color me skeptical too.
You are confabulating my comment with those of stevesmith at #34.
The “Nobodies Here” are low information voters who voted for Obama, and purists who stayed home rather than vote for Romney.
Until the culture changes, we are stuck with the politics that we have.
…you always find that there was a time before that point when there was more elbow room and contrasts weren’t quite so sharp; and that there’s going to be a time after that point when there is even less room for indecision and choices are even more momentous. That Hideous Strength – by C.S. Lewis – p. 283
Bruce Charlton used this C.S. Lewis excerpt to describe how the Church of England is “at the point” where choices are becoming momentous.
Is Obama the apogee of liberalism or are things going to get a whole lot more authoritarian? No society can function indefinitely on a make-believe reality.
Are URL links in the comments section now verboten?
Josh #22: “I’m also against sanctions, which certainly don’t work and tend to hit the wrong people.”
John, when we burned down those Japanese cities did we hit the wrong people?
Yes, no doubt tens of thousands of honest, decent, hardworking Japanese died. The descriptions of the Japanese fire brigade girls and their protective turbans – which ignited in the firestorm – is one of the most horrifying things I have ever read.
But the real reason they died was that they tolerated the Emperor and the Japanese military and willingly worked to support them.
Elections have consequences. But not having them does as well.
The last line of one of RAH’s greatest works :
“Puppet masters! The free men are coming to kill you! Death and destruction!”
My nomination for America’s “Oh s–t” moment will come when the liberal majority Supremes undo the 32nd Amendment and The Won wins his 3rd term. Think that can’t happen?? There’s more of them than there is of us. My first “Oh s–t” moment came in Nov. ’08. My second was when Johnny Roberts gave us Obamacare. My third one was Nov. 2012. I think I may be clinically depressed.
rwe @ 40: when we burned down those Japanese cities did we hit the wrong people?
That was better – we got everyone, some “innocent” and some guilty. In sanctions, the “guilty” elite mostly escape. You may extrapolate accordingly my attitude on Iran. I agree that in such situations “innocence” is problematic. Perhaps worse sanctions just don’t work, are always undercut by smuggling and corruption, so beyond the headline nothing much happens, certainly nothing good, unless you’re a smuggler.
The moral of this story is that there is no honor among theives, even the ones from Chicago who promise you utopia if you just support them one more time. If you suspect the person you’re dealing with is untrustworthy, better get it in writing. Better yet, just limit yourself to dealing with the trustworthy.
“Deserves got nuthin’ to do with it” – William Muny, as played by Clint Eastwood.
Do we deserve to become a broken country like Argentina? No, but it is going to happen.
A lot of history is full of undeserved tragedy and death, yet it happens.
A lot of good comments about what was the “oh shit” moment in US history, but mine would be the advent of television, and the impact it had on politics. Because it then became less important what you said or the content of your ideas, but how you looked.
And John Kennedy, compared to Richard Nixon, looked marvelous.
When will the defecation encounter the oscillation? Answer is when Obama suddenly cannot grease all the palms that think him omnipotent.
Same basic thing that happened in the Philippines. In fact I refer to the
encumbrances as “Ferdinand and Imelda Obama”. The comparisons are IMHO more than a little valid.
It may all come about in the next four years or it may simply come about when
he has to depart after 8 years. Quien Sabe? This reign of greed will fall.
Main concern, at least for me, is foreign affairs and military matter. If the world loses Pax Americana instead of making it solid, then the world will be in for another 1914-18 and aftermath. Trust in God and keep your powder dry!
Next: Obama will try to eviscerate the Constitution via Cass Sunstein and Georg Soros’s group “The Constitution in 2020″.
Dershowitz and those claiming that Hagel is an anti-semite are not doing Israel any favors.
The Americian president is Barak Obama and Hagel is to be the Secretary of Defense. Israel has stayed out of this because they know that these are the people they need to work with for the next 4 years. As much as we blame Obama for the cold relationship, Israelis blame Netanyahu for the same thing.
In the spirit of Wretchard’s Hobbit review: Dershowitz as Gandalf: “It’s the ring-wraiths that are our problem. We can trust Sauron”.
#47: “As much as we blame Obama for the cold relationship, Israelis blame Netanyahu for the same thing”. – That could only be seen as true in a bizarro “Obamaverse”. Netanyahu looks to be re-elected and form a government with an even more conservative coalition while polls show Jewish Israelis overwhelmingly distrust Obama.
Re # 37. Joan “You are confabulating my comment with those of stevesmith at #34.”
Sorry about that, my bad.
“The “Nobodies Here” are low information voters who voted for Obama, and purists who stayed home rather than vote for Romney.
Until the culture changes, we are stuck with the politics that we have.”
My reading of history is that culture changes with a lot of blood. Either fast and violent or slow and long. But suffering and death is always there. Even seemingly bloodless SU collapse was followed by couple of decades of slow mostly unnoticed sufferings and deaths.
With regard to Romney I’ve noticed that he was strangely tongue tied during last stretch of the campaign as opposed to his vicious attacks on Gingrich at al. during primaries. My guess is that it was preordained by puppet masters. What I cannot figure out is the purpose.
#47 spindok,
Which Israelis blame Netanyahu? Only left wing ones and not even all of them. Even my mother that has been leftist all her life and hates Netanyahu and was deluded enough in 2008 to think Obama may be nice to us, came up soon enough with the opinion that Obama is a Muslim as an explanation for his behavior.
And I don’t think those outside Israel who raise these issues with Hagel hurt Israel. They put him and Obama on the defensive. It can only hurt the relationship if Israeli politicians or diplomats make such comments. But anyway the relationship is going to be worse than in Obama’s first term (since now he doesn’t have to get reelected). It doesn’t matter what Israel does or doesn’t do (short of committing suicide). There’s no one to work with in the White House.
“Oh SHIT” is often the last thing a pilot says before the impact. i.e. they realize their mistake too late to take corrective action.
Damn arrogant, willfully blind asses are going to get us all killed. Unlike the pilots, we can see this coming YEARS in advance, but they just keep the stick down while they insist that they know what they are doing.
in the beginning, there were jews who supported hitler. we know how that ended.
history repeats in strange ways. no one sits at the feet of his “mentor”, rev. wright, for 20 years without conviction. what fools.