There's nothing like a Nobel peace speech extolling war to unite the Washington commentariat and the foreign-policy community. They all loved President Obama’s Oslo oration. Who could oppose fighting Hitler or Osama bin Laden? Only far out multiculturalists plus Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. I liked the speech, too, given my all-too-frequent support of military force.
Liberals actually like to talk about wars for human rights and democracy, though feel uncomfortable saying so. Conservatives just like threatening war all the time, and actually going to war occasionally with overwhelming force, whatever the cause—oppression, bringing democracy to the heathens, retaining democracy for sinners, balance of power, monopoly of power, and to make liberals look weak. Besides, Republicans don’t worry about wars causing budget deficits, because the tooth fairy always pays the tab.
But going to war does not a foreign policy make. If Americans are searching for a new Obama foreign policy, they need to look back to the closing words of Obama’s West Point speech. Those paragraphs zeroed in on the overriding imperative of restoring America’s economic strength—the very heart of America’s military and diplomatic power and economic competitiveness. Without that economic power, there will be no military and economic power, no military victories, not much of anything. This truth, one of the few truths in the foreign-policy business, is the only basis for a realistic and effective national-security policy. Most foreign-policy experts and media performers don’t know much about economics and find it boring. They couldn’t have been less interested in focusing on rebuilding economic strength. Nor were they terribly interested in exploring Mr. Obama’s saying that Afghanistan was just one of many places from which terrorists could strike or just one of many international crises. They only wanted to know how many troops he was sending, and for how long. All this helps to explain why the commentariat also paid scant attention to the second part of the Oslo “war” address, which focused on what nations must do with their diplomatic power—carved from economic and military—to avoid war.
This is what I call the real war of necessity. Because of the war theme Mr. Obama wanted to highlight in Oslo, he got away from this larger West Point theme. But what specifically concerned me about the Oslo speech was its embrace by those who think they can now trap the president with his own ideas. They may be calculating that they now have him where they want him—what with his West Point announcement of a 30,000-troop boost in Afghanistan and his passionate justifications of war in Oslo. (He’s like the mayor who’s discovered the virtues of having a police department.)
Now, they hope Mr. Obama sees the light and will fight on to “win” in Afghanistan, maybe launch air strikes against Iran’s nuclear complexes, and perhaps drop a few nukes on North Korea. His Sir Gallahad words could come back to haunt him. His rhetoric sometimes soared into unqualified eloquence. Eloquent people do get carried away. He rightly argued that some nations have an obligation to combat oppression.
View as Single Page 12 Back to Top December 13, 2009 | 10:58pm Facebook | Twitter | Digg | | Emails | print Oslo Speech, West Point Speech, Nobel Peace Prize, President Obama, Afghanistan, Military Force, Washington Commentariat, Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., Osama Bin Laden, Liberals, Hitler, Foreign Policy (–) Show Replies Collapse Replies Sort Up Sort Down sort by date: fishnfool
Nicely dissected, Mr Gelb I liked both speeches. So refreshing to have a president that can speak eloquently. Now if only oliverkerr will refrain from his stupid,long winded. blathering, posts,, we might have a decent comment section
"We will not eradicate violent conflict in our lifetimes." With those words to the Nobel Committee and friends, in Oslo, Barack Obama set the stage for military solutions to be the own le (only) solutions to every prob limb facing our nation and the world. Michael Stephen Levinson created a prophetic work of art, for the express purpose of performing this work of art, that stems from the human heart, on whirled (world) vid (wide) television, from dusk until dawn, like old blind Homer, with every line a delicate sensible multi-lingual (mull tie ling well) rhyme, running and punning through every spoken tongue, with all the world's people at home, participating in the world wide cultural event. Beginning with Adman and Even in the Gar Den ov Edum, the poet will trace the generations of men and along the way, to the hearty satisfaction of more than one billion people, explain (eggs plain) how the Cheyenne-easy (Chinese) people became yellow skinned. To insure the poet has a country to live in where he can live in peace and not have to look out every other day for the j. edgarina pharaoh of fascist's, one of that cross dressing pervert of dirt's assassins, the poet is sure to include a line from Confucius in the spoken poem every other minute. The poet will retell all the major myths of all the worlds' peoples with "reel" living characters, retelling tales like Sigfreid and Brunhelde, the story of Jesus, the Cross Walker who walked the cross for all of us, I suspect that story, more beautifully, than it was ever told; and what ha penned (happened) when Moses went up to hear the Big Sigh on Mt Sinai. So much more, besides. At that moment in time, when the poem begins, when all of the worlds' peoples are gathered together, separately in their own living rooms, to participate in the proposed world wide cultural event, every single person will realize they are at that moment, connected with each other, and the poet author of prophetic works, where many world events were carefully described in advance, will have the opportunity, beginning at dusk, going on the air live - running and punning in every spoken tongue, to use the opportunity for settling every issue of turf on good ship mother urf, World Peace - whirled pizza - every buddy getz a slice - this to the chagrin of all the narrow minded rigid military establishments Barack Obama supports and deep ends (depends) on. This is not the apocalypse. It will be a pox on yer lips. The poet guarantees in advance that G-d who created the universe will come into your living room and something is going to ha pen to you. This happens to every single person living on the planet except one person . . . the poet prophet in a room surrounded by television cameras recording his telling of his vision from all angles. He will be left out of this revelationary experience that happens to you because he won't be home to watch until the next year. In conclusion, the own le issue is / is the poet prophet worth listening to, and that you are knot going to find out in this country except on government controlled tape delay if if if the poet can relocate in another country - because your government will assassinate this person before he ever gets into a television studio in USA - to show you what World Peace and food chain harmony sound like. On the web site michaelslevinson.com there are a couple videos to give you an idea what the spoken poem for all man kind might sound like - whether it is worth listening to, etc. But the idea of seeing this man live performing from his creative works, sharing his prophetic mastery, creating the spoken poem before your eyes - explaining how to solve every issue facing our nation - not a chants. The poet's "edge er knee" (energy) is beyond the scope of The Daily Beast writers, managers, sponsors and owners, and of course the readership, that, mostly a fascist bunch of groupies. It's the human condition to kill what is above your understanding - what is beyond the scope of your limited mentality. Here is a free book about the man who was on the ship 40 days and 40 nights who walked and talked with G-d who created the universe. The title is "New World Hors D'oeuvres." michaelslevinson.com/newworld.pdf Obama: "We will not eradicate violent conflict in our lifetimes." Lev: Worl peace and food chain harmony in the formn of a spoken poem for all mankind. Words, the expression of your collective soul. michaelslevinson.com
World peace and fiood chain harmony, knot "worl." That a typo. So solly. michaelslevinson.com (knot commie cap ids a list) Bejing for me!
Bits of that actually had a pleasant cadence. You're completely insane and nothing you say is of any value whatsoever but there's a flow to your inanity that I find pleasant.
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