Month: September 2017

Macron’s Visions of European Sovereign Sugarplums Dancing in Paris

An article appeared in the Taipei Times on Saturday, September 30, 2017, P. 9, “Macron’s vast ambitions for a united Europe” By Philippe Legrain  /  PARIS.

Mr. Legrain’s article is just another Project Syndicate pie in the sky piece about rainbows and lollipops. Basically the EU is made up of 28 sovereign nations who have been cobbled together into an economic zone, and pressed by France to sit under what it views as its enormous penumbra of substantive government so that France can be the King of Europe (once again, if ever it was)(“Coalitions of willing governments would then integrate faster, with a revitalized Franco-German engine driving the process forward”). But the EU can never be cobbled into a United States of Europe because to do so would be to release sovereignty and no country is going to give up sovereignty to France or Germany or both – yet at the end, that is Macron’s great “vision” for Europe – or is it for France?

Already the EU has tried to pass so many substantive laws about the internal affairs of nations in the EU (which has led to the exit of Great Britain, which would never cede sovereignty to a French leadership) including vast and often unwelcome immigration and rights and internal policies. Far from the economic and social organization, the EU, under French and German determination, has become a stringent competitive (or anti-competitive) entity which often is at odds with particular sovereign’s own internal policies (e.g. Ireland’s tax concessions to lure international businesses to its shores having become the subject of retroactive reversal and imposition of enormous taxes and penalties by the European commission concerned with protecting EU competition and not member states’ competition, and stealing as much as possible from foreign entities through penalties and taxes).

Of course the French PM sees a greater bigger tighter EU as one entity under France (oh, perhaps I should not have said that out loud). Not going to happen. Not unless Europe finds itself immigrated out of existence, which is more likely than each of the sovereign European members ceding sovereignty to a French and German dominated EU. Nothing has changed in 800 years, the French and Germans are eager to grab territorial influence one way or another. Macron’s view is merely “the good old days” repackaged with ribbons and rainbows.

North Korea Debacle – Another gift from Obama, with an assist from Bill Clinton

Appeasement does not work with men like Kim or Hitler or Castro or Putin or Mao, as history has shown.

President Trump is not facing a situation with North Korea created by anything he has said or done. He is dealing with a debacle clearly laid at his feet by a naive and starry eyed duo of Clinton and Obama, two moron bookkends of a tragedy written by the Kim family and published by Beijing.

An article appeared through Associated Press in the Taipei Times on September 8, 2017, p. 9 (“S. Korea and Japan feel the heat as the North aims nukes at the US” By Bradley Klapper, Robert Burns and Matthew Pennington/ AP, WASHINGTON http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/editorials/archives/2017/09/08/2003678017/1 ) basically arguing the US will back off because of North Korea’s capabilities.

This article says: “Twenty-six years ago this month, in the hopeful aftermath of the Cold War, then-US president George H.W. Bush announced the unilateral withdrawal of all land-based and sea-based tactical nuclear weapons, including from South Korea. * * * He then pulled all air-delivered nuclear bombs from the South, in part because officials believed they were no longer needed for an effective defense. That was years before the North demonstrated its nuclear prowess with a first explosion in 2006.”

The last sentence is patently false, and in fact points to one of the reasons for the North’s nuclear weapons journey. After the then recent fall of the USSR, George Bush, Sr. withdrew nuclear weapons abroad, as the article states. However, as the article neglects to mention, Clinton, as would Obama, had faith the North Koreans would abide by an agreement, and in 1994 entered into the Agreed Framework, which gave the North Koreans billions in exchange for empty promises to stop development of nuclear weapons, an agreement which was violated as the ink was drying on the toilet paper on which it was written (part of the negotiating team for that disaster was unbelievably used by Obama for the Iran deal).

The situation today is a direct result of that inane agreement (which, by the way, is the model for the equally suicidal Iran agreement, which Iran violated while the ink was drying, but before Obama delivered $1.50 billion in cash to Iran moments before he left office).

The article goes on to say: “Now that the US faces its own threat of North Korean retaliation, the most pressing security question of the next years could be: Would Washington risk San Francisco for Seoul? * * *“It’s the core dilemma of extended deterrence for allies in the nuclear era: Will the US actually risk one of their population centers for our defense?” said Sheila Smith of the Council on Foreign Relations think tank. “It’s hard to believe the answer is ‘yes.’”” This is the statement of a small child hoping that Daddy (Clinton or Obama) would do everything to protect them, not realizing “Daddy” in this case would sell his underwear and his child to avoid conflict, including creating a monster with a ravenous appetite.

And this is the reason we are in this situation – the Clinton-Obama deficit, an unwillingness to actually act on the US military dominance, and therefore the absence of deterrent effect. Words have meaning, but actions have impact. President Obama never actually provided any evidence he would act on anything at any time for any reason. He drew meaningless red lines and embraced America’s worst enemies, paid others billions, and agreed to anything to avoid a scuffle. Kumbaya, Barry. The effect was to remove any deterrent the US might have had. Russia, Iran, North Korea, China all put their ambitions in overdrive and sped right over Barry’s blinking weakness.

Looking at the nuclear impunity of North Korea, it began spiking in 2013, North Korea speeding up its development before Obama would leave office, because North Korea knew that it could act brazenly while Obama would do nothing concrete except take away Kim’s allowance (which he got right back from Beijing, his puppet master and masterful puppeteer, playing Barry like a five dollar fiddle). Sanctions did not have an effect on Kim because the castle always has running water, champagne and caviar, and the people have been taught to die for Kim, a deity of sorts.

The North Korean nuclear train was well on its way and speeding forward long before January, 2017. This was another gift (like DACA and Obamacare) that Barry left on the Resolute Desk when he left the Oval Office.

Weakness does not produce agreements with evil dictators. Neither Chamberlain with Hitler, nor Clinton with Kim Jong-il (Junior’s father) or Obama with Hu or Xi or Putin or the Ayatollah or Assad or Hamas, or Chavez or Maduro, or Fidel or Raul, or Osama, or ISIS (or ISIL as Obama found it necessary to say) produced peace, they produced a path to turmoil and even more dire situations just down the road.

Keep this in mind — Israel was prepared to destroy Iran’s nuclear capabilities before they were made invulnerable tucked away in bunkers under the ground, as it had destroyed Iraq’s and Syria’s…and Barry said no. Blinking Barry said no. He opted for the most insane agreement with an enemy who could never be trusted in order to create the identical debacle we have now with North Korea, ten years from now. Barry, like Bill, is an idiot, and this nuclear standoff is the child of Bill, George and Barry, the three blind mice.

Now that the situation is infinitely more complicated, Barry, retired but not silent, as his predecessors were, has suggested quiet and reassuring words. Of course he does. He emasculated the U.S. over 8 years of indecision and inaction, and his eunuch approach to diplomacy set us up for disaster after disaster.

Trump has his own blustery style (which makes most people alternately laugh and cringe), and it is hard to determine what will be effective. I am just reminded of the difference between Jimmy Carter, the spineless model for Blinking Barry, and President Reagan, whose reputation produced a reaction in Iran that released the hostages there right after he took office. The fact that Reagan never took overwhelming response off the table had its effect. But we were not dealing with someone like Junior back then, who is likely out of his mind most of the time, living in Korealand, a kind of magic kingdom where reality is what he says it is and his new toy produces pretty mushroom clouds.

Clearly the only way the situation is resolved is when Junior is no longer in power, accomplished in whatever way is most expedient with the least amount of loss of life. But as usual, it could be too little too late because Barry sat on his hands for 8 years using sanctions on a country that could care less and had a back door to essentials through China, another dire enemy masquerading as a “partner” and with a legendary skill at prevarication.

Good luck to President Trump being handed someone else’s disaster. Ignore anyone involved with Clinton or Obama before, they all failed. Don’t believe China. Get people familiar with the landscape and determined to resolve it one way or another (sort of like John Bolton). Nothing used before has worked. Think outside the box.