A Foreign Policy that Protects America's Vital National Interests

Why is the Pakistan-Afghanistan border more important than the US-Mexican border?

Beamish chided me recently for using the term Neocon. It's not the first time a fellow conservative has challenged me on it, so I decided to post my thoughts on the issue.

I use it because it is a generally understood term, but alas it is also fraught. For many it is codeword for International Jewish Conspiracy. Anyone who knows me or who has spent any amount of time here knows that I do not traffic in such bigotries and conspiracies. When I use the term, I mean it to designate those armchair generals who loudly beat war drums, although they themselves have never been to war and usually have no children or family who would march off on any of their foreign adventures.

Convert them to our side with a freedom agenda...

I understand what George Bush was trying to do, but he did it poorly, mostly because no one else in the world, including our own foreign policy establishment, would cooperate with him. Rolling into other countries and blowing their stuff up is not the best way to convert people to our freedom agenda, even if we kill the odious dictator who had his jackboot on their necks. He may be a bastard, but he's still their bastard, and we are still the foreign occupiers who humiliate them twice. First by doing what they themselves should have done, and secondly by occupying their country, with the cascading misunderstandings that cause thousands of civilian deaths.

I pray Iraq may yet end up successful. There is a chance, since no country, especially a proud Arab one, will go willingly into the arms of a neighbor, let alone a Persian one. They may decide we are the best partner they have. Afghanistan, on the other hand, is a sinkhole of ignorance and corruption, and no amount of further intervention will change that. Once the Northern Alliance took Kabul we should have handed them the keys and wished them luck.

We have new wars to fight in the 21st century, but they are all shadow wars

China has completely penetrated our civilian and government networks. The legions of shipping containers arriving at our shores and airports every day are ripe opportunities for the next strike, and we have no control over who enters our country, with people coming, going and setting up camp here with impunity. We will also continue to conduct quiet military assistance to those willing to do the dirty work themselves.

CFR President Richard Haass (a liberal Brookings Institute type who I nonetheless find myself in often agreement with) surveys the threats to the US:

The world's most powerful countries may not always agree with the U.S., but rarely do they see it as implacably hostile or an impediment to their core objectives. U.S. relations with the principal powers of this era are for the most part good or at least good enough.

As a result, the biggest external threats confronting the U.S. are the spread of nuclear materials and weapons, the possibility of pandemic disease, climate change, a breakdown in the functioning of the world's financial and trade systems—in short, the dark side of globalization.

Also of concern are medium-size hostile states (Iran and North Korea) that have access to weapons of mass destruction, and weak states (e.g., Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen) that are unable or unwilling to police their territory to ensure it is not used by terrorists, drug cartels or pirates. (Richard Haas - Bring our Foreign Policy Home)

Haas’s foreign policy Recommendation?

“… a U.S. foreign policy based on restoring this country's strength and replenishing its resources—economic, human and physical.”

Restoration is not isolationism. Isolationism is the willful turning away from the world even when a rigorous assessment of U.S. interests argues for acting. Isolationism makes no sense in a world in which the U.S. cannot wall itself off from terrorism, proliferation, protectionism, pandemic disease, climate change or a loss of access to financial, energy and mineral resources. An embrace of isolationism would accelerate the emergence of a more disorderly and dangerous and less prosperous and free world.

Restoration is very different. The U.S. would continue to carry out an active foreign policy—to create international arrangements to manage the challenges inherent in globalization, to invigorate alliances and partnerships, to deal with the threats posed by an aggressive North Korea, a nuclear-armed Iran and a failing Pakistan. (Richard Haas - Bring our Foreign Policy Home)

No more wars of choice, but a strong military that puts the world on notice that we will crush you if you mess with us. Time to let some distant fires burn and start cleaning up our own backyard.

Problem (not) Solved

Imagine the credit rating downgrade conversation between the US Government and Standard & Poor's...

Uncle Sam:  How dare you! Do you know who I am?

S&P:  Yeah, just another bum living beyond your means...

But one could also loudly ask where the hell S&P gets off doing such a thing.  This is the same ratings organization that gave the gold seal thumbs up to the financially toxic underwater shitbombs packaged and sold to an unsuspecting world by the Wall Street gangsters it was in cahoots with.

The Standard & Poor's Seal of Approval was all over those "toxic assets" President Bush explained were "clogging the system."  Instead of taking a plunger and flushing the whole damned stinking mess down, he instead watched helplessly as Dirty Hank Paulson and his merry gang of Wall Street pirates blew a hole in the side of The Treasury.  The congressional looters came in after and finished the job, with Boss Obama handing out checks to union cronies and rotten state and local governments.

So Now What?

Economics reporter extraordinaire James Pethokoukis laments the lack of a comprehensive plan for governmental and financial reform.  Congress and the president applied a band-aid to the pinky, completely ignoring the sucking chest wound.

Progressives rightly point out that we cannot afford our government at current rates of revenue collection. We are spending close to 25% of GDP while collecting only around 17%, producing an annual gap of around $1.5 trillion, not including the growing bow wave of unfunded liabilities as the baby boomers retire. The Social Security lock box is full of intergovernmental IOUs which must be paid out of the general treasury, which means this “self-sustaining” program will have to be supported from the general budget, putting us deeper in the hole.

It’s time for a fundamental debate in this country about just what government should and should not be doing, and how we propose to pay for it.

Three Plans

* Simpson - Bowles:  The presidential commission whose results the president ignored.  I think he gave Alan Simpson the Dali Lama treatment and laughed from an upstairs window as Simpson stepped through a bag of stinky garbage on his way out. 

* The People’s Budget - Aptly named, The moniker is reminiscent of the glory days of that communist workers’ paradise, The old Soviet Union.  This is the Congressional Progressive Caucus's stab at destroying our nation by destroying the economy by driving every last job creator to China.

* The Ryan Roadmap - Paul Ryan's plan.  Scored by the CBO and the only truly viable plan of the three.

All parties need to keep in mind that such plans can only take hard numbers so far. Since they project out into the future, the authors must make demographic and economic assumptions, and those are the details the devil wallows in, and that is where the fighting takes place.

As a public service to my fellow Blogistanis, I've collected some links that describe and discuss each of the three plans.

Ryan's Roadmap

Roadmap for America’s Future
Jed Babbin – Ryans Roadmap
Paul Ryan – Where’s Your Budget, Mr. President?
CBO Analysis of Roadmap
Misunderstanding the Ryan Roadmap

The People's Budget

The People’s Budget
Megan McArdle – The People’s Budget
CS Monitor – The People’s Budget 

Simpson-Bowles

Simpson Bowles Report
Tax Policy Center – Simpson Bowles
Derek Thompson – Simpson Bowles Summary

Quotable Quotes

I should have the following posted on my masthead:

A freewheeling blog where the comments are better than the posts that inspire them!

This is not false humility or a backhanded search for compliments, and I’m not trying to curry favor. I really mean it.

Some excellent debate goes on here, and we are fortunate for the diversity provided by the likes of Jez, Ducky and Jersey, who enter this arena unafraid to duke it out with the conservatives, libertarians and the dreaded tea partiers. I also appreciate people like Jack Camwell and the ever-garrulous FreeThinke, who stake out their own brand of conservatism and give no quarter. Of course, my favorites are those like Z, AOW, Conservativesonfire and MK who agree with me, but that goes without saying…

Anyway, here are just a few of my favorite comments over the past few weeks. As usual, Professor Bastiatarian leads the way.

Bastiatarian:
Each time a liberal/Democrat/leftist/collectivist/progressive blurts out the charge of "RACIST!" I interpret it as that individual saying "Hello, I'm a complete moron. I engage in absolutely no intellectual activity whatsoever. Instead, I emote and repeat the idiocy that I hear spewed out by other imbeciles in my liberal/Democrat/leftist/collectivist/progressive emo club."

As for the moron in the White House, he's as much white as he is black, for one thing. Second, the reason I want him to fail and ultimately be eradicated from any position in which he has any effect on anything at all is not that he is half non-white, but that he is an incompetent buffoon, a genuinely bad person, and an enemy of everything that is important to decent, intelligent people around the world.

When it comes right down to it, the so-called liberals are merely projecting. They don't have the intelligence or integrity to avoid racist thought (or even realize that "race" itself is a pseudo-scientific concept), so they believe that everybody is as depraved and malicious as they are. ( http://westernhero.blogspot.com/2011/08/its-because-hes-black.html)

Trestin Meacham:
If we are ever invaded our only hope is that Washington falls first. (http://westernhero.blogspot.com/2011/08/perfect-storm-of-stupidity.html)

FreeThinke:
Until 911 it was always the Koran. As far as I am concerned it is STILL the Koran and never will be the Qu'ran. I feel the same way about Peking and Bombay and Burma. (http://westernhero.blogspot.com/2011/07/european-terror-fallout.html)


Finally, here is a YouTube sent to me by Mustang as his own response to my Friday post about government welfare programs.  If this doesn't doesn't piss you off I don't know what will.  And why are we giving taxpayer money away to able bodied young adults?




Have a great weekend!

We Have a Long Way to Go

Vlad The Impaler Putin, leader of a country where thousands of alcoholics still die each year from drinking antifreeze, had the gall to call America a parasite.

President Obama responded by apologizing, and then he answered an economic question: 

"We've still got a long way to go before we hit bottom. I ain't done changin' it yet. A powerful country like the United States, you can't flush it down the toilet overnight. It takes time... Be patient!"


Hold the Champagne

I know, I was kicking up my heels yesterday at our glorious small government victory (small though it was), but there’s a long road ahead. We have just begun to fight, and the specter of hubristic overreach stalks conservative plans.

GOP lawmakers need to proceed with caution.  The press is the maidservant of Obama, and they know how to churn out the propaganda.  WaPo writer Ruth Marcus would have thrived in Stalin's Soviet Union.  See how she artfully employs the republicans as carjacker trope:

One side wanted the car, had a gun and wasn’t afraid — certainly not afraid enough — to use it. The other had a child in the back seat. (WaPo - Ruth Marcus)

That's what we're up against, and it's powerful stuff.  There really are softheaded people in this country susceptible to such emotional fripperies

Cut too much too fast, and the backlash will be horrific, and rightly so. Even before this deep recession, we had millions of souls dependent on government assistance, more so now. Single mothers struggling to feed their kids, people on medicaid going through cancer treatment, older workers broke and on the cusp of mandatory retirement… Our government has made promises to all of them.  We cannot suddenly yank the rug out from under them, or even appear to.

Also, how can you morally justify slashing the federal workforce when the anemic economy holds no employment alternatives for those thrown out of work?

Whoever would destroy the progressive state and remake it for the 21st century must first present a clearly-defined plan and be able to explain it well.  It will need to be phased in over time.  People have invested money based upon the creaky statist model, and slashing too deep too quickly creates uncertainty that inevitably leads to a bad business climate, which means more unemployment.

It’s like a spider web, all sticky and interconnected. You can’t just rip out one piece without endangering the entire fabric.   George Will explains...

During various liberal ascendancies, the federal spider has woven a web of dependencies. The political purpose has been to produce growing constituencies of voters disposed to vote Democratic. This disposition, a.k.a. the entitlement mentality, is triggered by making the constituencies constantly apprehensive about the security of their status as wards of government. (George Will – WaPo)

The truth is, we are a long way from a libertarian nation

The nanny state has destroyed self-sufficiency and initiative. What would you cut and how would you do it without hurting the truly vulnerable? Progressive statists will be asking this question, and rightly so. We had better have viable answers.

Progressivism is Collapsing in on Itself, and it ain't Pretty

Why the irresponsible, angry and hateful rhetoric from the left? Because we are winning! 

Why is the poisonous progressive vituperation aimed primarily at the tea party? Because it is The Threat, the biggest gun in the pro-liberty arsenal, steadily pounding away at the walls of the statist citadels.

Gallup confirms that conservatives are consolidating gains, with an incredible 41% of Americans now self-identifying as conservative, and even greater number than the 36% who call themselves moderate. The ragged, saggy ranks of liberals continues to droop, now at 21%.

We're Killing The Beast

I still can’t believe it, but I think we are actually killing the progressive beast. It’s a long way from its final death throes, but we are slowly choking it, and it is now writhing violently, horned head, spiky tail and taloned limbs flailing mindlessly, lashing out at its tormenters. A wounded animal is dangerous. These are perilous times.

The Washington Examiner reports that as a result of the debt ceiling deal, real discretionary spending will decrease for the first time since the Korean War:

There are many reasons for conservatives to be unhappy with the increase in the debt ceiling, but they ought not overlook the very real possibility that it is a milestone in the recognition of the liberal welfare state's unsustainability. (Washington Examiner)

The editors go on to point out that entitlement programs are the real problem, and more and more Americans are waking up to the fact:

The American people understand that these welfare programs are unaffordable. According to Gallup, two out of three Americans believe Social Security and Medicare costs are either already creating a crisis for the federal government (34 percent) or will do so within 10 years (33 percent) (Washington Examiner)

Liberal Blogger Kevin Drum laments that progressive are losing, badly:

But no matter how many times we try to kid ourselves with one poll result or another, liberals just don't have that advantage.

The public is mostly in favor of raising taxes on the rich — though I suspect its support is pretty soft — but on the bigger issues they mostly aren't on our side. They think deficits are bad, they don't trust Keynesian economics, they don't want a higher IRS bill (who does, after all?), and they believe the federal government is spending too much on stuff they don't really understand.

Conservatives have just flat out won this debate in recent decades, and until that changes we're not going to be able to make much progress. (Kevin Drum – Mother Jones)

Liberal WaPo columnist Greg Sargent agrees, and provides as evidence this polling factoid about the agreed-upon cuts in the debt ceiling deal:

only 15 percent think the cuts go too far. (Greg Sargent-The Plumb Line)

He goes on to cite a fellow liberal blogger:

“We will only find success when a majority of Americans agrees with us that government is something worth fighting for,” wrote Jared Bernstein.

These smart and honest liberals have identified the crux of the progressives' problem:

A majority of Americans now agree that government is Not something worth fighting for, but rather something worth fighting Against. 

Keynesian welfare states worldwide are now exposed as wealth-sucking failures teetering on the brink of collapse. We’re not going to support more debt to pay for them. Instead we demand a move away from the dark clouds of soviet-style centrally-planned economies, and towards the light of personal liberty and free market capitalism. Here’s a crumb for the anti-war left: We’re done funding costly wars and global community organizing as well.

It’s Because He’s Black

James Baskett as the beloved Uncle Remus

I try to stay away from racial issues, but when I get called a racist, or when I see others become the target of such noxious stink bomb attacks from the left, I just can’t let it pass

Racism is contemptuous, so by implying that we on the right are racist, the progressive social engineers are declaring us contemptible. It is an insult, but it doesn’t surprise me. The sleazy slimy left has shown over the past 100 years that there are no depths to which it will not sink to advance its dehumanizing agenda.

Ho Hum... Another Charge of "Racist!" Against Those Racist Republicans

DeWayne Wickham at USA Today is the latest lefty to reach for the tattered pack of race cards. His article accusing Republicans of racism towards our president is so exploitative and so completely over the top, I can’t believe I read it in USA Today. It’s more fit for the Daily Kook or the Democratic Underground Sewer.

First, he goes after Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell:

“Even then, two years out from the next presidential election, the Alabama-born senator said the top goal of GOP lawmakers to oust Obama.”

Get the implication? McConnell was born with a silver slave whip in his hand down in Old Alabamy. He surely owns a flame-ready cross, itching to plant it on the white house lawn and set it ablaze at the drop of a pointy white hat.

He next turns his attention to Majority Leader Cantor, who should be admired for not busting out in laughter at naïve Obama’s tactical blunder blast, “Eric, don’t call my bluff!” Anyway, Wickham insists that Cantor dissed the president all because he's black...

He attacked this first African-American president with a palpable disrespect not only for Obama personally, but also for his esteemed office.

...the House majority leader complained that the president had cut short the meeting and stormed out of the room. "He shoved back and said, 'I'll see you tomorrow' and walked out," Cantor snidely told reporters— as though the president needs his permission to end a White House gathering. (USA Today – DeWayne Wickham)

Never! Never in the history of the United States has someone been so contemptuous of the president! I guess Wickham was on vacation during the Bush years, when loony lefties compared that president to Hitler, chimpanzees, and klansmen.  They even made a movie fantasizing about his assassination. That is palpable disrespect, as well as a disgusting disregard for one’s humanity.

DeWayne then shamelessly invokes Frederick Douglass in a historical non-sequitur that has nothing to do with the situation at hand.  The comments are so ignorant I don't want to stink up this forum with them.

A Congressional Tar Baby

In an unrelated racial incident, my Congressman, Doug Lamborn, used the term “tar baby” when talking about DC negotiations with the President and the Democrats, and the leftwing wackadoos are all over it like stink on a war protester.  Here is what Congressman Lamborn said:

"Even if some people say, 'Well, the Republicans should have done this or should have done that,' they will hold the president responsible," Lamborn said. "Now, I don't even want to be associated with him. It's like touching a, a tar baby and you get it . . . you know you're stuck, and you're part of the problem now, and you can't get away."

Poor choice of words, but not the personal racial attack some of the nuttier libtards are making it out to be, some going so far as to accuse Lamborn of calling the president a tar baby. No doubt hoping to fan the flames and turn this into a conflagration. Anything to keep hatred’s fires burning.

Fear and smear are all the intellectually bereft left has left

Finally, a lefty commenter at a lefty blog again accused me of opposing Obama because of his race. Instead of flaming her, I simply replied: “Prove it.” Because she can’t. And that is the staunch attitude I’ve been seeing from my fellow tea partiers.

The left has cried “Racist!” one too many times -- the charge has lost its sting

We see such outraged screams for what they really are: The last desperate gasps of a deflated, discredited movement, drained of all but its hatred. The American Left has bankrupted the nation and poisoned our culture, and they won’t go down without expending every last dirty trick in their arsenal of lies and slander.

The Obama presidency is a colossal failure

He’s surpassed the dreaded George Bush in debt racked up, people unemployed, inflation, dollar devalued, taxpayer money given to bankers and corporations, gas prices raised and Pakistanis killed. So why does the left still insist Obama is an improvement over Bush?

He has shown himself to be so woefully unprepared and incapable, he makes Jimmy Carter look good. At this point in the Carter presidency, liberals were already jumping ship, or at least no longer attempting to defend the indefensible. Why not now?

I can only conclude that liberals are only defending President Obama because he is black.

Perfect Storm of Stupidity

Concerning Obama's (in)Justice Department arming Mexican Drug Gangs...

According to the report, Carlos Canino, Acting ATF Attache in Mexico, calls the strategy his agency employed: "The perfect storm of idiocy."

"We armed the [Sinaloa] cartel," Canino told investigators. "It is disgusting." Canino will be a key witness at the hearing. (CBS News)

Here’s an interesting game you can play. Remove "Sinaloa Cartel” from Mr. Canino's statement and replace it with your own appropriate word. For example…

“We armed the bankers. It’s disgusting”

Our government...
* Running guns to Mexican drug gangs,
* Inflating the housing market and creating a spectacular crash,
* Running a rape and fondle operation at airports and calling it security,
* Blowing money on international community organizing
* Paying people to not work,
* Paying people to dispose of perfectly good used cars thereby driving up the price of used cars,
* Allowing  people to enter our country illegally and roam around at will
* Encouraging immoral business owners to hire illegal aliens to avoid paying a fair American wage,
* Robbing the taxpayer and giving the loot to big banks and big corporations,
* Perpetually spending more money than it takes in…

Our Government: Creating shitstorms of stupidity. It’s disgusting.