Charles Krauthammer lays out the case today for a U.S. nuclear guarantee to Israel. “It’s time to admit the truth,” he writes. “The Bush administration’s attempt to halt Iran’s nuclear program has failed.” He proposes instead that George Bush should take a leaf from the Cuban missile crisis and issue a ringing declaration that:
“It shall be the policy of this nation to regard any nuclear attack upon Israel by Iran, or originating in Iran, as an attack by Iran on the United States, requiring a full retaliatory response upon Iran.”
This should be followed with a simple explanation: “As a beacon of tolerance and as leader of the free world, the United States will not permit a second Holocaust to be perpetrated upon the Jewish people.”
Such an approach has its undeniable appeal, but would it suffice to assure Israel’s security needs, or even survival, in the face of a nuclear-armed Iran?
In some scenarios, perhaps. It certainly might give the Iranians pause before launching a nuclear-missile fusillade against Tel Aviv directly from their soil. But there are many far more ambiguous forms in which an Iranian nuclear weapon might be employed, and not only against Israel, but against other countries in the region. The provision of a nuclear weapon to a terrorist surrogate group under Iranian control is one. Coercive nuclear threats are another.
Would the United States really follow through on its word and destroy Tehran if, say, Hizballah smuggled a nuclear device into Haifa and detonated it? Somehow, I doubt it. And we are not even contemplating here the possibility that it might be Barack Obama who has to answer the phone at 3AM before calling General McPeak and asking him what to do.
The fact is that a nuclear-armed Iran will be a far more assertive and dangerous power than it already is. No words from an American president, no matter how ringing, can solve Israel’s defense dilemma at a stroke. Unless the U.S. or Israel takes action, we may yet have to learn to live with an Iranian bomb. But it’s folly to believe we can solve major security problems with declarations.
Damning with feint praise indeed. The personal Bush? What, did he give you a foot rub? Bush wrecked the economy, he let New Orleans drown, he bungled the Iraq war for four years, devastated teh budgeet for a generation, and did I mention Bush Wrecked the Economy?! But that’s ok with Rubin, because he did it with “grace” and he named a building after RFK too!!!
Well, I’m just repeating a joke I saw elsewhere yesterday, but as Alex so amply demonstrates, the Left has always said they wanted a classless society, and they have certainly got one.
As Steven alludes to, what you call “grace” is really best described as “class” but since we disapprove of certain meanings of the word we’re afraid to use it at all. Pres. Bush has class. By acting as if the campaign were still on, Pres. Obama demonstrated he has none. Pity.
This site attracts the best comments on the Internet. What would I do without the constant stream of vitriol and rhetoric from the resident nattering nabobs?
Oh yes, Bush has so much “class,” ask Angela Merkel about the public back rub that mortified all of Germany. Bush has millions of class, by all means let’s talk about Bush’s class: born in Greenwich Connecticut, Boarding school at Andover, college at Yale (legacy), Harvard MBA (short list, daddy strings), draft dodger during Vietnam, fake Texas accent, hardcore drunk alcoholic trust fund, no job till well in his forties. Classy.
Also classy: wrecked the economy, let New Orleans drown, shredded the Fourth Amendment and the integrity of the DoJ, bungled Iraq operation for four years causing thousands of GI dead and wounded and hundredds of billions in wasted resources, did I mentioned he Bush Wrecked the Economy?
But for the Greenwich-Andover-Yale set, all that matters is that he did it all with grace, i mean, “class.”
GWB’s speech in Midland was a great one: humble, emotional, generous, funny.
Bravo to Fox News for broadcasting most of it during Special Report.
On the other hand, I found BO’s inaugural speech ungracious, vague and humorless. When will he realize the campaign is over, and he won?
It’s a tragedy that Bush’s plane didn’t crash and burn, but I suppose we all have our crosses to bear.
Gee, I was just thinking, I’m a gracious loser. Now, I feel so much better.
I agree Jennifer 100%.
John Hartland, you seem a bit bitter. Let it go. Bush is no longer President. You can focus your attention on helping your self appointed savior Barack Obama.
#1 (In its breeder’s mind perhaps?): Feint praise indeed — that’s just what the snake-oil peddling ward-heeler from the South Side deserves.
Hey, #7–Back in the window, are you, wanking for all to see? But tsk, tsk…such an unChristian message; anyone would think you’re wearing a white sheet and hood while you bear your cross.
Addison SMITH????
John Hartland, you seem a bit bitter. Let it go. Bush is no longer President. You can focus your attention on helping your self appointed savior Barack Obama.
We’ve been restraining ourselves for eight years. That that Ceacesceau is finally gone, I could loosen up for a minute. As for Obama, he was elected, unlike your lying, drunken criminal.
Hmmm.
No idea what’s going on with this site but about half of my comments tend to disappear. Perhaps I’m triggering a filter? Being removed by an editor?
*shrug* either way I think my participation here is ending. If nothing else the sheer silliness of some commenters is amusing but not really worth debating.
John Hartland, whatever will you do with yourself now that Bush is gone? Now that we’re living in the Golden Era I mean? Will you find some other hate object to obsess over?
Say I know; how about Jews? Being a foaming at the mouth anti-Semitic – oops!! sorry – anti-ZIONIST would probably fit the bill just fine. Those crafty Jews, they control the world, you know, and gosh, I heard that Bernie Madoff guy was Jewish. That’s proof positive that they’re all, um… I don’t know what. But something bad, I’m sure.
And those Israeli’s; they’re Jewish, and they’re all maniacal killers, right? I mean, geeze, they randomly shoot rockets at civilians, they murder and torture their own people by the thousands, and…oh, uh, wait a minute. Sorry, I was confused; I’m thinking of the wrong people there.
BDS symptoms screaming incoherently, blood shooting on their eyes, gnashing of teeth, frothing while they watched Bush on TV….
Warning. BDS is a disease. Permanently damage brain.
The American LEFT is very similar to Hamas in their unquenchable hatred of their respective opponents.
O.K., Alex, John Hartland, & NCAR,
They know your ISP, they know exactly how to route to your computer, they can send a virus to your computer that will MELT THE CPU!. Right before your eyes. Is that what you want? Well, keep it up and you’ll find out. They love doing it.
The economy is too big for Bush to destroy on his own.
He got bipartisan leadership from Frank and Dodd, while Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac bought everybody else who might spoil the party.
Did I forget Maxine Waters ?
They know your ISP, they know exactly how to route to your computer, they can send a virus to your computer that will MELT THE CPU!
It’ll never get through the firewall.
“There is a lot to be learned from the personal side of former President Bush even as one recognizes his intellectual limitations and political failings.”
Well, OK. Of most of us, it cannot be said that there is anything to be learned from our personal side. We typically unite that quality with severe intellectual limitations and significant professional failings.
I am happy to stipulate that there is a lot to be learned from the personal side of former President Bush, and leave it at that.
No one except the deranged hate mongers on the left said Bush wasn’t a nice guy, loyal to a fault and all that. To know him evidently is to like him. But what a lot of conservatives came to dislike was his steady incompetence in things big and small. The support system provided by a famous and rich Poppy spared him the sort of learning experiences meted out by the school of hard knocks. So he could look in Vladimir’s eyes and see his soul and Harriet’s and see a Supreme Court justice. He could name a sweating, robotic Scott McClellan press secretary and not see the day’s message wasn’t ever getting through. Shallow, unreflective, inarticulate.
No one except the deranged hate mongers on the left said Bush wasn’t a nice guy
Junior is a nasty, vinductive, small-minded, lying, floor-crawling drunk. AND he was incompetent on a truly amazing scale.
Now we have our first affirmative action President who proudly declared that all he got was thanks to affirmative action:
http://media.www.hlrecord.org/media/storage/paper609/news/2008/10/30/Election2008/Record.Retrospective.Obama.On.Affirmative.Action-3515294.shtml
God bless GWB. Imagine what the world be like today if Al Gore had been president when 9/11 happened. He’d have responded with an anti-global-warming campaign for Afghanistan.
Perhaps he’s simply wonderful in person. I’ve read words to that effect so many times that I would bet that he’s perfectly enjoyable to be around.
But I would prefer to just a US President on his actions, and on that scale, Mr. Bush was a failure on numerous accounts.
So numerous were such failures, in fact, that some people feel the need to remind the public of just how incompetent his administration was, over and over again, in the hopes that it will never again be repeated. This is the point which you, and not the mainstream media, seem unable to understand.
“Grace is not merely exhibited by rhetorical appeals to cast aside past conventional arguments.” Well said. George W. Bush was not, in my opinion, a good president. But he has shown much grace, especially lately. By contrast, we have little grace from many of Obama’s supporters recently. It’s easy to act arrogant and classless when your guy has a 70% approval rating and hasn’t actually had to yet take responsibility, as President, for anything. Turnabout is hard but fair play.
Such personal hatred towards Bush is indicative of the immature longings of the haters. Bush made many mistakes, but so did Congress and so did individuals. On the other hand, Bush did some great things post 9-11, mobilizing the country to fight. The haters reveal their own dependent attitude towards the President. It’s a neat way of avoiding growing up. Blame Daddy for your own shortcomings.
Bush’s only real failure was his refusal to crush his most dishonest political enemies, and to treat many of their smears as legitimate criticism.
Unfortunately, we’re about to recognize the intellectual limitations and political failings of a new President whose personal side leaves a lot to be desired–a President who doesn’t hesitate to attack any who dare to criticize him.
Imagine a graph of the strength of al Qaeda: the arrow points up during the Clinton years, going from near 0 to very strong, lethal; down during the Bush years…now we’ll see which way it points during the Obama years.
“The support system provided by a famous and rich Poppy spared him the sort of learning experiences meted out by the school of hard knocks.”
W. was a much, much better president that H.W. He faced much more difficult circumstances and decisions. If H.W. were president in 2006, he would have accepted the bipartisan Iraq Study Group recommendations.
“Junior is a nasty, vinductive, small-minded, lying, floor-crawling drunk.”
Projecting again Hartland? You left one out: you’re also adolescent.
W comes off as a nice guy. But as you watch him carefully, you will see many indications that he is both a nice guy and a vindictive cruel person.
He ordered his people to ignore the Geneva Convention (no President with class or sense of humanity would do that). He basically told his people that torture is legal under his administration. He laid siege to Fallujah and then stopped right before the election of 2004 saying that he was concerned about civilian casualties (he lied). He resumed the siege after he won re-election and basically murdered thousands of young Iraqi young men.*
*Bush order Fallujah ringed with barb wired. No young man was allowed to to leave and then let loose with all the American firepower on the city, killing all the young men that the city nurtured.
Just now, Keith Obermann interviewed a Mr Tice who revealed that Bush ordered ALL American communications be available to the NSA (yes, everybody can be targeted). The NSA targets certain groups for 24/7/365 surveillance. One large group is reporters and journalists. Yes, all reporters and journalists were monitored on phone, fax, email, everything !!!
So, Jennifer Rubin and all reporters, know that all your conversations and emails were monitored.
A president with class and grace would not do that.
“You might recall his naming the Department of Justice building for Sen. Ted Kennedy’s brother Robert”
as opposed to
The George W. Bush Sewage Treatment Plant proposal in San Francisco.
About as much as you need to know about the relative worth of Mr. Bush versus his vile detractors.
Why do I suspect that we are to be burdened with BDS for a long time to come?
Is there no medication for these poor souls?
To Turfmann,
What do you think of the latest revelation (from yesterday’s Keith Olbermann show) that Bush and the NSA have been monitoring EVERYBODY and not just terrorists as claimed ? Also Bush had ALL journalists monitored 24/7/365. Does not his news cause the slightest stir in Bush supporters?