Possibly the greatest failure of the current administration is the way it has thumbed its nose at longstanding conventions and policies as well as the international community at large. We put our finger in the eye of the U.N., refused to ratify Kyoto, tried to castrate Baradei and generally made mincemeat out of Geneva, The Constitution, etc.. If there is a Dick Cheney mantra, it's f*ck them.
Occasionally I suppose this can be a strength but more often than not I think that our self righteous bravado sparks anger and resentment globally that makes such behavior counterproductive. Having the power of being the most powerful nation in the world must be quite intoxicating.
I mention this because you would think that an administration that is in it's twilight years would slip away quietly and gracefully into the night and not stir up any new animus that will make it hard for its successor. Bush and Co. are taking a different tack. We recently completed a nuclear deal with India that not only blows away long standing policy and the non proliferation treaty but might also spark a whole new asian arms race. India announced this morning that they will build a nuclear bomb if they feel it is in their best interest.
A background article from the Economic Times of India. And an excellent piece in the Asian Times.
We also took the opportunity to invade Syria for the first time and give the Middle East deck a last minute shuffle. Along with our Pakistani drone strike last week, this behavior might tie the diplomatic hands of the next president and I think that it is ill advised. But what do you expect from such a classless bunch?
"...now I am become Death [Shiva], the destroyer of worlds..."
Physicist Robert Oppenheimer, Supervising Scientist of the Manhattan Project on 16 July 1945 at 0529 HRS,in the Jornada del Muerto desert near the Trinity site in the White Sands Missile Range.... quoting from the Bhagavad-Gita upon witnessing the first atomic detonation by mankind.
4 comments:
One of your best ever, Robert.
More later. But one of your
best.
JudgeRoyBean
This from the NYT this afternoon:
... in justifying the attack, American officials said the Bush administration was determined to operate under an expansive definition of self-defense providing a rationale for strikes on militant targets in sovereign nations without those countries’ consent.
Together with a similar American commando raid into Pakistan seven weeks ago, the operation on Sunday appeared to reflect an intensifying effort by the White House to find a way during the administration’s waning months to attack militants even beyond the borders of Iraq and Afghanistan, where the United States is now at war.
Administration officials declined to say whether the emerging application of self-defense could lead to strikes against camps inside Iran that have been used to train Shiite “Special Groups” that have fought with the American military and Iraqi security forces.
Spokesmen for the Defense Department and C.I.A. declined to comment on the incident. On Sunday, an American military official had denied that American military helicopters had played a part in the raid.
Since the Sept. 11 attacks, the United States has attacked suspected terrorists in the ungoverned spaces of countries like Yemen and Somalia. But administration officials said Monday that the strikes in Pakistan and Syria were carried out on the basis of a legal argument that has been refined in recent months to justify strikes by troops and by rockets at militants in countries with whom the United States is not at war.
The justification is different from the concept of preemption the administration articulated immediately after the Sept. 11 attacks, and which was used as the rationale for the invasion of Iraq. While preemption was used to justify attacks against governments and their armies, the self-defense argument would justify attacks on insurgents operating on foreign soil that threaten American forces or its allies and interests. Administration officials pointed Monday to a passage in President Bush’s speech to the United Nations General Assembly last month as the clearest articulation of this position to date.
“As sovereign states, we have an obligation to govern responsibly, and solve problems before they spill across borders,” Mr. Bush said. “We have an obligation to prevent our territory from being used as a sanctuary for terrorism and proliferation and human trafficking and organized crime.”
In seeking to carry out cross-border missions inside Pakistan and now in Syria, the United States government is expected to make the case that these operations will help protect the lives of American troops. It is not clear how far-reaching the White House might be in seeking to apply the rationale, but several senior American officials expressed hope that it would be embraced by the next president as well.
With this exhaustive definition of self protection, no strike, across any border whatsoever, for any reason whatsoever, can fail to be justified. Brilliant!
Who is this idiot who calls himself JudgeRoyBean? Sounds to me like a hack wanna be lawyer with a stick up his gluteal fold.
Wednesday
October 29, 2008
2:22 A.M.
Dear Anonymous:
This "idiot" happens to have two doctorates, one in Law (Stanford/NYU) and one in American Studies (Yale), and 32 (+) years of practice under his belt as a major partner (Banking and Finance; International/Cross-Border transactions; Infrastructure/Project Finance/ Mergers and Acquisitions) in one of the largest international law firms in the world.
You can put that up your own "gluteal fold." (If your ears don't get in the way.)
Kiss my A_ _,
JudgeRoyBean
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