Bloodthirsty Liberal

Even Obama doesn’t believe is own bull[bleep] (or should that read “especially Obama”?):

Barack Hussain Obama, mm-mm-zzzzz…

As Mr. Obama gave reporters his explanation Tuesday, Mr. Medvedev and President Nursultan Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan stood at his side with an interpreter. As soon as Mr. Obama finished speaking, he began to walk out of the room, but Mr. Medvedev and Mr. Nazarbayev were clearly waiting for the interpreter to tell them what Mr. Obama had said.

Realizing that his counterparts hadn’t received the translation, Mr. Obama began to usher them out of the room anyway, saying “we’re going to leave” and that the other two world leaders would “get the translation later.”

First, he whispers to Medvedev (into a “hot mic”) that he’ll be able to surrender America’s defensive interests after this pesky elections (Putin can relate); now, he can’t even be bothered to be honest (ha!) and sincere (ho!) in his BS explanation.

He should just say, “Watch Hardball tonight. Chris Matthews will explain what I mean.”

Mahmoud, meet the MPR-500:

Israel last week unveiled an improved precision, bunker-burrowing weapon, the latest in a series of operational upgrades aimed at honing what one official here labeled “a very credible military option” against the Iranian nuclear threat.

Built by state-owned Israel Military Industries (IMI), the 500-pound MPR-500 is an electro-optical or laser-guided projectile that can penetrate double-reinforced concrete walls or floors without breaking apart. It is designed as an upgrade to the U.S. Mk82, thousands of which are in Israel Air Force stocks, and can use Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) kits or Paveway for guidance.

In an operational test video released March 6, the MPR-500 is seen penetrating four reinforced concrete walls, with fragmentation from the explosion limited to a radius of less than three meters.

“The lethality, precision … and relatively low weight enables its use against multiple targets in a single pass; an element that increases the operational effectiveness of attack,” according to IMI.

The MPR-500 bridges an operational gap between the 250-pound U.S. GBU-39 small-diameter bomb — 1,000 of which were approved for sale to Israel — and the 5,000-pound GBU-28.

Did someone say GBU-28?

Just not necessarily in the White House:

“My friends, Israel has waited patiently waited for the international community to resolve this issue. We’ve waited for diplomacy to work,” Netanyahu said.

“We’ve waited for sanctions to work,” he said. “None of us can afford to wait much longer. As prime minister of Israel, I will never let my people live in the shadow of annihilation.”

…

“The United States will always have Israel’s back when it comes to Israel’s security,” Obama said, repeating a line from the Sunday speech as Netanyahu nodded in agreement.

“I reserve all options and my policy here is not going to be one of containment; my policy is prevention of Iran obtaining nuclear weapons and, as I indicated yesterday in my speech, when I say all options are on the table, I mean it,” Obama added.

Netanyahu said he welcomed Obama’s “strong speech” on Sunday and noted that Iran considers the United States and Israel to be similar foes.
The United States will always have Israel’s back when it comes to Israel’s security

“For them, you’re the great Satan, we’re the little Satan,” Netanyahu said. “For them, we are you, and you are us. And you know something, Mr. President? At least on this last point, I think they’re right. We are you, and you are us. We’re together. … Israel and America stand together.”

How come Obama can decry too much “loose talk” of war, yet warn Iran he’s not “bluffing”, and get away with it? Oh yeah, the Democrat-Media Complex. I forgot.

I don’t know if Ahmadinejad is still in charge or hanging by his thumbs in a dungeon, but he’s got a choice between Israel’s Jericho missile:

Or America’s bunker busters:

Eeny-meeny miny-mah,
Catch an aya-toll-ah.
If he hollers good and loud,
Nuke him with a mushroom cloud!

I said “Fisking”! Sheesh!

Anne Bayefsky ain’t buying his snake oil:

The interview with The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg took place earlier this week but was released only today. In it, the president exasperatedly asked:

Why is it that despite me never failing to support Israel on every single problem that they’ve had over the last three years, that there are still questions about that?

To which Goldberg solicitously responded: “That’s a good way to phrase it.” The president replied: “There is no good reason to doubt me on these issues.”

Rush Limbaugh always says that: “don’t doubt me”. But he’s only half serious. Obama sounds more petulant.

President Obama has done more to legitimize the delegitimizers of Israel than any other president in the history of the Jewish state.

For instance, one of his opening foreign policy moves was to join — for the first time — the UN Human Rights Council, allowing the full weight of American membership to boost the credibility of this viciously anti-Israel body.

When the president decided to join the Council he knew full well that the body organized every regular session around a permanent agenda of ten items, one directed only to Israel-bashing and another to the remaining (unspecified) 192 UN member states.

…

What was the president’s response to the ritualized Jew-bating that carries on unabated in a global forum in the name of human rights? He is now actively seeking a second term on the Council for the United States.

Not once did President Obama make the equal treatment of the Jewish state a condition for remaining on this “human rights” body — notwithstanding that the whole foundation of the UN Charter is the “equal rights of nations large and small.”

At the General Assembly, the president’s speech of 2010 specifically planted in the minds of every listener and fueled a September 2011 date for a “state of Palestine” becoming “a new member of the United Nations.” Moreover, President Obama devoted more than a third of his entire General Assembly statement focusing on what Israel should and should not do, knowing full well that the deadly Arab narrative is that the failure to solve the Arab-Israeli conflict on their terms is the root cause of Islamic fanaticism and violence. In other words, it was the president himself who used his speech in the UN forum as a pressure tactic against the state of Israel.

On the flotilla of Turkish-backed extremists who attempted to violate Israel’s lawful blockade of Hamas-run Gaza, the Obama administration extraordinarily permitted the Security Council to adopt a presidential statement within 24 hours of the event. The statement cast the flotilla participants as humanitarians, was silent on Israel’s legitimate concerns about arms-smuggling, and made no mention of Hamas at all. Without taking any time to ensure the facts were at hand, the Council unanimously agreed to a UN investigation of the Israel Defense Forces which the United States would never have legitimized for American armed forces in similar — or in fact any — circumstances.

But it is on the subject of Iran that she really lowers the boom:

And as for Iran, President Obama’s use of the United Nations has moved the country in only one direction — inexorably closer to obtaining nuclear weapons. President Obama was the first U.S. president to preside over a meeting of the UN Security Council in September 2009, and he personally took the opportunity of controlling the Council agenda to tie nuclear non-proliferation together with nuclear disarmament. His move had the predictable effect of setting back non-proliferation efforts by giving Iran one more excuse to delay, while disarming America moved to center stage. The sanctions regime belatedly adopted by the Council has been an incontrovertible failure.

At rock bottom, the president’s interview makes one claim more poisonous to Israel’s welfare than all others. He argues that if Israel uses military force against Iranian nuclear sites, then the timeline for any negative consequences will start with Israel — not Iran. Obama urges Netanyahu to think about “the profound costs of any military action,” places the focus on “potential unintended consequences” of Israel’s actions, and describes the move as libel to be a “distraction in which Iran suddenly can portray itself as the victim.”

This is not the statement of an ally at a turning point in world history, with the most dangerous country on Earth on the verge of acquiring the world’s most dangerous weapon. Israel’s actions would be taken in self-defense. They would not be the starting point. Israel and the civilized world, in the crosshairs of this leading state sponsor of terrorism and its genocidal ambitions, are the real victims and any claim to the contrary would be a lie — not a distraction. To suggest that Israel will be responsible for the economic costs of seriously slowing or ending Iran’s race towards nuclear weapons places the shoe exactly on the wrong foot, and diminishes the much higher cost of Iranian victory.

The president’s miscalculation on Iran is of epic proportion. He even describes the Iranian leadership to Goldberg this way: “they’re sensitive to the opinions of the people.” The freedom-loving people of Iran who are rotting in Iranian torture chambers are undoubtedly as mortified by this claim as are the people of Israel and its supporters across America. The very unfortunate reality is that Israel may be forced to save America and the civilized world because this commander-in-Chief is AWOL.

If Neville Chamberlain married Oswald Mosely (I bet they wanted to), Barack Obama would be their child (and he’d still claim to have been born in America).

While Jews and other supporters of Israel have every reason to worry, so does everyone. President Barack Huh? Obama is a danger to us all.

Wow, Iran! Who knew?

The prospect of conflict with Iran has eclipsed Afghanistan as the key national security issue with head-spinning speed. After years of bad blood and an international impasse over Iran’s disputed nuclear program, why does the threat of war seem so suddenly upon us?

Ooh-ooh, can I answer? Pick me!

The threat of war seems so suddenly upon us because your lot (the media) can’t see a damn thing with your heads inserted so far up Obama’s backside. The question isn’t if Iran is developing a nuclear weapon, but when they will complete it. Estimates differ only on the time, not the intention.

And what has our fearless leader been doing all this time?

To be fair, maybe the Stuxnet virus was at least partially our doing. Maybe we have something to do with the suspicious deaths of the Iranian nuclear scientists. Maybe we’re doing everything we can to avoid regional war, with global consequences.

And maybe monkeys might fly out of my a**.

Appearances suggest we believe this is Israel’s problem, and we want her to solve it through negotiation. Appearances can be wrong, and Obama has made a career out of false appearances (keeping Gitmo, drones, and other Bush tools in the war on terror). But appearances also suggest Iran is on a holy mission to acquire nuclear weapons, and has been for years. And they make no secret what they intend to do with them when they have them.

To wake up today and ask how it all happened overnight is asinine—and a dereliction of duty.

We thank the New York Times for their concern in protecting our sensibilities, but we would rather know these things:

Today’s speech by Iran’s Supreme Leader, the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, about the sanctions on his country and its determination to persist in its quest for nuclear capability was a significant news event. Khamenei served notice on the United States that he would not be bluffed into giving up his nuclear plans. Though he conceded the economic pressure on his country has hurt, he said Iran is undaunted and would retaliate against the United States should its nuclear facilities come under attack. All this was reported in newspapers around the world, including the New York Times, which posted a story on the speech Friday morning.

However, there was something missing from the Times report of Khamenei’s speech that was reported elsewhere.

Oh really? Nothing too disturbing, I hope? Tish-tosh, don’t worry your pretty little heads:

“The Zionist regime is a cancerous tumor and it will be removed,” Teheran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Friday.

…

He promised that “Iran would assist any country or organization that would fight the Zionist regime, which is now weaker than ever,” he said.

Khamenei, who has final say on all state matters, said that Iran has helped Hezbollah and the Palestinian Hamas in their fights against Israel.

The crowd met the statement by chanting “Death to Israel.”

To an unbiased observer (which would apparently exclude the New York Times), the existential threat to Israel was at least half the story. Infinitely more, when you consider the consequences of the threats.

An Iranian bomb would change the balance of power in the region and endanger all moderate Arab regimes while strengthening the hand of Tehran’s terrorist allies such as Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas (though relations between Gaza and Iran have cooled recently). It would also threaten the free flow of oil from the Gulf to the West and diminish the strategic position as well as the security of both the United States and Europe.

But it is only Israel that Iran has promised to destroy. That is why placing a nuclear weapon in the hands of a regime pledged to the eradication of the Jewish state is a different order of threat than Khamenei’s usual bluster aimed at the United States. Because of its small size and concentrated population, one or two nuclear explosions would mean another Holocaust.

So when Khamenei repeats the Islamist regime’s pledge to make good on its threat to destroy “the Zionist regime” in the same context as its vow to satisfy its nuclear ambitions, this is no minor rhetorical point.

…

For the Times to eliminate Khamenei’s threat to Israel from its coverage even as it accurately reports other elements of the speech is more than curious. At the very least, it is an egregious error of judgment. At worst, it smacks of an effort to skew the discussion about Iran away from the imminent peril that its Tehran’s nuclear program represents.

No, at worst it is far worse than that: it implies agreement. The reporters and editors at the Times wouldn’t say it, but perhaps they agree that Israel is a cancer that must be removed. That would certainly explain the bias of their coverage. I’ll be generous enough to allow that they would prefer the removal be accomplished by means other than megaton warheads, but maybe they’re not so fussy.

Now hold on, BTL, you say. Aren’t at least some of the editors and reporters at the Times Jewish? To which I answer: so what? Haven’t we learned by now that politics is identity? To the American Left (I can’t speak for other species), there is no stronger affiliation—not religious, not ethnic, not nothing—than politics. That is why a black radio DJ can accuse a black Republican candidate of being a “token Negro” [see below], call her a “curly-haired nigga”, and refuse to shake her hand for fear of getting her “whiteness” on him. (He apologized—but only for the “whiteness” part; he stood by everything else.)

And that is why the Times can act as a Holocaust (Part Deux) Denier before the fact.

A mysterious explosion occurred at the factory

Iran was working on developing a missile with 10,000 km range that would put America in reach of a potential Iranian attack, Strategic Affairs Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Moshe Ya’alon said Thursday.

According to Ya’alon, the missile was based on a solid fuel propellant and would have been able to significantly increase Iran’s offensive capabilities. Last month, a mysterious explosion rocked an Iranian missile base near Tehran where Iran was working on developing this long range missile.

I wonder who was responsible for that? Obama? Not long ago, I was told by a young journalist that “Israel is an aggressive nation”. I wonder if they are half as aggressive as the United States?

Ya’alon said that the Israeli government was committed to stopping Iran’s nuclear program “in one way or another.”

“We need a credible military option. The Iranians understand the West has capabilities, but as long as the Iranians don’t think that the West has the political stomach and determination to use it they will not stop,” Ya’alon affirmed. “Currently they don’t think that the world is determined.”

Ya’alon also said that Iran and Hezbollah were working with drug cartels in Mexico to learn how to smuggle materials into the US, a conduit that could one day be used to smuggle weapons into the country.

Ya’alon said that the “crippling sanctions” that are being imposed on Iran such as the ban on oil exports could succeed in posing a “clear dilemma” for the regime, whether it wants to continue its nuclear program and risk the survival of the Islamic regime or stop and open in dialogue with the West.

Ya’alon said that the West still does not fully understand the severity of the nuclear threat posed by Iran. “America is the larger Satan,” he said.

Ah, to be a fly on the wall in the White House…

- Aggie

Knock, knock. Who’s there? Atom. Atom who? Atom bomb!

CARACAS – Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez lavished each other with praise on Monday, mocked US disapproval and joked about having an atomic bomb at their disposal.

“Despite those arrogant people who do not wish us to be together, we will unite forever,” the Iranian president told socialist leader Chavez at the start of a visit to four left-leaning Latin American nations.
..

Ahmadinejad was in Venezuela at the start of a tour intended to shore up support as expanded Western economic sanctions kick in over the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program.

“The imperialist madness has been unleashed in a way that has not been seen for a long time,” Chavez said in a ceremony to welcome Ahmadinejad at his presidential palace in Caracas.

Both men hugged, beamed, held hands and showered each other with praise.

As he often does, the theatrical and provocative Chavez stuck his finger right into the global political sore spot, joking that a bomb was ready under a grassy knoll in front of his Miraflores palace steps.

“That hill will open up and a big atomic bomb will come out,” he said, the two men laughing together.

“The imperialist spokesmen say … Ahmadinejad and I are going into the Miraflores basement now to set our sights on Washington and launch cannons and missiles … It’s laughable.”
…
Analysts are watching closely to see if Chavez will back Iran’s threat to close the Strait of Hormuz, the world’s most important oil shipping lane, or how much he could undermine the sanctions by providing fuel or cash to Tehran.
….
The Venezuelan and Iranian leaders mostly limited their comments on Monday to mutual adulation and anti-US snipes.

“President Chavez is the champion in the war on imperialism,” Ahmadinejad said.

“The only bombs we’re preparing are bombs against poverty, hunger and misery,” added Chavez, saying 14,000 new homes had been built recently in Venezuela by Iranian constructors.

We all need a good laugh sometimes.

- Aggie

Anyone know if Kim Jong Il was in Howie Carr’s death pool?

Asian stock markets slid Monday amid news that the mercurial leader of nuclear-armed North Korea has died, raising fears of increased political instability in the region.

South Korea’s Kospi index dived 4.1 percent to 1,765.15. Japan’s Nikkei 225 index was down 1.1 percent at 8,304.47, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng slid 2.5 percent to 17,833.42 and the Shanghai Composite Index fell 2.6 percent to 2,167.68.

Kim Jong Il’s death was announced Monday by the state television from the North Korean capital, Pyongyang. It raises the possibility of increased instability on the divided Korean peninsula as the reclusive regime undergoes a leadership succession.

Kim, who had been ailing after suffering what is thought to have been a stroke in 2008, died at age 69 on Saturday.

Kim had presented his third son, the twenty-something Kim Jong Un, as his hereditary successor, putting him in high-ranking posts. But even with an apparent successor, some North Korean observers fear a behind-the-scenes power struggle or nuclear instability.

Not a problem. Obama’s in charge.

- Aggie

Unexpectedly, it blew up.

A large explosion rocked the western Iranian city of Isfahan, semi-official FARS news reported Monday afternoon.

According to the report, the blast occurred shortly after 2:00 p.m. FARS did not reveal the cause of the explosion, which was large enough to be heard throughout Iran’s third largest city.

The head of the judiciary in the province said a sound similar to an explosion was heard from Isfahan, according to Iran’s ISNA news agency.

“In the afternoon, there was a noise like an explosion, but we don’t have any information from security forces on the source of the noise,” Gholamreza Ansari was quoted as saying.

The Mehr news agency said other unidentified Iranian news media had reported that the blast took place at a petrol station at a town near Isfahan city.

Isfahan is home to nuclear experimental reactors, and also a uranium enrichment facility for producing nuclear fuel.

The explosion occurred two weeks after a massive explosion west of Tehran which killed 17 troops, including an IRGC officer responsible for the development of some of Iran’s most advanced weapons.

The cause of the explosion was unknown and Iran claimed it occurred when soldiers were moving explosives between bases. There was some speculation on Sunday that sabotage had caused the blast and Israel was involved with the assistance of local Iranian opposition groups.

It was not the first time that mysterious explosions struck in Iran. In recent years, a number of scientists have been killed in car bombings and dozens of IRGC officers have also been killed in various plane crashes.

Sabotage? Surely not. I am betting on a Palestinian-style work accident.

- Aggie

Arab nations want to know:

Newly acquired intelligence reports indicate several Arab countries in the Middle East are lobbying the US to strike Iran this year, Israel’s Channel 10 reported.

According to the report, which is said to be making its rounds in Britain’s political circles, Saudi Arabia wants the Obama administration to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities before the final withdrawal of US troops from Iraq.

US president has vowed to close the door on American military involvement in Iraq by year’s end, but Riyadh is reportedly afraid Iran will use the American exit to take over the country.

Because Iran will take over Iraq after we leave. They’ve as much as said they would.

Security experts say Baghdad’s security forces are unprepared to confront the rival insurgencies that hold Iraq in their grip – and that Obama’s dogged drive to fulfill his campaign promise may have disastrous consequences both for the region and US interests.

Saudi Arabia and its Gulf Arab allies have been locked in a strategic battle with Iran for hegemony over the Persian Gulf – and have accused Tehran of seeking to destabilize the region through its ‘Shiite Diaspora.’

…

Despite this, Arab powers have been reticent to publicly call for an Iran strike – which has been a high profile part of Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s diplomatic agenda.

Instead, observers say, they have sought to work behind the scenes to avoid being seen as working in concert with Israel.

I’m sure the feeling is mutual.

But whatever you may say about Saudi Arabia—and there’s plenty—they know who and what threatens them. We noted ten days ago that Secretary of State Clinton confessed that our actions toward Libya were motivated by a “secure supply of energy”—that it was indeed a time-limited, scope-limited kinetic military action for oil.

But Libya is a puddle next to Saudi Arabia. Even under this lily-livered, weak-kneed president, I can’t imagine our letting Iran achieve nuclear weapons. But then, there’s a lot about the guy I never would have imagined.

You think Iran will behave responsively when it gets the bomb (like, tomorrow)?

When has the Islamic Republic (an oxymoron if I ever heard one) ever behaved responsibly?

Hamas’ rival Islamic Jihad has built an 8,000-man army supported by Iran and “ready for martyrdom or victory.”

“Martyrdom is the more desirable,” it says.

Its estimate of the number of terrorists trained for war against Israelis the first time Islamic Jihad has disclosed how many fighters it has.

“We are proud and honored to say that the Islamic Republic of Iran gives us support and help,” Abu Ahmed, the spokesman for Islamic Jihad’s al-Quds Brigades told Reuters in a rare interview.

That’s what they think of the Filthy Microbe. What do they think of the Great Satan?

Since you ask:

Whether we ultimately persuade ourselves that failing to extend the U.S. troop presence in Iraq was a victory for the U.S., the Iranians are certain that it was a victory for them. Consider the following recent statements by Iranian leaders and military officials after the president’s announcement that the talks were over:

“Today America has been defeated in Afghanistan and Iraq, and it has no choice but [to] leave these two countries. And it has also been defeated in North Africa.” – Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, November 2

“In spite of the military and political presence of America in Iraq, all Iraqi people — including Kurds and Arabs, Shia and Sunni — said ‘no’ to America and this is a very important point.” – Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, October 30

…

Lebanese Hezbollah secretary general “Hassan Nasrallah has described the withdrawal of American troops from Iraq as a historic defeat for the U.S. and a true victory for Iraqis. . . . In a televised interview, Nasrallah said on Monday that Iraqis owe this remarkable achievement to the resistance groups, adding that U.S. troops would have stayed in the country if they had felt secure. . . . He also compared U.S. pullout from Iraq to the withdrawal of Israeli troops from southern Lebanon.” October 25

This isn’t just BTL saber-rattling. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon and for the rest of our lives Iran is going to be a Big Problem if someone doesn’t nut-up and drop a few bunker-busters on their Persian pates. The virus was cute, but the time for cute is running out. (I think most Iranians would welcome regime change, so I’d rather target my munitions on the nuclear program itself. If there’s collateral damage in the Ayatollah Lounge, and a few mullahs get some JDAMs with their J&B, oh well.