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Wednesday, March 19, 2014

Flight MH370 and Foreign Policy in a Dangerous World

I don't know about you, but I am finding the coverage of missing Malaysia Airlines flight 370 beyond annoying. Every couple of hours it seems we are regaled with a new "STARTLING, BREAKING, OMG" revelation that is then superseded by another equally as "STARTLING, BREAKING, OMG" revelation.

This 24/7 nearly information-free coverage, however, does a few big things:

1) Tortures the already suffering family members of the people on that plane;

2) Boosts ratings and sells a lot of air time;

3) Feeds an endless number of conspiracy theories; and, my favorite,

4) Hides that Obama and his Western colleagues have no clue on how to deal with the end of the world as they know it--the end of the fantasy world created by the progressive loons in charge of the West (Australia, Canada, and Israel excepted) and the brutal reassertion of the real world.

To quote Herbert Stein, "If something cannot go on forever, it will stop."

Yes, my loopy progressive friends, the fantasy ride is over.

Time to collect the same-sex partners and test-tube kids; get back into the Prius, hope the battery is not dead; and head home to the stagnant economy, the mortgage, the leaky roof, the uncollected garbage, the sky-high energy bills, the unemployed and unemployable college students receiving a DOA education, and a American health care system, once the greatest in the world, now on death's door thanks to your prescriptions. Oh, and let's not forget the misunderstood thugs and terrorists with their knives out, waiting in the driveway to cut all our throats, yes, our--yours and mine.

We as a nation, as a collection of nations known as the West, the best, and only hope for mankind for these past many hundreds of years, must rediscover foreign policy. We cannot just wish it away; it is real. The outside world matters. What happens in dirty huts in the desert, in fetid caves in the mountains, or in the gilded hallways of the Kremlin can matter a great deal. I am sorry for the repetition, but as I wrote almost two years ago,
Foreign policy is important. It should not be an afterthought, or something left to the naive, the incompetent, the ignorant, or the malicious, i.e., the Obama administration. Securing foreign markets, for example, can prove a major source of jobs, as I have noted before. Even more important, however, foreign affairs can get you killed. We need go back no further than September 11, 2001, to see a grotesque reminder of how the outside world can come calling. Simply put, there are people who want to kill us, all of us, men, women, children, old, young, Democrat, Republican, independent, white, black, brown, Christian, Jew, agnostic, atheist, etc. Some are so eager to kill us that they willingly die to do so. I repeat: foreign affairs can get you and your family killed, and right in your home or work place. We saw it on 9/11/2001; on 12/7/1941; and almost saw it during thirteen days in October 1962, when JFK nearly got into WWIII because he did not have the vision, intelligence, and gumption to get rid of Castro when he had the opportunity, an opportunity bought with the blood of brave Cuban freedom fighters in April 1961. They want to kill us, crush us, and conquer us, because of who we are. What we, a mix of races, religions, and creeds, have accomplished has defied and continues to defy the predictions and prescriptions of royalists, Nazis, Fascists, Marxists, populists, jihadists, and all-knowing UN and EU bureaucrats.
I have written so much about this subject, it is almost unbearable for me to have to repeat it. It just seems such a waste to have to go on and on about the basics, about the one big immutable fact of the world: the strong survive, the weak die. A corollary to that, of course, is that the survivors write the history--something about which I tried to remind our silly leaders who argue that Putin is on the "wrong side of history."

Anyhow, I list here several of my pieces on the need for a serious foreign policy. Please share them with your loopy lefty friends. Hope they help as an antidote to the obsession with MH370.

Climbing Out of the Obama Foreign Policy Hole

Obama Foreign Policy (Part 1)

Obama Foreign Policy (Part 2)

Towards a New Foreign Policy (Part 1)

Towards a New Foreign Policy (Part 2)

Towards a New Foreign Policy (Part 3)


  1. I note "a friend" (JK) posted at 1326 19 MAR on Malcolm's site this:


    Then at 1736 CST to a blog originating out of the ROK this mysterious comment:

    Anonymous Anonymous said...
    Oh yeah, you're where students like EENSE is. I forgets.

    All right. Good night.


    Good morning.


    7:36 AM

    Now maybe we can all get some sleep.


  2. G'day Dip,

    Don't know if you saw the photo from the UN but it is truly cringeworthy. The text below is a straight lift of commentary to the photo.

    "Russia had just vetoed America’s diplomatic proposal for Ukraine. So Ambassador Samantha Power, the former Harvard professor appointed by Barack Obama, who is also a former Harvard grad himself, walked over to Russia’s ambassador, Vitaly Churkin, to give him a piece of her mind.

    Churkin didn’t even stand up. He just looked at her. And his aides, standing behind him, laughed.

    They weren’t laughing at the ironically named Ambassador Power. They were laughing at their good luck; that they had the good fortune to get into the invading business when a feckless man like Barack Obama was in charge of the free world".

    She must have thought she was talking to one of her recalcitrant students.

    It's 238 years since you had a revolution - time to think of another if you want to survive as a great nation despite Neville Obama-Chamberlain doing his best to destroy it.

    Power, Kerry, Obama, Hillary et al - what a group of drongoes.

    1. G'day David from Oz.

      Er, that'd be 0035 where I am - 5:37 GMT.

      You folks are flying P-8s aren't ya? Well, I'd appreciate whatever you're flying please please find something in that grid. Admittedly the currents look atrocious but things're getting as far out looney here on the CONUS airwaves with everybody wanting anybody to explain to everybody what all the everybody else should know - there's a lot a water everywhere.

      Ever David from Oz find yourself in Cairns?

      You guys find something SSE of Perth from that dadgonned airplane and I'll set you and your pals whatever is your pleasure.

      But there's only one place allows me to run a tab from Arkansas - a nice little place in Cairns. I'll get there quick as I can.


    2. SSW

      Mucho overtime.


    3. G'day Arkie,

      My post was afternoon of 20/3. We are, on the east coast of Oz, currently GMT +11 hours due to Daylight Saving. Except for Queensland which is still GMT +10 [minus 20 years].

      Cairns is a seriously nice place and I will be in Queensland on Monday and Tuesday but unfortunately not as far north as Cairns.

      There has been an announcement not so long ago this pm that some wreckage, not yet identified, has been found in our SAR zone.

      Hope, for the sake of closure for the relatives, that it is from the Malaysian plane.

    4. Hamilton Island? Course thereabouts you'd need to visit a friend a mine, Aussie hisself (and no doubt he'd charge me pompous and likely serve you below my tastes and abilities but - find that aircraft and I'll get down there quick as able. End of April likely.

      Yes. The stuff you mention came what we know here as "opensource" about 3ish hours ago ... ...

      Well. Were I to say more it'd be like, "Hello Gitmo? Reservation for one please."


    5. G'day Arkie,

      I neglected to answer one of your questions. Yes we are using Orions for SAR and "other things".

  3. Read your back threads there. Sucks that we've got another 8 years of this insanity *after* these 8 years complete.
    It's going to be 2024 before there's a chance at sane foreign policy.

    It kinda bothers me that leaders these days really have to woo the public directly about this stuff. We go to the polls and elect people so that we don't have to have everybody be sufficiently informed of everything going on such that everybody contributes to a decision like 'going to war'.
    Instead, too many people feel like they need to micromanage the elected government and the elected government always seems to feel that they need popular support to do anything whatsoever.

    If Barry thinks chemical weapons in Syria merits a military response, GO DO IT!
    Don't hem and haw and ask everybody what they think and 'have a public conversation about it'. The elected executive should be able to confer with experts and elected congresscritters, come to a decision, and implement it.

    The media has done a great disservice to the union by making people falsely feel informed and empowered.

    I think people should be encouraged to discuss all of this crap and level criticism, informed or otherwise, but it shouldn't make a bit of difference in what decision is made. Unfortunately, I think it is. (And I'm not talking just Barry, I think the Iraq and Afghanistan wars were undercut by an attempt to marginalize them as some sort of "cheap, no big deal" wars to gain media and public support...)

    - reader #1482

  4. Yeah I know the Executive does the FP but I'm kinda miffed with the Republicans too. Yes I realize they're pretty much neutered (but since this is also very proximate to their beginning to do some bombarding of the airwaves of their own ...

    Anyway ... it's kinda dismaying when, at the moment of "a perfect storm" in DC it's time Congress chooses "a perfect vacation."

    Lavrov: "And what Mister Secretary, are they taking a vacation from?"


    1. Writing as a distant but interested reader, I would like to say that I think Obama & Kerry are suffering from over stretch. Even if they were any good at their jobs, they would still be struggling. Just look at Kerry, he is everywhere, popping up and here and there - an instant expert on other people's problems.

      What to do? Given that you Americans are stuck with them for now, the best thing is to reduce the problems they are dealing with.

      You could start with the Palestinians. Given that the only thing that will satisfy them is the extermination of the Jews and the absolute determination of the Jews not to be destroyed, there is nothing to be negotiated. So, whilst maintaining military and other support for Israel - just give up on negotiating.

    2. Hello, again, Arkie.

      Congress is taking a vacation from doing harm, although less this year than any in recent memory. Still, a good thing. I love to get less government than I pay for.

      backofanenvelope: alas, the worse things get elsewhere, the more desperate Obama is to balance his books by miraculously bringing "peace to the middle east" (a "comprehensive" treaty between Israel and a new Palestinian State that will outlast the Obama Administration).

      That it may cause the destruction of Israel and the murder of all the Jews he does not choose to believe, and should it happen he will say, as he has of all the disasters that have happened on his watch, that no one could have forseen it and/or that it was someone else's fault.

  5. Thanks for giving so much credit to Canada, but in truth, Canadian society is in fact far to the left of the US - at least up until you had the "transformative" Obama.

    I voted for the Harper government, and I haven't been disappointed so far, but Harper is an accident of history, and we are about to elect Justin Trudeau, which is as vacuous as Obama, if not more.

    If you read French newspapers in Quebec, you would not believe how Harper is thrashed and demonized at every turn - just like W. was, prior to 2008.

    The reason we are going to elect Trudeau? Name recognition and good looks. That's all it takes in today's democracies.

    1. "The reason we are going to elect Trudeau?"

      As a reasonably frequent visitor from "Down Under" I'd also add that the ridiculous "two language" requirement also has a bit to do with it. Quebec seems to be the only Province that commonly uses one language signs - French. And it is a French that a European French colleague of mine says is almost unintelligible but that's an argument I don't buy into.
      Somebody should tell them Montcalm lost and it is time they got over it.
      Hopefully you will elect another conservative government.

  6. http://thediplomad.blogspot.com/2014/03/cage-fighter-vs-pajama-boy-putin.htm

    The link in this post takes me to a page that says "Sorry, the page you were looking for in this blog does not exist."

  7. Napoleon said, "If you decide to take Vienna, take Vienna." I doubt any Democrat pays attention to Napoleon anymore, especially Harvard graduates.

    1. 2014, 1914, 1814.....history is a repetitive thing.

  8. (Australia, Canada, and Israel excepted)

    Australia isn't out of the woods yet, but the Lefties and Progressives are having something of a meltdown over Tony Abbott, which is a good sign indeed.

  9. Heh.. Rand gets it at least part right.. and politico, of course, botches the response.
    Wait... why would Keystone XL or new fracking make Putin even remotely worried?
    c'mon... I think this guy is being deliberately daft and choosing to miss the point.


  10. A book recommendation to you Mr. Diplomad and your readers regarding 'foreign policy' and other serious matters, well researched, heavily sourced, and disturbing:
    "American Betrayal: The Secret Assault on Our Nation's Character" by Diana West
    (published summer 2013).

  11. Although it is sad that the USA can't do anything to punish Russia for it's invasion of Crimea, one can't really argue that this is a new dilemma.

    The exact same episode happened in 2008 under the previous administration when Putin invaded Georgia. American foreign policy has been in shambles for decades now.