“Peace in Our Time(?),” Big Government, Incompetence & Mandela

The Iranian Deal – “Peace in Our Time?”

Obama declared the nuclear inspection & sanctions relaxation deal with Iran a “new path ... a prelude to a comprehensive agreement.”  It’s supposed to put their nuclear weapons development on hold, and buy us time.  Which sounds eerily similar to Neville Chamberlain’s “Peace in our time” when he returned from Munich just prior to WWII.  And so, once again, this administration’s “solution” is to kick the can down the road – 6 months.  It’s a “first step” – a freeze – to dismantling.  And first steps – stage one thinking – is about as far as this administration, and the Democrats in general, seem able to go as far as any real results on anything.  All it does is relax sanctions, freeing up billions of dollars in their frozen assets, allowing them to rebuild their economy, removing political pressure to eliminate nuclear weapons production capabilities and pulling the rug out from any internal pressures for reform. 

It is hard to tell who was more desperate for a deal – this administration wanting to save face amidst all its scandals and flops, or the Iranians hurting under the sanctions.  But the very fact the Iranians were so willing to do anything, however superficial, to relax the sanctions, along with all other indications the sanctions were very effective, shows them to have been working.  Now, then, is the very time to tighten them to get real results. 

As far as I can tell, this deal only permits inspectors to visit their disclosed sites (there are others), and at those to monitor that they’re not doing higher levels of uranium enrichment (to 90% which is weapons grade).  But they can continue lower levels of enrichment (to ~20%?), which is the brunt of the centrifuge work.  That will allow them to build up a further stockpile of partially-enriched material, so that if/when they eventually (e.g., remember how many years Sadam stalled and played games with inspectors) kick out the inspectors (after their economy has recovered, and they’ve lost the motivation to cooperate), they will have much more material ready to quickly break out and produce even more weapons grade material.  And expert worst case estimates on the time for them to break out is 1-2 months. 

My guess is that the Iranians (and the rest of the bad guys in the world -- e.g., China w. its extended air space) by now have this administration pretty well calibrated.  They know they really don’t want to get into another war, that they are mostly concerned w. Obama’s legacy, and will do whatever it takes to avoid a war, include playing along with cat-and-mouse inspection and negotiation games until the end of this administration.  That is, unless in their secret facilities they can produce enough weapons grade material to say “forget it, we’re already nuclear.”  Or if the Israeli intelligence is aware of how very close they really are, and take action on their own.  I’ve heard experts on Prager’s program say that Israeli confidence in the US looking out for Israel’s interests is lower than ever.

(Half) Truth in a Dodge

In an MSNBC interview by “thrill up my leg” Chris Matthews, Obama did get one semi-tough question – whether he felt the disastrous Obamacare rollout reflected on his management style/abilities.  As we could have easily guessed by now, following his typical MO, he said “No.”  The problem, he said, lies in the large, unwieldy, outdated agencies. 

Well, there was at least some truth in that dodge – not in the statement that it didn’t reflect poorly on his management – as cited in a recent post, even liberals have acknowledged after the rollout his poor administrative skills & aloofness.  Which apparently trickled down to Sibelius, and in the IRS & State Department to even lower levels – a culture of aloofness.  Despite their superficial verbal assertions that they take responsibility, there is no evidence anywhere of any consequences to that “responsibility.”  Not after Fast & Furious, Benghazi, the Syrian “red line,” the Obamacare rollout, etc., etc.

The truth (another epiphany?) in the half-truth was that perhaps at least some of the difficulty lies in the large & unwieldy agencies of government.  As I’ve noted before, these problems seem to continue to come more frequently as the size of government has grown under Obama.  And as libs so love to say of big business, something too big to fail, and to manage, is just too big.  Especially when those at the reins of government have no executive or management experience. 

And competent programmers have produced identical functioning capabilities as the Obamacare website in matters of days, at equivalent costs of millions of dollars.  The Obamacare website took, as one noted, longer than the time from Pearl Harbor to victory in Europe, at a cost of several hundred million dollars.  Talk about fraud, waste and abuse!   

The Tip of the Iceberg

The Obamacare website front end is only the tip of the iceberg.  Some describe the back end a total disaster.  There was a total disregard for security of information.  There was no adequate validation of information.  By their own admission, error rates are 10% -- horrendous by any business standard (e.g., Amazon.com) where even 1% is unacceptable.  And no accounting or means for reimbursement of insurance companies.  Again, glaring gaps due to the lack of business sense or management in these starry-eyed utopian hacks who are so removed from reality.  Just as Obama himself is all about the campaign skills (and disinformation) to win office, the trappings of power, and lack of concern for doing the actual work of the office. 

Lies or Incompetence?

I’ve probably said what I’m about to before, but I’ll repeat it (the truth) as long as they keep repeating their lies.  Well, I suppose I could give them the benefit of the doubt, and give the only other remotely plausible explanation -- it’s possible it’s just insular blindness/incompetence, and not outright lies.  Is that any more noble or redeemable or reassuring?  In any case, The GOP continues to be accused of obstructionism, and Obama continues to claim the GOP has no alternatives to Obamacare.  And all the while, Reid won’t consider any bills the House sends him in the Senate, and Obama ignores (or is blissfully ignorant of) the various GOP alternatives put forward for health care reform (purchasing across state lines, personal health savings accounts, tort reform, etc., etc.). 

But the Kool-Aid drinkers, including some I run into at the gym & elsewhere, robotically repeat the Democrat/administration talking points and dig in their heels.  I believe they continue to paint themselves into a corner.  The longer they say we need to give it a chance, and ignore other options, the more deeply entrenched and obviously failed it will be.  And the harder will be their fall.  Those trying to stop it are actually doing them (and the American people) a favor in the longer term.  But there are many voices also in the GOP advocating just being completely silent, and letting it disastrously flop.  Of course that may be good politically for the GOP, but disastrous to the American people. 

The Fruits of Racial Deference

But of course all of this (more unintended consequences) is what you get when you (e.g., the media, Dems) treat people specially, and with kid gloves, because of their skin color.  Ironically, they who boast of their color-blindness are the ones who are the least color-blind.  Just as too many in the Black community (e.g., the afore-described race hustlers), Obama never feels he needs to take personal responsibility – it’s always the fault of someone else.  Much better at finding excuses than solutions or results, and better at verbal skill than actual competence.

Footnote on Mandela

The passing of Mandela deserves comment.  He was a complex person, with good and bad qualities.  He was not a Gandhi – he did resort to violence.  And he and his Marxist African National Congress did so at a time when the Cold War was running quite hot in numerous places around the globe, and when S. Africa apparently had nuclear capability.  And at a time when the outcome of freedom vs. Communism was by no means certain. 

True, Apartheid was evil and wrong (just as slavery in the U.S.).  But in the larger picture, one sometimes must choose the lesser of two evils when choosing sides (e.g., the U.S. siding w. Stalin against Hitler in WWII), and first deal with the greater evil before then confronting the lesser.  And so the question even of sanctions against South Africa was not completely clear-cut.  Even Black leaders within S. Africa were against them. 

Of course Mandela mellowed in prison, and showed a noble spirit of forgiveness and reconciliation for the benefit of his country as a whole.  And white leaders and people also cooperated.  But then Mandela showed extremely poor judgment in aligning himself w., and supporting, Castro, Kaddafi, the Soviets, etc.  He did at the same time support a democratic process, but there is real concern that his successor(s) are turning towards socialistic totalitarianism.