Personal Animosity And The Nuclear Arms Race

It is no secret that President Obama has little time for Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu.  He has been less than politic about his feelings while Netanyahu has bitten his tongue and remained civil.

A large part of the issue is what the U.S. demands as part of the two state solution for the Palestinians and what the Israelis are willing to do.  Netanyahu declared during his recent re-election campaign that there would be no Palestinian state as long as he was Prime Minister. He backed off the statement by saying he wasn't altogether against it but now isn't the time.

Why not now?  Because he is surrounded on two sides; by Hezbollah on one and Hamas on the other.  Both are terrorist groups who have declared their intent to drive Israel from the face of the earth. I'd see no reason to negotiate either with that as the prevailing attitude.

For some reason, however, our President is determined to punish Netanyahu for not acquiescing to him.  Obama wants him to embrace the nuclear negotiations with Iran. He's also determined to punish us by threatening to go around Congress with the secret details and go straight to the U.N.

To add insult to injury we have declassified what had been a secret agreement with Israel not to make public the extent of their nuclear program.  That they have one is no secret, but to break our word and make the details available to anyone who cares to look does no more than insure there will be an arms race in the middle east.

I don't believe the Israelis would use them unless hopelessly cornered and I believe the only country that would try to corner them is Iran if they had the same capabilities.  We're making it possible for them.  Add to that the Sunni/Shite strife among the other countries you can bet everyone who can will get either a ready made bomb or the technology to make their own.

I'm sure negotiations have long been underway between the Saudis and Pakistan or North Korea.  To me, Obama has now, with this latest action, set the match to the fuel that needed the smallest of parks to ignite the region.

Who knows how this will play out but it seems to be an awfully big risk just to justify his Nobel Peace Prize and pave the way for John Kerry to get his.

To The Administration - Grow Up!

Benjamin Netanyahu is an angry man.  He is also frustrated because we who were once his most staunch ally have turned our back on him.  No, not him.  His country.

We're showing it in the most infantile of ways.  Forget "protocol" about who should have informed whom of his coming to Congress to speak.  That's a debatable point considering the actions of our President.

The reason he is coming is to plead his case against the deal the administration is crafting that in essence will allow Iran to produce a nuclear bomb with the intent of using it against Israel, among others.

This is politics at its worst.  All so Obama and Kerry can claim a "deal" that everyone else in the world is against. Netanyahu is coming to tell his reasons that not only he is against it but that we too should be.

What is it he is going to say that has the Democrats, like the lemmings they are, going to boycott the speech, the President refuse to see him and the Vice President conveniently out of town? Perhaps he is going to speak the truth that the administration desperately wants to keep from the public in case a bulb actually lights in our collective intellect and we join in the protest against the deal.

We should listen because the results of Iran being left to their own devices will lead to nuclear proliferation in the region.  The UAE and Saudi Arabia have been telling the administration that they too are nervous at the idea of a nuclear Iran.  Actually they've said more.  They've said they will have their own programs for their own protection.  From the statements you can be sure they are already in negotiations with countries such as Pakistan that can provide them what they need and will happily oblige.

We know from experience that we are now an aside in the world.  Nations are beginning to take the matter of ISIS into their own hands as well they should but we're not even at the table.  We broke it with Bush's ill advised incursion into Iraq and Obama perpetuated by unkept promises and premature withdrawals allowing for the present vacuum to be filled by ISIS and their allies.

Even so, couldn't our President at least act like an adult and listen to what Netanyahu has to say?  Is it because this struggle has nothing to do with him - not us - him? I think it's a likely possibility.

It's troubling to imagine what our next President is going to have to face when it comes to the affairs of the world.  It will be a double edged sword of trying to regain at least some of our lost stature while putting a stop to the brutal chaos.

That phone call at 3 A.M.?  Obama didn't answer it in Benghazi. Neither did Hillary.  We'd do well to make sure the next President will.

Government Intelligence As An Oxymoron

Much has been written lately about the TSA overstepping the bounds of human decency in their near strip searches of the elderly and the very young, not to mention everyone in between!  Sometimes I have to chuckle when I picture them trying to implant a bomb in an elderly person that they would set off themselves.  And a rug rat still in diapers couldn't do it at all.  I know kids are smarter younger, but there are also limits!

 Do you ever wonder how big that bomb would have to be to actually take down a plane? Is there really technology that such a powerful bomb can be implanted without showing at least a bump under the skin?  And where would they put it to make access easy without some noticeable contortions? By  the time it blows granny to smithereens would there be not so much damage but rather a mess and a bunch very of irate passengers?

Okay, you can see where my head is today, but now for the serious side.  The justification for TSA procedures comes from "chatter".  We can't take the chance that no one has been corrupted.  Meanwhile the terrorists know the buzz words to use, keep us in a tizzy and no doubt are enjoying our jumping through hoops immensely!

On the flip side, there is a real danger of something going boom and it isn't the diaper set.  It's the nuc Tehran is getting closer and closer to being able to build yet we refuse to acknowledge that possibility.  Let's face it, when they get the bomb a whole lot more than one airplane is at risk.  Try a city.  Or a country.  Maybe even ours!

Why are we in denial this is happening while the rest of the world including our allies and the U.N. are watching with grave concern?  The last assessment made by our intelligence was in 2007.  When Fred Fleitz tried to expose those doing the assessment, or the lack thereof, his criticisms were censored by the CIA and the Office of the Director of Intelligence. Fleitz recently retired after a twenty five year career with the CIA, DIA,  the State Department and the House Intelligence Committee staff.  I would think he knows his way around the subject and that his findings and concerns mesh with those of our allies and the U.N.

It seems to me if our government can tie itself up in knots over chatter, they just might not want to keep their heads in the sand when it comes to truth.  When the Iranian Revolutionary Guard posts on its website that the day after an Iranian nuclear test would be a normal day, one might be led to believe they are planning such a test.

What, me worry?  Nah.  After all, I didn't hear it on the grapevine!