It was enough to get me to stop and look up and pay close attention.
Iran has been firing off ballistic missiles into the Strait of Hormuz - where we have some of our naval ships. One of those missiles came back to Earth about 1,500 feet away from one of our carriers - the USS Harry Truman. That is, by Naval Terms, a close call. In the past, if we were fired upon we had the right to fight back. Our policy was not to strike first, but to strike second with devastating force - blow the effers up and be done with it.
Now, though, it's a shrug of the shoulders and a "golly-gee, isn't that something?" response by our government and our military. They fired on us and we have done nothing.
Am I the only one who thinks there is something wrong with this picture?
What do you suppose Vlad's response would be if Iran fired on one of his ships? Do you think he'd sit back, scratch the place where his balls are and say, "huh, whaddya know."
Hell no! He'd send in some planes and he'd do his best to wipe the test facility off the map. Sending a loud, clear and unmistakable message that firing on Russian ships is a really bad idea.
Tehran would sabre rattle. Moscow would sabre rattle right back and, because Moscow is the bigger bully in the fight, things would settle down because Tehran knows full well that if Moscow chose to launch, Tehran would end up a glowing pile of dust.
And what is Obie-One's response to Tehran firing on one of our ships? I think his fingers are still nestling in that place where his non-existent balls should be.
Is this another case of "leading from behind", the method of determining our nation's path chosen by the left? The method subscribed to by Obie-One, Hilliary, Herman Munster (dba John Kerry) and the rest who promote the idea of "leading from behind". They have all bought into it.
By the way, just what does that mean, anyway? How does one "lead" from behind? Explain it to me, will you because I always thought that leading meant, well, leading. As in being ahead, in the lead, the number one position and leading.
But I digress.
Given the recent deal made by the Obama administration that gives Iran $1.5B in cash, leaves several of our citizens languishing in Iranian jail cells, and the "right" to develop nuclear capability for "peaceful purposes" yet doesn't demand, expect or even ask for anything in exchange, this makes me a tad nervous.
We can't even audit their nuclear program, or inspect it. We have to take on trust that what they're doing is pure as the driven snow, above-board and honest. And please don't say, "Yes, Phil! We do have the right to audit and inspect."
Okay, technically we do, according to the terms of the agreement, but have you read the terms of the agreement? Have you been paying attention? I haven't read it word-for-word, line-by-line, but I have been paying attention.
If we want to audit or inspect, we have to ask permission. We have to go, hat-in-hand to Tehran, and say, "Please, sir, we would like to see what you're doing." Then, if Sir agrees to let us peek into the room, they have twenty-four days to get it ready for our visit. There is a whole lot of clearing up that can be done in twenty-four days. Anything that is there that shouldn't be there will be well hid by the end of that period, so that's a joke. They also have the right to 'self-inspect', whatever that means.
Anyone who's on the right side of the dirt these days knows that Iran is developing nuclear capability. But the Iranians are as honest as the day is long, aren't they? They never, ever, ever lie, cheat, steal or even spit on the sidewalk, right? That's what we're supposed to believe. We'll pretend the 1979 hostage crisis never happened. We'll pretend all the rest of it is a bad dream. That's why this deal that Obie-One and Company made is such a good idea, right?
Yet now Iran is building and test firing ballistic missiles. What purpose could those have? You don't suppose... Nah. Just because they said that Israel has no right to exist, that it should be wiped from the face of the Earth, they wouldn't do that... would they?
Yeah, I'm afraid they would and they will if they have the chance and the capability, and we are handing it to them. A nicely wrapped package of money, kind words and no indication of any intellect or foresight whatsoever.
What are we doing about this? What response do we have with Iran firing missiles at our battle-group in the Strait of Hormuz?
Nothing.
The UN is running in circles doing the chicken thing that weaklings do when confronted by a Bogey-man. They're squawking in fear and consternation, waving hands and wagging fingers and doing nothing meaningful.
Hilliary is remarkably silent on this. With the filters set to Last Week and News I Googled "Hillary Clinton response to Iranian missile test" and got nothing. Just a brief mention at the very end of a rather lengthy Wall Street Journal article on this matter. And it is not a significant mention:
"Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the Democratic Party’s presidential front-runner, has also backed the deal while calling for its vigorous enforcement."
http://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-lawmakers-blast-delay-on-iran-sanctions-1451694590
That's it.
So we have a rogue nation, a nation that is training, funding, supporting, aiding and abetting ISIS, ISIL, Al Qaeda, the Taliban, Boko Haram and every other terror group you care to name building missiles and the crickets in Washington are louder than the powers who led us into this mess.
What the hell is going on here? Anyone?
What do you suppose is going to happen six months or a year from now, once Tehran has nuclear capability? Would you like to be living in Tel Aviv or anywhere else in Israel? Would you sleep well at night?
Yet this President and the leading Democrat presidential candidate are doing nothing. They are saying nothing.
Good god, folks! Wake up!
Because we aren't doing or saying anything, because we are showing that broad stripe of pacifist yellow down our backs, Iran is promising more:
A series of Iranian officials vowed on Friday to expand Tehran's missile capabilities, a challenge to the United States which has threatened to impose new sanctions even as the vast bulk of its measures against Iran are due to be lifted under a nuclear deal.
"As long as the United States supports Israel we will expand our missile capabilities," the Revolutionary Guards' second-in-command, Brigadier General Hossein Salami, was quoted as saying by the Fars news agency.
"We don't have enough space to store our missiles. All our depots and underground facilities are full," he said in Friday Prayers in Tehran.
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Defence Minister Hossein Dehqan said Iran would boost its missile program and had never agreed to restrictions on it.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-iran-missiles-idUSKBN0UF21G20160102
Oh, great! There's yet another gem in that pile of manure called a deal. Iran has free-rein to develop its missile program.
I'll say it again: Good God, folks! Wake up!!
This is not something to take lightly. This is not something to gloss over, cover our ears, close our eyes and do the lalalalalala thing to avoid seeing or hearing or knowing about. This has the potential to blow up the freakin' world!
We did this once before in 1939, 1940 and 1941 - right up to Pearl Harbor. We pretended and pretended and ignored and pretended and then, finally we got hit straight between the eyes. Is this the lesson we took from that history? Lie down, spread your legs, close your eyes and hope it doesn't happen? Really?
That's what we're doing. That is precisely what we're doing. We are looking inward, worrying about whether it's going to be Donald or Ted or Hilliary or Bernie while outside the walls the rest of the world is threatening to explode. And this time the stakes are much, much higher than a naval base in Hawaii.
If Iran gets nukes and has the capability of firing missiles, they are not so far out of the way that they couldn't reach Israel. Or how about Turkey? Ankara, perhaps?
How hard would it be for them to package some fissile material into a suitcase or two or three or five and smuggle them into Europe to detonate. What about Vatican Square during Sunday service or London's Underground at rush hour? How about West Minster Station? How would that be? Or how about Wembley Stadium or, I know! The Bataclan or a place like it! Right in the middle of the city, a place crowded with people and a fall-out zone of at least few hundred meters would work quite nicely, thank you.
And this is what our government has allowed Iran to do.
We have a duly elected President who is behaving as Dictator in Chief, threatening a lot of meaningless executive actions that will mean damn all when they hit the courts, and doing nothing to defray that mess taking place in the Middle East. Instead, he's promising to blow his carbon footprint off to Alpha Centauri by spending the next year traveling the globe on Air Force One. No doubt visiting every last damned golf course on the sphere along the way.
Ten years ago, before Obie-One was voted in, I told a colleague that if he became President he would destroy this country. That our economy would end in a shambles, that we would look like Senegal on a good day, and I am afraid I was right. I wish I wasn't, but it looks like I might be.
Can someone please offer a word of comfort? Some assurance that this is all just a bad dream that will pass when the sun rises in an hour or two? Please?
No?
Okay - so what can we do about this? I do not like offering up problems and challenges and such without also offering ideas for solution, so here are a few:
1) Immediately, Obie-One has got to stop being the limp-wristed Weenie-Holder-In-Chief that he is. He has got to grow a pair - fast. Go in front of the UN and start the sanction process that Iran agreed to as part of that worthless pile of dung Obie-One and Herman Munster negotiated. Then he's got to make that stick while he starts meeting with the heads of state in Europe - and with Vlad - and at least make a show of trying to negotiate something that resembles a coalition.
2) We have got to do what we should have done thirty years ago - we have got to isolate Iran, just as we have done with North Korea. Shove them kicking and screaming to the back of the line, take every penny of their money we can find, and keep them from doing anything. Apply financial sanctions that don't just tug on the short ones, but threaten to crush their gonads. Build a coalition of other countries willing and able to stop buying Iranian oil - devastate their economy until the people rise up on their own and fight their leadership. All these people understand is force - it's their culture, their religion - use it against them for a change!
3) Get these weak brain-dead idiots out of Washington. This is neither the time nor the place to play nice with the other kid. The other kid is a Zombie Bully out to kill us. Our leadership (such as it is) has got to wake up or it is going to be too late, with nukes. We have got to elect someone into the White House who has got the fury, the stones and the spine to make things stick.
Frankly, I do think The Donald is the guy to do it. He is the one guy I can see going toe-to-toe with Vlad and making things work. I see him as a deal maker who can negotiate effectively, build a strong coalition and make it stick. However, if he's not palatable, fine. Chris Christie or Ted Cruz, in that order, are decent options. But if we do not get this right soon, it will be too late and there will be a glowing pile of rubble somewhere on this planet, brought to you by the United States of America and Iran.
Philippa
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