Chris Adamo
Consequences of an "American Idol" presidency
By Chris Adamo
Few among the general public noticed during the 1990s as America's intelligence apparatus was methodically undermined and dismantled by such officials of the Bill Clinton Administration as Deputy Attorney General Jamie Gorelick. During the same period, Clinton Energy Secretary Hazel O'Leary was busy obliterating color-coded security badges at the Los Alamos nuclear lab in New Mexico, and taking other outrageous measures that compromised America's vital technology for the sake of "political correctness." Consequently, America's missile and nuclear technology hemorrhaged to the Communist Chinese.
To people like O'Leary, America's security and nuclear secrets were only of secondary consequence, if even that. She believed that the differing security classifications would be injurious to the sensibilities of those employees with lesser security clearances. So she scrapped the system in preference to a single-color badge that did not identify the clearance level of its bearer. During this time, vital design plans of the W-88, America's most sophisticated nuclear warhead, were leaked to China.
Meanwhile, Clinton crony Bernard Schwarz of Loral Space Systems was "legally" divulging rocket technology to the Chinese. Thus he ensured that if they intended to, they could build missiles capable of delivering those improved warheads to American soil. Bill Clinton defended the actions of Schwarz in ludicrous terms, claiming bogusly that the information would be utilized by the Chinese for "peaceful" purposes, such as the development of space launch vehicles.
Of course Clinton and his minions knew full well that this response was fraudulent to its core, and was only intended to placate media lapdogs who did not want the episode to look bad on the evening news. The answer might have assuaged the perennially ignorant, but every engineer with even an elementary grasp of rocketry knows that the technology necessary to put a satellite into orbit is identical to that needed to lob a warhead onto the next continent. Only the targeting information of the missile is different.
In fact, up until the development of the Saturn series of moon rockets, every major launch vehicle in America's space fleet was an ICBM, modified to only the slightest degree. Yet on such a flimsy basis, America taught Communist China how to construct functional ballistic missiles by which they may someday wage nuclear war against us.
It is telling that, in the upheaval following North Korea's launch of its own ballistic missile during this past weekend, dictator Kim Jong-Il attempted to defuse the provocative action by offering the identical claim, that the missile test was only intended to launch a satellite into orbit. Forget his past zeal to develop a functional nuclear bomb, or the possibility that he may in fact have succeeded in testing such a device. His reassurances of "peaceful" intentions should be sufficient to allay our fears until the other shoe (or something far worse) drops.
Worse yet, Kim's transparent ploy may succeed. The toothless response to his action by the rest of the world, and in particular the United States, sends an undeniable signal to him, along with every other aspiring tinhorn dictator on the planet, that the great nation states of the past order no longer possess the will to take real corrective action. And with Barack Obama's disgraceful and embarrassing pandering to the Europeans and Muslims during his G-20 visit, he has made it clear that this nation no longer possesses its former resolve to prevent proliferation and aggression by such regimes. On the contrary, Obama publicly offered his regrets for decisive past actions that deterred and prevented the ascendancy of many dangerous aspiring tyrants during the past century.
According to the press, collegiality and even love now abounds among nations that excoriated the United States and its former President, George W. Bush, only months ago. In wonderful contrast, they extol America for its openness and professed willingness to sit down and talk with adversaries. At least that is the picture that Obama's leftist cohorts want the general public to receive. Unfortunately, the truth is far less rosy. And the likelihood of a day of reckoning for all of this foolishness is far greater.
Despite media coverage that portrays Obama's European visit as a resounding success, he was unable to garner any significant European commitment to the Afghanistan theater of the terror war. Empty words from the European leaders should apparently be a sufficient response to empty words from the chief of a watered down America.
In a manner reminiscent of the humiliations of the Carter years, America's prestige has begun to plummet among the world community. Of course world leaders are quick to express their preference for the current situation. A diminished America represents less competition, both economically and diplomatically, to their own aims and aspirations.
Sadly, this situation is being heralded by the Obama Administration and the liberal media as a great gain for this nation. It is anything but. In a world of inherently hostile, and often barbaric entities that are constantly vying for power, American vulnerability is entirely likely to be perceived as a window of opportunity for those who would raise their own international standing by tearing this nation down, just as was the case among the militant Islamists during the last decade, culminating in the attacks of September 11.
Governing cannot be indefinitely conducted from a mindset that ignores ramifications and consequences. Though the backlash may not be immediate, in the face of a unilateral disarmament, and the substitution of resolve with passivity, it is inevitable. The Obama Administration, in its current governing and diplomatic mode, is reverting to a mentality that is even more myopic and dangerously shortsighted than that of the Clinton years. Obama's sycophancy towards European leftists and Middle Eastern Muslims during his recent trip abroad cannot be construed as anything else.
The blindly idealistic intrigues of the Clinton Administration played well on the nightly news, at least until their awful consequences became apparent. Not having learned the painful lesson, America has embarked on that path once again.
Barack Obama and his fellow ideologues believe their Ivy League intellectualism is sufficient to build a bridge to the Seventh Century. But to the practitioners of a religion that only understands strength and force, this manner of pandering only represents weakness. As such it is essentially entreating the world for a repeat of the attacks on America.
© Chris Adamo
April 9, 2009
Few among the general public noticed during the 1990s as America's intelligence apparatus was methodically undermined and dismantled by such officials of the Bill Clinton Administration as Deputy Attorney General Jamie Gorelick. During the same period, Clinton Energy Secretary Hazel O'Leary was busy obliterating color-coded security badges at the Los Alamos nuclear lab in New Mexico, and taking other outrageous measures that compromised America's vital technology for the sake of "political correctness." Consequently, America's missile and nuclear technology hemorrhaged to the Communist Chinese.
To people like O'Leary, America's security and nuclear secrets were only of secondary consequence, if even that. She believed that the differing security classifications would be injurious to the sensibilities of those employees with lesser security clearances. So she scrapped the system in preference to a single-color badge that did not identify the clearance level of its bearer. During this time, vital design plans of the W-88, America's most sophisticated nuclear warhead, were leaked to China.
Meanwhile, Clinton crony Bernard Schwarz of Loral Space Systems was "legally" divulging rocket technology to the Chinese. Thus he ensured that if they intended to, they could build missiles capable of delivering those improved warheads to American soil. Bill Clinton defended the actions of Schwarz in ludicrous terms, claiming bogusly that the information would be utilized by the Chinese for "peaceful" purposes, such as the development of space launch vehicles.
Of course Clinton and his minions knew full well that this response was fraudulent to its core, and was only intended to placate media lapdogs who did not want the episode to look bad on the evening news. The answer might have assuaged the perennially ignorant, but every engineer with even an elementary grasp of rocketry knows that the technology necessary to put a satellite into orbit is identical to that needed to lob a warhead onto the next continent. Only the targeting information of the missile is different.
In fact, up until the development of the Saturn series of moon rockets, every major launch vehicle in America's space fleet was an ICBM, modified to only the slightest degree. Yet on such a flimsy basis, America taught Communist China how to construct functional ballistic missiles by which they may someday wage nuclear war against us.
It is telling that, in the upheaval following North Korea's launch of its own ballistic missile during this past weekend, dictator Kim Jong-Il attempted to defuse the provocative action by offering the identical claim, that the missile test was only intended to launch a satellite into orbit. Forget his past zeal to develop a functional nuclear bomb, or the possibility that he may in fact have succeeded in testing such a device. His reassurances of "peaceful" intentions should be sufficient to allay our fears until the other shoe (or something far worse) drops.
Worse yet, Kim's transparent ploy may succeed. The toothless response to his action by the rest of the world, and in particular the United States, sends an undeniable signal to him, along with every other aspiring tinhorn dictator on the planet, that the great nation states of the past order no longer possess the will to take real corrective action. And with Barack Obama's disgraceful and embarrassing pandering to the Europeans and Muslims during his G-20 visit, he has made it clear that this nation no longer possesses its former resolve to prevent proliferation and aggression by such regimes. On the contrary, Obama publicly offered his regrets for decisive past actions that deterred and prevented the ascendancy of many dangerous aspiring tyrants during the past century.
According to the press, collegiality and even love now abounds among nations that excoriated the United States and its former President, George W. Bush, only months ago. In wonderful contrast, they extol America for its openness and professed willingness to sit down and talk with adversaries. At least that is the picture that Obama's leftist cohorts want the general public to receive. Unfortunately, the truth is far less rosy. And the likelihood of a day of reckoning for all of this foolishness is far greater.
Despite media coverage that portrays Obama's European visit as a resounding success, he was unable to garner any significant European commitment to the Afghanistan theater of the terror war. Empty words from the European leaders should apparently be a sufficient response to empty words from the chief of a watered down America.
In a manner reminiscent of the humiliations of the Carter years, America's prestige has begun to plummet among the world community. Of course world leaders are quick to express their preference for the current situation. A diminished America represents less competition, both economically and diplomatically, to their own aims and aspirations.
Sadly, this situation is being heralded by the Obama Administration and the liberal media as a great gain for this nation. It is anything but. In a world of inherently hostile, and often barbaric entities that are constantly vying for power, American vulnerability is entirely likely to be perceived as a window of opportunity for those who would raise their own international standing by tearing this nation down, just as was the case among the militant Islamists during the last decade, culminating in the attacks of September 11.
Governing cannot be indefinitely conducted from a mindset that ignores ramifications and consequences. Though the backlash may not be immediate, in the face of a unilateral disarmament, and the substitution of resolve with passivity, it is inevitable. The Obama Administration, in its current governing and diplomatic mode, is reverting to a mentality that is even more myopic and dangerously shortsighted than that of the Clinton years. Obama's sycophancy towards European leftists and Middle Eastern Muslims during his recent trip abroad cannot be construed as anything else.
The blindly idealistic intrigues of the Clinton Administration played well on the nightly news, at least until their awful consequences became apparent. Not having learned the painful lesson, America has embarked on that path once again.
Barack Obama and his fellow ideologues believe their Ivy League intellectualism is sufficient to build a bridge to the Seventh Century. But to the practitioners of a religion that only understands strength and force, this manner of pandering only represents weakness. As such it is essentially entreating the world for a repeat of the attacks on America.
© Chris Adamo
The views expressed by RenewAmerica columnists are their own and do not necessarily reflect the position of RenewAmerica or its affiliates.
(See RenewAmerica's publishing standards.)
