Foreign Policy and Food

It has been a week with Mitt-son-of-George channeling Ronald Reagan, citing Russia as our greatest geo-political threat. Not Iran. Not China. No, it's those damn Russkies, you just can't trust them.  Putin is just a commie in disguise.

Hey, the former head of KGB - gee, maybe Mitt has a reason to worry.  Forget about the fact that Putin's popularity is in decline and Russians are able to speak out about it.  No, it's all just a commie plot.

Is Russia really the head of the new Axis of Evil? Judging from their positions in the world press and at the UN, the FSU surely has a desire to return to the table as a super-power to rival the EU. Let's admit it, Russia is vast and has historically been one of the great powers. And remember, Russia did not start the second World War. It merely stopped the Nazis, at a staggering cost in lives and treasure.

Fast forward to 2012. Romney aside, the BRIC countries are changing the world. Are they threats?  Only if one perceives America as the world's only super-power. And in that sense, the EU may also be a threat. But the hell with paranoia.  If we think of others as threats, so too will they perceive Uncle Sam as a threat, especially with our armed forces projected around every corner of the globe.

So what IS a threat?  Think about oil. OPEC and Iran are our greatest geo-political threats. Big oil is undermining western economies. The Persians are especially worrisome. And the US is slowly but surely tightening an economic blockade, with the cooperation of the EU. But not China and Russia.  Oops, there we go again. Those commies. Out to get us.

Let's break this down. Russia seeks geographic hegemony. Iran is on its southern border. Russia has an interest in preventing Iranian expansion, but is steering clear of "saber rattling". China seeks oil. War with Iran would interrupt the flow of oil. So China seeks to preserve the status quo. Are these threats to America?  No, they are responses to a common threat - the monopoly exercised by OPEC.

The world, according to Mitt Romney, has an enemy lurking under every rock.  If he's right, we better get our six shooters out now and start firing at the varmints. Meanwhile, let the sanctions on Iran work and let Mitt spout off some more. He ran an Olympics, so doesn't that mean he is qualified to manage American foreign policy?

Hey, think of the good side. At least Mitt isn't telling us he can see Russia from his dining room window.  And speaking of dining, the White House just issued their recipes for Passover. The President apparently really likes Israeli cous cous. Read all about it at:

http://www.haaretz.com/blogs/modern-manna/cooking-for-passover-at-obama-s-house-1.421480

A happy and liberating Passover to all friends, readers and  humans.

Obama Bashing (by Jews and Others)

President Barack Hussein Obama addressed the AIPAC lobby this morning in Washington DC.

He spoke for 36 minutes. The reception was lukewarm. Earlier, Liz Cheney (Dick Cheney's daughter) called for his removal. She said that no US President had done more to undermine and de-legitimize Israel - to the cheers of thousands.

Great fear and distrust of Obama remain in America. The canard that he is not American continues to circulate. The word hate is used time and again. The predominance of feeling over intellect is astounding. 

These feelings reflect an emotional fence between perception and reality. It may be the result of propaganda directed at the American people by those who wish to preserve the status quo of confrontation and war. Or, its roots might be deeper - the fear of the outsider, the stranger, the other clan. Racism and tribalism are deeply engrained in the human psyche.

Contrasting emotion with reality, here are six facts for American Jews to ponder. 

(1) The extent of military cooperation between Israel and America has NEVER been greater. Israel now has a nuclear submarine armed with the ultimate security. It has Iron Dome. Its policy towards Iran (targeted assassinations) has wide consensus and is working. 

(2) We have disengaged from Iraq and have not initiated a new war. A western alliance has been forged against Iran (much like what GHWB did, prior to the Gulf War). 

(3) Bin Laden is dead and Al Qaida is being blotted out just like Amalek. 

(4) North Korea is being contained. Last week it re-joined the path of sanity (in terms of nuclear policy). This is the biggest change since 2002. 

(5) The US economy is far from healthy, but jobs have been consistently created since early 2010. Our unemployment rate is about 2% better than EU average.

(6) Our debt at about 100% of GDP is too high by any standard. But look at the major sources of that problem which are "controllable" - military spending and entitlements. Both are going down. The RATE at which debt is growing has fallen since 2009 and will continue to fall over the next five years. This is the "guns and butter" issue highlighted by Lyndon Johnson. If we want to make war (or preserve a huge standing army), then we have to pay for it one way or another. 

So let us try to separate emotions from reality. America is not as broken as back during the dark days of 2008. Are there simple, painless solutions on the horizon? Will disemboweling government do the trick? Will launching a strike on Tehran cure our problems? Will repealing Obamacare (really Romneycare) put a dent in our growing health care costs? Is Israel less secure today than four years ago (as the tensions mounted in both Lebanon and Gaza)?

To those who say "Anybody but Obama", who is your candidate? One who can present a sane energy policy? One who has a rational vision of global security, and not just the US as international policeman? One who presents a health care policy that admits the need for rationing services and puts power back in the hands of the docs?

No Republican fits that bill and so I am sticking with the incumbent. The odds-on GOP front runner, Mitt Romney, has ambiguous and variable positions. Which coat is he wearing today? And remember that he has less governing experience than Obama, Carter or Bush Jr. had as they started their runs for the leader of the free world. It is a giant weakness which will be exploited.

Finally, to my Jewish friends, did you hear Obama's AIPAC speech? Go online and spend 30 minutes listening to it. Perhaps there is nothing he can say to dispel the angst that you feel. Many Americans apparently want to make war on Persia. In contrast, a recent poll of Israelis indicates that they do NOT favor a military strike against Iran. Ani hoshev she eleh nachon.

Eric (aka Moshe ben Asher)

Beginnings

I've been a lost soul since August 1971.  It was in my 20th year of existence, one third of the way into my elapsed life, that I discovered the futility of the social contract. It happened on an airplane ride back from heavens know where (actually I know where) to the New York metropolitan area.

As I gazed down on the millions of boxes and lines which define modern urban and suburban existence, it dawned on me that the pinpricks of activity down below were random and unrelated. A spot one second was miles away from the spot that appeared the next second in the airplane window. Those spots had no consciousness of the other - and a dim awareness of the spot in the sky looking down.

It was not the same as the place where I had lived, thousands of miles north, in the Canadian High Arctic. On a small island at the fringe of the Arctic (with nothing but thousands of miles of frozen sea to the north and west), life was real.  Humans knew each other.  Humans knew that a Polar Bear had invaded the quonset hut the winter before. Humans knew that without heat, water would freeze and life would end.  Humans knew.

This is the beginning of my story.  It will continue. Be prepared for a challenge to the worldview that America is great, that nation states are natural, and that peace is in our future.

Kwaheri, Shalom