TARP Worked

Let's assume for a moment this Time.com article is correct and TARP, as politically and economically messy as it was, worked largely as intended. The banking system did not irreversibly collapse, credit is flowing again (as a creek, not as a river) and the world, while different than pre-September 2008, survives largely intact. Think of it like Tom Hagen telling Don Corleone, when the Don returns home from the hospital, the family's working to bring Michael back...things have started to loosen up. Will the stimulus package be altered or clawed back?

Of course not.

Will its original, purely political purpose, be revised from creating a recovery (it didn't) to supporting a recovery (it won't).

Of course it will.

This may make my conservative brethren yell "Elizabeth, this is the big one!" but I ask these questions as a supporter of a stimulus plan, just not the one Obama outsourced to Congress. I think conservatives made too many silly criticisms about the government levering up while the rest of the world de-levered. That's the whole point of emergency deficit spending. But, because Congress isn't interested in temporary spending it came up with a bevy permanent entitlements (COBRA, payroll tax credit) instead of massive, and I do mean massive, public and military infrastructure improvements. Obama, like all politicians, took the easy political route of getting it done quickly instead of standing up to Congress and demanding genuine public investments instead of interest group payoffs.

Given Obama repeatedly tells us he inherited a mess, will he ever acknowledge he also inherited the cleaning crew?

Of course not.

Perdicaris Alive or Raisuli Dead

May 18, 1908 American businessman Ion Perdicaris (later found to have traded his American passport for a Greek one) was kidnapped by Mulai Ahmed er Raisuli in Morocco. President Teddy Roosevelt sends American warships and Marine companies towards Morocco with an assignment: Perdicaris Alive or Raisuli Dead. See this link for more details (Wikipedia entry is consistent with Edmund's Theodore Rex). In his time, Roosevelt was loved for this muscular act of gunboat diplomacy.

Roughly analogous, today Capt. Richard Phillips sits hostage aboard the Maersk Alabama. Would President Obama issue such a naked threat and then back it up? Would the HopeyChangeys appreciate public bravado? Democrats love Teddy Roosevelt (trust-busting, national parks), but do they know, care, he was a racist imperialist?

President O-bow-ma

Barack Hussein Obama, SPOTUS (So-called President of the United States), who bows before Saudi royalty, Nancy Pelosi and Jeremiah Wright, dropped in on our military heroes in Iraq this week.

Some of them might just have entered basic training when O-bow-ma, then a junior Senator from Illinois, said this about their mission 28 months ago, back when it was cool among the liberals to doubt our military’s capabilities:

“We cannot impose a military solution on what has effectively become a civil war. And until we acknowledge that reality, we can send 15,000 more troops, 20,000 more troops, 30,000 more troops. I don’t know any expert on the region, or any military officer that I’ve spoken to, privately, that believes that that is going to make a substantial difference on the situation on the ground.”

But, in the warm afterglow of overwhelming U.S. military success in Iraq fueled by George Bush’s unwavering commitment to victory, O-bow-ma swaggered into Baghdad, the new sheriff, ready to make nice.

Upon arrival he said, “It was wonderful to see the troops out there. I’m so grateful, they put their heart and souls into it.”

(In November 2007, BHO said the “overall strategy is failed because we have not seen any change in behavior among Iraq’s political leaders …”)

Surrounded by the very patriots whose mission he has repeatedly denounced for political gain, B. Hussein on Tuesday gushed, “You have given Iraq the opportunity to stand on its own as a democratic country. That is an extraordinary achievement.”

The 10 men and women to whom O-bow-ma presented Medals of Valor in Iraq deserve a re-do. They should be presented those medals in a proper ceremony, by a decorated U.S. military officer, an individual committed to the defense of America — someone who might accord tacit acknowledgment of, but certainly never would bow before, the King of Saudi Arabia.

Proliferation

A few thoughts on why peaceful nuclear anti-proliferation is so damn hard (no matter who's in the White House):

• All countries that have sought a nuclear weapon have eventually developed one.
• Only one country has voluntarily given up its nuclear arsenal (South Africa).
• Sanctions eventually fail. Any government can avail itself of a thousand different ways to bathe itself in material comfort while its population suffers.
• Illiberal governments know their counterparts eventually lose their stomach for sanctions as images of suffering children circle the globe. In fact, they count on it.
• They are also fully aware of our electoral process and internal disagreements. Liberal societies and their governments almost never speak with one voice on anything (and when they do it doesn't last long).
  
• Even an impoverished country like North Korea has something of value to sell to someone somewhere with hard currency.
• Moral suasion appeals to the press and Berkeley/Georgetown/Cambridge axis of afternoon teas. The only countries disarmament efforts disarm are the ones interested in disarmament.
• The UN is easily divided and conquered by illiberal states that become clients of a veto-wielding Security Council member.
  

Talk is Cheap

Once again the United Nations has proven to be a useless institution for international security. Following North Korea’s launch of a ballistic missile on Sunday, the UN Security Council convened for over three hours in a closed door session. The result of the meeting – you guessed it, nothing! The 15 members of the Security Council were unable to come to an agreement about what actions to take against the North Korean regime. Even prior to the meeting, China and Russia both made clear that they would use their veto power to block any resolution imposing new sanctions on Pyongyang, in part because they were not convinced that the missile launch violated prior Security Council resolutions.

In fact, the meeting of the Security Council was useless to the point that upon issuing the statement as the current president of the Security Council, Mexico’s UN Ambassador, Claude Heller, was prevented from using the phrase “express concern”. The only thing he was allowed to say was that Council members “agreed to continue consultations on the appropriate reaction by the Council…” I bet that Kim Jong-il, and dictators around the world for that matter, is quaking in his high heeled boots.

President Obama persists in his policy of running to the United Nations anytime there is an action by a rogue regime that threatens the security of the United States. The facts are that the UN is not effective in dealing with madmen who are heads of state. And yet, Obama’s UN Ambassador, Susan Rice, is still calling for the UN to make a “clear and firm response.” How many times does the United Nations have to fail to act before this administration will realize that it is nothing more than a failed anti-American organization?

The international community that the President often speaks of is a fiction. It has no influence. It doesn’t exist. It doesn’t do anything.

By launching this missile on the day that President Obama gave a grandiose speech in the Czech Republic about ridding the world of nuclear weapons, the North Koreans were sending him a message. That message is that there is no enforcement mechanism by which the President can fulfill this dream. It’s as if Mr. Obama believes that the moral authority of the United States will influence the two remaining members of the Axis of Evil to abandon their nuclear programs.

Of course, this will not happen. All nations act in their own self interests. The way to influence crazy dictators is with pressure. Not only diplomatic pressure, but, more importantly, economic pressure and military pressure. So far, there has been no economic pressure or military pressure against North Korea.

Unfortunately, it now appears that Kim Join-il is stronger than ever. According to Koh Yu-hwan, a Dongguk University professor of North Korea studies “Pride among North Koreans stemming from what they believe to be a successful launch would help keep his regime intact…” Mr. Koh believes that this launch creates a better atmosphere for Kim to hand over power to his chosen successor.

In Prague, Mr. Obama made the hollow promise that there will be consequences for North Korea's actions. So, while the President and his Secretary of State pound their fists and say that they type of action will not stand, the dictator taking the action grows stronger. When Mr. Obama says that North Korea has further isolated itself from the community of nations, what exactly does he mean? What is the consequence? It can’t possibly be that a closed door meeting of the Security Council in which nothing happens (and the outcome was predetermined) is a consequence in and of itself, can it? If so, President Obama’s childish dream of a world without nuclear weapons is further away than ever.