Monday, June 29, 2009

United States: World Referee

Imagine a football, basketball, hockey, soccer, or even baseball game played for high stakes without a referee. The idea of calling your own foul would be abused and ignored until finally fights would break out.

That is the world without the presence of the United States.

Sometimes we call major and minor penalties, sometimes we throw people into the box temporarily, sometimes we toss them out of the game entirely. We get cursed and are often accused of being blind, but the game cannot continue without us.

Until January of this year the players in the great game of world affairs sullenly behaved themselves. The remaining two members of the "Axis of Evil" restrained their ambitions, waiting out the adversary they feared the most, President George W. Bush. They understood as did Bush that war is never your last resort, that the Republican president always reserved the right to act forcefully to defend his country.

Then came His Apologizency, begging the world's forgiveness for the United States "interfering." Obama never understood that American interference kept the different regional pots from boiling over. North Korea and Iran hated President Bush, but they respected him. Now with Iran and North Korea both pushing the envelope, it becomes an invitation for others in the region to act. Israel at some point will have to attack Iran. Is this the best scenario? No. But unless a revolution removes the nuclear minded mullahs, it will happen. Do we really want Japan to feel insecure enough to lash out on their own at North Korea, possibly antagonizing China? How many years until Japan reaches that point of fear, mindful that the US under Obama will not even act to protect Hawaii?

American "interference" actually created the promising situation in Iran. The ever vigilant American press exposed a Bush era covert operation to funnel $400 million into Iran to destabilize the regime. It is only now bearing fruit. Hopefully it removes a nuclear upstart from the equation. Of course that was a product of Bush's "arrogance."

I (and Bill Maher, surprisingly) would like to see a little less talk and a lot more action from Obama when it comes to national security. And I mean against North Korea, not the National Rifle Association.

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