Reality Slate

Since January we, as a nation, have descended from 'Cowboy Diplomacy,' to, something I refer to as, 'Pollyanna Diplomacy,' diplomacy based on, nice words, and weapons reductions. This form of defense policy, or diplomacy, only causes our country to appear weaker while our enemies grow stronger.

Confucius once wrote that "a wise leader always prepares for war." Today, the world's only Super Power is ignoring the wisdom of the ancient Chinese Sage by giving overtures of unilateral weapons reductions, talks with aggressive regimes, and changing terms like 'War on Terror.' In the meantime, we appear helpless as North Korea launches dangerous missiles over Japan, we have U.S. citizens being held by Somali Pirates and the list continues. In each of these cases the U.S. influence shrinks while the enemies' influence grows.

Iran's growing influence.

The first sign that we may on the way to a weaker foreign standing started with Obama's Iraq War Policy. The left always hated Bush's War and during the campaign the president promised to end the war 'responsibly.' The problem is that even discussing withdrawal from
Iraq played right into Iran's hands. Most objective observers of the war saw that our large presence in Iraq, as a stab in the eye, to Iran's plans of being a regional super power. Due to the war, Iran's influence in Lebanon has been questioned and their greatest ally, Syria, has been embarrased by the clumsy killing of the pro-western Rafiq Harriri, forcing Syrian troops to leave the Baca Vally. The government of another pro-western leader, Farouk Sinioras, in Lebanon has survived constant wars with Iranian backed Hezbollah. While Iran has also directed Hezbollah and Hamas to constantly harangue Israel.

If we do withdraw from Iraq, as quickly as Obama has planned, we will see the 'Fall of Saigon,' all over again., with millions slaughtered and radical elements in the country gaining power. This time, however, we will have an aggressive neighbor, Iran, willing and able, to challenge Iraq's borders or even take the whole south. Iran will be the greatest, unchecked, threat to the region. They will harass Israel and support Shi'a uprisings in every country possible, such as the Shi'a minority in Bahrain. Iran's influence grows while ours shrinks.


Russian Influence.

Russia has received indications that the U.S. is considering dropping our plans for a missile shield in Eastern Europe so that we can 'work' with Russia on a level of mutual respect. This is the same Russia who last year attacked Georgia, a stalwart U.S. ally. Russia refuses to condemn Iran's nuclear ambitions, and have even helped in their development. Russia blocks any attempt of greater sanctions on North Korea, even after North Korea's launching of a long range missile last week.

The rug is being pulled out from under our military as Russia flexes it's muscles and Uzbekistan evicts us from a key air base in their country that has been an integral part of our campaign in Afghanistan. This is a sign that Putin and Medvedev have no interest in helping us in the expanded military campaign in Afghanistan. This campaign was a chief goal of Obama's plan to fight Al Qaida.

Russia has a strangle hold on natural gas and other important imports to Western and Northern Europe. This has been a leverage used to manipulate those countries who may be too friendly to the west. Gas has been shut off to Georgia and Ukraine during the coldest winter months, when Moscow has disapproved with certain actions taken by these countries. Russia is rarely civil and generally only works with those countries where there is a mutual power gain possible. The U.S. is the only World Super Power. Working with Russia weakens our standing. We work with the Russians at the peril of our allies with growing westernized markets, such as Poland, Georgia, and Ukraine.

The Muslim World at large.

Last week the president went to Turkey, after several stops in Europe, and stated in front of the Turkish Parliament that the U.S. 'is not at war with Islam.' He praised Muslim culture and made reference to his connection to Muslims having lived in a majority Islamic country. He also stated that the war in Iraq had damaged our standing in the Islamic world. These may appear to be benign, warm and friendly statements but as author Brigitte Gabriel, a Lebanese survivor of terrorism, eluded to in a recent interview, these words come off as unmanly and as an expression of surrender.

How has the Islamic World reacted to Obama's overtures of understanding and respect? By Somali (Muslim) pirates attacking a U.S. ship and taking the ship's captain hostage. It was widely understood that Somali Pirates would leave U.S. ships alone, due to fear of reprisal. To make this piracy matter worse, we have a large U.S. warship nearby and yet, we have sent in hostage negotiators. Brigitte Gabriel again states, that one only sits at the negotiating table to discuss terms of surrender. So these pirate, terrorists, see that we have the ability to send them to the afterlife but instead send negotiators. To add insult to injury the negotiators botched a hostage exchange and now the Somali's have a hostage and U.S. negotiators gave back the terrorist hostage to the terrorists. Now the U.S. looks weak and stupid. Somali terrorist pirates no longer have fear of reprisal, they have no fear or respect for the U.S. at all. This whole ordeal could rank with the Iranian hostage crises of the Carter era, or the Black Hawk Down debacle in the nineties.

Obama won't even use the word 'terrorist.' The war on terror which once angered enemies abroad, and Pollyanna Doves at home, is now a thing of the past. Not only will the administration not show a raised hand to the enemy, they won't even use harsh words.

...been here before?

Carter once attempted the time honored "Diplomacy of Pollyanna." In a short amount of time, Iran went from a pro-western regime to a wacky fundamentalist regime that held our embassy full of hostages for over a year. Carter stood behind the Menachem Begin and Anwar al Sadat at the signing of the Egyptian Israeli peace treaty. Both of these Middle Eastern leaders died within a short amount of time, and the U.S. received spiking gas prices. The way of the dove is often bloodier and much more expensive.

In the founding of our country we dealt with Islamic Pirates. The Barbary pirates robbed our ships, killed our crews and made trade around North Africa miserable. The continental congress sent negotiators to pay the pirates off, but the piracy did not stop. In the end, the U.S. fought back by arming ships, creating a navy and eventually attacking Tangiers. There was no peaceful, or nice way to end the problem of the pirates then and there is no gentle way to end it now.

The U.S. is best suited we when stand up for ourselves, we don't apologize for who, or what we are, and we live by the common sense maxim; "a wise leader always prepares for war."