Analyst: War in Iraq has strengthened U.S. international strategic position
Whoa. Just, whoa:
THE US war in Iraq has strengthened its strategic position, especially in terms of key alliances, and the only way this could be reversed would be if it lost the will to continue the struggle and abandoned Iraq in defeat and disarray.
Surely the author of this sentence is on the ganja, you might say. Something a little weird in the coffee? It goes against every aspect of conventional wisdom.
But the author of this thesis, stated only marginally less boldly, is one of the US’s most brilliant strategic analysts. Mike Green holds the Japan chair at Washington’s Centre for Strategic and International Studies and was for several years the Asia director at the National Security Council. He is also one of America’s foremost experts on Japan and northeast Asia generally.
His thesis, applied strictly to the US position in Asia, is correct.
Again I say, whoa. I know when to shut up and lay off the penny-ante analysis and throw fair-use to the wind:
More generally, in a world supposedly awash in anti-US sentiment, pro-American leaders keep winning elections. Germany’s Angela Merkel is certainly more pro-American than Gerhard Schroeder, whom she replaced. The same is true of France’s Nicolas Sarkozy.
More importantly in terms of Green’s analysis, the same is also true of South Korea’s new President. Lee Myung-bak, elected in a landslide in December, is vastly more pro-American than his predecessor, Roh Moo-hyun.
Even in majority Islamic societies, their populations allegedly radicalised and polarised by Bush’s campaign in Iraq and the global war on terror more generally, election results don’t show any evidence of these trends.
I will quote more, in case you haven’t already clicked over there, knowing that there is far more there than just gems like this one:
Australia’s most progressive voices are almost entirely devoid of any Asian sense. And, as you’d expect, it takes an American to make this sad fact so starkly obvious.
You came back here? Thanks, friend. I shall make with that promised penny-ante analysis.
The world works as well as it does–and, granted, that’s pretty marginal–in large part because the United States guarantees the security of its allies. Places like Taiwan and South Korea churn out magic toilets and miniature automobiles knowing that the United States will respond to incursions and aggression with overwhelming and sustained force. So far, our defense of the fledgling Iraqi government has confirmed that arrangement.
America does what it says. If you have an American security guarantee–and I’m looking at you,Saudi Arabia and Pakistan–you don’t need to build a nuclear arsenal. America honors its commitments, and the world keeps ticking–well, arrhythmically stuttering, anyhow–because there are big U.S. guns ready to retaliate against aggression. No better friend. No worse enemy. If America is backing you, you’re golden.
Unless, of course, you’re Colombia. Hillary, Barack, and Nancy Palomino have all decided to hang Colombia out to dry for reasons I cannot fathom and would sound like a complete crank if I hazarded a guess. Colombia is asking for a free trade deal with us, and it’s not like they’re even competing with American manufacturers, you know? Meanwhile the price of Starbucks is shooting through the roof.
Colombia has been a far better ally than Mexico has. But because of the selfish-bastard effete egotism of some a*****e Americans who enjoy snorting Colombia’s chief export up their noses, Colombia’s civil war has been prolonged from the 1960’s until today. Their civil society has been shredded by terrorism and corruption. They have bled and burned and died because criminal losers in America and abroad wanted to feel happy and sexiful for a few minutes, and didn’t care if they broke the law to do so.
Iraq proves that being America’s ally means something. If Pelosi, Hillary and Obama have their way, Colombia will prove that being America’s ally means nothing.
More, by James Baker,here.
_________________
{Post by See-Dubya}
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Outstanding, Michelle!
Great post.
This was obvious to me I started watching this when the Dims started their, Pres. Bush has damaged the U.S. credability and relationships in the world crap.
“in Asia”
see, there’s the problem see-dub. who cares what a couple billion Asians thnk? we’ve pissed off 1/10 of 1% of the population of brussels!
I just can’t spell credibility
Merkel was a great indicator of “world” sentiment on defeting terrorism.
Let these dominos continue fall!!!!
Great post!!!!!!!!
:D 
Ops, Soap would be soooo offended at feebz.
See-Dubya….Excellent Post. Mia culpa. (michelle would be proud)
Another point that should be expanded on is the complete turn around of Libya.
It is no small feat that after the incasion of Irag, they were all to happy to work with us.
While the relationship between Libya and the US is not perfect, it is a hell of a lot better than before.
qadaffi’s capitulation served notice to put near everyone that, at the time, the jig was up. pity w rarely gets credit for that …
Qadaffi….weasle.
Is there an edit function on the site.
This keyboard is smaller than my old one. New computer less than a week old and this keyboard seems much smaller.
And it is killing my spelling, not that it or my typing is perfect.
I think it’s Jimmy Carter’s hard work along with Al Gore’s peace prize that has done this.
Edit function’s only for the bloggers, I’m afraid. Gotta use preview.
This is the kind of thing the American public needs to see. After hearing from Hillary, Obama, Peolosi, Reed, and the neverending stream of libs that stated “America has lost it’s credibility,” it should be apparent that the ones who have lost their credibility are the surrendercrats.
I truly think that those mentioned above would go and find all the fringe groups in the world we might someday offend and surrender to them first in an effort just to be gracious.
I see libocrat has an excellent grasp of sarcasm…
lol libocrat
Very well crafted “see-dubya”. Your posts are always worth the read. There are so many ingrates in the world (huge pop. living amongst us here in the land of milk and honey) that simply do not get what we (USA) have done to secure their a@@#s.
Right-on bro–keep them posts coming.
No seriously. Jimmy Carter somehow thinks he gets to be both a complete failure as President, and yet when he has been out of office for 30 years, his country needs him to kiss Terrorists to stop Terrorism. If Carter ever was a decent honorable guy, it was in the past. His assertion that Dr.Rice was lying was parsed and absurd.
He is suggesting that until the State Department told him “NO YOU CAN’T GO”, that he wasn’t being told not to go.
He wants it both ways. He wanted the State Department to smack him down, so he could make a lib scene.
Either way, he should have known better.
Would his State Department have told Lyndon Johnson…”No, you can’t go?”
He is a former President for God’s sake. Shouldn’t he act with a little class and decorum??
Is that too much to ask of a Democrat?
Foreign policy and chats with terrorists are counter productive when you aren’t the Commander in Chief or Secretary of State.
Carter (whom I have met and once admired) is embarrassing me and hurting our current administration.
But libs don’t care. They believe rules are for suckers.
I thought it might do that.
So, where’s LGM?
Thanks for this post see-dub. I was trying to make this point with someone the other day. Having Iraq as a staging area for future conflicts is wise and is needed. From the looks of the new US embassy in Iraq, we’re staying there a while.
I hope there is a large enough heli-pad on the roof tops when when we need to rescue the last Americans before Iran over runs this embassy. The Democrats are determined to make sure any vestige of an American victory is removed from GW Bush’s legacy. Hillary might hold out a little longer than Obambi but, both will make sure we are humiliated and never to stand with an ally new or old again.
Marshall, I don’t waste alot of my time and energy trying to predict what Demolibs will do. What they will ALWAYS do, is crap on their percieved opponent or enemy. Their enemy is never America’s enemy. Liberals by and large NEVER pay a price for their own follies. They blame Republicans and promise more freebies to their co-dependant constituencies.
Unions listen.
Blacks/Minorities listen.
Trial lawyers listen.
Young and naive students listen.
Gays listen.
Greenies listen.
Pro-Abortion people.
Dead beats listen.
In short, anyone who is on the RECIEVING END of Government Cash….Entitlement cash listens and obeys.
Business is bad.
Those who make more money are bad.
Those who support the traditional family, religion and LIFE are bad.
Those whose families have been part of our rich military tradition are bad.
Those who CLING TO THEIR GUNS. are bad.
Those who DEMAND personal responsibility from those on THE TAKE are bad.
Garnering numerous co-dependant special interests, and making DEALS to keep them all FAT and SASSY is what Democrats are about.
IT’S CALLED SOCIALISM.
Keeping THEIR constituents angry and promising that when in power, that WE LIBERALS will SAVE YOU!
Doesn’t work.
libocrat, I salute you.
Libocrat….BRAVISIMO!
Thanks See-dubya, keep posting the good stuff the MSM won’t touch with a 5 million light year long pole.
Fantastic post, see-dubya! Great answer to the people who keep claiming that America’a standing in the world has been diminished. The people I see having a lower opinion of the USA are our domestic blame America first crowd.
But … but … America is the great satan! That’s what all the cool kids say.
it’s the fickleness of liberal policies have landed us in international messes that we then have to clean up years later. The list is too long…
as for democrats having decorum: these are the same people who turn funerals into pep rallies. they’re tacky…and loud and proud about it, too.
Yes, but the Democrats, they are the same hate America first crowd
I think this should be the lead thread (I hope I got that right)instead of whether McCain saw the ad before commenting on it. The American people need to stay focused on the war on terror and how it’s effecting our standing in the free world. I don’t know about the other posters, but I read the lead thread first, and sometimes don’t have the time to read them all before they’re a couple of days old.
I wasn’t interested whether McCain saw the ad or not, so I jumped to this story. It’s a better post, in my humble opinion. Keep up the good work. Mrs. Malkin.
I think liberating Iraq was the best thing President Bush did in foreign policy because it showed that we will use military force and are willing to sacrifice American lives for our security.
Terrorists and vile regimes know that Democrats will NEVER go to war no matter what, which is why they always test us when Dems come to power. For that reason Republicans always strengthen alliances.
Nobody but terrorists, socialists, and foolish Americans want Democrats and liberals leading America.
There is truly something odd going on with the Colombian free trade agreement. There is some major influence at work here that is turning gears behind the scenes. No I’m not talking some crazy conspiracy, just a powerful political or economic force protecting its own interests. It could be unions, Mr. Chavez, FARC, Drug money, or something else.
It is almost like when astronomers can predict that a planet or star exists even when it can’t be seen because gravitational forces can be observed pulling on the object affecting its movement.
The Colombian trade situation is being affected by some unseen yet powerful force.
Just wait until this site’s “usual suspects” (a.k.a., our resident leftist agitators) read this - they’ll be in a conniption frenzy.
The article is largely a report of another one written by:
What does this mean? A little googling reveals:
As for Columbia, people complain that the government cooperates with right wing death squads that murder labor union organizers.
’cause they’d have to give back those Citgo credit cards they get from their buddy Joe.
Remember, good for America is bad for the liberals!
Good to hear someone understands the benefits of being a friend or consequences of being an enemy of the United States of America. Staying the course appears to have worked. Too bad the progressive minded people of this country don’t get it.
Forty years ago Conservatives wanted to fight Communism, Liberals wanted to fight poverty.
Today Conservatives want to fight Terrorists, Liberals want to fight Global Warming.
See a pattern here?
Liberals will fight anything that won’t fight back.
Can I speak back on topic, here?
It’s obvious to me that the “they hate America” meme is a fallacy.
I went overseas to Italy in 2006 and the event was oriented on US veterans. The love outpouring by the Italians (and former Yugoslavians) was remarkable. You need to hear this: I was treated like a rock star, and told to my face “I love you” and “we love you” by people who either lived through, or descended from, the Nazi/fascist experiences of WW II.
Anyone with eyes can see the conservative turnover in European heads. Yes, some have gone the other way, but at a policy level those (Australia, UK) seem to be more moderate than liberal. Spain seems to be the weak sister in the mix.
BTW, Italy just turned back to the right again.
Next time somebody feed you that line about the world hates us, just keep these things in mind. And, ask for an example.
countrybumpkin said (#37):
Yes. Liberals know how to make us stronger.
Until the crack high wears off and reality re-enters the picture. Nothing another hit from the pipe won’t solve though.
Only a liberal would feel that doing the same things those weaker than us do would make us stronger, lol.
Hey, lgm. How do liberals make us stronger by fighting global warming? What’s the link?
Same with fighting poverty. Nothing the great liberal legacy policies (Social Security & Welfare) have done have made the US of A stronger. These policies may have ameliorated poverty - although the general enriching of the US had a lot more to do with that than did monthly payments to people. All that I see from these legacies is a dependence of people on the government teat.
They have bled and burned and died because criminal losers in America and abroad wanted to feel happy and sexiful for a few minutes, and didn’t care if they broke the law to do so.
I’d be happy for a one-to-one exchange with Mexico (probably our principal source of illegals and illegal drugs) for these drug-taking rodents we have as citizens. Just grant a plenary absolution for the immigration offense of illegal entry to some of the otherwise law-abiding illegals we already have here, and ship the drug-addled losers down south. I’d do the same for getting rid of about 20+ million liberals.
As for our strategic influence in the world being enhanced by the Iraq war, it’s really never about the weapons the criminals in power have, it’s rather about the criminals themselves. In other words, you can never sit down and negotiate with the criminal heads of government (such as North Korea and Iran), you have to remove them, period. The only influence you have with other criminals such as Quaddafy is by abject fear that he will be next on the hit-list.
True, True.
I believe if they had their way, they would abolish the military just like Costa Rica.
Please senor friend from Columbia, could you pay us a visit here in America, we are the NEA. We would like you to just talk with us…please.
#33 lgm’s posting, questioning the veracity of the CSIS:
An interestingly biased summation of the CSIS, especially when the current list of board members includes the following democrats and democrat appointees:
Then I did a little research on your source (The Center for Media and Democracy) a liberal activist organization out of Madison, WI, and found their listing of staff biographies:
1. John Stauber: a democracy advocate whose leadership on controversial public issues began in high school when he organized to end the U.S. war in Vietnam and for the first Earth Day. He is a non-paid adviser to Iraq Veterans Against the War. He has co-authored ‘Weapons of Mass Deception: The Uses of Propaganda in Bush’s War on Iraq’ (2003) ‘Banana Republicans: How the Right Wing Is Turning America Into a One-Party State’ (2004) and ‘The Best War Ever: Lies, Damned Lies and the Mess in Iraq (2006).
2. Sheldon Rampton: activist and co-author of ‘Weapons of Mass Deception: The Uses of Propaganda in Bush’s War on Iraq’ (2003) and ‘Banana Republicans: How the Right Wing Is Turning America Into a One-Party State’ (2004).
3. Judith Siers-Poisson: Judith holds a Masters degree in Russian Imperial History from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In 2001, she received the Sally Sunde Award for social justice work from Community Shares of Wisconsin. She lives in Madison with her husband and daughter, and is proudly French by marriage, especially when they refuse to go along with American-led wars.
4. Diane Farsetta: a founding member of Madison Women for Peace: a Code Pink Affiliate, she has a background in journalism and activism, Diane has been interviewed on or quoted by NPR’s Morning Edition, PBS’s NOW, Pacifica’s Democracy Now!, the Washington Post and Diane has reported for WORT 89.9 FM, Madison’s community radio station and a Pacifica Network affiliate. Her free-lance radio features and articles have run nationally on Free Speech Radio News, in Off Our Backs and Z Magazine, and via the Progressive Media Project.
5. Patricia Barden: before starting with the Center in June 2005, she worked as the web developer for the Wisconsin office of Defenders of Wildlife. Patricia is both an environmental and gay/lesbian rights activist. Her interests include bicycling, playing guitar, bird watching, and taking walks with her Jack Russell terrier, Dixie Doodle.
6. Anne Landman: Anne discovered that tobacco companies were paying generous placement fees to retailers in exchange for strategic placement of self-service cigarette displays out of the line of sight of clerks and near the doors of the establishment. She lives in western Colorado with her husband Steve, in an energy-efficient solar home made of over 4,000 used automobile tires and 900 pounds of aluminum cans.
7. Bob Burton: co-authored ‘Secrets and Lies: the anatomy of an anti-environmental PR campaign’. In 1992 he was entered on the ‘United Nations Environment Program Global 500 Roll of Honour’ for an outstanding contribution to the protection of the environment.
lgm, I seriously question your sourcing of “The Center for Media and Democracy.” For starters, they claim an organization, like the CSIS, that boasts twelve prominent democrats and democrat Presidential appointees to be a “right wing think tank.”
Secondly, this liberal activist organization describes the US attempts to push back 1980s Soviet aggression in Central America, and Sandinista/Ortega complicity, as a “War against Nicaragua.” I daresay that the Contras might have a problem with that false description as well.
Lastly, I ONCE AGAIN am disappointed in your inability to correctly associate proper moral equivalence. Your “as for Colombia” comment, and linked article documenting the horrendous murder of a labor official, hardly equals the thousands of Colombian lives that leftist terror groups, such as the FARC and ELF, have destroyed over the past 40 years. In fact, this leftist/rightest equation is as farcical as saying that the devastation inflicted upon society by John Allen Muhammad and John Lee Malvo is equal to that wrought by the Bloods and the Crips over the past 30 years. All are examples of terror, but the scope of each group’s terror is certainly not equal.
lgm, do you acknowledge that leftist terror in Colombia has a history of being far more coordinated and devastating than rightist terror over the past 40 years?
Sorry to disagree with one point of yours, Ms. Malkin, that the US “guarantees the security of its allies”. That does not include Serbia, which has just had its historic heartland ripped out by jihadist invaders with American approval. Nor does it include Israel, which is being pressured by the US to divest itself of its historical heartland; to release murderers from prison so they can murder again (and they do); to surrender security checkpoints so terrorists can murder at will (and they do). Furthermore, we are paying our money to the PLO and arming them, making us, in Diana West’s words, state sponsors of terrorism. Pres. Bush, for whom I voted twice, has shown his willingness to commit human sacrifice on our closest ally for the sake of a good dance with the house of Saud.
Good Work Brian, I believe what we are hearing is the distant sound of Crickets chirping while a response is awaited.
To lgm and CMD, those 12 prominent democrats are right wing.
Generally when you read really loony-tunes stuff like the above-quoted from Mike Green, there is a close emotional bond between the author and Israel.
Maybe it is our unconstitutional drug prohibition laws that finance their terrorists. The nanny state that thinks they know what Americans should eat smoke or snort. Talk about elitism at its worst. Conservatives should be for legalization if they believe in personal freedom.
Except that you guys want us to pay for the healthcare costs of those who crash or OD when they choose to eat, snort, or smoke various intoxicating substances that are currently illegal. Why don’t we have the freedom not to pay for someone else’s stupidity?
Understand, I’m not opposed to loosening up the nation’s drug laws. (I have a bit of a libertarian bent, I do.) I just find it funny that some liberals want to legalize various substances, but are against deregulation in other areas of life, or want to stick us with a healthcare system where sensible people are legally mandated to pay for the mistakes of others. That seems a bit hypocritical to me.
of course our positions are strengthened..we’re dug in like an Alabama tick! when are we going to lay waste to that entire region??? whats the hold up?
I say a lot of stupid stuff that I regret later, which is mostly a lack of discipline. But I have been saying with utter conviction for a couple of years, that I don’t see one iota of evidence that our international image has suffered in any way from our action in Iraq, and that there can be zero doubt that the maggots we are slaughtering there have gained an enormous amount of respect for us.
As well, the citizens of Iraq who are not actively engaged in trying to kill our soldiers almost surely have developed tremendous respect for our soldiers.
Fu** the leftists who claim that we have diminished our image abroad. What the fu** do they know about it? And CW - Germany and France are the best evidence that Europe goes that way, too.
Hexadecimal
We pay far more to keep people off drugs than it would cost to save every person who has over dosed. We might even get less over doses because people would know the strength of what they are taking. I don’t know if I am liberal or what but I don’t think the government should regulate anything that does not affect other people. I live in Jersey and all the mercury that the more western states expel in their coal plants lands on us and gets into our fish.
Hexadecimal
sorry, wrong thread. I had too many pages up.