Free speech folks

In regard to foreign policy, I don't think Romney is the sharpest tool in the bag. Neither is the current U.S. President.

However, absent from this discussion are:

1. The imporantance of free speech above all.
2. And, a bulling Chinese communist leadership which is affecting Pacific rim security.

I did wonder about this:

And of course we should be encouraging the positive forces unleashed by the Arab Spring.

What "positive" forces? Those that make government sponsored religious extremism even more efficient in the finest traditions of fascism?

If an uprising is unwilling to produce a country that can exercise free speech above all else, the effort is not worth backing by the U.S.

At any price.

Even if the current U.S. Secretary of State has little concept of the notion.

U.S. communist appeasement tour

The gift at the bottom of every bottle of communist appeasement:

Memory loss.

The talks on Wednesday, led by U.S. Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Michele Flournoy and the deputy chief of the People's Liberation Army General Staff, General Ma Xiaotian, went ahead despite those and other tensions, including U.S. arms sales to Taiwan in September.

Flournoy told reporters that Ma had asked about U.S. intentions behind the plan to put as many as 2,500 U.S. Marines as well as U.S. war planes and navy ships at a base in Darwin.

"We assured General Ma and his delegation that the U.S. does not seek to contain China. We do not view China as an adversary. That these posture changes were first and foremost about strengthening our alliance with Australia."

Nothing to worry about at all.

Filed in "I" for "impossible"

The definition of a non-starter?

There is a long way between honor killings and other gross misdeeds and let us say, the first ammendment of the United States.

Or the 4th and 5th ammendment for that matter.

Forget it.

U.S. Middle East policy can only go so far as AIPAC

Well, that was quick.

"AIPAC appreciates President Obama's speech today at our annual policy conference in which he reaffirmed the importance of the U.S.-Israel relationship and the shared values that define both nations. In particular, we appreciate his statement that the U.S. does not expect Israel to withdraw to the boundaries that existed between Israel and Jordan in 1967 before the Six Day War."

When you have to issue a "clarification" to one of your important campaign donors, maybe the message was never properly thought out in the first place. I would say that pretty much covers Obama's Middle East policy as it pertains to Israel. The need for campaign dollars; the need to win the next election and so on. For the U.S., AIPAC is a big part of Middle East Policy. Even if it shouldn't be.



(image 2008 via Flickr-by wordhustlerllcs )