Category Archives: Foreign Affairs

A Daunting Challenge

The Rational Middle has, for some weeks now, been quite literally under water. (My basement had four feet of the stuff in it, and there I was with all of my swimsuits still in mothballs.) I have endeavored to write, but the task has been beyond my grasp…when faced with a mess of this size, where does one start? For the next few days, I will work through the following subjects that have attracted my attention, peaked my curiosity, or just ticked me off.

  1. Benghazi- Now and forever known as the “worst disaster” in Dick Cheney’s lifetime (his words), in any other time (or with a Republican in the White House) it would have been just a normal, if tragic, cost of doing business. The United States believes in an international presence, a presence that asks us to routinely deploy good people in dangerous places. Dozens (yes conservative friends, dozens) of diplomatic targets have been attacked by various forces regardless of the party affiliation of the White House during the last three decades. Many of these diplomatic targets were CIA fronts which demanded both secrecy and deniability. So where again is the scandal?
  2. IRSGate- When it is a person with an appearance that speaks to a Middle Eastern decent, and that person is hand-searched at the airport, it is useful and moral profiling. When it is the agency tasked with collecting all of the taxes which are legally and morally due, and they are targeting groups that openly state their intention to avoid said taxes, it is a massive scandal. (These “scandals” really are Republican’s following the Rambo Doctrine…fire enough bullets at a target and you will eventually find the mark…even with Hollywood bullets.) PS…President Obama’s statement condemning this action represents one of the great caves of all time, and a terrible tactical blunder.
  3. Corporate Welfare (NFL-style)- When lawmakers refused to vote on a tax which would have set aside hundreds of millions of dollars to renovate the Miami Dolphins’ (the private, for-profit Miami Dolphins) stadium, Commissioner Roger Goodell issued a back-handed threat; “We want the Dolphins to stay in Miami.” Why wouldn’t they? Better question; why don’t the various states pass laws in parallel banning the use of any public funding for private sports franchises?
  4. Jumping The Shark (NFL-style)- NFL.com has officially replaced all reporting with editorializing.
  5. Tebow- The story that won’t die, fueled by the single most ridiculous argument in the history of sports; that Tebow’s religion is a cause for teams to “blackball” him (as if most coaches on most teams don’t pray before games, and the Fellowship of Christian Athletes isn’t the most ubiquitous player organization not called the NFLPA.)
  6. Falling deficits, job-challenged recoveries, and the nonsense of fiscal austerity- Six years after the economy started to unravel, the United States of America is more committed than ever to reaching the goal of returning our education and commercial infrastructure to Third World status. Apparently, the “job-creators” demand the freedoms that lucky entrepreneurs in business havens like Mexico and Somalia enjoy.

Tune in for these stories and more, coming soon to The Rational Middle.

 

 

 

Deconstructing Sarah Palin…Again

I have argued for some months now that the erstwhile Governor of Alaska and candidate for Vice President was beyond relevance, rendering moot any need to comment on her nonsense. I must admit I was wrong; when more than 3.25 million people “like” a short note rehashing conservative talking points on Facebook, Palin’s relevance is evident. In a nation where perhaps two million people have formally asked to be ex-citizens, popular rants by the wife of an Alaska secessionist have real meaning.

It is, after all, the simple notion that many in America have regressed to Sarah Palin’s level that makes her relevant, rather than any improvement in her own feeble and misdirected talents. Formally patriotic citizens who fought the dishonor of flag burning are now all too willing to abuse its code by flying it upside down, before removing some of the stars from its field of blue. The notion is as disgusting, cowardly, and primitive as Sarah Palin proved herself to be during her own national campaign; apparently, it spreads like a virus.

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National Insecurity

If they had nothing else going for them, Republicans could always count on being the party of shock and awe. Candidates running for the red-staters had machismo on their side, and an inexhaustible ability to argue they were the ones to keep us safe. Never was that phenomena more in evidence then when the GOP ran on the idea that they “kept us safe”, after allowing the single most costly attack on the United States in our history on 9/11.

But no more. Mitt Romney and the Men Behind The Mannequin find themselves fumbling for a new script. Since President Obama moved in, we have moved out of Iraq, and that nation still stands. Since President Obama moved in, we have first accelerated, then drawn down in Afghanistan, with the ultimate result being the utter destruction of every level of Al Qaeda in existence at the beginning of 2008 (including, of course, the death of He Who Shall Not Be Named).

What’s a Wall Street Tycoon who wants to be President to do? Romney took shots at Obama’s “weakness” in Iran, calling on the President to deploy two carrier groups to the region…the President already had two on station and a third en route. Romney, most recently and famously, thought it intelligent to call out the President on force levels. Apparently, the steady increases to the Defense Budget during Obama’s first term weren’t enough; Romney saw the future, and was scared by the weakness in our Navy.

We now have fewer ships in the Navy then at any time since 1917.-Mitt Romney

We also have fewer horses and bayonettes then we did in 1917…-President Obama

As has happened so often in the last year, Mitt Romney has managed to be ill-timed, dishonest, and wrong at the same time. Totally apart from the fact that capabilities and usage has changed in the last 100 years, and removed from the reality that our Navy is fully capable of engaging strategic formations in multiple locations around the globe at the same time, is the reality that our Navy has more ships now than we did under President Bush.

During the last four years, Iran has been muted, North Korea marginalized, and the Arab world swept by democracy. Not all of these are accomplishments to be laid at the feet of the President, but it is difficult to see a better set of circumstances, or the policy that would have led to such. The President came to office with a promise to leave Iraq in good condition. Done. The President came into office with a promise to accelerate the conflict in Afghanistan with the intent of destroying Al Qaeda and bringing Bin Laden to justice. Done. The President came into office with a promise to rebuild America’s international standing without compromising its security. Done.

What is Mitt Romney’s argument?

 

The Rational Middle is listening…

From An Eagle Claw To Neptune Spear

NASCAR fans and pundits call it silly season; that time of year where drivers and crew chiefs and deep pockets jockey for position and betray loyalties. Political campaigns have one also, and America is in the throes of it now. Economics and the jobs picture will garner attention in the Middle later this week; for now, let’s talk about national security…and perception. History is written by the winners, but the winners are often decided by the best storytellers. In today’s politics, rewriting the story is the only key to victory, and when the Democrat in the White House is doing well on national security, the conservative storytellers have to be at the top of their game.

Mitt Romney’s storytellers are the best, not surprisingly, that money can buy. The other day, Romney’s writers fed him a fantastic line;

Even Jimmy Carter would have ordered the Bin Laden raid.

At once, the men behind the mannequin reinforced the mythology of Jimmy the Peanut Farmer, minimized the role and responsibility of Commander in Chief, and effectively misplaced all of the important facts of the Abbottabad raid. Somewhere, Karl Rove is a NASA wife circa 1960; happy, thrilled, and proud. The Texas Turd Blossom operates under the commandment that “Thou shall attack thy opponent’s strength.” Jimmy Carter faced the prospect of 52 Americans held hostage by militants inside the capital city of a large country. He called on a brand new unit of the U.S. Army to plan and execute a complex and daring rescue mission. In what was (to public knowledge anyway), Delta Force’s first mission, Murphy’s Law prevailed. Everything that could go wrong did, and at the most inopportune moment. Eventually, the commanders on the ground asked for permission to abort, and the President agreed.

History is written by the winners, and Jimmy Carter took responsibility for the failure of the mission, and his inability to bring the crisis to a conclusion while in office. Mitt Romney, who has led a life devoid of most of the crisis triggers that 99% of Americans face, managed to say that “Even Jimmy…” would order the raid. The question voters have to decide is, would Mitt order the raid? And the problem, the raging elephant in the room for conservatives, is that the previous Republican president never got within striking distance of that decision. He talked about it, he made cowboy references to it, then he deployed 180,000 U.S. troops in the wrong country and forgot about it.

President Obama, to the surprise (and pleasure) of many conservative friends and relatives of mine, gave the order. But before he gave the order, he gave orders to recommit forces to the path that would make the raid possible. That Candidate Obama pledged to focus on destroying Al Qaeda and Bin Laden is indisputable; that he redeployed assets to accomplish that pledge is beyond debate; that he was successful in fulfilling that promise is settled history. Neptune’s Spear was a success, and a success demanded by almost all Americans.

Even Mitt Romney can see that.

The Rational Middle is listening…

 

Pity The Conservative Rank And File

The elections of 2010 were an unqualified success for conservative candidates and the conservative brand. One year hence, and the mid-term euphoria has turned into plodding, pre-presidential election doldrums. Almost literally without doing anything different, President Obama has seen his approval rating climb into the light, and his chances against all Republican comers turn in his favor. This isn’t a prognostication, I’ll not go that far onto the political limb. The game however, as Sherlock might say, is afoot. But how?

The reason for the steady turning, and the reason I feel some empathy towards cherished conservative friends and family, can be found in the first sentence of this column. The elections of 2010 were an unqualified success for the conservative brand. Conservatives have of course long held a convincing advantage over liberals in the brand war (I am sure you know more “progressives” than “liberals”, because conservatives have convinced Americans that “liberal” is a bad word). Branding is a potent tool, and it explains why so many Americans have cast so many votes against their best interests over the last three decades. Here, however, at the beginning of the 21st Century’s second decade, the tool has turned on its master. Republicans, at least those in office or who hold court on our airwaves, have become slaves to the brand.

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Af-Pak: To Leave, Or Not To Leave

Do we define national security by absolute need and best practice, or do we define it as a function of political context? Is the conflict in Afghanistan (and the sticky situation in Pakistan) a matter of national security, or is it a war of choice based on stubborn ideals and historical ignorance? As President Obama comes to the end of an abbreviated review of the 18 months since the Afghan Surge, these should be questions at the top of his mind.

For a nation that spent two decades avoiding conflicts under the aegis of “It could be another Viet Nam”, with Afghanistan the United States was quick to jump feet first into “another Viet Nam”. The conflict is expensive, bloody, logistically difficult, reliant on a corrupt local government, unpopular with the locals, and geopolitically risky. The delicate balance crafted by David Petraeus in Afghanistan has not (and cannot) limit the collateral damage done in Pakistan. The wars we might win or avoid via a succesful action in Afghanistan, pale in comparison to the wars we can unintentionally start involving Pakistan. Foreign policy is a high wire act at the best of times; the addition of military action, however, makes it a one-legged high wire act.

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