The Daily Gouge, Friday, February 1st, 2013

On January 31, 2013, in Uncategorized, by magoo1310

It’s Friday, February 1st, 2013….but before we begin, a quick question, courtesy of Tom Bakke: Since Obama wouldn’t want his ever-present mythical son playing football, how does he feel about the prospect of his daughters serving in combat?

And since we’ve questioned one in an endless string of The Dear Misleader’s hypocrisies, here’s another, as posed by Mark Levin, and paraphrased by us: Who’d ever have imagined we’d have a President willing to sell advanced weapons systems to the Muslim Brotherhood while denying semi-automatic rifles to his own citizens?

Okay….just one more. As detailed at our home page and the Video of the Day, as Bill Whittle observes: BO and Hillary blamed Benghazi on Muslims enraged by the least-viewed movie in history, yet maintain, with straight faces, film and video game violence effects….nobody at all?!?

Oh….by the way, Chuck Hagel makes Joe Biden look like Isaac Newton; and what does it say about John McCain Hagel not only was his bosom buddy, but would likely have been nominated for SecDef had America elected the Republican?

Liberals….and RINOs: living proof once you believe in nothing you’ll swallow anything.

Now, here’s The Gouge!

First up on the last edition of January, Victor Davis Hanson observes….

War Is Like Rust

War is evil, but it is often the lesser evil. — George Orwell

War seems to come out of nowhere, like rust that suddenly pops up on iron after a storm. Throughout history, we have seen that war can sometimes be avoided or postponed, or its effects mitigated — usually through a balance of power, alliances and deterrence rather than supranational collective agencies. But it never seems to go away entirely.

Just as otherwise lawful suburbanites might slug it out over silly driveway boundaries, or trivial road rage can escalate into shooting violence, so nations and factions can whip themselves up to go to war — consider 1861, 1914 or 1939. Often, the pretexts for starting a war are not real shortages of land, food or fuel, but rather perceptions — like fear, honor and perceived self-interest.

To the ancient Greek philosophers Heraclitus and Plato, war was the father of us all, while peace was a brief parenthesis in the human experience. In the past, Americans of both parties seemed to accept that tragic fact.

After the Second World War, the United States, at great expense in blood and treasure, and often at existential danger, took on the role of protecting the free world from global communism. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, both Democratic and Republican administrations ensured the free commerce, travel and communications essential for the globalization boom.

Such peacekeeping assumed that there would always pop up a Manuel Noriega, Slobodan Milosevic, Saddam Hussein or Osama bin Laden who would threaten the regional or international order. In response, the United States — often clumsily, with mixed results, and to international criticism — would either contain or eliminate the threat. Names changed, but the evil of the each age remained — and as a result of U.S. vigilance the world largely prospered.

Such a bipartisan activist policy is coming to close with the new “lead from behind” policy of the Obama administration. Perhaps America now believes that the United Nations has a better record of preventing or stopping wars — or that the history of the United States suggests we have more often caused rather than solved problems, or that with pressing social needs at home, we can no longer afford an activist profile abroad at a time of near financial insolvency.

Yet the reasons for our new isolationism, analogous to early 1914 or 1939, do not matter, only the reality that lots of bad actors now believe that the United States cannot or will not impede their agendas — and that no one else will in our absence. Americans are rightly tired of the Afghan and Iraq wars. Yet we left no monitoring force in Iraq and are winding down precipitously in Afghanistan, and thus have no guarantees that our decade-long struggle for postwar consensual government will survive in either place.

Much of North Africa is beginning to resemble Somalia. Our tag-along strategy in Libya resulted in sheer chaos, with an American ambassador and three others killed in Benghazi. The Muslim Brotherhood, headed by anti-Semite Mohamed Morsi, has turned Egypt into a failed state. Islamists killed dozens of Western hostages in Algeria. The French are unilaterally trying to prevent an Islamist takeover of Mali. Meanwhile, 60,000 died in Syria, with thousands more fatalities to come.

The common theme? Middle East authoritarians and Islamists expect that the United States will probably lecture a lot about peace and do very little about war.

China and Japan appear to be on the verge of a shooting incident over unimportant disputed islands that nonetheless seem very important in terms of national prestige. A more muscular government in Tokyo and an expanding Japanese navy suggest that the Japanese are running out of patience with Chinese bullying.

Japan, the Philippines, South Korea and Taiwan all have the wealth and expertise to become nuclear to deter Chinese aggression, but so far they have not — only because of their reliance on a previously engaged and military omnipotent United States.

A near-starving North Korea, when not threatening South Korea, periodically announces that it is pointing a test missile at Japan or the United States. Few believe that the present sanctions will stop Iran’s trajectory toward a nuclear bomb. The more the Argentine economy tanks, the more its government talks about the “Malvinas” — replaying the preliminaries that led to the 1982 Falklands Islands war.

In the last four years, tired of Iraq and Afghanistan, and facing crushing debt, we have outsourced collective action, deterrence and peacekeeping to the Arab League, the French, the British, the Afghan and Iraqi security forces and the United Nations. Does America now believe that our weaker allies, polite outreach, occasional obeisance and apology, euphemism, good intentions — or simple neglect — will defuse tensions that seem to be leading to conflict the world over?

Perhaps, but there is no evidence in either human nature or our recorded past to believe such a rosy prognosis.

The truly unfortunate part is, those who do not remember the past….

….condemn the common soldier to repeat it.

In a related item, we turn to the Hillary Clinton Memorial “What Difference Does It Make” segment, and a report which states what anyone with an ounce of sense found immediately obvious:

Obama Goes ‘Skeet Shooting All the Time’? Hardly Ever, Sources Say

News of President Obama’s apparently long-secret fondness for skeet shooting came as a surprise to those who say they have witnessed the president’s “awkward” attempts at pinging the (clay) pigeons. This has only happened with the president at Camp David, at most, a couple of times, according to a source who says he has been to the retreat on a half-dozen visits with Obama.

“The only time he shot skeet was for President’s Cup,” said the source, referring to a shooting competition tradition involving the presidential Marine guards. “I was there. He stayed for about five minutes, and couldn’t leave fast enough.” Skeet shooting “is very hard,” said the source. “Especially for someone not used to guns … He couldn’t have been more uncomfortable.”

Speaking of uncomfortable, as today’s installment of “You Know How Sometimes You Can Just LOOK At A Person And Tell They’re A Douchebag?!?” reveals, appearing before the Senate on Thursday, Chuck Hagel was, as the WSJ reports, both:

The Hagelian Method

The Pentagon nominee shows he’ll be a novice at a dangerous time.

The biggest question hanging over Chuck Hagel’s nomination to lead the Pentagon is whether he has the conviction and knowledge to protect U.S. security amid growing world turmoil and with a White House bent on cutting U.S. defenses. His confirmation hearing on Thursday was hardly reassuring.

Take his answers on Iran. Mr. Hagel is famous for urging that the U.S. engage with Iran’s clerical leaders, so he had to know the country would be a centerpiece of the questioning. Yet he seemed ill-prepared and evasive and had to take two mulligans in the middle of his testimony.

Assisted by Michigan Democrat Carl Levin, he corrected an earlier remark that suggested he thought President Obama believes a nuclear Iran could be “contained.” Mr. Obama has disavowed containment as unworkable and says we must prevent a nuclear Iran. Handed a piece of paper, Mr. Hagel said that “I misspoke and said I supported the President’s position on containment. If I said that, I meant to say we don’t have a position on containment.”

Mr. Hagel also walked back an especially embarrassing assertion that Iran’s rulers are “legitimate” and “elected.” Given his previous views as a Senator, his original, uncorrected statement may reflect what he really thinks. (No, undoubtedly reflect what he really thinks.)

The showdown over Iran’s nuclear program will probably come to a head in the next four years, yet Mr. Hagel tiptoed around the issue, promising only that “all options must be on the table.” He did not sound like a Defense Secretary who would offer advice on the use of force that he knew Valerie Jarrett might not like.

Another testy subject was his 2006 statement about a “Jewish lobby” that “intimidates a lot of people up here” on Capitol Hill and gets them to do “dumb things.” Nearby (immediately below) we reprint his exchange with Senator Lindsey Graham, and readers can decide if his answers seem adequate.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.) questioning defense secretary nominee Chuck Hagel at his confirmation hearing Thursday:

Graham: Let’s talk a little bit about statements you’ve made. You’ve explained this a bit. You said “The Jewish lobby intimidates a lot of people up here. I’m not an Israeli senator, I’m a United States senator. This pressure makes us do dumb things at times.” . . . Name one person in your opinion who’s intimidated by the Israeli lobby in the United States Senate.

Hagel: Well, uh, first—

Graham: Name one.

Hagel: I don’t know.

Graham: Well why would you say it?

Hagel: I didn’t have in mind a specific person.

Graham: Do you agree it’s a provocative statement? That I can’t think of a more provocative thing to say about the relationship between the United States and Israel and the Senate or the Congress than what you said. Name one dumb thing we’ve been goaded into doing because of the pressure from the Israeli or Jewish lobby.

Hagel: I have already stated that I regret the terminology.

Graham: But you said back then, it “makes us do dumb things.” You can’t name one senator intimidated. Now give me one example of the dumb things that we’re pressured to do up here.

Hagel: We were talking in that interview about the Middle East, about positions, about Israel, that’s what I was referring—

Graham: So give me an example of where we’ve been intimidated by the Israeli Jewish lobby to do something dumb regarding the Mideast, Israel or anywhere else.

Hagel: Well I can’t give you an example.

Graham: Thank you….

….said one RINO to the other!

Mr. Hagel would be the first Pentagon chief who has endorsed the campaign to draw down U.S. nuclear forces to zero. In the hearing, he denied he would support unilateral U.S. nuclear cuts, and he said “Congress has to be involved” in any Administration efforts to negotiate reductions with Russia. Alas, no one pinned him down on whether being “involved” includes the Senate ratifying a treaty.

Perhaps most dismaying is that Mr. Hagel didn’t appear deeply read or knowledgable about the department he’ll be running. This may be understandable because in the Senate he was never on the Armed Services Committee. Yet Mr. Hagel will have to get a remedial education amid the immediate threat of steep budget cuts and decisions on weapons that will echo for a generation.

Toward the end of the day, Mr. Hagel offered the following statement: “A number of questions were asked of me today about specific programs: submarine programs, different areas of technology and acquisitions, and our superior technology. And I’ve said, I don’t know enough about it. I don’t. There are a lot of things I don’t know about. If confirmed, I intend to know a lot more than I do. I will have to.” He certainly will.

If not confirmed, we can only assume Hagel intends….

Seriously, I’m a quick study….er,….I mean I’m a quick learner!

….to remain as ignorant as he’s been to date.

Which brings us to our Friday Money Quote, courtesy of Commentary Magazine, and one of Jonathan Tobin’s more telling observations from the Hagel hearing:

“….Yet far more damning was his incoherent response to questions about his refusal to support sanctions against Iran’s Revolutionary Guards as well as his early opposition to those against the regime. His explanation of his vote in which he said Iran’s government was “elected and legitimate” was a shocking revelation of his mindset about the confrontation in which he has always failed to understand the nature of the threat.“

But the question of the day came from Jim Inhofe:

Moving right to the Muslim Minute, we learn about the latest contribution to Western civilization by the Religion of Peace:

1 in 4 Swedish Women Will Be Raped, Sexual Assaults Rise 500%

Sweden has imported huge numbers of Muslim immigrants with catastrophic effect. Sweden’s population grew from 9 million to 9.5 million in the years 2004-2012, mainly due to immigration from “countries like Afghanistan, Iraq and Somalia”. 16 percent of all newborns have mothers born in non-Western countries. Employment rate among immigrants: 54 percent.

Sweden now has the second highest number of rapes in the world, after South Africa, which at 53.2 per 100,000 is six times higher than the United States. Statistics now suggest that 1 out of every 4 Swedish women will be raped.

In 2003, Sweden’s rape statistics were higher than average at 9.24, but in 2005 they shot up to 36.8 and by 2008 were up to 53.2. Now they are almost certainly even higher as Muslim immigrants continue forming a larger percentage of the population.

With Muslims represented in as many as 77 percent of the rape cases and a major increase in rape cases paralleling a major increase in Muslim immigration, the wages of Muslim immigration are proving to be a sexual assault epidemic by a misogynistic ideology.

The statistics are skewed by urban centers where the Islamic colonists cluster. In Stockholm this summer there was an average of 5 rapes a day. Stockholm has gone from a Swedish city to a city that is one-third immigrant and is between a fifth and a quarter Muslim.

Before you say anything, remember what The Dear Misleader read off T-1 to the UN: “The future must not belong to those who slander the Prophet of Islam.”

We know of at least one individual who understands what he says….

….now trumps what this does:

And in International News of Note, if you thought YOU had problems….

Zimbabwean Government Bank Balance Down to $217

Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe’s Dictator-for-Life; estimated net worth: $3 billion.

Two hundred and seventeen US dollars – the equivalent of £138. That is all that remains in the public account of the Zimbabwean government, a bewildered finance minister has announced. The paltry amount cast doubt over claims of a slow economic recovery and raised fresh questions about the fate of the country’s diamond revenues – officials say almost $685m worth were sold last year.

“Last week when we paid civil servants there was $217 [left] in government coffers,” Tendai Biti, the finance minster, told journalists in the capital, Harare, on Tuesday, noting that some of them have healthier bank balances than the state. “The government finances are in a paralysis state at the present moment. We are failing to meet our targets.” (Another thing The Obamao will blame on Republicans.)

Zimbabwe’s elections agency has said it needs $104m to organise polls this year. Biti added: “The government has no money for elections … We will be approaching the international community to assist us in this regard, but it’s important that government should also do something.”

The truly sad part? Rather than breaking open Mugabe’s private piggy bank, the Useless Nations will probably pony up the cash.

On the Lighter Side….