Posted on 04/06/2009 5:09:54 AM PDT by reaganaut1
PRAGUE — Hours after North Korea’s missile test, President Obama on Sunday called for new United Nations sanctions and laid out a new approach to American nuclear disarmament policy — one intended to strengthen the United States and its allies in halting proliferation.
...
Mr. Obama said that his administration would “reduce the role of nuclear weapons” in its national security strategy, and would urge other countries to do the same. He pointed to the agreement he reached last week with President Dmitri A. Medvedev of Russia to begin negotiations on reducing warheads and stockpiles, and said the two countries would try to reach an agreement by the end of the year. He also promised to aggressively pursue American ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, which in the past has faced strong opposition in Congress.
It is a strategy based on the idea that if the United States shows it is willing to greatly shrink the size of its atomic arsenal, ban nuclear testing and cut off the worldwide production of bomb material, reluctant allies and partners around the world will be more likely to rewrite nuclear treaties and enforce sanctions against North Korea and Iran.
In his speech, he said North Korea’s missile test illustrated “the need for action, not just this afternoon at the U.N. Security Council, but in our determination to prevent the spread of these weapons.”
“Rules must be binding,” he said. “Violations must be punished. Words must mean something.”
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
“It’s Alice in Wonderland time.”
Ain’t that the truth. Reagan’s vision of a nuclear-free world at least had some intellectual coherence. He was unabashed about making the investments in SDI and conventional forces that would have allowed us to reduce our reliance on nuclear weapons without being held hostage to any crackpot dictator who could covertly deploy even a handful of missiles.
In contrast, in the face of Obama’s seeking to gut our efforts in ballistic missile defense and his proposal to cut defense spending to the lowest share of GDP in many decades, his call to eliminate nuclear weapons essentially amounts to unilateral disarmament. It effectively would eradicate any form of deterrence of misadventures by China (e.g., to invade Taiwan) or Russia (e.g., to re-threaten Eastern Europe). It also would ACCELERATE rather than diminish the incentive of rogue nations to develop nuclear weapons since in the land of the blind, a one-eyed man is king etc.
Obama’s approach to foreign policy is the epitome of what child psychologists would call “magical thinking.” If we just “make nice” all the bad guys will go away. There are no REAL differences among us: it’s all just a big misunderstanding that will disappear if we talk about it enough. Come, let us all reason together. Unfortunately, the world’s bullies share none of these absurd worldviews—a inconvenient truth we ignore at our peril.
This position is entirely predictable.
The left sees ALL leadership of every country as the intellectual elite, simply by virtue of being in power. Since they are so intellectually superior, they will respond to reasoned diplomacy, every time, and all we have to do is “stop being belligerent” and defensive.
Seems like a twisted form of the old "Divine Right of Kings". If you're at the top, you much be brilliant, legitimate, and chosen by God -- otherwise you wouldn't be there, right? I can certainly see Obama thinking along these lines.
2010 can’t come soon enough.
“But the media nods their head and declares him brilliant.”
Just as they did when they declared the G-20 as a “great success” before any details came out about it.
Sure they will.
I think the various world heads of state are still in 'observe and test' mode with President Obama. Nothing serious, just watching him interact with his environment to gauge his responses. Were I a foreign dictator, I'd have the following observations thus far:
1. Popularity is his strongest attribute, and he is overconfident when his popularity is high. The inverse will likely be true as well.
2. He enjoys intimidation, but lacks the nerve to push anyone who can push back.
3. He is naiive, and passionately so, meaning he can be manipulated by using his own ego as leverage against him.
4. He is intelligent but fancies himself a mastermind, and is unaware that he telegraphs his moves clearly.
5. Not only is his bark worse than his bite, but he seems to think that barking is by itself the stronger weapon.
Most world leaders are calm, unblinking cutthroats or pompous liberal automatons. They had to be so, to get to their position. Obama's ability to impress the later comes at a direct loss of his ability to impress the former.
While it may seem like a great idea in Academia in reality it is not only naive it's extremely dangerous.
This is another attribute of the left that most can observe. We see them as taking no action, but they see talking AS action.
As for the rest of your points, they are described here:
Obama's Narcissistic Personality Disorder
Sometimes I just can’t believe this guy. His response to the North Koreans launching a missile, a missile that one day may have a nuclear warhead attached, is to call for us to disarm our nuclear weapons?!! Liberal “logic” just baffles me. These weapons are a big deterrant for countries hostile do us. Does he honestly think that if we get rid of our weapons, countries who are hostile to us will lay theirs down? If anything, that gives them MORE incentive to keep their weapons and/or develop weapons because they know that we will not have the same capacity to fight back.
What’s the cool, hip, PC, muticultural word for putz?
Putz.
The major thugs all over the world will be watching his reaction on this matter. I predict that he will make noise and generate an angry letter or two and that will be that. The thugs will look at this and think, “He is a weakling. It is time to be bolder than ever.”
Obama.
I was praying this was satire. (sigh)
HERE link to breaking Japanese report today. Well, this was to be expected. They will do this as well as start to move to scrap Article 9 of their Constitution which General MacArthur drafted to keep Japan a postwar- pacifist nation. They have had enough of North Korea next door and apparantly (some) want Japanese parliamentary law ammended to allow them to preemptively go in and destroy a rocket on the pad if they have reason to believe they are seriously being threatened. As it is now, their Self Defense Forces law allows for PAC-3 and AEGIS type defensive mode once the thing has been launched. But they want to push the envelope and become a "regular" nation, it seems.
Who can blame them to start on this parliamentary discussion just one full day after Chia Pet launched that damned thing?
I even heard a Japanese commentator on live national Japanese TV yesterday, as the news was breaking (the missile had been sent up only 20 minutes or so earlier) and his exact quote, I kid you not:
"Well, the reality is that Obama is now their president, and also, they just don't have the money anymore for this". He was referring to war if necessary with North Korea on an Asian front.
Fascinating. Many thanks for your posts, AmericanInTokyo...they are very informative.
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