Another Tantrum

I know you have seen this. You are at some public place, usually a store and some child goes ballistic because they can't have what they want. Some start hitting and punching others flail on the ground like fish out of water. My personal favorate is the one who holds their breath, calm, peaceful and welcoming over the others.

Well the spoiled brat, I mean elected president of North Korea is at it again. He wants what he wants regardles of previous deals he has agreed to.

N. Korea warns intercepting 'satellite' will prompt counterstrike+

PYONGYANG/BEIJING, March 9 (AP) - (Kyodo)—North Korea warned Monday that any move to intercept what it calls a satellite launch and what other countries suspect may be a missile test-firing would result in a counterstrike against the countries trying to stop it.

"We will retaliate (over) any act of intercepting our satellite for peaceful purposes with prompt counterstrikes by the most powerful military means," the official Korean Central News Agency quoted a spokesman of the General Staff of the Korean People's Army as saying.

If countries such as the United States, Japan or South Korea try to intercept the launch, the North Korean military will carry out "a just retaliatory strike operation not only against all the interceptor means involved but against the strongholds" of the countries, it said.

"Shooting our satellite for peaceful purposes will precisely mean a war," it added.

North Korea earlier announced it is preparing to put a communications satellite into space, but outside observers suspect it may in fact be a test-firing of a long-range ballistic missile.

The United States, Japan and South Korea have said that even if Pyongyang calls the launch a missile test, it would violate existing U.N. Security Council resolutions.

The same North Korean statement said the country's military will cut off communications with its South Korean counterparts during the U.S.- South Korean exercises for the duration of the exercises beginning Monday.

A separate, more rare statement by the KPA's Supreme Command was quoted by the KCNA as saying that its soldiers are under orders to be "fully combat-ready" during U.S.-South Korean military exercises beginning Monday.

The North's armed forces have been ordered to "deal merciless retaliatory blows" should there be any intrusion "into the sky and land and seas of the DPRK even an inch."

Found here

All the ruckus and chaos, soon we will see the flailing on the ground and the pounding of fists. It's all about ME me ME me.

Couldn't he just hold his breath?

Which Candidate Should Answer That Phone

The Clinton ad that got it going had to do with a 3am call and the world was on the line. The commercial wasn't that great but it started the nation thinking about who they want in the oval office. The conflict in Russia and Georgia does an exceptional job of hammering this home.

Obama did his poll the world speech that included getting a UN resolution together. I guess he forgot that Russia was a permanent member and could veto any resolution that came before the UN. I guess he also hasn't noticed that there hasn't really been a successful UN Resolution. Can any of you remember one that actually worked?

McCain got this issue dead on. He came out hard core. He pushed aside politics and went straight to the issue. That was what I would call presidential. George made some strong statements but they were all gums not teeth.

Fred Thompson recently put out an article that puts this into perspective. You may want to read what he had to say on this issue. He ties it up into what kind of nation do we want to be come next year. We are looking at some tough decisions in our future and we need a candidate who can stand on his own and not lean on the rest of the world.

Why Iraq

I don’t have a problem with us going to Iraq and taking down a brutal dictator. Some of you probably are right now thinking about clicking off this page, but hear me out for one minute. Let me put a slightly different spin on it because my opinion has nothing to do with all the current nonsense that seems to be dividing this nation.

In 1991 we went to the Middle East to liberate Kuwait. Saddam and his military had taken it by force and we and several other nations righted this wrong. In fact, while Saddam’s UN ambassador was negotiating for his life we marched all the way to Bagdad. The war ended because Saddam agreed to 14 UN resolutions that put very tight restrictions on him. These UN resolutions were backed with force and we were one of the suppliers of that force. {RESOLUTION 687 (1991)}

The world was very surprised at how quick the US and its allies won the war. Russia and all its might had been bogged down in Afghanistan for years; the same was expected in Iraq. Iraq was a far more formidable opponent then Afghanistan. Many of the anti-Saddam revolutionary groups joined in our effort during this war.

Saddam and his UN ambassador had saved their butts and once the conquering forces had left and the UN resolutions were in place. Saddam and his Revolutionary Guard hunted down and brutally killed every person who stood in opposition to him. He not only killed the person but the person’s entire family. He re-established his iron grip and tears the heart out of his people. The seeds of hatred for America were than given fertile soil and fundamental Islam had a rush of converts. The US was seen as the one who let Satan out of the bag and we were pronounced guilty of all that was wrong with the Middle East.

Radical Islam was nothing more than a small group of nuts who spewed hatred and managed to pull off a few crazy attacks every once in a while to claim legitimacy. The world was ignoring this group as they suddenly rose to power. The US was doing its part to support the UN resolutions but as each of them was broken in many ways we did nothing. This constant nothing of talk and no action only continued to fertilize the seeds of hatred and to confirm their pronouncement against us. Radical Islam grew.

The UN sanctions and Saddam’s brutality and greed took its toll on the nation of Iraq. Hundreds of thousands died of diseases and malnutrition because Saddam took money to repair infrastructure and used most of it for military purposes. Carefully planted bribes and cheap oil kept this going until 1997 when the Food-for-Oil Program removed cash from the equation.

While all this was going on, Saddam continued waging partial war against the No-Fly Zones and those who had plotted against him. These hostilities were met with little force. The artillery unit was destroyed but no action was taken against the defiance. UN Resolution after UN Resolution was broken and nothing was done about it. More talk and no action, people were dying and those who had the power to change it did nothing. Radical Islam grew and the hatred for America increased.

In the US the leader had changed. Bill Clinton was now the president and his less military better approach was starting to affect our military influence. Sex scandals and other absurdities took all the lime light. Our Paper Tiger status was firmly being established. Hollywood and the sins of our president were being draped over America and Radical Islam gained strength and justification.

In 1995 President Clinton chose to bomb Bosnia instead of deal with the problem in Bagdad. Some would claim it was to lessen the publicity of his affair, others would claim it was a way to show support to Muslims. The reality of this event has never fully been exposed in the media. The Muslims in Bosnia bombed their own people to create a fake event blamed on the Christians to pull the strings of the US and Clinton bought it hook, line and sinker. The Radical Islamic learned that we can be easily manipulated through false video and the propaganda war started.

In 1998 more talk under Clinton and the US passed a resolution demanding regime change in Iraq. All the while the Radical Muslims perfected the art of terrorism. Saddam would pay thousands of dollars to the families of suicide bombers and support various terror groups. Death and bombings were happening routinely but all we could do was lob a couple of missiles here and there and attempt to talk people to death.

The passive acts of the Clinton Administration re-enforced the position of the Radical Muslim and encouraged bolder and bolder attacks. What if the security and strength of this nation would have gotten as much play time in the oval office as Monica? What if we would have actually enforced the UN resolutions on Iraq before the effect of Saddam and the Sanctions created the effect of genocide?

I believe that 9/11 would have never happened if we would have taken our obligation to Iraq seriously. We waited 12 years. With every passing year we helped build the terrorist organization that seeks our destruction.
Bush has been a horrible commander and chief. He has mishandled this war at almost every phase. We are in the situation we are in for that reason. It doesn’t change the fact that Iraq needed doing. We simply did it too late. Bush’s plan would have worked in 1995 when the people still had strength enough to stand and Radical Islam hadn’t risen to such strength.

I blame Clinton for not doing what needed to be done. I blame Bush for doing what needed to be done wrong.

We Just Keep On Giving

I get really tired of hearing how Greedy the US is. Every time I turn around some dictator or world leader is telling us we need to give them money. Half of these crack pots have robbed the coffers of their nation and have left their people to starve while they live large.
Now we got a bill flying through congress to do just that. It is now in the Senate (S.2433). The bill was dropped on our leaders just prior to recess and a vote demanded. That's right no time to study, debate and hammer out issues. The basics of the bill sound good, "End World Poverty by 2015". The US can't even deal with its own poverty issues and now we are going to use failed policy on others at our expense. Our congress has no right to give our money away without our permission.
I dare you to read the words of Davy Crockett, Not Yours To Give. We the American people are a generous bunch but government is not the means to dole out our generosity.
Look at the Tsunami Fund as an example, the American people independent of government gave out billions of dollars in aid. This should more then cover the tab of the current Senate bill. But wait there's more. We the American people contribute to both religious and non-religious causes that feed the children, provide safe drinking water, and so many other world projects. If they would agree to tabulate all this into account before writing a single check out of the government they would find we have over paid again.
This bill is not necessary and we should be ashamed of our representatives who would take the spending of our money so lightly. To make matters even worse, one of our candidates for president is the key sponsor to this bill. Obama should be taken to the mat and stripped of all authority on this issue alone.

Article of Interest

Hang Onto Your Wallets

Another government stimulus package is coming our way. I realize the economy is starting to sag and may need some propping up, but how are we going to pay for this?
The government has only three ways to get money; Tax, Borrow and Save.

If the government raises Taxes to pay for this program, it will stimulate a faster fall and a bigger problem. Taxing always tightens up the economy and increases unemployment. In my article "Tax or Not To Tax", I layout the forced effect of increased expenses on business. These effects hurt the nation and the individual. So Taxes are not the Answer.

If the government Borrows the money, we are simply pushing the debt onto a future generation with additional expenses for interest and inflation. As bad as that sounds, it gets worse because borrowing also effects our relationship with trade partners. Borrowing reduces the value of the dollar in the world market. We suddenly have to pay more for everything not produced inside our borders.
Now I know some of you would like to see us turn our backs on trade and start looking at home grown products. I don't blame you for this protectionist perspective, but home grown products are not going to suddenly appear over night. Industry has slowly migrated from our shores over decades. It will be a lengthy process to bring this home. In the mean while we will be paying more and getting less.

If the government Saves the money by eliminating or cutting some of the things it buys with our tax dollars, then it would truly stimulate the economy with no ill effect on the whole. Those cuts, what ever they may be, will have an effect on a small sampling of our nation. I find it far better to lose a small part of the body then allow the entire body to fail.
Perhaps we can choose to cut international "Good Will", "Buy A Friend" foreign give aways. Let's start with Cutting the vast sums of money we put into the UN. How about cutting all gifts to non democratic nations? What about dropping all direct cash aide and only offering specific destination driven supply aide? Perhaps at home we can stop congress from bringing home the bacon in the form of pork barrel spending?

I'm afraid that this rush to save the day will result in another fire sale where we borrow and give our nation away so that future generations can reap greater consequences for our lack of responsibility.

Another Sad Day in America as we pave the road to Hell with good intentions.

Article of Interest

Will The Next U.N. Secretary-General Make A Difference?

South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon will probably be appointed on Friday. I was rather surpised to learn it was the minister form South Korea. With all the hot conflicts in the world who would guess that someone from one of the hottest would rise to Secretary-General. How much will this effect the future of the UN? As far as I am concerned anything is better then what we have. I love the three priorities:

Ban said he would have three priorities as secretary-general.
His first
priority is the make the U.N. "more efficient and effective and relevant" in
meeting the challenges of the 21st century, he said.
Secondly, he said, "I
(will) try my utmost efforts to bring the trust and confidence among member
states."
Ban said his third priority is to use the U.N.'s limited resources
and manpower more effectively and try to reduce "the redundancies and
overlappings" in the "overstretched" organization.

Priority #1 should be tough enough let alone adding 2 and 3. I would love to hear the plan on how he will pull this off. Perhaps somebody suffering under the hot seat of a major world issue will bring more to the table. You don't expect the nut case from the north to slow down any given the new head man. Nothing beats having a real investment in a conflict as a form of motivation.

Next year should be real interesting at the UN.
Article of interest

The Terrorists' Club

Former New York City mayor Ed Koch once called the United Nations "a cesspool." In fact, it is worse than that. The United Nations of today is the world's largest terrorist cell. It is a place where terrorist nations meet, hold membership, and promote their agendas. It is an institution through which they spread hate and encourage violence. This behavior is carried out on American soil and subsidized by American taxpayers.
By providing a forum, the United Nations does for terrorist diplomacy what Al Jazeera does for terrorist propaganda. It is a leading dispensary of jihadist poison. The General Assembly of the United Nations is for today's terrorists what the Ravenite Social Club was for John Gotti—a home away from home, a place where business is conducted.
The United States must recognize this fact and put the UN out of business. We must do so because international terrorism aimed at the United States and her citizens is the number one concern for American foreign policy and national security. It will continue to be for many years to come, as it should have been prior to September 11, 2001, when alarm bells rang throughout the 1980s and 1990s.

Read the rest of this article Here. You can also buy the book Diplomatic Divorce: Why America Should End Its Love Affair with the United Nations.

The more I read or hear the news the madder I get at the UN. This article points out the reality of the UN and how we are allowing terrorism a stronghold in America. You may have noticed that I am a member of the Reject the UN blog roll. Each of you who visit here from wherever you are in the world should seriously consider what this organization stands for and what roll your country is playing as a member. My country is playing host, financier and strong man for fools liars and cheats. As per the post below, we have no chance of actually accomplishing good in this organization. Our only possible saving grace is being one of the big guns who can veto an action. Yet, being the primary money source and stick, without us the UN would never be able to carry out what little it does.

Some Stats on the UN

Things you might want to know about this almost worthless organization. We are accustom to tantrums and tirades from various members and representatives but how does the organization really stack up.

Let us first note that there are 192 member nations. Some of these members I have never heard of in my life. I consider myself well read and rather strong in geography and history, yet many on the list had me completely stumped. How many of you know where Andorra is?

89 of the 192 are fully "Free" nations, or 46%. Visit Interactive Map of World.

Top ten countries subject to UN human rights criticism in 2005
First place: Israel (106)
Second place: Sudan (68)
Third place: Democratic Republic of the Congo (38)
Fourth place: Nepal (35)
Fifth place: Myanmar (32)
Tied for sixth place: Burundi and Colombia (31)
Seventh place: Côte d'Ivoire (29)
Tied for eighth place: Afghanistan and the United States of America (27)

U.S. contributions to the UN in 2005 totaled: $5,327,276,000.

The exclusion of Israel from full UN participation Much of the operations of the UN, including appointments and elections to UN bodies, closed-door negotiations, and information-sharing sessions, take place in the context of five regional groups.
Africa
Asia
Eastern Europe
Latin America and the Caribbean (GRULAC)
the Western Europe and Others group (WEOG).
All UN members are a full member of a regional group except Israel. Israel is merely a temporary member of WEOG for a limited number of purposes.A number of WEOG countries refuse Israel's full membership, though preferring not to be identified and to act under the cover of European unanimity.
Hold-outs have included France, Greece, Ireland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Portugal, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.
The exclusion of only Israel from full membership in a UN regional group is a violation of the UN Charter, which promises "the equal rights of nations large and small."

Israel is the only nation singled our with a special UN committee for the sole purpose of investigating violations against Palestinians by Israel.

Given just this little bit of information, what hope do we have of anything good coming from all this?

What Peace Keeping Force?

I was just reading the new rules of engagement for U.N. troops in Lebanon. Actually, I was reading this news article found here. It was discussing the rules and I was amazed at the stupidity of the whole thing. These rules permit soldiers to shoot in self-defense, use force to protect civilians and resist armed attempts to interfere with their duties. We need rules for this sort of thing? I would think that that would be a given.

What we got here is another demonstration of how politics mess things up. Basic fundamental stuff has to be discussed and agreed to as if it was something unique and special. These basics are reported to take 21 pages to lay out. What kind of idiot wrote this stuff? If anyone wonders why the UN is worthless all you need to do is look at one of these security roles and see why a UN force is to be laughed at not reckoned with. The terrorists are shaking in their sandals knowing that 15,000 troops from defenseless European nations will be showing up to inflict paper cuts with there rules documentation.

Oh, about those 15,000 troops, there may be 4,000 or so if things go okay. Well maybe. France after all wants us to know they are completely behind this and will take control of the whole detail. They will provide an overwhelming force of 400. (No, I didn’t forget a zero.) Looks like they have there standard issue white bandanas, just incase.

The world is at war with terror and we have milk toast responses like this. They simply don’t get it. The only reason no major scale terrorist event has hit France is because the terrorists already know they won. They burned hundreds of cars not that long ago and only got rewarded. I bet Hezbollah is rejoicing knowing France will be leading this group.

It won’t be long before Israel will get their leadership thing straightened out. They will then be able to go in and do it right. It’s obvious the UN will only be there long enough to allow for re-armament and picture taking. The next round of military action will only be worse. The UN and the European Peace force will scamper away with their tail between their legs in a matter of a very short time. Let’s pray Israel is ready.