Filed under: Foreign Policy, Iran, Israel, Middle East, National Security, Terrorism, The United States | Tags: Death to America, Jihad Will Continue, One Side Negotiates
The Daily Caller headline: Iran’s Supreme Leader: Jihad Will Continue Until America is No More.
“Those [Iranians] who want to promote negotiation and surrender to the oppressors and blame the Islamic Republic as a warmonger in reality commit treason,” Khamenei told a meeting of members of parliament, according to the regime’s Fars News Agency. Khamenei emphasized that without a combative mindset, the regime cannot reach its higher Islamic role against the “oppressors’ front.”
“The reason for continuation of this battle is not the warmongering of the Islamic Republic. Logic and reason command that for Iran, in order to pass through a region full of pirates, needs to arm itself and must have the capability to defend itself,” he said.
“Today’s world is full of thieves and plunderers of human honor, dignity and morality who are equipped with knowledge, wealth and power, and under the pretense of humanity easily commit crimes and betray human ideals and start wars in different parts of the world.”
America has placed sanctions on Iran that were harsh, and brought the country to the bargaining table. The administration believed that Iranian President Hassan Rouhani was more moderate, and open to reform. Not so. Iran has no intention of halting the expansion of the country’s research and development program, nor of continuing enrichment, and the country’s ballistic missile program is not up for negotiation. Now that the sanctions have been removed, their economy is functioning again.
IAEA officials met with their Iranian counterparts in Tehran to discuss information on the work on detonators and the outstanding issues on its nuclear program as part of seven transparency steps Iran had agreed to fulfill by May 15. They apparently lied.
Filed under: Afghanistan, Foreign Policy, Intelligence, Iran, Middle East, Military, The United States
“At a Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee event in Maryland, President Obama accused Republicans of putting politics above the good of the nation and hinted that because of that they aren’t patriotic,” Warner Todd Huston relates.
We’ve got one party in Congress right now that has been captured by ideologues whose core premise is “no” — who fundamentally believe that the problem is government; who don’t believe that we as a community, as a country have any serious role to play in giving people a hand up; whose budget reflects an interest in cutting back commitments to the most vulnerable and freeing the most powerful from any constraints; and whose principal focus at any given point in the day is trying to figure out how can they make people sufficiently cynical, sufficiently angry, sufficiently suspicious that they can win the next election.
I hate to be blunt about it, but that’s the play. And, by the way, when I say a party has been captured, it’s because I actually want an effective, serious, patriotic, capable, sober-minded Republican Party. And we’ve had that in the past.
Oh please, Mr. Obama. You don’t want anything of the kind. You want a Republican party that does not question your policies, does not question your budgets, and gives you free rein to go on damaging the country and spending us into poverty.
Most conservatives think of President Obama as, more than anything, a radical who seeks to “fundamentally transform the United States of America” to what? That isn’t quite clear, but he seems well on the way to doing so. The failures and scandals were all blamed on Bush, or Republicans, or unfortunate videos.
I have come to assume that to have always been the Obama way, boy and man, of dealing with disapproval. “It’s not my fault.” Until the White House clamped down on photographers and allowed no photos other than those taken and approved by the White House photographer, one of the most characteristic Obama facial expressions was a childish pout, lower lip thrust out. There have been instances when he accepts credit for things done by someone else, but he is never, never to blame.
Now he’s pivoting again. Time to distract from the VA scandals. “Barack Obama will kick off an ‘intense’ two week focus on foreign policy beginning with a commencement address at West point tomorrow. He will then head to Europe, commemorate the 70th anniversary of D-Day, and stop by Poland just to let everyone know America is still, well, alive.”Danielle Pletka adds:
So unless the president is planning on explaining that the United States is on hiatus from global leadership, he will be challenged to answer the questions piling up about why the US seems AWOL on the world stage. And once answered, those listening will expect action. Daniel Pletka offers a list of ten questions about foreign policy, but you could add your own, as this is certainly not an exhaustive list.
After inadvertently outing a CIA chief of station, the president announced his timetable and numbers for getting all troops out of Afghanistan, so the Taliban will know when to take over.
American Elephants 