Despite the clear proof provided by recent events in the Arab world — Tunisia, Egypt, etc. — the obsessed believers in the linkage theory, the view that the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Arabs is the key to all the struggles and instability of the Middle East, continue to spout their nonsense. So General James Jones, President Obama’s former National Security Advisor, said it again this week, in Israel no less. At least as far as I know, Jones did not relate the quest for world peace to a ban on Jewish apartments in eastern Jerusalem.
But for sheer over the top stupidity in the service of blaming everything on Israel, NPR takes the cake (again). Here is what I woke up to on today’s “Morning Edition” news program:
Aaron David Miller: We’re neither admired, respected or feared to the degree that we need to be in order to protect our interests. And the reality is that this is just another demonstration of it. Everybody in the region says no to America, without cause or consequence. Hamid Karzai says no, Maliki on occasion says no, Khamenei says no, Netanyahu says no, Mubarak has said no repeatedly.
Michele Kelemen [NPR reporter]: US credibility fell over the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, analysts say, and again last year when Israel rejected calls for a building freeze in the occupied West Bank. [my italics]
What?
You are comparing two bungled wars and repeated major foreign policy disasters with this?
So “US credibility fell” because Israel chose not to agree to yet another pointless concession to the Palestinian Authority (PA) by extending the building freeze — after it had agreed to it and implemented it for the previous 10 months while the PA refused to negotiate?
In my opinion, “US credibility fell” when Obama stalled his own program by stupidly asking for a freeze in the first place, thus giving the PA an excuse to avoid negotiating for 10 months on the grounds that the freeze didn’t include Jerusalem.
Perhaps “US credibility fell” when the PA, which is financially propped up by US dollars and protected from Hamas by the IDF, refused to give Obama the satisfaction of even pointless negotiations after he extracted the 10-month freeze from Israel?
What do you think happened to US credibility when NATO member Turkey defected to the Iranian bloc? Or when Hizballah cemented its control over Lebanon? Does increased Iranian influence in South America do anything to US credibility?
And although nobody mentioned it, US credibility is dropping like a rock as Iran moves toward becoming a nuclear power.
Technorati Tags: US credibility, NPR, Egypt, Israel
ELECTIONS HAVE CONSEQUENCES!!!!!!!!!
Once again, imagine how different things might look today if McCain had won…
Greatest Act of Mass Stupidity in Recorded History: The Election of Barack Obama. (Especially the bit about 78% of Jewish voters supporting him….who says we’re so smart?)