Archive for category Foreign Policy

My Dearest Comrade Supreme Leader

3:48 pm, December 16th, 2009 on Foreign Policy, Humor

My Dearest Comrade Supreme Leader,

I have been such a fan of your work since I was a college student – it is such an honor to be able to write to your eminence today in my humble role as the President of the United States. Your unfailing ability to maintain a strong and successful Communist government inspires me every day to strive to create a socialist regime in our country. I wish to meet you in person to discuss my plans for a new socialist government in Washington.

When I was a young man, I thought life was all about me—about how I’d make my way in the world, become successful, and get the things I want. But then I saw the movies inspired during your time at the Propaganda and Agitation Department, especially the Five Guerrilla Brothers and other operatic adaptations of  the Eternal President’s works. I was truly inspired by the policy of juche instituted by your father, the Eternal President, and greatly developed and expanded by your eminence, and your policy of making bureaucrats work among workers at the next subordinate level.

I want our economy to follow your policies of self-reliance and inter-dependence. I am guided by your principle that man is the master of everything and decides everything. I have read your book ” The Juche Philosophy Is an Original Revolutionary Philosophy” many times.

I know it will be difficult to institute the ideal system in our country but I am hopeful. With your guidance and wishes, I hope to succeed very soon.

My evil capitalist colleagues are forcing me to discuss with you North Korea’s plans to establish nuclear independence. I feel that you are right in your insistence to firmly establish North Korea as the most powerful country in the world and I would do anything to assist you in your quest.

I humbly request you to agree to restarting six-party peace talks to give me an opportunity to make your acquaintance in person.

At your service,

Barack

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Afghanistan: Obama Wants To Finish in 1 Year What Hasn’t Happened in 30

5:35 pm, December 1st, 2009 on Asia, Foreign Policy, Terrorism

President Barack H. Obama has vowed to fight the “Al Qaeda Cancer” by denying it a safe haven in Afghanistan. And, he has vowed to do so within a year of his 2010 troop increase.

Obama says:

[The new troops] will increase our ability to train competent Afghan Security Forces, and to partner with them so that more Afghans can get into the fight…And they will help create the conditions for the United States to transfer responsibility to the Afghans.

Hopefully, the “conditions” for transfer of responsibility would include some form of political and socio-economic stability and security across the nation. As such Obama has barely 12-18 months to achieve this noble goal.

Unlike some of his other herculean goals, Obama has bitten off more than he can chew with Afghanistan. The country hasn’t had anything close to stability for 30 years now – since the 1979 Soviet invasion. Coalition troops haven’t even brought the nation close to stability during the 8 years since the 2001 ouster of the Taliban government.

What no one else has been able to achieve in 3 decades, Obama will surely do it in a year – just as he shut down Gitmo within a year and just as he had restored American prestige across the world.

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Iranian Properties Seizure Sought

5:24 pm, November 12th, 2009 on Foreign Policy, Iran, Middle East

The United States should have frozen assets belonging to the Iranian government, and any affiliates, a long time back. In fact, companies with ties to the oppressive Iranian regime shouldn’t have been allowed to do business in this country, or any other nation for that matter, in the first place.

The federal government is finally seeking to freeze/seize at least some Iranian assets now. According to President Barak Obama:

“Our relations with Iran have not yet returned to normal, and the process of implementing the January 19, 1981, agreements with Iran is still under way … For these reasons, I have determined that it is necessary to continue the national emergency declared on November 14, 1979, with respect to Iran, beyond November 14, 2009.”

If we are in a state of emergency with Iran, why are Iranian businesses even allowed to own assets in this country?

Of course, it isn’t Obama’s fault, but Iran hasn’t yet been shown the stick, only the carrot.

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Hillary Purchases Angolan Diamond Mine

5:58 pm, August 9th, 2009 on Foreign Policy, Humor

Reaching Out

Reaching Out

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has purchased an entire diamond mine in  Luanda, Angola, while on her trip to the southern African nation.

The mine was previously controlled by the UNITA rebels, who had waged war against the Angolan government until 2002. The term “conflict diamonds” came to exemplify those supplied primarily by mines in Luanda.

While not know for her extravagant jewelery, Ms. Clinton has shown an inclination to move away from her predominantly bead jewelry. The Angolan mine will ensure a constant supply of legal and high quality diamonds for her own use and for diplomatic purposes, according to a source.

Angola is Clinton’s third stop on her African tour. She is rapidly establishing a business empire to finance her next run for presidency, when she takes on President Obama in 2012.

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Concealment of Unidentified CIA Program Ordered from Undisclosed Location

5:52 pm, July 12th, 2009 on Foreign Policy, Humor

Hidden Away

Hidden Away

The Central Intelligence Agency withheld information about an unidentified program from Congress for eight years on direct orders from former Vice President Dick Cheney. The concealment orders were issued from an undisclosed location and later confirmed, again, from an undisclosed location.

The report that Mr. Cheney issued the orders from an undisclosed location has deepened the mystery surrounding it, suggesting that the Bush administration placed a high priority on its secrecy. Read on »

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Reducing Nuclear Weapons: What’s the Point?

5:37 pm, July 6th, 2009 on Foreign Policy, Liberalism, Russia

Obama is already desperately trying to achieve something of a legacy as Reagan did. But, nuclear weapons reduction by the USA and Russia doesn’t achieve a thing, really, until China, India, Pakistan, Israel and the other nuclear states agree to cut their stockpiles as well.

With the latest developments in weapons technology, we don’t need as many weapons as we did before. As such, the only way we can protect ourselves from their specific threat is to eliminate them altogether, not just by reducing their numbers by just a bit.

Obama- get off your high horse already.

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Obama Supports a Future Dictatorship in Honduras

6:38 pm, June 29th, 2009 on Foreign Policy, White House

zelaya1

Trying to Follow Chavez

Following another bloodless coup in Honduras, Obama says:

We believe that the coup was not legal and that President Zelaya remains the president of Honduras, the democratically elected president there…

It would be a terrible precedent if we start moving backwards into the era in which we are seeing military coups as a means of political transition, rather than democratic elections…

But, of course, you do. Because Zelaya had joined the:

leftist Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas, an alliance led by Venezuela’s populist president, Hugo Chávez …

… who’s Obama’s “amigo” and, this was probably the only way his man Manuel Zelaya could be removed from office. Read on »

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Bravo President Obama, Boo Conservatives

1:09 am, June 5th, 2009 on Foreign Policy, Middle East, White House

This is probably the first and last time that the above line appears on this blog. After reading Obama’s speech at the Azhar in Cairo, I am left wondering why President Bush couldn’t have given a similar one during his 8 years. Bush was seen as fighting a war against Islam, despite his earnest protestations, and distrust in the Muslim world and hatred for all things American continued to be exacerbated by perceived American attitudes towards the Middle East, Muslims, Islam and the Palestinian-Israeli problem. Read on »

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Obama flip-flops (again) on military tribunals

7:17 am, May 16th, 2009 on Foreign Policy, Politics, White House

Last year, I was telling everybody that Barack Hussein Obama was not going to be too different from Bush or McCain on foreign policy or on national security, but I was ridiculed for being naive and uninformed. Now, I feel like saying: “I told you so.”

Obama had railed against everything Bush on the campaign trail, especially the military tribunals and Guantanamo bay, calling it all:

“an enormous failure”

He has now decided to revive these same military tribunals for those same detainees at Guantanamo Bay. Well, what has changed since he was a candidate? Read on »

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Obama to exempt CIA torturers?

5:46 am, April 18th, 2009 on Foreign Policy, Politics, White House

Quite honestly, two of the very few things that Obama has done so far that I have approved of is the ban on torture and other extra-legal procedures of obtaining information, and the proposed closure of Guantanamo. But, both these approvals have to be strongly qualified.

Read on »

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An end to a dysfunctional policy in Somalia

3:06 am, April 13th, 2009 on Africa, Foreign Policy

Somalia has been without a functional government since the 1991 revolution against Siad Barre. Numerous warlords fought each other and remnants of the Central Government to gain control, but no one was successful. The UN and the US tried intervening between 1992-95 and failed miserably. An enduring image of this failed operation was the body of an American soldier being dragged through the streets of Mogadishu. Since then, Somaliland and Puntland have declared independence, but have not been recognized by a single country.

After 2001, the US again tried intervening in Somalia by creating the Transitional Federal Government, a completely dysfunctional authority, considered to be a puppet government within Somalia. TFG has failed to unite and consolidate its power over Mogadishu, let alone all of Somalia.

Read on »

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Just like any other of the 190…

7:23 pm, April 1st, 2009 on Europe, Foreign Policy, White House

Gordon Brown, Prime Minister of Great Britain, was treated like any reliable ally of the United States ought to be : just like any of the 190 other nations in the world, with a DVD box set of popular Hollywood movies, with Region 1 encoding, unplayable anywhere outside the US. No private dinners, no Camp David, just a quick meeting and out you go. Brown could have been a minor African ruler, says the National Review.

This despite the fact Mr. Brown is unlike any of the other 190. His country is the 6th largest economy in the world by GDP. Britain is also the staunchest ally of the United States, having supported its endeavours in Afghanistan and Iraq from the beginning. The UK is the only country that has actually provided a significant number of troops for both wars and continues to spend billions of dollars each year to pay for two of America’s wars.

This reminds me of the way Rajiv Gandhi, a former PM of India, treated the King of Nepal during an official visit to Delhi in the 1980s. The King was made to wait outside Gandhi’s office for several hours while Gandhi conducted other business, including playing golf and having lunch. Albeit the comparison is not perfect, but allies and friends don’t treat each other this way. Nepal has had a long relationship with India, just as Britain has had with the US. UK has proved over and over again that it is the only reliable ally for the United States in Europe.

It is understandable that Obama wants to break away from GWB’s policies. It is also understandable that he is too “busy” dealing with the economic crisis to pay any attention to minor details of protocol. Obama just doesn’t have time for dealing with foreign affairs at this time. There are, however, simply no excuses for the way Brown was treated.

The blame lies squarely with the official charged with handling Brown’s visit. Given the high level of specialization these days, this official is most likely only responsible for visits by foreign dignitaries. Is he also too busy with the economy to buy a more appropriate gift to mark Brown’s first official visit to meet the new President?

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