Wreckage

The fallout from certain Think Tank Hanks and their bona fided missuses develops a life of it's own - almost.

It may be the blatant straw men the Leverettes deploy that Time Magazine picked up with a "Blame America First" meme.

"Is 44 Leading Great Satan to War with Iran?" or something like that.

Essentially - Great Satan's Especial Envoy to Mullahopolis (an expert in detecting non profit jaw flapping) Dr Dennis Ross (oh - he got game baybee! ) is running out the clock on Iran in a wicked pre game pre emptive Regime Change.

This is totally Bass Ackwards.

Dr Michael Singh brought it up a while back responding to Dr Michael Mandalbaum's piece at Middle East Strategy/Harvard:

"Anti-Americanism is a pillar of the Revolution, and any acknowledgment by Iran's rulers that one facet of Revolutionary ideology is anachronistic risks challenging the entire system."

Chopping through the wreckage of the Leverettes suspect piece reveals it's not Great Satan or any of her envoys that is driving towards war.

It's the mullahs.

Art - "Wreckage" by Skan Srisuwan

Pyongyang Tehran Axis

For now, North Korea will remain somewhat trapped by its minimal plutonium supply. To make more, Pyongyang would have to restart its Yongbyon reactor. It will take approximately six months to prepare fuel for the reactor and to rebuild the cooling tower that the country destroyed last June as a symbolic gesture.

Once fueled, the reactor will produce 6 kilograms of plutonium, roughly one bomb's worth, per year for the next decade or so. Pyongyang is not currently capable of ramping up plutonium production from there.

The threat to develop its own light-water reactor is not a great concern for plutonium production, but it does likely signal that North Korea will now seriously explore uranium enrichment capabilities. But it would take many years for Pyongyang to develop the uranium route to the bomb.

Of course, there is a terrifying way that North Korea could overcome its limitation while simultaneously helping another nuclear aspirant:

It could work with Iran.

Pyongyang lacks uranium centrifuge materials, technology, and know-how; Tehran has mastered them. Pyongyang has practical uranium metallurgy capabilities; Tehran has little. Pyongyang has its own nuclear test data; Tehran does not.

Pyongyang knows all facets of plutonium technology; Tehran has little more than a plutonium-producing reactor under construction. Pyongyang helped Tehran establish a missile capability; now, Tehran's crash missile-test program and Pyongyang's long-range rocket tests could prove mutually beneficial.

Preventing escalation of nuclear and missile cooperation is critical to avoid destabilizing Northeast Asia and the Middle East. The urgency of this threat is underscored by North Korea's recent covert construction of a nuclear reactor in Syria and its extensive ongoing cooperation in missile technology with Iran.

At least in its nuclear reach, Pyongyang isn't quite as isolated as it seems.

Submitted by Dr Siggi S. Hecker

Art - "Spirit of Juche will humble Imperialist Yankee Aggressors"

Special Delivery

Way back in the Comrade Papa Arafat days - before the rise of HAMAS and the fall of the sons of Fatah - Iran sent an especial package to the Strip. 50 tons of explosives, anti tank missiles and K'Tusha 122mm rockets carefully fitted in especially created cannisters (for flotation and collection) by the super secure work shops at Persia's Bandar Abbas Naval Base.

Alas, Little Satan's seaborne commandos intercepted the goodies onboard the Karine A, on or about 00:00 Hours 3 January 2002 in the Red Sea.

Ancient history. OTOH, recent events may be interpreted that Iran's Strip Express is back in biz - this time with an armed convoy to protect wicked booty.

Let's review:

Great Britain's Times leaked that Great Satan's task Force 151 really wasn't hanging out in scary pirate infested waters to catch pirates only.

Task Force 151 was really cruising to inflict a bruising on the on the hunt for Revo Guard cats seeking the southern wing of the shia crescent from Persia to the Red and Med seas

"...Iranians are attempting to smuggle munitions from the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas, where the arms shipments are loaded onto commercial vessels."

And:

"Once in the Red Sea the cargo is taken on one of two routes. The first is to dock in Somalia and Sudan, where professional smugglers carry the cargo overland to Sinai. In Sinai, Bedouin specialists smuggle the shipment into Gaza through the notorious border tunnels."

Exactly what Iran is attempting to ship into the Strip is certainly open to conjecture - though a good bet is probably more of the projectiles that Little Satan recently interdicted in Sudan - the Fajr 5 missile.

Fajr-5 missile is launched from a mobile platform (which is awful truck looking btw), she supposedly has a range of between 60-70 kilometers.

45 miles for the unmetrical.

Fajr 5 is constructed by the Iranians, reportedly with help from NoKo and China.

Just like Katyusha and Scud, max range is only accurate to like a radius of around one kilometer. There are unconfirmed though believable reports that Iran has tested a chemical warhead for the Fajr-5.

Addition of Fajr 5 into the Strip (chemical Warheads or not) is scary indeed. Little Satan's tender and sensitive goodies could well be in range of such a launch from the Strip.

Not to mention the only target HAMAS seems to go for - innocent civilians.

Which may explain Little Satan's recent practice drills - about getting rocketed from all sides.

And it may also explain why Iran has sorteed Six Iranian warships along with their attendant ships

Commander of the Iranian Navy, Real-Admiral Habibollah Sayyari, said on Monday that "six warships and support vessels have been dispatched to the Gulf of Aden region and international waters."

The cover story is to fight pirates.

The Iranian Flotiila may instead be an armed escort for an especial delivery.

Pic "Got something for ya"

Malign Influence

Dr.'s Hillary Mann Leverett and her other half Dr Flynt Leverett are more than a hot item among Great Satan's Think Tanks, Ex Admin players and Foreign Policy/ Internat'l Relations cats.

They are also a malign influence in Great Satan's national and internat'l interests.

Dr Flynt wrote the essential "Inheriting Syria" and really laid out the facts.

Dr General President For Life Bashar al Assad may have been the recipient of accidental regime change but his regime is weak, wicked and fiddles about with terrorists, WMD -- while buddying up to Great Satan's sworn blood enemy - the most proficient serial killers and tormentors of Americans til 911 time - the Iranian created Hiz'B'Allah.

Not to mention - - bombing a sister Arab states semi democratic political cadre out of existence - - hosts several al Qaeda cells, Iraqi bound suicide bombers and allowed one of the most wanted men in the world to hang all safe as milk in Damascus (until a 'mystery blast' incinerated Muganiyah as a sexyful St Valentine's Day gift! -- Better than chocolate)

Dr Flynt's book is OK til he reaches the conclusion: Great Satan should initiate a bizarro Fan Club outreach to Bashar and help his pitiful Palestinian abusing slave trading regime realize regional ambitions.

What the heck? Is this a joke?

Nope, that cat is dead serious.

His better half - Dr Hillary Mann Leverette doesn't really bother much with Syria - sucking up to Iran is her baleful baby.

Foreign Policy pubbed her "Sure He's Crazy - So what?" take a while back on why chatting up Iran's fiery little rocketeer was cool - desirable even. Stuff like Iran being the parasitical pirate mommie ship for a host of terrorist orgs is really all Great Satan's fault:

"Iranian policy needs to be understood in the context of the Islamic Republic's asymmetric national security strategy. Proxy actors -- political, paramilitary, and terrorist -- in neighboring states and elsewhere give Tehran tools to ensure that those states will not be used as anti-Iranian platforms, providing the Islamic Republic a measure of strategic depth it otherwise lacks.

"Most problematic, the (willful?) failure of U.S. foreign-policy elites to understand the calculations motivating Iran's actions toward its proxy allies has profoundly distorted discussion in the United States and elsewhere of alleged Iranian ties to al Qaeda. Indeed, this failure has cost the United States opportunities to enlist the Islamic Republic as a potentially formidable partner in the fight against terrorism."

YAWN. Sorry Doc - perhaps Great Satan's intelligentsia really does get it and they really don't give a flying Imam about Persia's unelected, gay free, girl fearing police state regime and their regional aspirations.

Currently - the Leverettes are stymied. Despite years of advocating a suck up hook up with creepy murderous power players in unfree and unfun lands.

Check out the hissing dissing hissy fit they jointly threw in the NY Times:

"More broadly, President Obama has made several policy and personnel decisions that have undermined the promise of his encouraging rhetoric about Iran.

"The problem begins at the top, with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. As a presidential candidate, then-Senator Clinton ran well to the right of Mr. Obama on Iran, even saying she would “totally obliterate” Iran if it attacked Israel.

"Since becoming secretary of state, Clinton has told a number of allies in Europe and the Persian Gulf that she is skeptical that diplomacy with Iran will prove fruitful and testified to Congress that negotiations are primarily useful to garner support for “crippling” multilateral sanctions against Iran.

"Secretary Clinton does not have broad international support for sanctions that would come anywhere close to being crippling.

"More significantly, this posture is cynically counterproductive, for it eviscerates the credibility of any American diplomatic overtures in the eyes of Iranian leaders across the Islamic Republic’s political spectrum. "

Oh Snap!! Say it aint so! Only it is so!

"Even more disturbing is President Obama’s willingness to have Dennis Ross become the point person for Iran policy at the State Department. Mr. Ross has long been an advocate of what he describes as an “engagement with pressure” strategy toward Tehran, meaning that the United States should project a willingness to negotiate with Iran largely to elicit broader regional and international support for intensifying economic pressure on the Islamic Republic."

"In conversations with Mr. Ross before Mr. Obama’s election, we asked him if he really believed that engage-with-pressure would bring concessions from Iran. He forthrightly acknowledged that this was unlikely."

"Why, then, was he advocating a diplomatic course that, in his judgment, would probably fail? Because, he told us, if Iran continued to expand its nuclear fuel program, at some point in the next couple of years President Bush’s successor would need to order military strikes against Iranian nuclear targets. Citing past “diplomacy” would be necessary for that president to claim any military action was legitimate."

"Based on our own experience negotiating with Iranians, and our frequent discussions with Iranian diplomats and political figures since leaving the government, we think that it will take a lot more to persuade Tehran of America’s new seriousness."

Thankfully - doesn't look like 44 is suseptible to possible enemy agents, enablers or their malign influence.

Art "Dennis Ross is driving Great Satan straight to war with the wonderful theocrats in Tehran despite Dr Hillary Mann Leverette and Dr Flynt Leverette's best efforts"

Their Name Liveth Evermore

Memorial Day has a special poignancy for a nation at war. Every week, more Americans make the supreme sacrifice

Air Force 1st Lt. Roslyn L. Schulte, 25, graduated from the Air Force Academy in 2006 with academic and military honors. She deployed to Afghanistan in February 2009 to help train the Afghan National Army in her specialty of military intelligence

Lt. Schulte died on May 20 near Kabul, Afghanistan, of wounds sustained from an improvised explosive device. She was the first female Air Force Academy graduate killed by an enemy combatant.

Marine Sgt. James R. McIlvaine, 26, of Olney and Staff Sgt. Mark A. Wojciechowski, 25, of Cincinnati, fell during combat operations in Al Anbar province, Iraq, on April 30

The next day, Army Sgt. James D. Pirtle, 21, of Colorado Springs and Specialist Ryan C. King, 22, of Dallas, Ga., gave the last full measure of devotion near the village of Nishagam, in Konar province, Afghanistan.

Al Anbar and Konar may not be household names, but previous generations had never heard of Guadalcanal or Bastogne before they became eternally linked with America's martial legend. Likewise St. Mihiel or Antietam, or any other locales whose names resonate with sacrifices made in freedom's cause.

Few Americans are touched personally by the ongoing conflicts overseas.

They enjoy freedoms hard won and preserved by people they have, for the most part, never met; they are as unaware of the deaths of these people as they were of their lives.

For every name there is a story of dreams, of duty, of a life cut short.

Staff Sgt. Leroy O. Webster, 28, of Sioux Falls, S.D.; Petty Officer 2nd Class Tyler J. Trahan, 22, of East Freetown, Mass.; and Staff Sgt. Esau I. De la Pena-Hernandez, 25, of La Puente, Calif., all gave their lives within the past few weeks to preserve our freedoms.

A society as blessed as ours - its people safe even while at war, prosperous even amidst economic crisis - needs to be reminded that such blessings come at a cost. Memorial Day is a time to remember, but it is more than that

Good men and women go off to war on our behalf, and some do not return.

On Memorial Day, we observe more than the fact that people died, but also how their deaths came to pass, and in what cause. We commemorate not just their sacrifice, but the context that gives meaning to both the fate they suffered and the lives they led.

We recognize the commitment to selfless service that brought them to a fateful day in an out-of-the-way place they had never heard of before they died there

Memorial Day is not simply about remembering our fallen; it is a day when we should fully and properly express our gratitude.

America owes them everything.

James S Robbins

Pic - Memorial Day

Umberella - Remix

California

"California - Rest in Peace - Simultaneous Release
"California - Show your Teeth -- She's my priestess - I'm your priest"

So sang the Red Hot Chili Peppers in their killer anthem "Dani California"

While the Golden State's fiscal wolf cries are kinda like Palestine's -- totally 'So What?" an interesting wet dream for Poli Sci Guys is unfolding:

Split up California into 4 brand new States!

If California were anywhere else -- UN would prob be talking about deploying blue helmets and prepping for new elections

But theoretically the state is salvageable, if only because the state could both afford higher taxes and reduce state spending. Spending is far from bare-bones levels, and state employees are extremely well paid.

Breakingviews actually proposes a much more radical solution, which is breaking California up into 4 distinct states (seriously). Think of it like good bank/bad bank, but for states.

Actually it's a little different. The idea is not that this will solve the state's financial problems, but that it will split it into four coherent political units, which would be:

San Diego/Orange County/Inland Empire (socially conservative, Hispanic, heavily military)

Greater LA (Hollywood and Hispanics, very liberal)

San Francisco/Silicon Valley (Liberal, but very dynamic and market oriented)

Central (Conservative, Kansas-like)

Cali has had this kinda talk before - several times.

Wonder what Dr D at AmPow thinks!

Art -"You can check out anytime you like -- but you can never leave"

Myth

The recent tete' a tete' betwixt 44 and the 46th VP spawned enough analysis opportunities to last a long time!

As best understood -- 44 featured two points about closing Guantanamo:

Gitmo diminishes Great Satan's standing in world opinion and serves as a magnet for Great Satan haters to pick up an AK and join the Haj.

That's it.

And that is significant.

Super savvy historian and all around super fly smart guy Arthur Hermann has the best Gitmo Myth Deconstruction piece out there - essential reading -- that shows how the myth of Great Satan tormenting hapless innocents as a globalized policy became accepted narrative.

"The standard argument is that the public shift in attitude toward Gitmo was gradual, and reflected a growing disillusionment with the war on terror as the sordid details of how George W. Bush and his assistants chose to wage it came out, including the supposed secret use of torture.

"Once the detention center had become a cesspool of human-rights abuse, the evil spawned there then seeped into other facilities where prisoners in the Bush war on terror were being held, most notoriously the Iraqi prison at Abu Ghraib.

"In 2004, former Vice President Al Gore announced that Abu Ghraib “was not the result of random acts by a ‘few bad apples’: it was the natural consequence of the Bush administration policy” of retaining and interrogating inmates at Gitmo.

"What this account and others like it fail to take into consideration are the aggressive and unending efforts of a cadre of lawyers, activists, left-leaning Democrats in Congress, and civil libertarians against the facility, its purpose, its goal, and its existence. These efforts began even before it was opened, in November 2001, and continue to this day.

"The anti-Gitmo forces worked tirelessly to shape the public perception that Gitmo was the red-hot center of an aggressive policy approach that led the leftist financier George Soros to declare: “The biggest terrorist in the world is George W. Bush.”

Perhaps all the faux outrage came from the Gitmo Myth?

VP Cheney laid it out pretty plain (and as Nietzhe said "Out of chaos comes order") the nigh indestructible cardiac wise Vulcan regime changer is warming up to his new role as the leader of the GOP - at least on Nat'l Security.

"Another term out there that slipped into the discussion is the notion that American interrogation practices were a "recruitment tool" for the enemy. On this theory, by the tough questioning of killers, we have supposedly fallen short of our own values.

"This recruitment-tool theory has become something of a mantra lately, including from the President himself. And after a familiar fashion, it excuses the violent and blames America for the evil that others do. It's another version of that same old refrain from the Left, "We brought it on ourselves."

"It is much closer to the truth that terrorists hate this country precisely because of the values we profess and seek to live by, not by some alleged failure to do so. Nor are terrorists or those who see them as victims exactly the best judges of America's moral standards, one way or the other.

"Critics of our policies are given to lecturing on the theme of being consistent with American values. But no moral value held dear by the American people obliges public servants ever to sacrifice innocent lives to spare a captured terrorist from unpleasant things. And when an entire population is targeted by a terror network, nothing is more consistent with American values than to stop them"

"List all the things that make us a force for good in the world--for liberty, for human rights, for the rational, peaceful resolution of differences--and what you end up with is a list of the reasons why the terrorists hate America."

Whoa! Despite some clever pretzel logic - the Gitmo gotcha guys fail to truly appreciate any of that.

Fact is - more journalists have been waterboarded than real live terrorists have.

Which may deconstruct another myth - that Enhanced Interrogation Techs are torture.

Never heard of any journalists volunteering to have their fingernails ripped out or have irons bungee corded to their bodies.

Art - "Gitmo Myth"

Battle Royale

So, the White House announced that President Obama will deliver a “major” speech on antiterrorism policy today. The timing isn’t entirely clear, but MSNBC reports that it will be “about an hour” after former Vice President Dick Cheney delivers an address on the same topic here at the American Enterprise Institute.

The announcement of the former Veep’s address went out officially from AEI on May 12, though he had been asked to give a talk a couple of weeks before. (We asked him because this is one of the most important national security issues of the day, and AEI is committed to informing and prompting a public debate consisting of more than sound bites.) President Obama’s speech was announced today.


What do we think? 1) The Obama White House runs the savviest information ops of any White House in modern history. This is all about rebutting an increasingly effective exponent of aggressive counterterrorism policies. 2) Why do it? The simple answer is that the public is listening to Cheney on the issues, and if the Democratic Congress’s decision this week to deny funding to close Gitmo is any indication, finger-in-the-wind politicians are listening, too.

There’s another message in the former vice president’s efforts to rally the nation behind a robust policy: Americans know we are at war. They don’t want Gitmo’s denizens in their backyards. They aren’t embarrassed by their country, by their soldiers in the field, or by their public servants striving to keep them safe.

Mr. President, take note: It’s not just about the air time. Leadership matters

Especially in times of war.

Submitted by Danielle Pletka

Art -"Battle Royale" by Pascal Blanche

Talks

Well, one thing for sure after the BiBi - 44 hook up! Great Satan's Especial Envoy Dr Dennis Ross has recieved his marching orders.

Essentially the veteran diplopolititary expert is to engage Mullahopolis

Results?

"Something something Palestine" and a six month grace period for engagement of enrichment interruptus

Non profit jawflapping?

"Tehran does not desire reconciliation with the United States. There are two reasons for this, both of which stem from the fact that the Iranian regime values its own survival above all. "

1st off - - as Dr Michael Singh respond to Dr Michael Mandalbaum (O! He got game Bay Bee!) points out

"Anti-Americanism is a pillar of the Revolution, and any acknowledgment by Iran's rulers that one facet of Revolutionary ideology is anachronistic risks challenging the entire system."

And like Dr Natan Sharansky pointed out in the essential "Case for Democracy" - fear societies - autocratic regimes -- thrive on closure and are threatened by openess.

While Iran's control freak theoconic regime may not wanna diss revolutionary doctrine and make up with Great Satan -- they may actually enjoy tete' a tete' ala raison d'retarde'


"For Tehran, these talks are not a means to an end, but an end in themselves."

Non productice pleasant chats "confer upon the regime a greater legitimacy and prestige than they would otherwise enjoy, and bolster Iran's hegemonic aspirations.

"Talks carry other benefits for the regime, and dangers for the United States; they risk disheartening advocates of reform in Iran and U.S. allies in the region, they may convey weakness to Iran's leaders and embolden rather than temper their nuclear ambitions, and, most practically, may give the regime the time it needs to perfect its nuclear capabilities.

Whoa! This means War or Peace in the ME hangs on the success of Great Satan's especial envoy.

"Doing this will require pressure, and lots of it, in order to convince Iran's rulers that a negotiated agreement, despite the threat it poses to the regime, will be less costly than either the status quo or further progress down the nuclear weapons path."


Would such a big stick include threats to the regime - - a promise of annihilating the Khoemenist regime in Tehran?

Art - "Great Satan and the Serpent" by Optidigit

Future Palestine

Palestine. Two state illusion - or as the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan's King Abdullah recently heinzed it -- - the "57 State Solution".

While a peaceful democratic tolerant society featuring the most literate Arabs on the face of the earth with a history of voting in transparent, periodic elections would certainly be cool - there seems to be little evidence it would happen.

Haifa University's recent survey revealed that 41 percent of Israeli Arabs recognize the right of Little Satan to exist as a Jewish and democratic state, compared to 65.6% in 2003.

About 53.7% of Israeli Arabs recognize the right of Israel to exist as an independent state, compared to 81.1% who recognized that in 2003.

In fact, it could be said Little Satan doesnt really have anybody to negotiate with in good faith. All the Palestine sites are not so much about running a real government or building a cool place to call home - they are all about blood, revenge and continuation of their UNWRA funded victimistic mentality.

Since Nazi time Deutschland and Imperial Japan screamed "God! Please! Stop!" there have been born more than 100 nation states and the movements of hundreds of borders. Border moving - seldom agreeable to everyone - yet nation states accepted them as a settled border was better than war.

Germany reconciled herself to the loss of Prussia, Russia acknowledged the secession of Kazakstan and Serbs are handling the idea of Kosovo.

Even in 3rd world states gave up treasured aspirations rather than shed blood forever - Somalia gave up Ogaden, Guatemala stopped demanding Belize and Indonesia finally gave up East Timor.

There is one glaring, bizarro conspicuous exception to this willingness to accept facts - no matter how disappointing they are.

Perhaps the greatest - and sole - obstacle to an ME peace deal is the feeling of certain elements in Arab League and the Mohammedist bloc that any turf that was once theirs can never legitimately belong to anybody else.

Ever.

Art - "Future Palestine"

Pic Tricks

Release the pics. No, don't release the pics. The recent discombobulation about pics taken showing what all happens when creeps, intolerant murderous girl fearing jerks fall into Great Satan's enhanced clutches has stirred a bit of conjecture.

And all of it is wrong. Incorrect and totally misses the point.

Certain cats maintain that it's all about 44's domestic agenda - the admin wants to move on universal health care - not waste their substance on what all happened way before Surge.

Or, that 44 realized his top generals were against granting al Qaeda and other rejectionists using pics to recruit the easily confused into charging into similar Kodak moments.

Those analyses may be too gracious.

It may be all about 44.

Consider: What would be the result of unleashing pics of hapless intolerants being shamed, tormented, mocked and then chucked on the pile of Great Satan's enemies?

Especially when 44 is supposed to hit Pyramidland (arguably the most "Yay! 44!") hood in all of Arab League to do an address to unfree lands?

Well, for starters - it would unleash probably over a million mohommedist brotherhood protesters. Former sympathizers would become supporters, supporters would become nigh unhinged and might even spark a rebellion in Egypt - already engaging Iran in a not so covert covert battle to maintain their sunni ness against Persia's brand of shia ism.

Any pic tricks would be bad PR for 44 overseas.

Art "Close Gitmo Now" UGA Art Show 2009

Little Satan's BDay!

Shout out to Little Satan celebrating her 61st this year! Incredible - and soooo true. Despite the unhinged fact that nearly 300 million members of Arab League have tried and failed to put paid to a tiny tiny piece of real estate (with no oil) sweetly attended to by less than 7 milion people.

Certain rowdy members have learned the hard way not to send panzers, combat jets and conscripted infantry against Little Satan, yet there are several threats to her existence.

Ambassador Oren explains:

Rarely in modern history have nations faced genuine existential threats. Wars are waged to change regimes, alter borders, acquire resources, and impose ideologies, but almost never to eliminate another state and its people.

This was certainly the case during World War II, in which the Allies sought to achieve the unconditional surrender of Germany and Japan and to oust their odious leaders, but never to destroy the German and Japanese states or to annihilate their populations.


In the infrequent cases in which modern states were threatened with their survival, the experience proved to be traumatic in the extreme. Military coups, popular uprisings, and civil strife are typical by-products of a state’s encounter with even a single existential threat.

The State of Israel copes not only with one but with at least seven existential threats on a daily basis. These threats are extraordinary not only for their number but also for their diversity. In addition to external military dangers from hostile regimes and organizations, the Jewish State is endangered by domestic opposition, demographic trends, and the erosion of core values. Indeed, it is difficult if not impossible to find an example of another state in the modern epic that has faced such a multiplicity and variety of concurrent existential threats.

The Arab Demographic Threat.

Estimates of the Arab growth rate, both within Israel and the West Bank and Gaza, vary widely. A maximalist school holds that the Palestinian population on both sides of the 1949 armistice lines is expanding far more rapidly than the Jewish sector and will surpass it in less than a decade. Countering this claim, a minimalist school insists that the Arab birthrate in Israel is declining and that the population of the territories, because of emigration, is also shrinking.

Delegitimization.

Since the mid-1970s, Israel’s enemies have waged an increasingly successful campaign of delegitimizing Israel in world forums, intellectual and academic circles, and the press. The campaign has sought to depict Israel as a racist, colonialist state that proffers extraordinary rights to its Jewish citizens and denies fundamental freedoms to the Arabs. These accusations have found their way into standard textbooks on the Middle East and have become part of the daily discourse at the United Nations and other influential international organizations. Most recently, Israel has been depicted as an apartheid state, effectively comparing the Jewish State to South Africa under its former white supremacist regime. Many of Israel’s counterterrorism efforts are branded as war crimes, and Israeli generals are indicted by foreign courts.

Terrorism.

Since the moment of its birth, Israel has been the target of attacks—bombings, ambushes, rocket fire—from Arab irregulars committed to its destruction. In the decade between 1957 and 1967, widely considered the most halcyon in the state’s history, hundreds of Israelis were killed in such assaults. Nevertheless, the Israeli security establishment viewed terror as a nuisance that, though at times tormenting, did not threaten the state’s survival.

This assessment changed, however, in the fall of 2000, when the Palestinians responded to an Israeli-American offer of statehood in the West Bank and Gaza with an onslaught of drive-by shootings and suicide bombings. Tourists and foreign capital fled the country as a result, and Israelis were literally locked inside their homes. The state was dying.

Israel eventually rallied and, in the spring of 2002, mounted a counteroffensive against terrorist strongholds in the West Bank and Gaza. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) developed innovative techniques for patrolling Palestinian cities, coordinating special forces and intelligence units, and targeting terrorist leaders. Israel also built a separation barrier that impeded the ability of terrorists to infiltrate the state from the east.

These measures succeeded in virtually eliminating suicide bombers and restoring economic and social stability. Yet no sooner were these historic achievements gained than terrorists alit on a new tactic no less threatening to Israel’s existence.

Katyusha rockets fired by Hezbollah into northern Israel and Qassam rockets fired by Hamas in the south rendered life in large swaths of Israel emotionally untenable. Though Israeli ground and air operations may have succeeded in temporarily deterring such attacks, Israel has yet to devise a 21st-century remedy for these mid-20th century threats.

A Nuclear-Armed Iran.

The principal sponsor of Hamas and Hezbollah, Iran is inextricably linked to the terrorist threat. But when the Islamic Republic achieves nuclear weapons-capability—as early as this year, according to Israeli intelligence estimates—the threat will amplify manifold.

A nuclear-armed Iran creates not one but several existential threats. The most manifest emanates from Iran’s routinely declared desire to “wipe Israel off the map,” and from the fact that cold war calculi of nuclear deterrence through mutually assured destruction may not apply to Islamist radicals eager for martyrdom. Some Israeli experts predict that the Iranian leadership would be willing to sacrifice 50 percent of their countrymen in order to eradicate Israel.

Beyond the perils of an Iranian first-strike attack against Israel, the possibility exists that Iran will transfer its nuclear capabilities to terrorist groups, which will then unleash them on Israel via the country’s porous ports and border crossings.

A nuclear Iran will also deny Israel the ability to respond to terrorist attacks: in response to an Israeli retaliation against Hezbollah, for example, Iran would go on nuclear alert, causing widespread panic in Israel and the collapse of its economy.

Though remedies exist for all of the monumental threats facing Israel, contemplating them can nevertheless prove dispiriting. A historical context can, however, be helpful. Israel has always grappled with mortal dangers, many more daunting than those of today, and yet managed to prevail. In 1948, a population half of the size of that of Washington, D.C., with no economy and no allies, armed with little more than handguns, held off six Arab armies. It built an economy, tripled its population in ten years, and developed a vibrant democracy and Hebrew culture.

Nineteen years later, in June 1967, Israel was surrounded by a million Arab soldiers clamoring for its obliteration. Its economy was collapsing and its only ally, France, switched sides. There was no assistance from the United States and only hatred from the Soviet bloc countries, China, and even India.

And look at Israel today: a nation of 7 million with a robust economy, six of the world’s leading universities, a pulsating youth culture, cutting-edge arts, and a military that, in its last two engagements, was able to mobilize more than 100 percent of its reserves. According to recent polls, Israelis are the second-most patriotic people in the world, after Americans, and the most willing to defend their country.

Israel in 2009 has treaties with Jordan and Egypt, excellent relations with Eastern Europe, China, and India, and a historic alliance with the United States. By virtually all criteria, Israel in 2009 is in an inestimably better position than at any other time in its 61 years of independence.

Though the severity of the threats jeopardizing Israel’s existence must never be underestimated, neither should Israel’s resilience and national will. That persistence reflects, at least in part, the success of the Jewish people to surmount similar dangers for well over 3,000 years. Together with Diaspora Jewry and millions of Israel supporters abroad, Israel can not only survive these perils but, as in the past, she can thrive.

Pic - "My wings are like a shield of steel" Staff Pic 2009 GsGf

Change Of Command

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates' decision to replace General David McKiernan as commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan was an unusual, though hardly unprecedented move. The relief of a general in wartime is a serious matter, and doubtless Gates thought long and hard before making the decision.

If an analogy is to be drawn, it should be to Lincoln's shuffling of Union generals during the early campaigns of the Civil War. Like Lincoln, Gates wants to win, and he is looking for a general who can deliver it. Many of the generals Lincoln fired were good, solid officers; they just lacked the qualities needed to prevail in a war quite unlike the ones they had studied and experienced earlier in their careers.

Gates is similarly engaged in the difficult process of sorting out which generals possess the qualities necessary to succeed in today's complex conflicts. His decision raises the question of where we would be today if his predecessor took that task as seriously as he does.

The new team in Kabul bears the indelible imprint of Gates and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen. In Stan McChrystal, Gates has turned to a skilled and innovative soldier who has spent much of the last eight years in the field. As Director of the Joint Staff, the most powerful three-star position in the Pentagon, he understands how the machinery of the Defense Department works. He also has the ear of Mullen.

For McChrystal's deputy, Gates tapped another skilled commander, Lieutenant General David Rodriguez, who currently serves as Gates' Senior Military Assistant, knows the Pentagon well, and will have the ear of its leadership. Above McChrystal and Rodriguez are two of the brightest officers in the U.S. military. General David Petraeus, the Commander of U.S. Central Command, is well known. Less well known, though no less impressive, is the new military head of NATO, Admiral Jim Stavridis.

With these appointments, Gates has thrown some of the best U.S. officers into the fight in Afghanistan. Whether Gates has indeed found his Grant remains to be seen. We should hope he has.

Submitted by Dr Thomas G. Mahnken

Art "Change of Command" by fastner and larson

Ruthless

The momentum of Pakistani instability appears to be accelerating: Six months ago there was no evidence that the Taliban would break out of its mountain hideaways in the Northwest Frontier Province to move within 60 miles of Islamabad.

While the Pakistani Army may finally have woken up to the threat, the loyalties of its rank and file are far from clear. In short, Pakistan in 2009 is looking more and more like Iran thirty years earlier, when the seemingly impregnable Shah fell in the face of hostile demonstrations and a passive army.

The United States cannot afford to stand by and let Pakistan either fall to the Taliban or fragment in some way. Yet it would be foolhardy to try to prop up any Pakistani government, be it the current Zardari regime, or as recent press reporting indicates, the opposition leader Nawaz Sharif.

It was the last Sharif government whose incompetence and corruption prompted the 1999 military coup led by Pervez Musharraf. Sharif's government also conducted Pakistan's first nuclear test, continued the long-time support of A.Q. Khan's activities, and launched the first Kargil War.

Why a new Sharif government would be more reliable or competent than its predecessor is not at all clear. Furthermore, American efforts to promote particular governments have not exactly been overwhelmingly successful in recent years, including in Pakistan itself. Surely one can ask if Pakistan is better off today under Zardari than it was under Musharraf.

Instead of trying to play politics in Islamabad, the United States should employ its forces to support those of Pakistan's military. Only in this manner can there be some assurance that Pakistani morale will not collapse, and that the Taliban insurrection can be crushed. The Pakistani military can be ruthless, and nothing else will do in dealing with the Taliban. American tactics and firepower can back up that ruthlessness.

It might be argued that the United States should try to "take out" Pakistan's nuclear capability. In so doing, it would certainly ensure that the Pakistani military would turn on the United States and come to terms with the Taliban. The United States must fight alongside Pakistan's army, not against it.

Now is not the time for squeamishness or political correctness. Do-gooders no doubt will howl at the sight of the collateral damage that would inevitably result if American units enable Pakistani forces to pulverize Taliban strongholds. The Zardari government may howl that America has sidestepped it by going directly to the military.

Let them all howl. A nuclear armed Pakistan, or even worse, a fragmented country whose nuclear weapons are up for grabs, would result in far more cries of anguish by far more people than anything that might result from the elimination of the Taliban threat.

Time is running out.

The United States must act now.

submitted by Dr Dov Zakheim

Art - "Pay no attention to the Taleban behind the PAK border" by Ridiculous Nicholaus

Free!

Mullahopolis just reversed their previous sentence for Great Satan's naughty hottie spy girl - - the former Miss North Dakota. As a bona fided journalist trekking about Iran the super talented Roxana Saberi was freed today.

Sentenced to eight years in prison on charges of spying for Great Satan, the charges were dropped down.

Her attorney revealed that:

"The verdict of the previous court has been cancelled. Her punishment has been changed to a suspended two-year sentence and she will be out of prison today."

Pic - "Roxana scopes out certain leaders of the Khomeinist Regime, their security detachments and likely targets for a regime killing regime change"

Mom

Red Army Day

"Wehrmacht was like a man who had siezed a wolf by both ears - - and dared not let go"

F.v Mellenthin wrote in the essential "Panzer Battles" - Red Army suffered terribly at the combined arms of Wehrmacht for years -- yet Red Army seemed to draw on a nigh inexhaustable supply of men, eager cadre and an ever increasing industrial base that could crank out tons of the dreaded Russian panzer -- the T34.

When Allies did the Normandy Naughtiness on D - Day -- Red Army was devouring nearly 900k Deutsch Wehrmacht in the Destruction of Armee Gruppe Centre -- and began the liberation of Poland.

Less than a year later - - it was Red Army -- not Great Satan or Great Britian that stood knee deep in Third Reich's capitol.

Commonwealth Russia remembers and honors her long ago military bona fides with her Victory in the Great Patriotic War celebrations:

A military parade involving over 9,000 personnel, 103 sophisticated tracked and wheeled military vehicles, as well as 69 aircraft and helicopters was launched on Moscow's Red Square at 10:00 a.m. Moscow time (06:00 GMT) on Saturday, when Russia celebrates Victory Day.

Russia's advanced S-400 Triumf air defense systems were displayed for the first time in the parade.

This year's event is largely considered a rehearsal for a grandiose military parade in 2010, when Russia celebrates the 65th anniversary of the victory in the Great Patriotic War.

Pic - "The first Victory Parade was held on Red Square on June 24, 1945 on the order of the then-Supreme Comrade Commander-in-Chief, Joseph Stalin."

Happy VE Day!

Nazi time Deutschland literally fought to annihilation -- until there was literally no country left to defend.

The Third Reich - she died kicking and screaming, finally crashing down in an orgy of pulverized, burning cities and a river of blood — civilian and military, German and non-German. Military history knows no year quite like 1944 -45 and if lucky, will never see another.

On May 7th the surviving ruling remnants of the once powerful Dritten Reich finally screamed "GOD! PLEASE! STOP!"

May 8th is Victory In Europe Day.

The legacy of VE Day is with us still. There never could have been a European Union - let alone a re unified Germany without Great Satan's will power, staying power and fire power.

And VE Day would not have been possible without Great Satan, Great Britain, Canada, Australia and the Russian Red Army's incredible ability to absorb horrific losses, to bounce back and win.

Happy VE Day!

Peace

Just when it seemed safe to say "Palestine!" out loud, think again.

NY Times just hooked up with rocketeer in Exile the fight to the last drop of innocent blood the one the only Khaled Meshal

Yay.

Iran's puppeteer Meshal is totally jazzed about 2 State Illusion safe as milk in the oldest continually inhabited city in the world - Damascus.

HAMAS is offering a suspect deal -

"Except. The offer is not a peace but a truce that expires after 10 years. Meaning that after Israel has fatally weakened itself by settling millions of hostile Arab refugees in its midst, and after a decade of Hamas arming itself within a Palestinian state that narrows Israel to eight miles wide -- Hamas restarts the war against a country it remains pledged to eradicate."

Another Hudna/Tahdiyah deal?

Honestly, why bother?

Consider - if Little Satan were to grant "Palestine" immediate magical Nakbah Free status today - rowdy innocent civilian rocket artillery brigades may probably spark an all out war in a week.

Or would they?


"Meshal sees the opportunity. Not only is the Obama administration reaching out to its erstwhile enemies in the region, but it begins its term by wagging an angry finger at Israel over the Netanyahu government's ostensible refusal to accept a two-state solution."


The Palestinians already have a state, an independent territory sans any Little Satanic settlers, troops, property or troops on any inch of it.


"It's called Gaza. And what is it? A terror base, Islamist in nature, Iranian-allied, militant and aggressive, that has fired more than 10,000 rockets and mortars at Israeli civilians."


"Why? Because the Palestinians -- going back to the U.N. partition resolution of 1947 -- have never accepted the idea of living side by side with a Jewish state. Those like Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who might want to entertain such a solution, have no authority to do it. And those like Hamas' Meshal, who have authority, have no intention of ever doing it."

"Meshal's gambit to dress up perpetual war as a two-state peace is yet another iteration of the Palestinian rejectionist tragedy. In its previous incarnation, Arafat lulled Israel and the Clinton administration with talk of peace while he methodically prepared his people for war.

"Arafat waited seven years to tear up his phony peace. Meshal's innovation? Ten -- then blood.

Screw that!

Exactly what is the gain for Great Satan in helping birth the world's 58th M'hommedist state?

What exactly - - pray tell - - would a Palestinian State look like?

Would such a magical one of a kind moment ultimately result in time traveling back to the Summer Of Love's square one?

If "Palestine" were to act out in the slightest -- and this includes ala Land of the Pure's failure to uphold the writ of state -- Little Satan could well launch an occupying blitz on the Strip and West Bank -- and openly quiz the wisdom of ideas like "Palestine" versus a safe. profitable assinilation into any one of the 22 member Arab League -- a wicked role reversal of the Right of Return...

Pic - "10 Years" by Zarah Argouwati

Drones Gone Wild!

Great Satan's Australian cuz - the military expert who helped do the Surge and maintains bona fides as a military advisor to Great Satan, Great Britain and Australia is Lt Colonel (RET) DR David Kilcullen.

Col Cullen's expertise is tiny tiny counter insurgency wars. He recently hit up Congress about those crazy, devastating drones.

"They do damage to the Al Qaeda leadership.Since 2006, we’ve killed 14 senior Al Qaeda leaders using drone strikes; in the same time period, we’ve killed 700 Pakistani civilians in the same area.

"The drone strikes are highly unpopular. They are deeply aggravating to the population. And they’ve given rise to a feeling of anger that coalesces the population around the extremists and leads to spikes of extremism. … The current path that we are on is leading us to loss of Pakistani government control over its own population.”

Oh Snap! Say it aint so!

Co Kilcullen also mentioned how uncool it appeared - after all Great Satan's precise technical superiority seemed awful suspect to enemies, enemy enablers and frenemies too. Weak even.

"Using robots from the air ... looks both cowardly and weak."

A Taliban tactician's reference to drone attacks being 'very effective' could be traditional Pashtun appreciation for an enemy's prowess.

Or, encouragement for a self-defeating course of action. If drones gone wild truly are cranking out more Taliban than they are sweetly delivering straight unto the Perfumed Gardens of Paradise

Taliban tactical logistic officer "X" revealed that

“The drones are very effective” , acknowledging that they had thinned the top leadership of Al Qaeda and the Taliban in the area. He said 29 of his friends had been killed in the strikes. "

As the awesomely daemoneoconic Max Boot (love that name!) put it:

"His friends were no friends of ours."

Dr Boot hit up terror warrior cats in the last admin that were not impressed with any ideas about stopping drones gone wild :

“The attacks have been devastatingly effective and it is a little bit hard to understand the argument about anti-Americanism in Pakistan. It was pretty rife long before we started the current drone campaign a year ago.”

Besides - if drones are freaking out supposed allies that can't seem to bear to thrash time traveling intolerant creeps devouring their magical one of a kind secterian Land of the Pure the only really option would be Surginfg right on in Pakistan with boots on the ground.

"If we can put a lot of boots on the ground, that’s a strategy much more likely to succeed.In Pakistan we don’t have the option of putting a lot of boots on the ground. We aren’t going to send large numbers of U.S. ground forces unless there is another 9/11-type attack planned from Pakistan."

"We want the Pakistani army to clean out the jihadists but we have repeatedly discovered that the Pakistanis are unwilling or unable to do the job. Efforts to bolster the Pakistani military should continue but probably will not pay dividends anytime soon."

Unlike Drones Gone Wild.

Pic - "Celebrating Predator strikes On Taliban and Al Qaeda"

Welcome Mr Ambassador!

It's official! Reuters reports that Little Satan has selected none other than the hot! historian and super savvy Dr Michael B Oren (O! He got game!) as her Ambassador to Great Satan.

This is significant.

If chatter is correct about 44 keeping Little Satan at arms length and granting legitimacy to tribalistic, kleptocratic, rascist, girl fearing, and intolerant regimes then BiBi has scored a pre emptive score.

The American born Oren, who earned a PhD from Princeton University, emigrated from Great to Little Satan way back in the '70's, and has written a best selling book -- essential in any library -- "Six Days of War". His fully crunk follow up "Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present, " is likewise likable.

His military bona fides include a term with Little Satan's Airborn Division in the first Lebanon War, and as a liaison with Great Satan's Sixth Fleet during the Gulf War, and an army spokesman in the second Lebanon War. He acted as a representative of the Prime Minister’s Office to refuseniks in the Soviet Union, and as an advisor to Little Satan's delegation to UN. He was the director of Inter-Religious Affairs in the government of Yitzhak Rabin.

He has been serving as a visiting professor this term at Georgetown University and hangs out with Natan Sharansky at Adalson and the Shalem Center

He's also kinda psychic too!

Essentially - Dr Orin's appointment is an incredible advantage for Little Satan over any other ME regional actors.

Little Satan can field a good looking, savvy cat on all the American TV and Radio Shows that isn't foreign sounding (way more than accents - but in outlooks too)
to the average American viewer.

Totally slant public opinion in Little Satan's favor. Any American-turned Israeli or chatting with a British accent seemingly automatically implies honesty/trustworthiness/intelligence and a whole host of positive characteristics.

Meanwhile Iran and Arab states put on a cat who may be highly educated but has broken English. Boring on a nigh unsustainable mind numbing scale.

It's all about PR, and putting in a historian who can counter Palestinian claims in public and private with legitimacy may be the best PR victory of all.

A sincere and heartfelt welcome to Ambassador Oren - from all your crunk and disorderly spiritual cuzes here in Great Satan.

Pic - Dr Michael B Orin by Creative Loafing Atlanta

Anticipation

French paper L' Express leaks that Little Satan's Air Force has been making practise runs to Gibralter and back.

"The Israeli air force aircraft have made recently air refuelling exercises between Israel and Gibraltar. 3 800 kilometres-this manoeuvres field would confirm that IDF is preparing air strikes on key Iran facilities in the event that Tehran remains persistant in refusing to negotiate with the international community on the nuclear dossier."

Perhaps Little Satan's military intelligentsia believe that the leaking of such preparations serve as an important element of deterrence regardless of whether or not Little Satan has actually decided to strike if it determines that a diplomatic solution to the Iranian nuclear program has become impossible.

Jerusalem Post reveals that Little Satan's air force and their stock of Arrow and Patriot missile-defense systems have recently begun spending one day a week on duty to sharpen their skills, amid fears that in a conflict with Iran, dozens of long-range missiles would be fired at Little Satan.

Yet all this is tired old news right? Nothing has changed has it?

True!

"Regionally, a nuclear-armed Iran would in short order compel both Egypt and Jordan to abrogate their peace treaties with Israel. The exposure of the Iranian sabotage ring in Egypt last week makes clear that Iran seeks to either overthrow or dominate the Arab world with its nuclear arsenal."

"If Iran becomes a nuclear power, roundups of Iranian agents like the one in Egypt will be inconceivable. Iranian agents will be given free reign both regionally and worldwide."

The upcoming hook up betwixt BiBi and 44 in DC on May 18th will be a significant indicator of the shape of things to come.

It's called anticipation.

Pic - "Anticipation" by mxDpi with Estella Warren

Cool Under Fire

"If you were in a position of authority and watched Americans jumping out of 80-storey buildings because these murderous tyrants go after innocent people then you would have determined to do anything you could that was legal to prevent that happening."

Former Madame Sec and NSA girl Dr Condoleezza Rice sweetly chops her way through an immense moronic minefield of inappropriate handwringing, faux righteousness and brainwashed sissy bullies leaving behind a smoking junkyard of wrecked Great Satan hating fallacies, fools and memes.

James Mann's essential "Rise of the Vulcans" that chronicles "America's stand ins to the world" like Armitage, Cheney, Powell, Rice, Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, puts it best even years, later.

Critics of Gitmo, enhanced techniques and Great Satan

"...were not responsible for American security after New York City and Washington were attacked by terrorism."

"The Vulcans were."

Check out her authority, charm and no nonsense matter of fact jack catitude when she asides exactly WHO was responsible for failing to get detainees their day in court.

Shout Out to Winston for turning me on to this

Day Tripper

Well well well! Guess who came out of his Persian digs in that especial compound in Preacher Heights near Tehran?

"Got a good reason -- for taking the easy way out"

It's magical mysterious Mookie al Sadr. Absent commander of the Mahdi Army (also known as JAM or Special Groups) in Iraq - the self exiled wanna be Ayatollah hit Ankara to boost his rep in foreign policy.

Turkey's Anatolia news agency cited unnamed diplomatic sources as saying that al-Sadr's visit was aimed at "holding consultations on the political process in Iraq".


Deliberate Coalition and Iraqi military operations, and Iraqi political maneuvers, have severed the political, military, and social strands of the Sadr Movement, which no longer co-exist in the same entity and likely will not recombine in 2009.

"After a series of additional political and military setbacks, it had become
evident that Sadr had lost his ability to use the militia to strengthen his
political position. Accordingly, Sadr sought to strengthen his control over the
movement by enhancing his religious credentials.

"In late 2007, Sadr announced that he would be pursuing religious studies in Iran with the hope of becoming an ayatollah."


For a while there - Mookie was just like Mahdi!

Both disappeared and promised to return one day

Mookie's day trip to Turkey talking shop with real state crafters is significant.

Pic "Mookie swishes his Count Dracula Cape - unintentionally showing off his overt girthiness on his Turkish Trip"

Era Error

Despite all the 'What the heck?!' about the recent fubar photoshop op

over NYC's sunny sunny skies, 44's flyby and buzzing Ground Zero signals a return to the 10 Sept mindset.

In those days, Great Satan was safe as milk - foreign terrorists acted out against Her far, far away.

911 changed all that.

Kiss and tell about enhanced interrogation techniques, torture, pics, closing Gitmo and making Top Secret stuff available to anyone - friend or foe is only part of the signal.

American Exceptionalism - the open, arrogant, humble admission that Great Satan really is great -- especial -- the only one of Her kind -- is like the 911 Era.

It's now Post America Time.

"American exceptionalism: It does not teach that we are without sin or that we cannot learn. It teaches that against the backdrop of history, no country has freed, fed or inspired more people than the United States.

"No nation has contributed more to science, culture or enlightened thought."

"We have built that legacy with a devotion to liberty and leadership unmatched in modern times.

"Today, that magnificent view is dismissed as tired jingoism. This new era requires America be brought down several notches, laid low by the frustrations and envies of rivals, taught a lesson about excessive pride. Our president is more than glad to direct us to this new humility.

It is evident in his foreign policy, which kowtows to tyrants and comforts terrorists with the assurance of an America ready to step down as alpha male to become just another animal in the pack.

"We are led today by people who see the United States as merely the name between Ukraine and Uruguay on the United Nations lobby directory."

Such unexceptional thinking may actually bear an uncool cost

"The consequences will be felt in damage to American prestige. As much as liberals like to claim that Bush "squandered" America's reputation, Obama is doubling that offense by setting up his country -- rhetorically and materially -- to be overtaken by other powers on the international stage.

"It's paving the way for America's decline."

Remarkably enough -- some alledgedly savvy cats actually cheer this on

"Indeed, we ought to apologize. When it comes to avoiding the repetition of sin, nothing works like abject contrition. We should, therefore, tell the people of Cuba that we are sorry for having made such a hash of U.S.-Cuban relations for so long. President Obama should speak on our behalf in asking the people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki for forgiveness.

"He should express our deep collective regret to Iranians and Afghans for what past U.S. interventionism has wrought.

"The United States should do these things without any expectations of reciprocity. Regardless of what U.S. officials may say or do, Castro won't fess up to having made his own share of mistakes. The Japanese won't liken Hiroshima to Pearl Harbor and call it a wash. Iran's mullahs and Afghanistan's jihadists won't be offering to a chastened Washington to let bygones be bygones.

"No, we apologize to them, but for our own good -- to free ourselves from the accumulated conceits of the American Century and to acknowledge that the United States participated fully in the barbarism, folly and tragedy that defines our time. For those sins, we must hold ourselves accountable."

Totally suspect and in a way almost -- well -- UnAmerican.

Consider -- Great Satan has always been

"...virtually unique among the nations of the world, and for this reason we have been often misunderstood.

How could a country so rich and successful be so unselfish and caring? We must have darker motives, critics say. We must be seeking to create an empire, to dominate everyone else, to grab the oil or the trade or whatever else for our own selfish purposes.

"People from more grasping, less-idealistic societies find it impossible to accept that we honestly believe that giving everyone opportunity is the recipe for abundance and happiness everywhere, not merely in the favored reaches of the United States of America.

"We honestly believe that securing other people’s freedom is the best guarantee that we can keep our own. We do not want to dominate the world. We want to live our lives in peace, and we hope other peoples will do the same. We go out into the world to redress errors, to stop unacceptable behavior, to challenge threats to our island and our liberty. When we have settled the problem, we want to go home, not stay and build an empire.

"This has led Americans to conclude that ours is the only nation that will actually go into the world and strike down evil. We were encouraged when Britain and Australia especially, but also some Continental nations, lined up with us.

"But we know that they would do little without the active determination of the United States."

Officially, 44 may close the door on the 911 era -- the quiz is --911 Era may have a foot in that door.

"Obama I has continued to apologize for the U.S. being arrogant and dismissive of Europe. He thinks we have been inconsiderate to Mexico. And, judging by a speech he gave in Prague, we apparently carry a special burden to eliminate nuclear weapons since we ended World War II by using them.

"Obama II gave the green light to execute suspected Somali pirates who were holding an American hostage. And in the case of our continued Predator drone attacks in Pakistan, such bombings are a little more extreme than waterboarding known terrorists."

Post American Exceptionalism though is an entirely different critter. The world is full of intolerant, murderous, illegit regimes, creeps and killers.

"For these reasons, we must dominate the political life of this planet, and we must keep an invincible military as an ever-present deterrence."

Art - "Naw! Naw! Naw! Not God Blessa 'Merica - But Dog Gone America"