Combs Spouts Off

"It's my opinion and it's very true."

  • Calendar

    November 2024
    S M T W T F S
     12
    3456789
    10111213141516
    17181920212223
    24252627282930
  • Recent Posts

  • Tag Cloud

  • Archives

Posts Tagged ‘iran’

Quagmire in the making: understanding the Syria situation

Posted by Richard on July 3, 2017

NetRightDaily has posted an excellent Syria explainer by Printus LeBlanc. How did the Syrian civil war come about? What foreign powers are entangled in it and why? Well, it’s about the Arab Spring. And it’s about the Sunni-Shia conflict. And it’s about gas and oil pipelines. And it’s about Russia’s only naval base on the Mediterranean Sea.

LeBlanc’s conclusion:

Regardless if this is a religious conflict, a political conflict, pipeline politics, or more likely a combination of all three, President Donald Trump must weigh all options — and get authorization from Congress — before acting to get the U.S. involved with a civil war with so many possibilities to become a wider regional or even global conflict.

A student of history might look at the situation in Syria, and see Europe leading up to WWI. One misstep could trigger alliances and defense pacts that lead to all-out war.

Indeed™.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Missed opportunities

Posted by Richard on October 22, 2012

Romney lost the foreign policy debate because of missed opportunities. According to Romney campaign spokespeople, it was a calculated strategy to “go big,” focusing on overarching themes instead of challenging the President on specifics. That’s why Romney basically gave Obama a pass on Libya. I think that was a mistake.

I think there were a number of other specifics where Obama simply stated falsehoods and Romney failed to challenge him or did so rather softly. I want to keep this brief, so I just want to mention one of them.

During one of Romney’s tougher attacks, when he listed several Obama failures or errors in foreign policy, he mentioned the Green Revolution in Iran and the Obama administration’s lack of support for the people in the streets of Tehran. Obama rebutted that, claiming that the US stood with the pro-democracy demonstrators. Balderdash. And Romney should have called him on it.

People have forgotten that the Green Revolution began as protests against a fraudulent, stolen election. In the weeks leading up to it, opposition candidates were locked up. Their rallies were broken up and their supporters attacked by Revolutionary Guards. And there was compelling evidence of systematic vote fraud in the election itself.

I remember seeing video of demonstrators carrying “America Help Us” signs and hearing pro-democracy demonstrators plead for the US to speak out on their behalf. Contrary to his claim tonight, Obama didn’t do so. Instead, the Obama administration explicitly stated that it recognized the election as legitimate and the government of Iran as legitimate. It was shameful, and Romney should have said so.

The Romney strategy seems to have been to simply appear presidential and pass the “commander-in-chief test,” relying on his advantage on economic issues to win the election. That strategy will probably work. But I’d like to have seen a more robust challenge of the Obama foreign policy record and the numerous Obama falsehoods uttered during the debate.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , | Leave a Comment »

Obama’s dangerous fantasies

Posted by Richard on February 6, 2012

In an interview with the Today Show’s Matt Lauer, President Obama reiterated what he’s maintained for the past 3 years, that we can dissuade Iran from building nuclear weapons (and using them against Israel) by persuading them that they don’t really want any (emphasis added):

The president elaborated on Iran’s nuclear capability — and how he plans to prevent it. “My goal is to try to resolve this diplomatically, mainly because the only way over the long term we can assure Iran doesn’t get a nuclear weapon is by getting them to understand it’s not in their interest,” Obama told Lauer.

The Washington Times quotes the President as also claiming that Iran’s goals are a mystery:

Mr. Obama also said in an interview that the U.S. has “a very good estimate” of the state of Iran’s nuclear development, but is having a more difficult time assessing its leadership’s intentions, as well as the political dynamics within the Islamic Republic.

Here’s a hint — this is what they’re saying right now in Iranian media outlets (government-controlled and thus with at least tacit approval):

The Iranian government, through a website proxy, has laid out the legal and religious justification for the destruction of Israel and the slaughter of its people.

The doctrine includes wiping out Israeli assets and Jewish people worldwide.

Calling Israel a danger to Islam, the conservative website Alef, with ties to Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said the opportunity must not be lost to remove “this corrupting material. It is a “‘jurisprudential justification” to kill all the Jews and annihilate Israel, and in that, the Islamic government of Iran must take the helm.”

The article, written by Alireza Forghani, an analyst and a strategy specialist in Khamenei’s camp, now is being run on most state-owned sites, including the Revolutionary Guards’ Fars News Agency, showing that the regime endorses this doctrine.

Does the Obama administration really think that Hillary Clinton (a mere female) or even the silver-tongued Obama himself can somehow persuade this genocidal and tyrannical regime that having nukes is not in its interests, when its interests include killing every Jew on the planet??

Meanwhile, Bashir Assad, whom Hillary defended as a “reformer,” continues to slaughter civilians in growing numbers, and in the same interview Lauer asked why the U.S. and U.N. would act to stop such slaughter in one case, but not another:

“I said at the time with respect to Libya that we would be making these decisions…on a case by case basis based on how unified the international community was,” Obama said. …

The repressive regimes of Russia and China have blocked a U.N. resolution merely condemning the brutal repression in Syria, so I guess the Obama administration will shrug and say the international community isn’t sufficiently unified.

As for the home front, for the umpteenth time the President bemoaned the fact that he can’t just impose his will on the nation:

“What’s frustrated people is that I have not be able to force Congress to implement every aspect of what I said in 2008,” he said.

This man is full of dangerous fantasies, foreign and domestic. In the former case, 60s peace-and-love generation fantasies; in the latter case, fantasies of autocracy.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , | 1 Comment »

Obama nixed stealth fighter for Israel

Posted by Richard on July 14, 2010

The World Tribune reported on Monday that, according to unnamed diplomatic sources, President Obama denied Israel's request to buy F-15E stealth fighters and other weapons systems that had been approved by the Bush administration, but frozen by Obama (emphasis added):

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama has rejected another Israeli request for advanced combat platforms.

Diplomatic sources said Obama refused a request by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for Israeli access to a proposed stealth variant of the F-15E fighter-jet.

Netanyahu, during what was termed a tough and unpleasant session, failed to win Obama's agreement to approve the export of U.S. offensive systems, including combat jets and helicopters produced by Boeing.

The sources termed the 90-minute one-on-one session between Obama and Netanyahu as "tough", with the two men far apart on such issues as a Palestinian state in the West Bank as well as Iran. They said Obama warned Israel against any military strike on Iran and stressed that Washington would resolve Iran's nuclear threat through a mixture of sanctions and diplomacy.  

Oh, yeah — 'cause those sanctions are working so well. And Iran's crazed mullahs and Ahm-a-doin-a-jihad can't possibly resist sweet talk from Obama. 

President Obama also insisted that Israel must unilaterally give up the West Bank territories:

The sources said Obama also urged Netanyahu to accept Palestinian Authority conditions for the resumption of direct negotiations. One of the demands submitted by PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas was for Israel to agree to a full withdrawal from the West Bank before talks begin.

"There is very heavy pressure on Netanyahu to make unilateral concessions to the Palestinians," the source said.

Disgusting and contemptible.

For many years, Pius XII was called "Hitler's Pope" because he didn't speak out against the Nazis. (His reputation has recently been rehabilitated, thanks to evidence that he helped get as many as 200,000 Jews out of Germany after Kristallnacht.) 

If in the coming years, Tel Aviv gets nuked, the blood of millions of Jews will be on this president's hands. And he will be known as "The Islamofascists' POTUS."

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: , , | Leave a Comment »

Iran thinks Israeli attack is imminent — with Saudi help

Posted by Richard on June 27, 2010

Take this with a whole shaker-full of salt. The original source is Iran's state-controlled media, which has about the same credibility as the late, lamented Weekly World News (supermarket checkout lines just haven't been as much fun since that rag died). IsraelNationalNews.com reported:

The Israeli Air Force recently unloaded military equipment at a Saudi Arabia base, a semi-official Iranian news agency claimed Wednesday, while a large American force has massed in Azerbaijan, which is on the northwest border of Iran.

Iran’s Fars News Agency said the Israeli military aircraft landed 10 days ago at the Saudi base near the city of Tabuk, located in northwest Saudi Arabia, one of the closest areas in the oil kingdom to Iran.

Fars said that the Tabuk base will be the central station for an Israeli attack on Iran. It quoted an Islamic news site that a commercial airline passenger said the airport in Tabuk was closed to all other traffic during the alleged Israeli landings.

It gets even better: 

Iran’s government-funded Press TV reported that the Revolutionary Guards began closely patrolling the Islamic Republic’s northwestern border after noticing the American forces, which Iran claimed also included Israeli troops. Azerbaijan’s independent Trend news site also reported on Wednesday that American armed forces are in the country, which is in an armed conflict with rebels.

Revolutionary Guards Brigadier General Mehdi Moini said Tuesday that his forces are mobilized “due to the presence of American and Israeli forces on the western border.” The Guards reportedly have called in tanks and anti-aircraft units to the area in what amounts to a war alert.

So there you have it, for what it's worth. I don't put much stock in the Saudi story and dismiss the Azerbaijan claim entirely. But the Iranian government's view of the Saudis as allied with Israel is interesting. I've seen stories claiming that the Saudis are very concerned about Iran's regional ambitions. Apparently the mistrust and animosity runs the other way, too. Those Shi'ites and Wahabbi Sunnis are just not going to get along.

It's a shame nothing will come of it. It would be nice if these two barbaric 7th-century states came to blows and destroyed each other.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: , , | Leave a Comment »

Civilization against barbarism

Posted by Richard on September 26, 2009

An excerpt from the one honorable and courageous speech at the U.N. this week, by Benjamin Netanyahu:

Yesterday, the man who calls the Holocaust a lie spoke from this podium. To those who refused to come and to those who left in protest, I commend you. You stood up for moral clarity, and you brought honor to your countries. But to those who gave this holocaust denier a hearing, I say on behalf of my people, the Jewish people, and decent people everywhere, have you no shame? Have you no decency?

A mere six decades after the Holocaust, you give legitimacy to a man who denies the murder of 6 million Jews? While promising to wipe out the state of Israel, the state of the Jews? What a disgrace. What a mockery of the charter of the United Nations.

Now, perhaps – perhaps some of you think that this man and his odious regime, perhaps they threaten only the Jews. Well, if you think that, you're wrong – dead wrong. History has shown us time and time again that what starts with attacks on the Jews eventually ends up engulfing many, many others, for this Iranian regime is fueled by an extreme fundamentalism that burst on to the world scene three decades ago after lying dormant for centuries.

In the past 30 years, this fanaticism has swept across the globe with a murderous violence that knows no bounds and with a cold-blooded impartiality in the choice of its victims. It has callously slaughtered Muslims and Christians, Jews and Hindus, and many others. Though it is comprised of different offshoots, the adherents of this unforgiving creed seek to return humanity to medieval times. Wherever they can, they impose a backward, regimented society where women, minorities, gays, or anyone else deemed not to be a true believer, is brutally subjugated.

The struggle against this fanaticism does not pit faith against faith nor civilization against civilization. It pits civilization against barbarism, the 21st Century against the 9th Century, those who sanctify life against those who glorify death.

If only our Appeaser in Chief had spoken with such moral clarity.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , | 1 Comment »

Brzezinski: protect our enemies from our friends

Posted by Richard on September 21, 2009

Zbigniew Brzezinski, who was National Security Advisor to America's Worst President (so far), is calling for the United States to come to the defense of Iran if it faces attack. No, really. I'm not making this up. In the Bizarro World of today's left, which is reflexively sympathetic to anyone and anything anti-American or anti-Israel, this kind of vile suggestion actually makes sense:

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Zbigniew Brzezinski said the United States should make clear that it will attack Israeli jets if they fly over Iraq on their way to attack Iran.

"We are not exactly impotent little babies," said Brzezinski, national security adviser during the Carter administration, in an interview with The Daily Beast Web site when asked how aggressive President Obama can be in telling Israel that a military strike in Iran is not in America's interest. "They have to fly over our airspace in Iraq. Are we just going to sit there and watch?

"We have to be serious about denying them that right," continued Brzezinski, who endorsed Obama early in the Democratic primary but was not an official adviser to the campaign. "That means a denial where you aren't just saying it. If they fly over, you go up and confront them. They have the choice of turning back or not. No one wishes for this but it could be a Liberty in reverse."

Israeli forces mistakenly attacked the USS Liberty during the 1967 Six-Day War.

Brzezinski is actually arguing that, should Israel go after Iran's nuclear weapons program to preempt another holocaust, America's national security interests would be served by going to war with Israel in order to protect a regime that wants to create "a world without America and Israel." If that isn't right out of Bizarro World, I don't know what is. 

This contemptible slimeball not only thinks we should kill Israelis to protect the Islamofascists who want to exterminate them, he has the nerve to justify it as "Liberty in reverse." As if a premeditated attack on Israeli jets were morally equivalent to a tragic case of mistaken identity.

Brzezinski apparently shares Carter's loathing of Israel and Jews and his affection for radical Islamists.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , | 1 Comment »

Quote of the year?

Posted by Richard on July 13, 2009

I'm not familiar with Burt Prelutsky, a columnist at Townhall.com. But my friend David B. just forwarded me an email from cousin Bob suggesting that the following quote, from Prelutsky's June 12 column, is a contender for quote of the year:

On a more serious front, I sincerely hope that when the president goes in for his annual check-up, the doctors at Bethesda will do a brain scan. Surely something must be terribly wrong with a man who seems to be far more concerned with a Jew building a house in Israel than with Muslims building a nuclear bomb in Iran.

So far, that's got my vote. And I may have to add Prelutsky's columns to my (already all to long) reading list.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , | Leave a Comment »

The Stoning of Soraya M.

Posted by Richard on June 26, 2009

With Iran and human rights so much in the news, it's appropriate that director Cyrus Nowrasteh's The Stoning of Soraya M. is opening this weekend in select theaters across the country. The film is based on the acclaimed international best-seller of the same name by French-Iranian journalist Freidoune Sahebjam, and the story is true. It was runner-up to Slumdog Millionaire at the Toronto 2008 Film Festival, and critics are heaping praise on it. Jeffrey Lyons thinks female lead Shohreh Aghdashloo's performance is "a serious Oscar contender" (she was previously nominated for The House of Sand and Fog).

Hugh Hewitt:

The movie is beautiful and deeply moving, and the film's opening would have been an enormous story even had Iran not erupted in a long-suppressed general demand for freedom from tyranny.  Stoning is an abhorrent practice, but one that still goes on in Iran, as recently as March of this year, according to Radio Free Europe, when a 30-year old man was stoned to death for adultery.
 
Some apologists for the Mullahs point to the official moratorium on stoning that Iran adopted early in the decade, but ignore that the practice still goes on and that the law permitting the penalty has not been repealed.
 
Much more to the point, though, is the fundamental evil of a law code that consigns all women to a second-class status and through which the worst sorts of cruelty are not merely not punished but even endorsed.
 
“The Stoning of Soraya M” does not portray the Iran of Tehran or the other industrialized cities.  It is a poignant picture of rural and remote Iran, the Iran we have been told again and again supports Ahmadinejad against the urban elites that have been pouring into the streets of the major cities for the past 10 days.

Every American who sees “The Stoning of Soraya M” will emerge from the theater far wiser about what is driving the revolt of the people in Iran.  These demonstrators want their freedom from theocracy.
 
That theocracy reaches down into every aspect of every life, and its totalitarian demands for control over every aspect of life make it the cousin of every repressive police state that stained the 20th century. 
 
Americans cannot deliver aid to the demonstrators, but they can attend a movie that outrages the Mullahs.  A large box office for “The Stoning of Soraya M” sends a message to the Mullahs that won't be mistaken: Americans support the end of their medieval rule. 
The Stoning of Soraya M. is opening at these theaters either this weekend or in early July. If one of them is near you, go see this film.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Tiananmen in Tehran II

Posted by Richard on June 25, 2009

I invoked the memory of Tiananmen Square last week. I may have been premature. Apparently, the suppression of dissent in Tehran became a true massacre today.

Guns, clubs, and axes. Axes!

They were especially targeting the women, because women are "the greatest threat to the regime."

These are the monsters with whom we're supposed to resolve our differences by sitting down with them and talking??

I'm beyond outrage. I'm beyond grief. I'm beyond words. Go. Look. Think.

(HT: Vodkapundit)

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Appalled and outraged … at last

Posted by Richard on June 23, 2009

More than a week after every major European leader (aren't we supposed to take our cues from the Europeans?), President Obama has finally strongly condemned the brutal repression of dissent in Iran. He's ten days late, but better late than never:

After days of criticism from Republicans, Mr. Obama opened a White House news conference saying he was "appalled and outraged" by the threats and confrontations in the streets of the Iranian capital. He declined to confirm whether a U.S. offer of direct talks with Iran will still stand, instead saying he would wait to see how the postelection crisis there "plays itself out."

"In 2009, no iron fist is strong enough to shut off the world from bearing witness to the peaceful pursuit of justice," Mr. Obama said. "The United States and the international community have been appalled and outraged by the threats, the beatings and imprisonments of the last few days. I strongly condemn these unjust actions, and I join with the American people in mourning each and every innocent life that is lost."

Very good, Mr. President. Very good indeed. Now why was that so difficult? 

It wasn't as forceful as Reagan's support of the Solidarity movement in 1981, but it's a start. Now if only the Iranian people had a Lech Walesa to lead them instead of that mullah-approved sorry excuse for a "reform candidate," Mousavi.

UPDATE: The Spirit of Man and Foundation for Democracy in Iran (June 23, Update 1) had very different reactions than mine. I wasn't aware that Iranian diplomats had been invited to an Independence Day barbecue at the White House and that the invitation still stands. Now I'm appalled. I take back my mild praise — it appears to be undeserved.

UPDATE 2 (6/24): The Independence Day invitation wasn't to a White House event, but to numerous July 4th events at American embassies and consulates around the world. Apparently faced with growing outrage and disbelief, the White House has finally rescinded the invitation. It wasn't exactly an act of great moral courage, since exactly zero Iranian diplomats had accepted the invitation. 

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

What you can do to help the people of Iran

Posted by Richard on June 16, 2009

The struggle for freedom and democracy continues in Iran (as it always will, anywhere and everywhere that the human spirit yearns to be free). Winston of The Spirit of Man is asking for your help:

I have been asked by so many people today again about how they can help the people of Iran in their quest for democracy and freedom. I have had calls from as far as Holland. This is what I think any decent human being can do to help further the cause of liberty in Iran:

In the United States: Get on the phones. Call your US Congressmen/women and demand they issue statements in support of the Iranian people. Remind them of Iran Freedom Support Act of 2005. Make sure to be polite and courteous. Call your senators and demand they be tough with the regime.

In Canada, UK, Holland & other European countries: Call your respective Members of Parliament. Demand they press their respective governments not to negotiate with the Iranian regime. Be polite and ask them kindly to issue statements in support of the people of Iran's quest for democracy and liberty. You can call or write to your media and ask them to cover the Iranian regime's brutal crackdown of the peaceful protests in any way they can. This is a media war. This is the information war. All of you regardless of your location can spread the word. The regime fears nothing like information. That's all I can think of now but if you've comments or suggestions, please share them with me.

You can find local pro-freedom rallies arranged by Iranian expats in your town/city and show up as a sign of support. Trust me, it is very heart warming for Iranians to see you care. All of us need to be encouraged and I am sure your presence provides that for those who are fighting the regime. Thank you!

So far, no luck finding any information about rallies in the Denver area, but I'll keep looking. If I find one, I'll be there!

Yesterday:

“All who live in tyranny and hopelessness can know: the United States will not ignore your oppression, or excuse your oppressors. When you stand for your liberty, we will stand with you.”

President George W. Bush
Second Inaugural Speech
January 20, 2005

Today

Obama repeated Tuesday at a news conference his "deep concerns" about the disputed balloting. He said he believes the ayatollah's decision to order an investigation "indicates he understands the Iranian people have deep concerns."

But at the same time, Obama said it would not be helpful if the United States was seen by the world as "meddling" in the issue.

Times have changed. How sad. How shameful.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Tiananmen in Tehran

Posted by Richard on June 16, 2009

They shot pro-democracy demonstrators in Tehran yesterday. The Mousavi campaign called off a protest rally today because they were warned that riot squads would be using live ammunition. And vote counts allegedly leaked by someone in the interior ministry put Ahm-a-doin-a-jihad in third place:

The statistics, circulated on Iranian blogs and websites, claimed Mr Mousavi had won 19.1 million votes while Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had won only 5.7 million.

The two other candidates, reformist Mehdi Karoubi and hardliner Mohsen Rezai, won 13.4 million and 3.7 million respectively. The authenticity of the leaked figures could not be confirmed.

No one actually knows how many have been killed, beaten, and arrested, or in how many other cities the demonstrations have been taking place. Foreign journalists (and Iranians working for them) are essentially under "house arrest," ordered to cover these events by watching the state-run TV reports from their hotel rooms.

So much for the wishful thinking of President Obama, who seemed so sure last Friday that his Cairo speech had changed the world, but who this week has decided to "withhold comment" (as Biden put it):

The clenched fist of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, in his suspect return to power, has not only delivered a blow to freedom-seeking Iranians; it is also knocking the Obama administration for a loop — primarily because the president has chosen not to stand with Iranians who seek "a future of peace and dignity."

The administration was obviously rooting for Ahmadinejad to be beaten by his chief rival, former Iranian prime minister Mir Hossein Mousavi. The president on Friday, the day of the election, spoke of "a robust debate taking place in Iran" bringing with it "new possibilities" and "the possibility of change."

How naive those words sound in retrospect. Presidential wishful thinking has crashed head-on into Islamofascist reality.

Europeans have condemned Iran's repressive regime, but apparently the Obama administration — true to its post-modernist, morally relativist, politically correct intellectual roots — doesn't want to be seen as taking sides between a brutal theocracy and people yearning for their basic human rights. It doesn't want anyone to think we might meddle in Iran's affairs — in this new era of hopenchange, the U.S. only meddles in the affairs of pro-Western democracies like Israel.

This brutal repression of Iranians' desire for freedom and democracy is unfolding less than two weeks after the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre, with its iconic image of a lone brave man standing in front of a line of tanks. Yesterday's big demonstration (and the shootings) took place in Azadi (Freedom) Square — a fitting location with a more meaningful name than Tiananmen (Gate of Heavenly Peace).

Tehran 24 has striking pictures and video from the last few days. Among many from Saturday, this compelling image reminiscent of Tiananmen stood out:

defiant woman in Tehran

 My thoughts are with this courageous woman and all the brave freedom-loving people of Iran. I'd like to think that behind the scenes, stealthily, the U.S. is providing at least some support to the pro-democracy forces — but with this administration, it's highly unlikely.

For more news and commentary on Iran, check out The Spirit of Man and the Foundation for Democracy in Iran. The latter has called on Obama for support (emphasis in original): 

The Foundation for Democracy in Iran has written to President Barack Hussein Obama, urging him to stand up for America's principles and avoid the error made by President Clinton in 1999, when he washed his hands of the student uprising in Iran, claiming that America could do nothing."Mr. President, America can do much, as you and your supporters said repeatedly during your election campaign. For starters, America should continue to hold up the beacon of liberty that Iranians look to with such longing – not put it under a shroud," the letter states.

The FDI does not call on the United States to support any particular group or party inside Iran, but instead calls on the president to "assert America’s moral authority in defense of freedom."

Above all, the letter calls on President Obama "to refuse to recognize the imposter regime of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and to muster world opinion to neutralize him behind an international cordon sanitaire until he crumbles from isolation and neglect. Download a PDF of the letter.

I hope they're not holding their breaths. By Obama's reckoning, America has no moral authority, and championing liberty and human rights for Iranians would be "imposing our way of life" on the government thugs descending on that brave woman above.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Was the Iranian election rigged?

Posted by Richard on June 15, 2009

I must admit I'm confused. 

Everything I know about Iran suggests the election results are completely bogus. Massive demonstrations throughout the country leading up to the vote and widespread discontent over the growing domestic problems created by the government's national socialist economic policies (a major issue in the elections) make it extremely unlikely, if not impossible, that Ahm-a-doin-a-jihad received such a landslide of support.

On the other hand, if this was yet another example of a corrupt autocratic regime rigging a sham election, why wasn't Jimmy Carter there to bless the results?

UPDATE: I just learned that on Saturday, Ayatollah Khamenei attributed Ahm-a-doin-a-jihad's victory to "divine intervention." So it's pretty clear that the election was rigged — the question is by whom. 

But where the heck is Jimmy Carter?

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , | Leave a Comment »

The speech Palin never gave

Posted by Richard on September 23, 2008

The New York Times of Israel (both in stature and ideology), Haaretz, did what liberal Jewish groups in the U.S. wouldn't do: let Gov. Sarah Palin speak. Haaretz published the speech that Palin wasn't allowed to deliver yesterday:

In the speech which Republican Vice-Presidential candidate Sarah Palin was to have delivered at a Monday rally protesting the UN appearance of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, she was to have said that the Iranian president "dreams of being an agent in a 'Final Solution' – the elimination of the Jewish people."

Her appearance in the rally in Dag Hammarskjold Plaza was cancelled in a flap between protest organizers and Hillary Clinton, who had also been scheduled to speak. Clinton aides were quoted as saying that they had been "blindsided" by the decision to invite Palin, which they called a partisan move. In the ensuing controversy, Clinton withdrew her participation, and Palin's invitation was rescinded. 

In the Bizarro world of today's Democrats, if Sen. Clinton and Gov. Palin both speak, it's partisan, but if Sen. Clinton alone speaks, it's not.

Palin's speech took a more high-minded approach (emphasis added):

Earlier this year, Senator Clinton said that "Iran is seeking nuclear weapons, and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps is in the forefront of that" effort. Senator Clinton argued that part of our response must include stronger sanctions, including the designation of the IRGC as a terrorist organization. John McCain and I could not agree more.

Senator Clinton understands the nature of this threat and what we must do to confront it. This is an issue that should unite all Americans. Iran should not be allowed to acquire nuclear weapons. Period. And in a single voice, we must be loud enough for the whole world to hear: Stop Iran!
Only by working together, across national, religious, and political differences, can we alter this regime's dangerous behavior. Iran has many vulnerabilities, including a regime weakened by sanctions and a population eager to embrace opportunities with the West. We must increase economic pressure to change Iran's behavior.

As I've said before, today's left is much less tolerant than today's right. 

And it's really sad that liberal American Jewish groups seem to be more left than they are Jewish.  

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , , | 1 Comment »