Brief International Tensions Update

Not much time to delve into all the details, but this is really, really important stuff.

Everyone knows Iran has continued its nuclear program over the past few years despite international pressure to cease and desist.  They have recently begun ramping up the die-Israel rhetoric again, and Israel is naturally becoming increasingly agitated.  The Obama administration has a history of antagonism toward Israel and many of its personnel are virulently anti-Israeli, so it is only grudgingly that they have continued to officially support our long-time ally.  As the tensions increase and Iran grows closer to a functional nuclear weapon, matters only worsen.  Of course, the recent snub of pro-Israeli language at the DNC convention didn't help relations any, nor did Obama's refusal to meet with Israeli PM Netanyahu while in New York for a UN event this week (he's got time for an appearance on Letterman, though...priorities, you know??).  It's not like anyone actually thinks Obama's silence to our ally is a tacit approval to attack Iran.  That would be reasonable for someone with a history of supporting Israel, but Obama has no such history.  If anything, it's a tacit approval for Iran to move forward, and that's a disturbing thought.  At the very least, it's a tacit approval simply because of the lack of a forceful suggestion to the contrary.

And that makes a whole lot of people uneasy when we see things like Muslims in Egypt attacking the US Embassy over a film, and getting essentially no response from the Obama administration.  It shouldn't be any surprise, then, that shortly thereafter Muslims in Libya attacked the US Embassy and killed the ambassador and several staff members.  To be fair, this did draw a furious -- or at least pretty gosh-darned determined -- finger-shaking from the President, but one wonders if that will be quite enough to quell the escalation.  (Hint: no)

Whether Obama simply has a fundamental misunderstanding of the threat to us and our allies from radical Islamic extremists or actually has some level of sympathy with them is almost irrelevant.  The bottom line is that he is clearly doing little to protect American interests from them, and that is exceedingly unlikely to change.  Without a legitimate response to events like this, the violence will continue to escalate until we have a mushroom cloud to deal with.

Yet another reason to usher him into retirement as quickly as possible.

Thoughts and prayers are with the families of those killed, and with others trying to get to safety...