Obama, Teabaggers, Foreign Policy and Asia
Nov 24th, 2009 | By Leon Hadar | Category: Featured, Politics
If you have been following what America’s right-wing bloggers and radio talk-show hosts have been saying about President Barack Obama’s just-concluded trip to the Asia-Pacific, you would be under the impression that Obama was not treated by officials in that region as the leader of the world’s only remaining superpower and the largest and most advanced economy.
The neo and ultra-conservative pundits recalled the good-old-days when former American presidents were supposedly treated with so much respect in Tokyo, Seoul and Beijing as they used American economic and military might to compel leaders there to bow to Washington’s dictates. But as the right-wingers see it, Obama acted as though he was the leader of just another normal nation and not that of the great power that had won the Cold War not so long ago, projecting a certain level of timidity during his East Asian tour which might explain why he was cold shouldered by the East Asians. And that was such a humiliating experience for proud Americans like Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh.
Indeed, according to these and other nutty loudmouths, Obama had disgraced his country by having taken a deep bow at the waist while meeting Japan’s Emperor Akihito. Hey, remember how former US vice president Dick Cheney, greeted the emperor in 2007 with a firm handshake — but no bow — just the way a real American Man would conduct himself.
American historians were quick to note that Obama was not the first U.S. President to take a bow, following the rules of diplomatic etiquette when meeting with foreign kings, queens, and other heads of state. In fact, former President Richard Nixon – you know, that lefty peacenik — bowed to Akihito’s father in Japan in 1971. And he was the same Japanese emperor who had led his country to war with the U.S. in 1941.
The notion that Obama didn’t get any R-E-S-P-E-C-T in the Asia-Pacific during his visit and that his “wow bow” in Tokyo reflected a supposedly spineless diplomacy of kowtowing to China and capitulating to other rising powers in the region over security and trade issues is probably just another example of the kind of hysterical Obama bashing that has engulfed America’s flagging political right since last November.
In the right-wing alternate universe Obama is seen as being responsible for the Great Recession, the mess in Iraq and Afghanistan, and now also for the economic and military rise of China, the changing Japanese attitudes towards America and the other challenges facing American power in East Asia. According to the members of the non-reality-based community the suggestion that the China may be less willing to play ball with Obama has nothing to do with America’s real weakened economic and military position in the aftermath of the financial meltdown in Wall Street and the War in Iraq. Nope. It all has to do with the perception of American weakness that has been produced by Obama’s more conciliatory approach towards China (dubbed by officials in Washington dubbed as “strategic reassurance”), his willingness continue negotiations with the Japanese over the status of U.S. military bases Okinawa and his engagement with the military regime in Myanmar.
But in reality, this kind of more conciliatory approach that have been embraced by Obama in his dealing with China, Japan and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is part of an effort to adjust American position in the Asia-Pacific in response to the very real changing geo-strategic and geo-economic balance of power, and in particular to the shifting balance of power between America and China.
Indeed, the transformation of the post-Cold War unipolar U.S.-dominated international system into a looser multi-polar system was inevitable. From that perspective it is quite possible that historians in the future would contend that the most important event that had taken in place in 2001 was not the 9/11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington but what happened exactly two months later – the accession of China into the World Trade Organization (WTO) which marked the start of its full integration into the global economy.
That this process of diminishing unipolarism and increasing multipolarism has accelerated under Obama’s predecessor has to do with the costly policies at home (irresponsible fiscal and monetary policies) and abroad (military unilateralism and the war in Iraq) that have weakened U.S. status around the world, including in East Asia, and provided the Chinese with even more opportunity to exert their economic and diplomatic influence while America continued sinking into the many military quagmires in the Greater Middle East.
Taking into consideration that what Obama has been trying to begin reversing the trend towards American retreat from Asia that took place under President George W. Bush, one could argue his East Asia tour was certainly a good start. America and China are not about to form a permanent “Group of 2″ forum. But during the talks in Beijing that covered currency, climate change, tariffs, Iran and Afghanistan — the American and Chinese leaders took the first steps in a long road in which each side will have to provide strategic reassurances to other. It would a process involving reciprocity under which the Americans will not be anymore in a position to deliver sermons and dictate outcomes to the Chinese.
That could be certainly a humbling experience for the right-wing critics and the neoconservatives who seem to operate under the illusion that America is still Number One and that it can still continue cutting taxes, expanding the deficit, fighting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, while defeating terrorism, containing China and Russia, punishing “rogue regimes” and spreading democracy and human rights around the world.
But one of the main reasons why America has less leverage in its dealing with China is fact that the Chinese are playing now the role of America’s banker as they continue financing the growing U.S. deficits. And in order to reduce these deficits, Americans will have to cut spending, which should include reductions the same U.S. military commitments abroad that right-wing critics would actually like to see increased.
Indeed, the same teabaggers who in the name of conservative values of limited government and fiscal restraint have been clobbering Obama and the Democrats for expanding the power of the federal government to promote a domestic liberal agenda, including $787 billion economic stimulus and his health-care reform proposals, seemed to have become born-again government interventionists, progressive internationalists and social engineers when it comes to Iraq and Afghanistan and to millions of foreigners and other distant societies whose values are alien to most Americans. Many of our irate anti-statist conservatives want to see the same U.S. government whose power they decry when tries to manage the school system in, say, Lebanon, Ohio, managing lots of stuff in, say, Lebanon. Help build the health care system in Afghanistan — but not in America.
In fact, according to most public opinion polls the majority of American conservatives support increasing U.S. military presence in Afghanistan. The same teabaggers who are bashing Obama Administration as “socialistic” and “fascistic” seem to be quite enthusiastic about an Obama doing more national building in Afghanistan, which is bound to help raise the U.S. deficit into the stratosphere and expand the power of the federal government.
As Obama and the Democrats contemplate a new strategy for Afghanistan they should consider integrating the conservative values of fiscal discipline and limited government into their decision-making on this central foreign policy issue. After all, reducing and not expanding U.S. military in Afghanistan (and Iraq, and Korea, and Japan, and…) would help control the spending by the federal government and reduce the ballooning deficit. And that, after all, is exactly what our teabaggers are demanding.
Regards,
Leon Hadar
November 24, 2009
ShareThis
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Ron Simon and Agora Financial, Whiskey Gunpowder. Whiskey Gunpowder said: Obama, Teabaggers, Foreign Policy and Asia: If you have been following what America’s right-wing bloggers and rad… http://bit.ly/5QNkCi [...]
Thank you Mr. Hadar, your article is spot on. Its very good to see a voice of reason.
What the F? Has Whiskey and Gunpowder been hacked? Der Kommissar Hadar is referring to conservative Americans in a derogatory manner as “teabaggers” like the current communist government?
535 member so congress have screwed the 300 million Americans. The “teabaggers” didn’t run up debt or take advantage of anyone. They are voiceless americans represented by 525/300,000,000 of the public, most of them by liberal democrats who have been in power in their tiny states/districts for more than 25 years (pelosi, dodd, frank).
If you want an argument, Mr. Hadar, bring it on, you wimp. I’ve worked all my life for what I have, I won’t let a p*ssy like you take it away from me. Go back to the New York Times.
Holy crap – you work for the CATO institue? Are you a spy?
If you don’t understand that the term “teabagger” is derogative, then you’re an idiot.
The “teabaggers” are people who have been trusting their government while working their lives away, not knowing that the government and media (including you, jerk) were undermining them.
The “teabaggers” are made up of trusting, hard-working Americans. Your depiction of them as conservative nuts is offensive and aggravating.
We don’t want nation building in Afganistan – we just want retribution for the 8 years and 1,500 military deaths for a war that was voted on by 90% of the US Congress in 2001. Win it, or get the f*ck out. Is that “nation building”? Jerk.
It’s good to see that the Whiskey Bar stocks off-brands of political commentary …
I actually agree with the most part of this article, but am deeply offended by the mistaken characterization of “teabaggers” as righty-tighty wingnuts.
I am a social liberal, fiscal conservative, libertarian-leaning progressive. I voted for Obama (fool me once …) but not for W (even though I was a military officer under his regime). I also attended a tea party and saw a lot of normal-looking lower-middle-class people. Y’know the formerly blue-collared folks who built the latter part of the American Century, and who now have seen it all start falling down around them as they stand in the unemployment line?
Wise political commenters will understand that the teabaggers are a politically uncommitted and labile group, whose influence grows with the perceived disconnect between Wall Street and Main Street expectations. The Fed does itself no long-run favors by catering to Wall Street at the expense of Main Street.
I have read many thought provoking articles on Whiskey & Gunpowder. This one was definitely a waste of time and bandwidth.
Take a look at the Libtards resume. I rest my case.
I have read that liberalism is a mental illness, I had my doubts until I read this article.
Now I am convinced.
Thank God only 20% of Americans think this way.
In my opinion this kind of sissy BS has no place in Whiskey and Gunpowder.
No U.S. President should bow to anybody. Most Americans want the President to man-up and fight to win or get out of the Middle East. This is the problem with a college boy trying to lead men; he can’t make life and death decisions from experience because he has none. You Dragons and Dungeons college boys are pretty bad-ass on the Internet blogs for sure, but words don’t win wars, it’s the men who fight.
A decent response would take pages so I think the SNL skit says it all for me.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01vjlJZRw5Q.
[...] Obama, Teabaggers, Foreign Policy and Asia was originally featured on Whiskey and Gunpowder [...]
If we wanted that sort of article we could find it any number of places. We Shooters are always ready for lively, sensible, polite, intelligent debate, which is clearly not Mr. Hadar’s area of expertise. “Every organization not avowedly conservative becomes left wing over time.” Whatever led us to suppose that the Cato Institute was a haven for rational, Constitutional principles? I am not the editor of what has long been my favorite economic reading; if I were Mr. Hadar’s hit piece would not even have made the circular file in my corner office. It smells too bad just as it is and will not improve with age. Truckle to the Eastern block so they won’t cut off the flow of funds? Madison and Hamilton might have gone for that one. I suggest the Cato institute return to first principles, and that Mr. Hadar return to his roots. He sounds like a prime candidate to be a Czar.
“Teabaggers?” What a nasty hit piece. Typical liberal ad hominem Alinskian argument with little regard for the facts.
Does he think the same of our Founding Fathers who conducted the more lively Boston Tea Party? Our grievances are much more manifold and severe than theirs. And our responses are much more mild.
Move to China or Cuba. We like freedom and the Constitution.
Im not sure why everyone is offended by this article. What he is doing is describing the reality of our situation. Yeah we would like to think that we are still the most powerful nation in this world, but we are not. Im not really even sure why anyone would want to be. He didnt say anything about getting rid of freedoms or changing the Constitution. Teabaggers is pretty much the phrase I hear everyone use to describe the members of the Tea Party movement. There is nothing wrong with it when used in that context. I would think you would be proud of the moniker. I dont see anything liberal about his article at all. He was just stating the reality of the situation. We have borrowed a lot of money from these countries for one reason or another. Therefore we kinda have to be gracious when interacting with them. The worst thing we can do is act as if nothing has changed since the cold war. That was the problem with the last administration, they acted as if nothing had changed. The balance of power in the world has shifted to the orient. I dont necessarily mean military power as military power really dosnt seem to matter a whole lot. I mean economic power and economic power is the true power of a nation. You can be the meanest most fierce country in the world but without the ability to buy weapons, move and train troops it simply dosnt matter. The thing that wins wars is large amounts of cash. This has been true since the creation of civilization. Every person in the USA has a hand in creating this problem. Yes its true that wallstreet and large corporate entities played a large part, but every person who bought something on credit has a hand in this.
We all fueled the monster we have created because we all thought that tomorrow would never come. Well its here and the party is over. Now we just have to pay for it. We have borrowed so much money that China is now our “partner”. Freedom is expensive, not just in blood but in wealth. I grew up on a farm and we didnt own any land. Our landlords called the shots, even if they were wrong we still had to do what they said because it was either that or someone else would be farming the land next year. Thats the same boat the USA is in. Thanks
“Teabaggers is pretty much the phrase I hear everyone use to describe the members of the Tea Party movement.”
No, it’s how Anderson Cooper described members of the movement and those who agree with them. It was meant to ridicule us and to get people to stop taking us seriously. It’s rather childish for a supposedly serious commentator to use such language, and it detracts from his point. I’m suprised the Cato Institute would want to be associated with this person, since I thought they had higher standards than that.
It’s unfortunate that he resorts to such lanaguage, since some of his points are valid. We do need to face reality and start rethinking our expectations of government. The Welfare-Warfare State has to go. We don’t have the money to support it, and most of its core programs are clearly unconstitutional. We need to cut taxes AND severely cut spending if we hope to survive as a country. The fact that bills like the Health Care Reform bill and the Cap and Trade bill are even being considered shows how delusional our so-called representative are. Do we need to experience a complete economic collapse before we can even consider letting go our of our favorite government programs?
Obama may not have CAUSED the recession, but he is certainly prolonging it. I can’t how much he’s added to national debt in just a single year of office. Hopefully, this will make my fellow libertarian think twice before voting for someone like Obama just because he’s not the other guy. McCain was a poor choice for President, but Obama is a horrible one. And yes, it is completely inappropriate for a US President to bow to a foreign leader. It wrong for Nixon to bow and it’s wrong for Obama to bow. We have our traditions too.
The reference to “teabaggers” may not have been PC, but most of what Mr. Hadar says is correct. I’m happy to see W&G go after Obama when He’s wrong, and at the same time give him a thumbs up when He’s right. It seems, oh I don’t know, sort of reasonable. Ron Paul seems to advocate a foreign policy in which We make friends, not enemies. Seems novel I know, but reasonable. Acknowledging other peoples cultures seems like a good way to make friends, and maybe even good trading partners. At some point We have to get back to the business of doing business. Makes more sense to me than endless war.
If you don’t want to win the war, BRING OUR BOYS HOME.
A couple of other points that “oldmanriver” and “Doktor Hexx” made:
Teabaggers means licking someone else’s balls. It is a derogatory term used in the gay community, and applied by the liberal media to explain their disdain towards patriotic Americans.
As far as “Every person in the USA has a hand in creating this problem.” – that’s a bunch of bullcrap. There are 35 million Americans on food stamps (almost the size of the country of Spain), and I’m paying for about 100 of them myself. I have a disabled child, and I don’t qualify for ANY government services because I “make too much money” working three jobs. My neighbor, on the other hand, is considering renting his house out to a “Section 8″ welfare receipient for $1,400/month the government is giving him to sit on his butt. When Uncle Sam can spend money like there’s no tomorrow on MY TAXPAYER CREDIT CARD
As far as Doktor Hexx, we wouldn’t be in an endless war if we kicked butt and got out of there. But no, we are too “civil” to fight a war to win it. Now we are prosecuting 4 marines for punching a terrorist in the face.
The results of liberalism can be seen all around us – Detroit, California, Atlanta, Washington DC. High unemployment, high crime, high drop out rates. Now we want to spread this to the entire US. What a mental illness.
I see that Mr Hadar is involved with the Cato Institute, you know, the one that thinks open borders and this so called “free trade” that both major partys support. There was a time when the Cato Institute made sense [in the 1990s] but they have seemed to lose touch with reality as the years have gone by and have joined the ” We are the World” crew. That is why you get internecine nonsense like this. To bad.
Spurt of laughter: it is impossible to spend all our time pointing out why Mr. Obama’s policies are wrong because that would leave no time working out how to save our hides despite them. C. Northcote Parkinson remarked that a man who is always wrong is just as valuable to the boss as one who is always right. The problem is that occasionally the one who is always wrong manages to become Number One.
Shooters…Thanksgiving Eve is a fine time to say how grateful I am to be a very small part of W&G and how thankful I am for the friendships I have made here. It does our red, white, and blue hearts good to see passion allied with good sense and sound economic principles!
My best to all of you,
Linda Brady Traynham
What the hell is a “Libertarian leaning Progressive”?…?!
Get a dictionary.
Dear Shooters:
My comment on this article has not been posted yet, but you all know what it will be, other, possibly, than that I would have picked up my blue pencil 22 times to correct errors OTHER than content.
Today is a particularly suitable time to say how very grateful I am to be even a tiny part of Whiskey and Gunpowder. It gives me enormous pleasure to write for you, and in my entire life I have never had as many wonderful friends as I have made through doing so. I am always delighted when one of you asks Gary for my address–which he has blanket permission to give out–and our correspondence is always interesting, entertaining, and very informative. A very deep smile…thank all of you very, very much.
Have a wonderful day of giving thanks (I do it every day!) and may your birds be basted perfectly, your gravy lump free, and your football teams win.
Affectionately,
Linda Brady Traynham (TRAIN-um)
what an arrogant asshole. does this guy work for the Daily Kos? What the hell is wrong with this site that it would allow such drivel? What a load of crap.
Leon,
Your use of the contemptuous term “teabagger” is repugnant.
The 5-sided building has a phrase in vogue called the “DIME”: diplomatic, informational, military, economic tools of power for executing policy. However, our political elites rarely study our own history in this area. For a quick reference:
http://www.smallwars.quantico......istory.asp
This outlines the lessons learned by the USMC before the 5-sided building was ever built. It has never really been about nation building. You reward your friends and punish your enemies. Congress enumerated its power to issue letters of marque and reprisal in the beginning. More troops, less troops doesn’t matter if there is no clear strategic objective. All the tactical advantages are for naught without strategy applied to them. Our British cousins already told us the secret: you will never “conquer” the Afghans, but you can rent them! You buy off the Pashtun Tribal Elders just as we did in the Sunni Tribal Sheiks in the suburbs of Baghdad. And then you keep them bought.
I suggest that you avoid the area of the swamp that you discovered this paragan in. It’s obviously contaminated.
Old Salt
Walt…what a fantastic reply! What is it we say? Small minds discuss tactics, average minds talk about strategy, and great minds focus on logistics. My men are talking about the Texas University – Texas A&M game to be played today. Asia commented that he hopes A&M loses, utter heresy in this area. I asked him way, and he said several things I will not repeat because I like living here, ending “And sometimes they write bad checks!” Local honor being at stake, I didn’t even mention Congress, but asked mildly if Tea-Sips (a local term for those who go to UT, which implies students there are effete, not soldiers and ranchers) were any better. His answer is why I got into this: “THEY ain’t none of them never done nuthin’ to me!” Amen, a major portion of human nature (and even statesmanship) explained in nine words. The enemy of my enemy probably isn’t my friend but sometimes it is a good idea to encourage him when he’s fighting my enemy–and to pay off those who will stay bought.
At first I thought bla, bla, bla another long winded Obama defender but skimmed to the end for a conclusion.
Then on to the comments finding nothing much to think about.
Good and nasty comments, thanks.
120 some overseas posts by a failing empire is ridiculous.
A bowing, smooth talking affirmative action con man does not impress me much, no matter how hard his gang try to take advantage of crises.
It does piss me off to think of all the experienced, decent, talented people of color that could be president.
Great comment, Tennessee James. As a spook acquaintance of mine used to close all his e-mails, “In God we trust. All others we monitor.”
My point that we all have a hand in this economic problem wasnt at all about government spending thats a completely different subject. Its about the culture that we have in the USA. As a collective group we have personally spent more than what we made.
As for the term teabaggers, I guess if a person is looking for a reason to be offended they can find it anywhere. Im so tired of everyone being offended by everything. You ought to wear the term with pride. We are such a thinskinned bunch here in the USA anymore. I almost find it humorous if it weren’t so sad that all of a sudden people just woke up and realized our country is headed in the wrong direction. We have been headed down this path for a very very long time and we are all up in arms about it now. It is almost too late to do anything about it. We have squandered the wealth of our great nation on trinkets from China and houses built from fake brick and cardboard. We deserve all the misery that we get. This economic crisis like all the others we have had was the result of millions of personal decisions. Our collective choices are what have made this. We ALL bear some responsibility. I live by the philosophy that everything wrong in my life is because of something I did or did not do. Even if we do something without complete information its still your own choice. Until people realize this and quit looking for someone to blame nothing will change.
Dear OMR…one of the worst things about our society is lack of politeness. The unspoken part of “I disagree with what you said but I will defend to the death your right to say it” is that some of us expect the other person to keep a civil tongue in his probably unprepossessing face, that crack being about as impolite as I consider seemly. There is also the issue of language which is appropriate in mixed company. Mr. Hadar’s gleeful use of sexually-explicit slang is offensive. It is meant to be. We are not the ones who came up with the notion of “political correctness” (a method of pointing out the very condition it is supposedly meant to smoothe over.) What he did is is the equivalent of using salty and salacious language in front of the preacher and his wife. In his circles smutty jokes appear to be the height of wit, and if he cares to associate himself with others of his ilk that is fine with me. He cannot, at the same time, expect me to to read what he has written or take his arguments seriously. MY protection against foul language and disgusting breeches of manners is not to look at anything with the name Leon Hador on it. Turning off readers is a large price for him to pay for his little joke.
[...] Obama, Teabaggers, Foreign Policy and Asia [...]
Mr. Hader insinuates that right-wingers and “teabaggers” unrealistically cling to past American superpower status, unabashedly support all Republicans, and blame Democrats for all of America’s ills. This is not true. Although comprised of varied political philosophies, many conservatives and tea party participants are protesting precisely because nobody in Washington any longer embraces the founding fathers’ ideals of small government and fiscal constraint within a free-market economy that led to the exceptional nation that is the United States of America (despite the increasing taxes, entitlement programs, and losses of individual liberties during the past 150 years).
In fact, the free market miracle (primarily based on principals found in Adam Smith’s” An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations”) that propelled America to greatness is the bane of socialists, fascists, monarchists, communists, and community organizers everywhere. Such statists search in vain for that evasive successful example of a nation in which centrally planned wealth redistribution and fiat currency led to prosperity (fiat currencies always eventually fail and unfortunately all governments today use them and endorse Keynesian economics).
Indeed, Mr. Hader does not appear to like the fact that America has been so powerful in the past and almost gloats at her apparent loss of power and prestige. He states that in the past we used “military might to compel leaders there [in Asia] to bow to Washington’s dictates.” He accuses “nutty loudmouths,” Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck of overreacting to Obama’s deep bow at the waist. Further, he refers to President Nixon’s “bow” as proof of the hypocrisy of the conservative media. Of course, Nixon’s “bow” was simply a slight arch with hands at his side conducted simultaneously with Hirohito (a mutually respectful greeting in that part of the World in stark contrast to Obama’s obsequious kowtow), but such details don’t matter to Mr. Hader because it might refute his unfounded point that the conservative tea party movement and conservative media are hypocritical.
Of course, Obama’s bow is much more than a protocol error. It is significant because he has been touring the world since his inauguration apologizing for America’s past transgressions. It is relevant because his pastor for the last twenty years, Jeremiah Wright, is known for his anti-American and racist rants. It is significant because of Obama’s association with Bill Ayers, the Weather Underground Communist terrorist of the 1960’s (a movement that despised America and actively sought to undermine it). Nonetheless, Mr. Hader disrespects our intelligence by writing that the reaction to Obama’s bow is “probably just another example of the kind of hysterical Obama bashing that has engulfed America’s flagging political right since last November.” He conveniently omits the fact that there is so much wrong with Obama’s past and present that one could write a book about it. Oh wait, there have been many books (please see Culture of Corruption, The Case Against Barack Obama, and the Obama Nation to name a few), which explain many disturbing things about the “man-child” president (to quote Rush Limbaugh).
After making the bad case that Obama is a victim of “hysterical bashing” (notice the left always needs a victim), Mr. Hader puts words and thoughts into the mouths and heads of the ubiquitous “right wing universe” by claiming that “the non-reality based community” overlooks the weakened state of our economy and blames Obama for the recession and military weakness. The truth is that most tea party protesters are sick of the “two-headed snake” of big government that uses two parties, a corrupt Federal Reserve and deficit ridden budgets that continue to run our country into the ground. We have not had a true free-market economy and a political system based upon individual responsibility for many years. Nonetheless, Obama’s (naturally congress’ as well) grossly excessive budget this past year and proposed entitlement programs earn him a special dishonor since they drastically expedite the weakening of the United States of America. It seems that he intends to redistribute the wealth of this country so that we are all equally poor. According to an article earlier this year by Michael Boskin of the Wall Street Journal online,
“Mr. Obama’s $3.6 trillion budget blueprint, by his own admission, redefines the role of government in our economy and society. The budget more than doubles the national debt held by the public, adding more to the debt than all previous presidents — from George Washington to George W. Bush — combined. It reduces defense spending to a level not sustained since the dangerous days before World War II, while increasing nondefense spending (relative to GDP) to the highest level in U.S. history. And it would raise taxes to historically high levels (again, relative to GDP). And all of this before addressing the impending explosion in Social Security and Medicare costs.”
Mr. Hader, quick to criticize conservatives who support military power, recommends reducing such expenditures as a way to diminish U.S. indebtedness. He claims that those supporting a potent military while advocating for more fiscal responsibility are being hypocritical. More noteworthy is his omission that the costs of Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and other entitlement programs dwarf that of military projects. Of course, we all know that entitlement programs are scheduled to be drastically increased under the current congress’ leftist expansion.
Regarding Afghanistan and Iraq, many conservatives simply want to complete the mission with alacrity and dispatch. Projecting weakness by enforcing political correctness at the tactical level and maintaining an indecisive posture can only limit our chances of leaving both areas as quickly as possible.
Mr. Hader’s article reflects a misguided analysis of conservatives and tea party supporters. To read Obama apologists such as Mr. Hader, we can go to the Main Stream Media (MSM). Whiskeyandgunpowder.com typically publishes far more professional articles. Nonetheless, I applaud Mr. Hader for upsetting me so much that I was forced to write this contemplative response.
we can wear it with pride, but recognise when it is used in a derogatory fashion, supprised as hell whiskey and gunpowder stooped to the level of demeaning USA citizens with this piece of garbage, high on personal opinion
I have absolutely no problem with the US working with East Asian countries, instead of dictating terms to them. I would not however accept these same countries dictating terms to the US.
I am a “teabagger”, I supported the initial invasion of Iraq. Go in, get Saddam Hussein, get out. Leave the nation building to the citizens. And if terrorist or others took over, we’d know where to find them. Let them struggle to build their own government, even a democracy if that is what they choose. The same applies to Afghanistan. Nothing more, nothing less.
Our extraction from Iraq and Afghanistan is well past due. We need to bring our troops home NOW. And that also applies to Japan, Korea, England, Germany, the Balkans…..
It’s hard to believe this publication features the laughingstock of independent, critical thinking people like this dinosaur. The CATO institute? Couldn’t you find any globalists from the CFR or Bilderberg or maybe the RAND corporation to contribute? Who is still trapped in this 3rd grade fake left – right paradigm? Only Leon and the population over 70 who don’t have the faculties to connect to the internet, or can’t or don’t read.
Everyone else knows there is one welfare/warfare party with 2 branches. With 2008 bringing as much change as possible (a “left” executive and legislative domination) in the WWE quality show, I haven’t seen anything change. Nothing. Please tell me about all the big changes that occured by moving from a “right” controlled executive and legislative branch to a “left” controlled government. No change in fiscal policy, no change in military policy – in fact everything seems to be continuing, increasing, and getting worse. Of course, it isn’t getting worse if you’re a CATO tool and hack for global government. That’s the goal.
The carnival barker reading the teleprompter is the sideshow, but I’m watching at the main event.
[...] Obama, Teabaggers, Foreign Policy and Asia [...]
Leon:
Embarrassing isn’t it to be you? Is this supposed to be a scholarly piece? Name calling and labeling seems to be an outgrowth of your current presidents divisive style and you have followed along like a true sycophant.
Whiskey and Gunpowder, if we want this garbage we can go to a site that specializes in this nonsense. Continue it and we will.
Dave…there are many days when I think it would be great if we were Isolationists. No, I don’t think we should be globalists the rest of the time, I just don’t think of the problem for some reason. If the bottom drops out of the dollar, I expect the rest of the bubble countries to come cascading down as well, which will give us more or less defacto isolationism. We can all huddle in our own little bits of misery (with the possible exception of a couple of nations which may start wars of conquest) and sort out our messes slowly. You can see why Pearl Harbor Day struck me as a good time for such comments. If the dollar is no good outside our borders and not much good inside, that knocks out a great deal of trade, ja? At which point there is China all industried up with far fewer to sell to…a shipping company or three that will go under…OPEC probably being desperate and thinking decommercialized nations will pay more for oil…could be we’ll have a nice little hiatus while we stablize with lower populations and lifestyles similar to 1810. LBT
Hard2Believe…how right you are. The only difference is that the gloves came off and every statist dream of the last fifty years is on the agenda. For a long time all the Republicans have done is sell us down the river slightly more slowly. So…tell us about the main event you’re watching!
The main event is playing out right now in Copenhagen Denmark, but that is just the momentary stage. The Bilderberg types, the Bohemian Grove types, the self proclaimed royalty and self proclaimed elite, the eugenisists, the one world govenment agenda pushers, that is the main event.