Letters to the editor

Arrogant Ignorance isn’t a policy

Dear Editor:

In response to your “The parallels of history” editorial, a large part of the problem today and during the run-up to the unfortunate business in Korea is (and was) an Arrogant Ignorance. 

With regard to the events in Korea, it was an unparalleled lack of understanding of the people and issues. This was the direct result of our failure to comprehend China as evidenced by Dean Acheson’s efforts in 1949-50.   

In Iran it is ignorance and arrogance coupled to unprecedented levels of stupidity while our president thinks he is “negotiating.”  Neither he, nor many American policy makers, have understood the notions of overwhelming force (Sun Tzu) or dynamic battlefields (von Clausewitz). Neither do they understand duplicitousness, a fundamental character of the peoples with whom we deal or have dealt.

The Americans prior to Korea suffered from an acute case of delusion when it involved Mao and Chiang Kai-Shek. The delusion came in the form of a baseless confidence that the split between the Chinese Communist Party and Mao represented something other than what it really was: a schism between Communism and Authoritarianism. 

Madame Chiang, as engaging as she was, enabled this perception of China in the U.S., which we bought in totality, even to the vast extent of arming Chiang’s forces with millions of dollars of American weaponry, which immediately found its way into the hands of Mao’s people. 

It was Congress that feared war, hard on the heels of World War II, and had no stomach, except by proxy in China. Truman, unlike Barack Obama, drew a line and stood to it.

Acheson, and others, believed the issue to be a schism between Communism and Conservatism. Sun Yat Sen promoted a social conservatism — something far different from a political conservatism, while Chiang held to authoritarianism. Acheson’s position changed too late.

The Iranian dictatorship wants both social conservatism and authoritarianism, while many citizens in Iran seek a broader engagement and freedom to interact with the West. 

As in Iran, the American position is supremely naive. Neville Chamberlain was a piker in negotiations with Hitler, which many, notably Churchill, pointed out at the time. So too, neither Obama nor John Kerry has  credibility in an Arab culture that values strength and commitment. 

Ayatollah Khamenei realizes, as does Putin, that they are free to do whatever they please for another 19 months at least because the feckless administration will do nothing to stop either. Iran with a bomb means Saudi Arabia will have one also — it will just buy one. Proliferation should be a real fear.

Having the Teddy Roosevelt in the Arabian Sea, but likely frozen by absurd rules of engagement, will result in nothing. A show of force is meaningless unless it is meant to be used, something Sun Tzu would hold as a paradigm.

The Arrogant Ignorance in Iran is regarded internally at the State Department as the Brilliant Enlightenment of a “new” foreign policy, when, in fact, it is no policy at all, assuming appeasement is not a policy.  

Although we may have tired of war, the unfortunate reality is that Americans have tired of wars fought, not to win, but to apply our system where it is not wanted, in a limited attempt at containment. This is also not a policy. Equivocation, even hostility, directed at the lone democracy in the area is unconscionable.

On a humanitarian level much of what we do, how we do it and for whom it is done is both credible and laudable, but it is no substitute for real understanding and knowledge. These were traits that Chamberlain and Acheson lacked and Obama lacks absolutely. 

No good comes of this, as you appropriately point out. Iran and a weapon are unacceptable. There is no equivocation. The destabilizing influence in the area or in the hands of ISIS would be profound.

George Parker

Sarasota

What’s your source?

Dear Editor:

I applaud your April 23 Longboat Observer editorial exposing to the world the fact Sen. Barack Obama in 2008 undermined then-President Bush by advising the Iranian mullahs not to sign an agreement with President Bush. 

What I don’t understand is why Sen. Cruz did not refer to that prior event when the president recently criticized him for doing the same thing.  

I also don’t understand why the Wall Street Journal and Fox News did not point out that parallel in a headline story. It is certainly very impressive that the Longboat Observer found out the true facts and printed the true story. 

However, I respectfully suggest that since neither Sen. Cruz, nor Fox News, nor the Wall Street Journal, nor indeed anyone else mentioned the story that you presented, perhaps, just perhaps, it is not true. I strongly recommend you show those doubting readers that your statement is true by providing evidence of Obama’s questionable conduct.

Alan Bandler

Longboat Key

You can find the source here: www.truthrevolt.org/news/obama-sent-ambassador-tehran-negotiate-during-2008-campaign. Be sure to play the podcast, too. — Editor

‘I hope and pray  history does not repeat itself’

Dear Editor:

Thank you for an informative reminder of an important piece of history that maybe some have forgotten and a new generation may know nothing about (see “The Parallels of History,” April 23, April 30). 

I was born in 1947 in a displaced persons camp in Salzburg, Austria. My parents are Holocaust survivors. They both lost their spouses and families and started a new family in the DP Camp, which included myself, my twin and my brother. 

We migrated to the United States when I was 4 in 1951 to a shelter and then to a tenement on the Lower East side of New York. We were and always will be grateful for the gift of freedom and the many opportunities America had to offer. 

Every day I shake my head at the news. Today I am grateful to you for using your gift and right of freedom of expression. The parallels are amazing, and I hope we can connect the dots so our children and grandchildren don’t have to pay for our mistakes.

Thank you for putting political correctness aside. I hope and pray history does not repeat itself.

Ida Zito

Sarasota

Suggestions by a young State Department representative that a “jobs policy” is a legitimate means of theater success is simply too hopeless and naïve to be credible.