Kerry to Netanyahu: 'Israel can be just like... South Vietnam'!
John Kerry seems to be a student of the Joe Biden school of public speaking. On Thursday, during a joint press conference with Prime Minister Netanyahu, Kerry came up with
this howler.
On a personal level, last month I traveled to Vietnam on my first visit
there as Secretary of State. And the transformation in our relationship –
I was a young soldier who fought there – the transformation in our
relationship is proof that as painful as the past can be, through hard
work of diplomacy history’s adversaries can actually become partners for
a new day and history’s challenges can become opportunities for a new
age.
In case you need a reminder of how the Vietnam war turned out, Aaron Lerner provides it:
#1. A peace agreement was engineered by then Secretary of State Henry
Kissinger.
#2. Henry Kissinger received a Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts.
#3. The agreement fails.
#4. South Vietnam falls as American forces retreat.
#5. The "boat people" - a flood of refugees from South Vietnam fleeing for
their lives.
Now what is the message to Israel?
That John Kerry also expects to get a Nobel Peace Prize regardless of what
happens afterwards and that whatever happens after Israel falls, the United
States will ultimately transform its relationship with the force that takes
over the Jewish State and become a partner of that force?
What could go wrong?
Labels: Binyamin Netanyahu, John Kerry, Vietnam
'Worse than Munich'
Bret Stephens writes that the P 5+1 deal with Iran sets a new standard for the
most given away for the least by the many and the strong.
Consider: Britain and France came to Munich
as military weaklings. The U.S. and its allies face Iran from a position
of overwhelming strength. Britain and France won time to rearm. The
U.S. and its allies have given Iran more time to stockpile uranium and
develop its nuclear infrastructure. Britain and France had overwhelming
domestic constituencies in favor of any deal that would avoid war. The
Obama
administration is defying broad bipartisan majorities in both houses of Congress for the sake of a deal.
As
for the Vietnam parallels, the U.S. showed military resolve in the
run-up to the
Paris Accords
with a massive bombing and mining campaign of the North that
demonstrated presidential resolve and forced Hanoi to sign the deal. The
administration comes to Geneva fresh from worming its way out of its
own threat to use force to punish Syria's
Bashar Assad
for his use of chemical weapons against his own people.
The
Nixon
administration also exited Vietnam in the context of a durable
opening to Beijing that helped tilt the global balance of power against
Moscow. Now the U.S. is attempting a fleeting opening with Tehran at the
expense of a durable alliance of values with Israel and interests with
Saudi Arabia. "How to Lose Friends and Alienate People" is the title of a
hilarious memoir by British author
Toby Young
—but it could equally be the history of Barack Obama's foreign
policy.
That's where the differences
end between Geneva and the previous accords. What they have in common is
that each deal was a betrayal of small countries—Czechoslovakia, South
Vietnam, Israel—that had relied on Western security guarantees. Each was
a victory for the dictatorships: "No matter the world wants it or not,"
Iranian President
Hasan Rouhani
said Sunday, "this path will, God willingly, continue to the peak
that has been considered by the martyred nuclear scientists." Each deal
increased the contempt of the dictatorships for the democracies: "If
ever that silly old man comes interfering here again with his umbrella,"
Hitler is reported to have said of Chamberlain after Munich, "I'll kick
him downstairs and jump on his stomach."
And
each deal was a prelude to worse. After Munich came the conquest of
Czechoslovakia, the Nazi-Soviet pact and World War II. After Paris came
the fall of Saigon and Phnom Penh and the humiliating exit from the
embassy rooftop. After Geneva there will come a new, chaotic Mideast
reality in which the United States will lose leverage over enemies and
friends alike.
Read the whole thing. Sadly, he's spot on.
Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, Czech Republic, Iran sanctions regime, Iranian nuclear threat, Israel, Neville Chamberlain, plutonium, Richard Nixon, uranium enrichment, Vietnam, World War II
Obama adds a founding father
Yes, Obama really did compare
Ho Chi Minh to Thomas Jefferson.
WND.com reports:
When
President Obama said Ho Chi Minh – the North Vietnamese communist
revolutionary who led the war effort against the U.S. that cost almost
60,000 American lives – was a fan of the U.S. Constitution and Thomas
Jefferson, he was echoing what an influential new book calls one of the
most deadly communist disinformation campaigns in American history.
During
a White House meeting with Vietnam’s President Truong Tan Sang last
Thursday, Obama said he and Sang “discussed the fact that Ho Chi Minh
was actually inspired by the U.S. Declaration of Independence and
Constitution, and the words of Thomas Jefferson.” - See more
at:
http://thepeoplescube.com/peoples-blog/obama-ho-chi-minh-comment-echoes-kgb-disinformation-t11477.html#sthash.fOvQbQNi.dpuf
WND.com reports: When President Obama said Ho Chi Minh – the North
Vietnamese communist revolutionary who led the war effort against the
U.S. that cost almost 60,000 American lives – was a fan of the U.S.
Constitution and Thomas Jefferson, he was echoing what an influential
new book calls one of the most deadly communist disinformation campaigns
in American history.
During a White House meeting with
Vietnam’s President Truong Tan Sang last Thursday, Obama said he and
Sang “discussed the fact that Ho Chi Minh was actually inspired by the
U.S. Declaration of Independence and Constitution, and the words of
Thomas Jefferson.”
More
here.
WND.com reports:
When
President Obama said Ho Chi Minh – the North Vietnamese communist
revolutionary who led the war effort against the U.S. that cost almost
60,000 American lives – was a fan of the U.S. Constitution and Thomas
Jefferson, he was echoing what an influential new book calls one of the
most deadly communist disinformation campaigns in American history.
During
a White House meeting with Vietnam’s President Truong Tan Sang last
Thursday, Obama said he and Sang “discussed the fact that Ho Chi Minh
was actually inspired by the U.S. Declaration of Independence and
Constitution, and the words of Thomas Jefferson.” - See more
at:
http://thepeoplescube.com/peoples-blog/obama-ho-chi-minh-comment-echoes-kgb-disinformation-t11477.html#sthash.fOvQbQNi.dpuf
WND.com reports:
When
President Obama said Ho Chi Minh – the North Vietnamese communist
revolutionary who led the war effort against the U.S. that cost almost
60,000 American lives – was a fan of the U.S. Constitution and Thomas
Jefferson, he was echoing what an influential new book calls one of the
most deadly communist disinformation campaigns in American history.
During
a White House meeting with Vietnam’s President Truong Tan Sang last
Thursday, Obama said he and Sang “discussed the fact that Ho Chi Minh
was actually inspired by the U.S. Declaration of Independence and
Constitution, and the words of Thomas Jefferson.” - See more
at:
http://thepeoplescube.com/peoples-blog/obama-ho-chi-minh-comment-echoes-kgb-disinformation-t11477.html#sthash.fOvQbQNi.dpuf
Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, Communism, humor, Vietnam
Maan: Making up the news
In the spirit of Suha Arafat's blood libel that Israel was poisoning the waters of Gaza, Maan published the image at top left along with claims that Israel is using some sort of
horrific new weapon in the latest fighting in Gaza.
The head of an emergency ward in a Gaza City hospital said Monday that Israeli forces were using new, more brutal weapons against residents of the Gaza Strip.
On Thursday, Israeli forces began a four-day bombarded the coastal enclave killing 14 Palestinians and wounding dozens more in a series of airstrikes and drone attacks.
Dr Ayman As-Sahbani said patients were admitted with horrific injuries and that some bodies delivered to Al-Shifa Hospital were so badly burned they were unrecognizable.
He said Israeli weapons made no distinction between women, children and the elderly, pointing out that a two-year-old toddler and a 13-year-old boy were among those killed in the latest escalation.
Do any weapons distinguish between men, women, children and the elderly? No. As it happens, the two-year old was killed because he was being used as a human shield. The boy's father was the owner of the home where the
Popular Resistance Committees leadership was meeting on Thursday evening, and he kept the child home as a human shield. The 13-year old was also a
passenger human shield in a terrorist's car.
But it was the picture that really got me. I spent a long time trying to figure out if it was a photoshop (I am not an expert). In the end, I decided that it looks like napalm - an image I grew up with in the Vietnam era. But so far, I cannot find a similar image to this one online. I'm still working on it if anyone has any ideas. I am convinced that the image did not come from Gaza and was not shot in the last week.
UPDATE 2:24 PM
If you look in the comments, you will see that reader Rungholt has found the same image in a 2009 blog post - probably from Operation Cast Lead. White phosphorus (which is legal when used properly - as it was
used by Israel during Operation Cast Lead) perhaps?
UPDATE 10:07 PM
The picture is picture number 9
here. It was taken on January 3, 2009 (Hat Tip:
Tamzen L).
Labels: chemical weapons, Maan News, napalm, photoshop, Vietnam
