By Joe Kaufman
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Sami Al-Arian has been in prison, away from his digs in the Tampa, Florida suburb of Temple Terrace, for over five years, yet one of the structures that he left behind continues to propagate the same fanatical ideology that led to his punishment. Al-Arian’s mosque, the Islamic Community of Tampa (ICT), has been proudly advertising hatred and violence meant for the eyes of children. The mosque’s connection to an area youth academy should have all Americans concerned. (click here for full article)
Saturday, August 23, 2008
Friday, August 15, 2008
The Jewish Advocate - Citizen energy
Written by Dr. Charles Jacobs
Friday, 15 August 2008
The energy crisis represents a catastrophic failure of American leadership - an unprecedented dereliction of duty. Republicans, Democrats, liberals and conservatives are allowing Middle Eastern totalitarians and oil companies to rape this country. (Read full article)
Friday, 15 August 2008
The energy crisis represents a catastrophic failure of American leadership - an unprecedented dereliction of duty. Republicans, Democrats, liberals and conservatives are allowing Middle Eastern totalitarians and oil companies to rape this country. (Read full article)
Thursday, August 14, 2008
JINSA Report #807
Aug. 13, 2007
Hammers and Nails
Some readers were surprised yesterday. "What, no military option? There's something JINSA thinks the U.S. military can't do?"
Actually, there is very little we think the U.S. military can't do, but there is a whole lot we think it shouldn't do and we'd like to keep the two separate as much as possible. This was a job for diplomats, and the diplomats failed.
Our Secretary of State is a Soviet Russia expert. One would have thought she would have been aware of the aggressive tone of the Russian government. One would have thought she would have spent some time this spring discussing the possible negative ramifications of Western successes. We won approval for missile defense radars in Poland and The Czech Republic, and the independence of Kosovo from Serbia, and we were talking to former Soviet Republics about NATO membership. Did she think Russia wouldn't care, or just that it wouldn't respond?
Russia lost the Cold War but it was only one war; neither victory nor defeat has been permanent in Europe. Was there no State Department Team B to play Russia and suggest that given their new wealth, energy relationship with Europe and imperialist past, plus Putin's solid KGB background, they would find a way to reassert themselves?
The wise man said that if your only tool is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail. We have a great hammer, but our toolbox is otherwise deficient. Russia has mostly a hammer as well, but that is sufficient for its "near abroad," and its increasing energy stranglehold on Europe obviates the need for much diplomacy to the West.
A truly powerful country - which the U.S. must be - uses statecraft and military power as two edges of the sword; one good for some thing and one for other things. In this case, however, statecraft was diverted.
Dr. Rice was so busy trying to create Palestine out of a terrorist-run sinkhole that she didn't notice that pro-Western, democratic, free-market-oriented Georgia was in real trouble. So seized was she with solving the "Palestinian problem" in the last few months of the Administration - a common disease - that she missed Russia.
Newspapers report that the Secretary made more than 90 phone calls during the crisis. Why? The damage to Georgia was done from the moment the Russians started shelling. The phone calls should have been made months ago to try to forestall the invasion - plans for which certainly were no secret.
Diplomacy now has to find ways of making Russia pay for violating international norms. No G-8, no WTO, no Sochi Olympics would be a start. Political and reconstruction support for Georgia, and insistence that peacekeepers come from Western or Central European countries would help. Reminding the Russians that Georgia's relationship NATO comes up again in December might begin to re-establish Western credibility, and perhaps prevent Russia from using that hammer again.
Archive of past JINSA Reports
Support JINSA, click here!
email: feedback@jinsa.org
phone: 202-667-3900
web: http://www.jinsa.org
Hammers and Nails
Some readers were surprised yesterday. "What, no military option? There's something JINSA thinks the U.S. military can't do?"
Actually, there is very little we think the U.S. military can't do, but there is a whole lot we think it shouldn't do and we'd like to keep the two separate as much as possible. This was a job for diplomats, and the diplomats failed.
Our Secretary of State is a Soviet Russia expert. One would have thought she would have been aware of the aggressive tone of the Russian government. One would have thought she would have spent some time this spring discussing the possible negative ramifications of Western successes. We won approval for missile defense radars in Poland and The Czech Republic, and the independence of Kosovo from Serbia, and we were talking to former Soviet Republics about NATO membership. Did she think Russia wouldn't care, or just that it wouldn't respond?
Russia lost the Cold War but it was only one war; neither victory nor defeat has been permanent in Europe. Was there no State Department Team B to play Russia and suggest that given their new wealth, energy relationship with Europe and imperialist past, plus Putin's solid KGB background, they would find a way to reassert themselves?
The wise man said that if your only tool is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail. We have a great hammer, but our toolbox is otherwise deficient. Russia has mostly a hammer as well, but that is sufficient for its "near abroad," and its increasing energy stranglehold on Europe obviates the need for much diplomacy to the West.
A truly powerful country - which the U.S. must be - uses statecraft and military power as two edges of the sword; one good for some thing and one for other things. In this case, however, statecraft was diverted.
Dr. Rice was so busy trying to create Palestine out of a terrorist-run sinkhole that she didn't notice that pro-Western, democratic, free-market-oriented Georgia was in real trouble. So seized was she with solving the "Palestinian problem" in the last few months of the Administration - a common disease - that she missed Russia.
Newspapers report that the Secretary made more than 90 phone calls during the crisis. Why? The damage to Georgia was done from the moment the Russians started shelling. The phone calls should have been made months ago to try to forestall the invasion - plans for which certainly were no secret.
Diplomacy now has to find ways of making Russia pay for violating international norms. No G-8, no WTO, no Sochi Olympics would be a start. Political and reconstruction support for Georgia, and insistence that peacekeepers come from Western or Central European countries would help. Reminding the Russians that Georgia's relationship NATO comes up again in December might begin to re-establish Western credibility, and perhaps prevent Russia from using that hammer again.
Archive of past JINSA Reports
Support JINSA, click here!
email: feedback@jinsa.org
phone: 202-667-3900
web: http://www.jinsa.org
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