Peace at Any Price

Let's be honest. For all the hype generated by state run media about the gifted Barack Obama, his accomplishments to date have been minimal. His $787 billion "stimulus" package has done little to put people back to work. His vice president has admitted that the incoming Administration "misread the economy" when they came to power so self-assured about wrapping up this recession thing by Mothers Day.

Pres. Obama's rapprochement to the Muslim world has gotten high marks for good will, but is fairly meaningless, since it does nothing to alter the fundamentals of Middle Eastern politics. His outreached hand to Iran has been slapped back by President Ahmadinejad who had felt emboldened enough to steal an election and shoot protesters in the streets--all at considerable cost to American foreign policy prestige. His secretary of state is racking up frequent flier miles trying to get Honduras' president, a Hugo Chavez protege, reinstated, despite being deposed through a lawful act of the Honduran government. And let's not even talk about the rootin', tootin', missile-shootin' North Koreans. 

So desperate for a win, the President has journeyed to Moscow to meet with its puppet president, Dmitry Medvedev. In the span of three hours he has compromised American security at a breakneck pace of which even Neville Chamberlain would be proud. As Ralph Peters writes in this morning's New York Post, the President has exchanged a piece of American security for an illusion that he is a seasoned negotiator and a foreign policy heavyweight.

At issue is the President's willingness to limit the U.S. to 1,100 missile launchers. The Russians are also facing this limit; however their equipment is much older and would have to be junked anyway. So the Russians gave up nothing in exchange for letting President Obama claim a foreign policy victory that would appeal to his anti-nuke supporters.

This isn't just the claim of some right-wing blogger. The Russian military, which cooked this deal, has been bragging for some time that not a single Russian missile launcher with remaining service life will have to be destroyed, according to Keith Payne, a member of a bi-partisan Congressional task force assessing America's nuclear capabilities. Mr. Payne testified last month about this impeding giveaway before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.

Mr. Obama has gotten punked by Iran's Ahmadinijad, schooled by Kim Il Sung, , lectured by the EU, and now embarrassed by Vladimir Putin, the Russian strongman who pulls the strings for President Medvedev. 

This is the second coming of Jimmy Carter, whose four years of chaos brought us the Iranian revolution, Americans held hostage,  and a Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. At some point maybe this crowd will remember what Mr. Payne calls "arms control amnesia" and realize that just and lasting peace between nations--which takes more than three hours to conclude--is preferable to the illusion of peace.

Just thought you might like to know.