Global Peace? Are We In America Seeking It?

Henry Kissinger once said, "The attainment of peace is not as easy as the desire for it. Those ages, which in retrospect seem most peaceful, were least in search of peace. Those whose quest for it seems unending appear least able to achieve tranquility. Whenever peace—conceived as the avoidance of war—has been the primary objective . . . the international system has been at the mercy of [its] most ruthless member."

Crimea has been ceded to Russia without a shot being fired.  Syria is a killing field. The result of this U.S. inaction is a disaster. At a minimum, 130,000 Syrian civilians have been killed and nine million driven from their homes by forces loyal to the tyrant. At least 11,000 Syrians have been tortured to death. Hundreds of thousands are besieged, their supplies of food and medicine cut off, as bombs and shells rain down. The Iranian mullahs aren’t giving up their nuclear weapons capability, and other regimes in the middle East are preparing to acquire their own. Al Qaeda is making gains and is probably stronger than ever. China and Russia throw their weight around while our allies shudder and squabble. Meanwhile, the U.S. missile defense plans were scaled back, Allies in Eastern Europe and Georgia were undercut, NATO enlargement was tabled, and a new strategic arms reduction treaty required significant cuts by the U.S. but not by Russia. All this, because of the President’s policy of “leading from behind”—stupid? I’d say so!

America’s foreign policy is in a shambles. Confusion abounds and the President is its author. If you do not think so, I would refer you to “America’s Global Retreat” by Niall Ferguson in the Wall Street Journal of 2/21/14.

Part of the reason for the ineffective foreign policy is that the American people are still suffering from the slowest and most unbelievable “recovery” from recession in American history. Americans believe, and with good reason, that the economic recession is still going on. There is another reason so few Americans believe that the recession has ended: The standard of living for most people has eroded. Median household income declined by 1.6% in 2008 and 2.6% in 2009. But after the official end of the recession, it continued to fall—by 2.3% in 2010 and 2.5% in 2011—before stabilizing in 2012. Analysis of more recent data by Sentier Research indicates that median household income grew only marginally in 2013. The bottom line: As of the end of 2013, median household income was 4.7% lower than in June 2009, the official end of the recession; 6.2% lower than in December 2007, the official beginning of the recession; and 7.5% lower than in January 2000. Median household income today is barely higher than it was a quarter-century ago, in 1989.

If the people do not believe we are strong at home, they will be reluctant to support a policy of strength abroad, reducing the ability of the U.S. to serve as the guarantor of global security.

It is becoming increasingly obvious that America needs a President and an executive branch that will quit regulating businesses out of business, observe the rule of law concerning the Constitution, quit pandering to his environmental political supporters, and lead the American people into their former position of leader of the free world. People are dying because of American presidential weakness.

A nation of free men needs at times like this leaders who step forward to “sound forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat.”

(References from which this blog post was gleaned are “Obama Calls Retreat” Weekly Standard 3/3/14 and “The Economic Roots of American Retreat” by Wm. Galston in the Wall Street Journal 3/18/14.)

Appeasement—History Repeats Itself

The following quote by Alexandr Solzhenitsyn from his 1970 Nobel lecture indicates that history is, indeed, repeating itself in foreign affairs.

Before reading the quote, it is necessary to review the results of the Munich Conference of March 1938. At that conference, France, the U.K., and Italy ceded the western part of Czechoslovakia to Germany before the outbreak of World War II without a shot being fired. It was done, supposedly because there were many ethnic Germans in that part of Czechoslovakia—German speakers. Czechoslovakia was not invited to the conference. In October 1938, in violation of the Conference’s agreements, German armies occupied Czechoslovakia. World War II was underway!

Today, we are watching as Russia plans a take-over of the Crimea, with the free world looking on. Russia's claim to the Crimea is that there are many ethnic Russians living there that speak Russian. The belief of liberal politicians led by President Obama is that Russia is so good-hearted that they will do nothing like the Germans of 1938. We’ll see.

I invite you to look at this prescient quote and make up your own mind: “The spirit of Munich has by no means retreated into the past; it was not merely a brief episode. I even venture to say that the spirit of Munich prevails in the 20th century. The timid civilized world has found nothing with which to oppose the onslaught of a sudden revival of barefaced barbarity, other than concessions and smiles. The spirit of Munich is a sickness of the will of successful people, it is the daily condition of those who have given themselves up to the thirst after prosperity at any price, to material well-being as the chief goal of earthly existence. Such people—and there are many in today's world—elect passivity and retreat, just so as their accustomed life might drag on a bit longer, just so as not to step over the threshold of hardship today—and tomorrow, you'll see, it will all be all right. (But it will never be all right! The price of cowardice will only be evil; we shall reap courage and victory only when we dare to make sacrifices.)”