BY RICH GALEN
Reprinted from Mullings.com
Everyone who thinks they know all the aspects of the Iran deal raise their hands.
Secretary Kerry, put your hand down.
I have no idea whether this is a good deal, a bad deal, or no deal at all. I hope it is a good deal and I hope it leads to a safer Middle East and, thus, a safer world.
But I don’t know.
This deal was brokered by what is known as the P5+1. That is the permanent members of the U.N. Security Council (U.S., France, Continue reading
BY RICH GALEN
Reprinted from Mullings.com
I subscribe to the general theory that a President, Republican or Democrat, should be able to have the people running his Departments, Commissions, and Agencies that he wants.
Unless there is some overriding disqualifying reason to reject him or her, the Senate should abide by the terms of Article II, Section 2 that says the President, “shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint … Officers of the United States.”
The nomination of Chuck Hagel to be Secretary of Defense is an excellent case in point.
I may not agree with Hagel on the 3 I’s – Iran, Iraq, and Israel – but we don’t generally allow Secretaries of Defense to make foreign policy. Nor, for that matter, do Secretaries of State make foreign policy. Continue reading
BY MICHAEL S. JOHNSON
Gov. Mitt Romney introduced the crises in the Middle East to the campaign conversation this week with some tough talk about the tragedy in Benghazi, Libya on September 11, and the wave of protests that took place on that day in nearly a dozen other countries.
Romney is the wrong messenger, but he’s right about the issue. This is not about the campaign. This is about foreign policy.
The Obama Administration needs to come clean about what happened on that day and what has occurred since. And more needs to be said about our lame policies toward Iran, the growing militancy all across the Middle East (so much for the touted tilt toward the West of the Arab Spring) and the increased tension between Israel and her neighbors, the incomprehensible death and destruction in Syria, the eruption of more violence in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the volatile antics of Iran’s Ahmedinijad. Continue reading
BY GARY JOHNSON
Reprinted from Loose Change at TCBmag.com
I had lunch the other day with a very successful investor and entrepreneur. He came to the United States from Iran as a young teenager. The extreme dichotomy that is Iran is fascinating to say the least—a huge country of well-educated people who, when given the chance to emigrate to the U.S., succeed disproportionately to the population, much like our friends who emigrate from India.
And yet Persians live in a medieval world, governed by strict Shiite theists who employ fear, suppression, and violence to manage both domestic and international relations. So, which is the real Iran? A wild-eyed, blustering Muslim theocracy, or a country of contemporary people living their lives in spite of—and hopefully out of harm’s way of—the unstable demagogues who control power? Continue reading
BY RICH GALEN
Reprinted from Mullings.com
So, let me get this straight. The Iranian government decided it would be a good idea to launch a plot to kill the Saudi Arabian Ambassador to the U.S. To do this they sent two geniuses to contact a guy they thought was a Mexican drug bandito but was actually an undercover agent pretending to be a drug bandito to do the deed.
They offered the undercover agent pretending to be a Mexican drug bandito $1.5 million to blow up the Saudi Ambassador to the U.S. while he was dining at a restaurant in downtown Washington, DC.
Oh, yeah. This was going to go down like clockwork.
One-point-five-mil for a member of a Mexican drug gang? The Iranians could have gotten some Russian Mafia thug from Brighton Beach in Brooklyn to do it for bus fare and an all-expenses paid night at the Elliot Spitzer suite at the Mayflower Hotel in DC. Continue reading
BY RICH GALEN
Reprinted from mullings.com
President Obama’s speech on Monday night was, at best, OK. It got tongues wagging about the “Obama Doctrine” which appears to be: “If it won’t drag Iran into the fight we’ll take a look.”
By Tony Blankley
Reprinted from The Washington Times
Amidst all the confusion over our new little war in Libya , one thing is clear: Notwithstanding the bravery and professionalism of our troops in naming it Operation Odyssey Dawn, the Pentagon has invoked a haunting specter. The war’s namesake Homer’s epic poem “The Odyssey” is the tale of the hero, Odysseus, taking 10 years to get home from the Trojan War which itself took 10 years to fight.
BY RICH GALEN
Reprinted from mullings.com
Headline:Saudi Troops Enter Bahrain to Help Put Down Unrest
Come with me into the Wayback Machine.
Back in the day, I worked for a company called EDS which had been founded by a guy named Ross Perot. Perot was gone in the mid-90s when I was there and got involved with what I’m about to describe to you.
BY TONY BLANKLEY
Reprinted from Townhall.com
Neoconservatives, Reaganites and other militarily assertive factions in the United States are sometimes accused of thinking it is always 1938 (Britain’s appeasement of Hitler at Munich) — that there is always a Hitler-like aggressor being appeased and about to drag the world into conflict. There is sometimes merit in that charge.
As, likewise, is there sometimes merit in the charge against isolations and other doves that they always see 1914 (start of WWI) or 1964 (beginning of escalation of troops in Vietnam) — the imminent and foolish entry into or escalation of a war that can’t be won — or even if victory were to be gained, it would be Pyrrhic.