Between sunrise and sunset, we 1) handled our Israeli allies as enemies, 2) treated Pakistani gangsters as our benefactors and 3) got blindsided -- brilliantly -- by the Russians. First, the Russians: Well aware that President Obama desperately wants to hold in his hand a piece of paper guaranteeing nuclear arms cuts in our time, Moscow has been stalling and brawling to force us to bend to its will.
With a few last sticking points in play (which the White House refuses to make public), the Russian government blindsided US negotiators by announcing that the deal was done and the signing was on the calendar. Folks, this is diplomacy at a level we can't begin to touch. With their unilateral announcement, the Russians ensured that Obama will cave on the final points -- otherwise, it would look as though he scuttled the disarmament deal and undercut his own argument for anti-nuclear sanctions on Iran.
Could we please hire Russian negotiators to work for us? Simultaneously, the administration welcomed a Pakistani delegation with orgiastic generosity. The Pakistanis scribbled out the bill, and we whipped out our credit card. Pakistan's undercutting every reform effort we've made in Afghanistan and setting itself up to be the one entity that profits from our blood sacrifices. Pakistani intelligence (the ISI) has been busting every Taliban member it can't control to enhance its clout in Afghanistan. And we imagine they're doing it for us.
So we're speeding up the delivery of more arms and hastening the distribution of 7.5 billion bucks in nonmilitary aid to one of the most corrupt countries on earth. Randomly chosen used-car dealers could do a better job than our gullible diplomats. The Pakistanis hope to muscle into Kabul in a gangland takeover -- and we're thanking them and paying protection money. They're laughing so hard they're spilling the Johnny Walker Blue they guzzle behind closed doors (while preaching Islamic virtue).
Last, but not least, there's our arctic treatment of Benjamin Netanyahu and our Israeli allies. Kim Jong-Il or Hugo Chavez would've gotten a warmer White House reception than Bibi did. Wednesday in Washington was dedicated to shooting down one Israeli compromise offer after another. Of course, we haven't asked those valiant Palestinian freedom fighters (unfairly considered terrorists by reactionaries like me) to compromise a fraction of an inch.
The Palestinians dictate, the White House obeys. This is madness. Rewarding terror and intransigence, we're undercutting the single rule-of-law democracy and defender of human rights in the Middle East. "The rockets' red glare"? Last time I saw it, the rockets were raining down on civilians in northern Israel. But Obama truly believes that the Palestinians are the good guys. Here's the US-Israeli-Palestinian relationship in simple terms: You run a business. And you have a brother who's worked with you for decades. A group of corrupt "partners" with criminal records, notorious for flouting every deal they've made, promises to make you rich. All you have to do is kill your brother.
The Palestinians and their Arab backers have broken their every pledge on the (blind-alley) road to a deal. Time and again, they've refused reasonable terms proposed by Israel. They could've had a deal under Clinton. They had another chance under W. Each time, the Palestinians walked away. Because they don't really want peace with Israel. They want Israel destroyed. Either Obama gets it and agrees with them, or he's naive to an extent that makes Jimmy Carter look jaded.
As far as the trumped-up issue of settlements goes, my Israeli friends are missing a great opportunity: Since Obama's supporters insist on a history-based Palestinian right of return to Jerusalem, Jews should demand their historical right to resettlement in the Saudi-occupied city of Medina -- where their once-prosperous presence is documented by the Koran. The ultimate travesty, of course, is that the Obama administration will spin each of Wednesday's triple-whammy debacles as a triumph. It showed those wicked Israelis who's boss; it gave treacherous Pakistanis all they demanded, and it got tricked by Russia into further weakening our strategic defenses.
This isn't a pattern of failure. It's a surrender cult. Ralph Peters' new book is "Endless War: Middle Eastern Islam vs. Western Civilization."
Ralph Peters in the New York Post
