Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor - I don't care. Really, it doesn't matter to me. Why you may ask? Simple - there are bigger problems to worry about and the President has the privilege of selecting justices to the Supreme Court. I think it's a bit hypocritical of the Democrats to be so much behind her considering they filibustered Miguel Estrada who was a Latino nominee from humble background. She may or may not be a racist or a sexist or an elitist. But I don't care all that much.
What's the bigger problem?
Kim Jong Il launching a number of missiles into the Sea of Japan over this past weekend. His withdrawal from the armistice that ended hostilities in the Korean War. His statement that if South Korea allows or participates in any blocking of ships heading to North Korea that would be a declaration of war. Most importantly what concerns me is my President's lack of action on it. Yes, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton did expound rather eloquently on how this sort of behavior Won't Be Tolerated and there will be Serious Consequences but there was no teeth behind her remarks. She said that while the Speaker of the House was in Singapore basically entreating Bejing to take over our foreign policy in regards to North Korea.
Speaker Pelosi has no authority to entreat on the behalf of the US Government with foreign officials but let's face it - she had to leave the country before she made things even worse for herself. Besides, someone had to go behind the scenes to suck up to China on behalf of President Obama.
In a conversation at the Electric Speakeasy some time ago (a year or more) I said that we were witnessing the beginning of World War Three and the axis powers would be China, Iran, Russia, North Korea, Cuba and Venezuela. But wait - China's on our side, aren't they? They're outraged at North Korea's actions. They said so! So did Russia.
Suuuure they are. I heard John Batchelor on the Curtis Sliwa show the other night saying that China and Russia both are very happy with North Korea being the rogue nation and filling that role for them.
Something to remember and/or realize: China lobbied hard to host the 2008 Olympics. Why? Because it was China's way of showcasing itself to the world. It was a reboot - if I may use geek speak for a minute - of their international image. Hosting the Olympics was a way to scrub the events at Tienanmen Square ten years ago from the international mind-set. That's important because China believes that the 21st century belongs to them. They're more than happy letting us think they're our friends while they underwrite our debts and sell us products that are made and sold on the cheap.
Remember the song 16 Tons? That's the US relationship with China right now; like coal miners with the coal companies at the turn of the last century. They cover our debt and sell us things that we're buying from them on the credit they provide. If that makes no sense to you, then you're starting to think. It's insane for the US to think that China has no ulterior motive and that they agree with us on what North Korea should or should not be doing. Remember that it was China who stopped us at the 38th parallel way back in 1953, not North Korea.
For those of you educated in the public education system: that means that China is North Korea's ally, not ours.
Then China and Russia engaged in joint military maneuvers last year. Countries don't do that unless they're allies.
John Batchelor stated that it's fairly common knowledge among the international intelligence communities that Iran and North Korea are allies and have constant communication. Iran and Venezuela are both members of OPEC. Cuba and Russia are still allies (that hasn't changed in my lifetime), as are Cuba and Venezuela.
To recap - China is allies with North Korea who is allies with Iran who is allies with Venezuela who is allies with Cuba who is allies with Russia who is allies with China.
Did you notice that the US is not listed in there? Yeah, I did too.
So, North Korea is testing missile technology and basically pissing off half the civilized world in that area while simultaneously pursuing nuclear technology (thank you Mr Clinton) along with their ally; that other rogue nation, Iran. Make no mistake, once Iran has a nuclear weapon, they will use it on Israel.
How do I know? Because they've said they would, and I believe them.
It doesn't even matter who develops nuclear weapons first; Iran or North Korea, because once one has them the other one soon will.
What bothers me most about all of this is that this is all our fault. When I say "our" what I really mean is "your". Yes, you, the average US citizen. It is your fault that Israel will be blown up by a petty dictator wannabe. The 'average' US citizen does not vote. The 'average' voter does so based solely on party affiliation rather than actually paying attention to the issues. They consider themselves to be educated on the issues because they hear a five minute news headline overview during their commute to and from work. They're more worked up over American Idol than they are North Korea's aggressive stance.
We elected a man into the White House who is a socialist by his own admission, who has no leadership experience in any form and we elected him because we were more enamored with the color of his skin than with the substance of his character. There's a word for that sort of behavior and it was in the avoidance of that word that caused us to act in that fashion - how messed up is that?
Because of that, our President has made gaffes on the international stage of such staggering proportions that it blows my mind. Our President is so enamored with the idea of achieving some form of "victory" over Iran through 'peaceful' talks that he's literally ignoring the powder keg that's developing in the far east. North Korea is the lynch pin that may light off a World War the likes of which would make my grandfather's war look like a skirmish.
You think the casualties from Iraq were too much? We lost more men in one day of fighting in Iwo Jima than we did in the five years we've spent in Iraq. We failed to learn the real lesson of Vietnam which is when you are involved in a war you declare war and leave politicians out of it. We hamstring our military and intelligence agencies then decry them any time they do something that might possibly be conceived as being offensive. We tell them they need to be effective and get the job done but they can't do anything that might actually be effective.
The result of our inaction and our inability to actually exercise our rights with any form of responsibility is that World War Three is sitting on our doorsteps and the enemies have no fear of death, nor do they care about hurting innocent civilians. When North Korea or Iran attacks with a nuclear weapon, their target won't be a military installation. Iran's target will be Jerusalem. North Korea's will be Seoul or Tokyo. The death toll from such an attack will be in the hundreds of thousands if we're lucky. Considering Iran's ties to Hammas and possibly other terrorist groups, we'd be lucky if there isn't some sort of dirty bomb attack on US soil.
But no, we're more concerned with what the Chosen One is going to do next. How is He going to save the economy. How will the evil Republicans attempt to block the pure as driven snow Sonia Sontomayor's nomination to our highest court.
We're going to ignore the failure of Obama's international policy. We're going to ignore the fact that one of his first acts as President was to place the Census under the control of the White House and that his domestic economic policy is to seize control of as many industries as possible. He's already seized control of the banking and automotive industries. He's making moves towards "Big Business" like Big Oil. We're going to ignore that the economy is not really on the road to recovery - the decline has slowed down. Economic experts without a political axe to grind are all saying the same thing: this isn't over yet, the full impact hasn't hit us yet.
I believe in the the Spirit of America. I truly do. I believe that the American people can still save our country. What scares me is that the longer it takes us to resolve our problems using the first amendment, the more likely we'll have to resolve it with the second amendment.
That's not a world I want to raise my children in.
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