With word of Muammar Qadhafi's imminent demise--both politically and literally--there was a collective sigh of relief at NATO Headquarters and throughout the alliance. The Libyan rebels who are about to depose the long-time dictator may not realize it, but their push into Tripoli may have saved NATO from a major military embarrassment.
The withdrawal of the alliances only aircraft carrier, the French navys Charles de Gaulle, which has limped back to its base at Toulon with a faulty engine, means that the alliance is increasingly having to rely on the RAFs ageing fleet of Tornado bombers.
#7
Their "help" consisting of the French firing off their nukes as soon as the Soviets crossed the French border
and
Followed by the death of Europe Phater. The death of Europe and possibly us as well. The boomers would not have remained silent
Let's remind that when the French developed thir nukes American doctrine (that means Kennedy's and Johnson's) was: Warsaw Pact invades Western Europe, if not stopped by conventional forces then nuke Poland and Czechoslowakia but not Soviet Union unless it launches an attack on US soil. Sorry, but solutions where America and USSR fight one another to the last European and then agree to a draw are not that palatable to me.
#9
JFM, France could have committed it's sizable army to fight on the side of NATO to stop the Soviets on the German border. Instead, French policy was to wait and see if the Soviets broke though. That greatly increased the chances of Soviet conventional victory and nuclear war in Europe. I'm sure Germany and the rest of NATO were thrilled by the possibility of France nuking Soviet forces in Germany as well as the NATO forces who were engaged in battle with the Soviets.
I know but that came (I think) four years later. May De Gaulle roast in hell. I was speaking of the period when France was stll a full NATO member but decided to get nukes. BTW because France could not afford both, nukes and an army teh French Army, except for e few elite units became a mess where on average a private fired less ammo at the firing range in a whole year than a Bush-era US Marine in two days during his training.
BTW the more I learn about de Gaulle the more I think he made a devil pact with Stalin during WWII.
Politics: In his weekly radio address and elsewhere over the weekend, President Obama blamed Republicans for "holding back" the recovery by blocking his still-MIA jobs plan. This wins the prize for Oval Office hubris.
He's even questioning the "patriotism" of GOP leaders on the Hill, claiming they're putting politics above country. "They're more interested in the politics of it than they are in solving the problem," he complained .
"The worst part is when you are talking to a family member of a fallen soldier and you are hugging them," he added. "And then you see sometimes our politics not living up to that level of commitment and patriotism that we see from our troops."
The most ideologically rigid president in history then accused Republicans -- who control just a third of the Pennsylvania Avenue power corridor -- of "rigidity" in refusing to raise taxes in a recession.
"When I saw our Republican presidential primary candidates suggesting that they would not be willing to close a single tax break, even if they were going to get $10 of savings for every $1 of revenue that raised, that is no longer thinking in a common-sense way," Obama said. " At that point, what you're seeing is ideological rigidity that is preventing us from solving problems."
You can't appreciate the heights of this cynicism without looking at Obama's 2006 memoir, "The Audacity of Hope," where he blamed Bush and Republicans for "anemic job growth," "flatlining wages" and not making "tough choices to control spending." All the horrible things he said came from GOP policies back then are umpteen times worse now under his own policies.
Obama can't have it both ways. He can't blame Republicans when they're in power, and then keep blaming Republicans when he's in power. At some point, he's got to take responsibility for the jobless recovery -- the first since WWII with no gain in wages and salaries in the first eight quarters after a recession's end. He's got to take ownership for the failure of his own ideas and leadership. The only problem, if he takes ownership he is handing out a gold plated invitation for a primary challenger, and he knows it.
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/23/2011 20:53 Comments ||
Top||
#4
The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Tuesday shows that 19% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as president. Forty-five percent (45%) Strongly Disapprove, giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -26.
You don't have a clue about Americans, Trembly.
You remember that.
#5
Yes, how could I forget. But we all know Americans are experts when in pertains to the other 254 countries on the planet...I will be subservient to you, as you wish Sir...
#6
join a ZimBobwe blog and see how "expert" they are. We already know you don't know shit. You prove it with every comment. Wanna play here? Show some insight or stay away from topics you obviously know nothing about. I don't comment on Canuck politics for the same reason
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/23/2011 21:14 Comments ||
Top||
#7
of course, abject public humiliation may have passed from "lifestyle" to "justifies my existence". If so, let's play?
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/23/2011 21:16 Comments ||
Top||
#9
Idiot savant much, Trembling B4 G*d? Because a comparison of the data with what you think in this thread shows non-intersection.
If you are as smart as you fancy yourself, you'll start asking questions to elicit information from those who can teach you, instead of demonstrating bigotry based on ignorance.
". . . He's getting our troops out of Iraq. They'll be almost all gone by the end of this year, if not all of them. The Afghan war is being drawn down. Osama bin Laden is dead and Muammar Gaddafi is on his way out. Nobody's had a foreign policy record like that since -- I don't know how far back you'd have to go. Not Ronald Reagan, not George W. Bush. Nobody. I don't know, you'd have to go back to Harry Truman before -- or Franklin Roosevelt before you get a record like that."
#4
Let's see here. Our allies don't trust us, our adversaries don't respect us, and our enemies don't fear us. And all that in three years....yeah quite a foreign policy record alright.
#7
Of course Howard Dean thought he would make a great CIC. Osama bin Laden is dead and Muammar Gaddafi is on his way out. Did Howard or any of the other donks ever think of the possibility that GWBush got the ball rolling?
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.