Anti-Americanism

People in these parts insist that Bush has made the world hate us. They forget….how quickly they forget. Janet Albrechten via Barcepundit knows the truth however.

Long before America became Mr Big, European cultural superiority meant that the US was regarded as venal, vulgar and mediocre – a lack of authenticity pervaded every part of American life.

………..

Anti-Americanism cannot be explained simply by US policy stances or as anti-imperialism either. The US was hated during its isolationist periods and under its pacifist presidents. Under Bill Clinton, the US was a hyperpower according to French foreign minister Hubert Vedrine. (Clinton is now lionised by European elites as a effete kind of non-American). The hapless Jimmy Carter, so cautious of bloodshed that 52 hostages were held captive in the US embassy in Tehran for 444 days, was equally despised. Should he become president, even Barack Obama will also incur the anti-American wrath.

Read it, vs these little snippets.

Resolutions are in the Air

I’ll take a new one but I’m going “bind” myself to it. via the Victory Caucus.

We support victory in the war against radical Islamists. We supported the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, and we believe victory is necessary in both countries for America’s self-defense.

We believe that the radical regime in Iran, while not representative of the Iranian people, is a menace and that it cannot be allowed to obtain or build nuclear weapons.

We believe that Hezbollah is a terrorist organization that has killed hundreds of Americans and which waged war against Israel in violation of every law of war this past summer, and will do so again in the future.

We believe Israel is our ally and friend and deserves the full assistance of the United States in its battle with radical Islamists. We believe that Israel has repeatedly shown its willingness to negotiate a just and lasting peace, but that its enemies do not want peace, but the destruction of Israel.

We believe that the American military is the finest in the world and indeed in history, well led and superbly trained, and populated at every level by America’s best and brightest.

We support the troops, and those organizations which assist the wounded in their recoveries and support the families of those who sacrificed everything.

We support leaders who support victory.

Signed
Terri Goon

Gee, it’s true. That didn’t hurt at all.

In the meantime, David Broder is seeing a little re-bound from the President. I loved this bit regarding the President’s feelings on the resolution(s).

First, he argued that the House was at odds with the Senate, which had within the past month unanimously confirmed Gen. David H. Petraeus as the new commander in Iraq — the man Bush said was the author of the surge strategy and the man who could make it work.

Exactly!

WMD/Global Warming

Jeff is back in a big way with this post.

So the question of WMD really boils down to how one chooses to manage the consequences of a false negative versus the downside potential of a false positive.

Kind of like the Global Warming debate.

So, now that we’ve looked at two cases of managing downside risk potential for false positives and false negatives, does anyone have anything productive to suggest about Iran, other than doing nothing and watching from the sidelines as the worst case scenario unfolds?

Sudan

I love this post by Threesources regarding the mixed up feelings on US strength and Sudan. TNR is wanting to see us in Sudan.

When I first started blogging some German dudes kept asking about why we’d go into Iraq and not every other tinpot dictatorship around the world.
Hello? It’s not like we’re unlimited here. Shouldn’t we pick and choose? Doesn’t that make some sense?

Then you look at the Threesources blog and note, once again, that we barely have support for what’s going on now in Iraq and yet TNR wants us to expand our strength to do exactly the same thing only in Sudan so that we can AGAIN run from our commitments?? (Not that that’s happened yet)
Who on God’s green earth will every trust us to help again?
Let’s say we say to those raped and pillaged Sudanese, “Never fear, the US is here”.
What is the only logical response?
“Um – go away. We don’t need your kind of help here. At least now we’re holding our own”.

Afghanistan, a good TNR journalist would say, is reverting to lawless Talibanism, and Iraq is a Quagmire and a mistake of the current administration.
The UN is powerless and disinterested, and TNR wants the administration to organize a coalition of the willing. Let’s nuke China and free Tibet while we’re over there

Ta da!

An Army of Davids

Working it out in a direct way with an airline hijacker!

Spanish police arrested the suspected hijacker of a Mauritanian plane who was knocked over by a hard landing and overpowered by passengers today, a source close to the Mauritanian presidency said.

This after being jihadists were personally called to make attacks on Mauritanian rulers by Zawahri. You gotta love it when al-Qaeda gets a little spit in the eye.