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POPSWhy Putin Should Scare Us - Ralph Peters Good article. "Meanwhile, our next president will have to cope with this brilliant, dangerous man. That's going to require the experience and skills to exploit every element of our national power; to convince Europe that appeasement will only enlarge Putin's appetite; and to draw clear lines while avoiding drawn guns. Above all, our president will have to take Putin's measure accurately and not indulge in wishful thinking. Managing Putin's Russia could emerge as our No. 1 security challenge."
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POPSBoot United Nations Now!
cont: Here you have an open-and-shut case of a rogue, dictatorial regime kidnapping and holding hostage innocent soldiers...soldiers that were not in Iranian waters when they were apprehended. The Brits have the GPS data to prove it. One of the sailors is a woman, making the situation all the more outrageous. On top of all this, Iran is parading the soldiers on TV...in direct violation of the Geneva Convention. And what does the UN do? Nothing. Why? Because the UN is anti-American, and that makes it anti-Brit. It's time for not only the United States to pull out of the United Nations but for us to kick them out of the United States. Let's form another international organization composed of countries with elected governments that adhere to principles of economic freedom and guaranteed rights for their citizens. The UN? Give it Haiti. The two deserve each other. The left always tells us we need the U.N. as a place for countries to settle international disputes. Tell me just one
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POPSThe Democrats' "Slow-Bleed" Strategy continued: But surely they should not fecklessly try to weaken the U.S. position in Iraq, and America's standing in the world, by raising doubts as to our commitment in Iraq without advancing an alternative. That is precisely what they are doing with the nonbinding resolution condemning the dispatch of additional troops to Iraq. The fact that some Republicans have embraced this resolution does not excuse the Democratic party for its virtually monolithic support of it. The GOP has its share of fools and weaklings. But it is the Democratic party that now seems willing to commit itself, en masse, to a foreign policy of foolishness and weakness.
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POPSMcCain 'jokes' about killing Iranians The joke : Sen. John McCain hasn't had good luck joking about Iran. But he tried it again Tuesday. Responding to a question about a survey that shows increased exports to Iran, mainly from cigarettes, McCain said, "Maybe thats a way of killing them." He quickly caught himself, saying "I meant that as a joke" as his wife, Cindy, poked him in the back.
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POPSPolluter appeasement But unrestricted greenhouse gas emissions are by far the greatest preventable threat to Americans' LLPH. Yet the government spends virtually nothing to fight global warming -- certainly no significant amount of new money has been allocated for this major threat (the Clinton administration tried, but the Gingrich Congress reversed that effort, reducing or zeroing out every program aimed at climate mitigation or even adaptation). Indeed, most conservatives, including John McCain, oppose even continuing existing incentives for carbon-mitigating strategies like solar and wind power. Conservatives in Congress seem likely to strongly oppose any major effort at a legislative solution (see "Anti-science conservatives must be stopped").
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POPSTalking to the Taliban. More Peace Talks. Well is this appeasement? Peace seems to be breaking out despite Bush. That's Korea now and Afghanistan! Where next? Obviously this took the White House by surprise or we'd have Rice as usual flying in to breakup the party. Now he'll have to nuke Iran to keep the money flowing in to his contractors and banks.
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POPSConservative whining about appeasement has long history Conservatives even applied this critique to one of the most dangerous moments in human history: the Cuban missile crisis, during which the United States and the Soviet Union nearly came to nuclear blows over Moscow's deployment of missiles 90 miles off the American coast. When President Kennedy successfully negotiated a peaceful conclusion to the crisis, conservative icon Barry Goldwater protested that he had appeased the Soviets by promising not to invade Cuba if they backed down. Via Matt Yglesias .
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POPSThe Contrarian Nature of George Bush But recent events have led me to choose one of the movie's lesser characters -- Younger Bear, Little Big Man's nemesis within the Cheyenne tribe. In the course of the movie, Younger Bear becomes a "contrary," a strange phenomenon in Native American plains culture who says and does the opposite of what he actually intends. He rides his horse facing the rear, says "hello" when he means "goodbye," washes in the dirt and dries off in the creek. I came to this conclusion after Bush's recent speech in Israel, where he famously equated Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama's willingness to hold talks with Iran with the appeasement of Adolf Hitler prior to World War II. Pretty inflammatory rhetoric anywhere, but in front of the Knesset? Really over the top.
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POPSMcCain: A Critical Weakness on Foreign Policy
McCain's critical weakness on foreign policy is that he knows next to nothing about it. Although I have a lot of respect of McCain, I think he falls into the typical trap of myopic patriotism. Many people love their own country so much that they are blind to the reality of the world outside their borders. The outside world is a place where America is a pretty good nation, but has certainly seen better days. The outside world is a place where our enemies occasionally have legitimate points, and certainly have lives and families much like our own. In the reality beyond our borders, the US isn't guaranteed to win every fight, especially when we go in on shaky ground. In the reality beyond our borders everyone has to talk, whether they like it or not, because in the end, nations, like people, are created equal. McCain knows everything about the US Military, but knows nothing about our enemies. With a perspective like that, how can we expect to win?
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POPSObama Owns Appeasement Update: Newt Gingrich calls this a study in guilt: Instead, he got volcanically defensive, which suggests that even Obama sees the parallels between his everything’s-on-the-table approach and the Chamberlain diplomacy which resulted in dismantling Czechoslovakia. And if Obama considers discussion of foreign policy “divisive”, then he should hide himself right back to Academia. Guess what, Senator? Presidential elections focus on foreign-policy principles, and if you can’t defend yours, then you have no business running for office.
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POPSWhat to do about Iran - From an Editorial in Washington Times By: By Tom McInerney and Fred Gedrich Also from Editorial: Iran poses a clear and present danger to the United States. And President Bush appears poised to act if its behavior is not modified. During the dark days leading to World War II, many European and American leaders mistakenly thought they could bargain with or isolate their countries from sinister forces threatening mankind. Their failure to recognize right from wrong and good from evil prevented them from promptly acting collectively against that gathering threat. As a result, 60 million died, including 6 million Jews. History shows appeasement is a failed policy. Let's ensure it doesn't repeat itself.
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POPSBush is an Idiot Bush, never one to rely on diplomacy when bombs will do the trick, opens his mouth again and nonsense spews out. What a loser.
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POPSThe Axis of Evil: An Idiot's Guide: David Frum Joseph Cirincione, the man most widely identified as Obama's top nuclear-affairs adviser, last September pooh-poohed as "far-right" "nonsense" the early rumors that the Syrian nuclear facility was indeed a nuclear facility. Cirincione wrote on the Foreign Policy blog: "This appears to be the work of a small group of officials leaking cherry-picked, unvetted 'intelligence' to key reporters in order to promote a pre-existing political agenda. If this sounds like the run-up to the war in Iraq, it should. This time it appears aimed at derailing the U.S.-North Korean agreement that administration hardliners think is appeasement. Some Israelis want to thwart any dialogue between the U.S. and Syria." Cirincione seems to have been so determined to avert what he regarded as the threat of U.S. over-reaction--so eager to promote dialogue with Syria--that he blinded himself to the reality of a nuclear threat.
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POPSAppeasement In this sense is seen as a policy of making one-sided concessions, often at the expense of third parties and with nothing offered in return except promises of better behaviour in the future, in a vain attempt to satisfy the aspirations of the aggressor states. The most famous of the appeasers was inevitably Neville Chamberlain. It was during his premiership (1937–40) that appeasement reached its climax with the Munich settlement of September 1938, by which Britain sought to avoid war over Czechoslovakia by agreeing to Nazi demands for the annexation of the German-speaking parts of that state . Among anti-appeasers the name of Winston Churchill inevitably takes first place. Churchill stands as the isolated prophet who consistently warned the government of the dangers posed by Nazi Germany and of the disaster to which the policy of appeasement would inevitably lead.
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POPSWhat Is Neo-Conservatism? Temporary alliances with other countries or movements whose own ideologies or practices may be morally reprehensible can be defended if they are used to fight a greater evil. The ends justifies the means. That's where our ways part. Neocons believe mankind is inherently evil, (how sad) whereas I choose to believe the opposite. We all create our own realities, I guess. Some may claim Neocons are a "Leftist movement", (*LOL*) because of their Trotskyite roots, but they evolved and grew increasingly and vehemently anti-communist during the 1960's. I think it is safe to say, they are right wing today. What do you call an ex-Leftist Jew?
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POPSThe Iranian line Matt Yglesias turns arguments for bombing Iran on their head. (he is parodying Normon Podhoretz, who has made the argument that the Iranian govt is much more crazy and fanatical than Stalin or Mao). Key religious leaders like John Hagee explicitly argue that the United States should attack Iran in order to hasten the coming of Armageddon, and Hagee gets not only a respectful hearing at the White House, but also works closely with AIPAC giving him important entrée with many Democrats. All of the incumbent faction's candidates from office have said they'd contemplate a nuclear first strike against Iran, media sources generally lambaste anyone who criticizes American moves to ratchet up conflict with Iran, and in general any responsible Iranian leaders needs to wonder if the USA is really a country that one can risk doing business with.
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