If you’re confused about the Saudi Arabia-led air attacks against Islamist rebels in Yemen and can’t tell one group of head-choppers in Iraq and Syria from another, don’t despair. All you need is imagination.
Close your eyes and imagine that those countries and terrorists have nuclear weapons. Imagine their barbarism going nuclear as they blow up cities, wipe out ethnic and religious groups and turn the region into cinders.
Now open your eyes and realize you’ve seen the future, thanks to President Obama’s policies. It is a future that will be defined by Obama’s Wars. Yes, plural.
I’ve written frequently about the likelihood of a dystopian “Mad Max” scenario if Iran gets nukes. My thinking is guided by a belief among American military and intelligence officials that a nuclear exchange would take place in the Mideast within five years of Iran getting the bomb. To judge from events, the future is arriving ahead of schedule.
The fact that a top Saudi official wouldn’t answer a question about the kingdom’s plan to get nukes is an answer in itself. Proliferation in the world’s hottest spot was guaranteed once Obama abdicated American leadership, a decision that led our adversaries to conclude we would not stop them and our allies to conclude we would not protect them.
A future where it would be every nation for itself was trouble enough, but something far worse is unfolding now. Obama’s courtship of Iran and his willingness to let it go nuclear is speeding up the race to chaos.
Iran wants it both ways — nukes and a free hand to impose its Islamic Revolution throughout the region. Against all good sense and the lessons of history, Obama is saying yes and yes.
Sightings of the Revolutionary Guard leader, Maj. Gen. Qasem Suleimani, leading Iranian-sponsored militias against the Islamic State in Iraq has spread alarm throughout the region. The fears reached a fever pitch when Iranian-allied Houthi rebels took over Yemen, chasing out our soldiers and allies with chants of “Death to America, death to Israel.”
Iran long held designs on a Shia Crescent and control over Arab lands, which helps explain why Egypt, Saudi Arabia and others counted themselves as our allies. They are furious as they watch Iran get a nuclear pass from Obama and a green light to expand its power.
The nuclear program will have the United Nations’ stamp of approval, as will Iranian control of four Arab capitals — Damascus, Beirut, Baghdad and now Sanaa, Yemen. Indeed, Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry suggest Iran even could be an ally in the fight against the Islamic State and al Qaeda. Already there has been coordination there, leading critics to say America is acting as the Iranian air force.
Israel, of course, sees the pattern as insane and a threat because Iran has threatened to wipe it off the face of the Earth. In retaliation for complaining about the nuke deal, Obama denounces our ally and threatens to “re-evaluate” our support for the Jewish state.
But Israel is not alone, with our Sunni Arab allies also viewing Iran as their mortal enemy. Sen. John McCain quoted one of those Arab leaders as concluding, “We believe it is more dangerous to be a friend of America’s than an enemy.”
These are unprecedented developments, veering so far from the norm and happening so fast that consequences are piling up faster than they can be comprehended. Alliances built over decades are shattered in a relative flash, inviting aggression and endless conflict. The toxic brew of Islamic fanaticism and nuclear proliferation could ignite a world conflagration.
These are grim thoughts, expressed because it is impossible to imagine any other outcome of Iran’s rise. It remains the world’s largest sponsor of terrorism and supports Hezbollah and Hamas and now the Houthis in Yemen. As for Iranian influence in Iraq, one analyst is calling Suleimani, the Revolutionary Guard commander, Iraq’s new “viceroy.”
Remember, too, Iran muscle and munitions are keeping Bashar Assad still standing in Syria. The wholesale death and destruction there — an estimated 200,000 people killed and millions displaced within the country and out of it — could be a prototype of its new empire.
While there are many dark and complex forces in play and blame to spread around, the most important catalyst of the violent disorder has been the reversal of America’s policies. Under Obama, we have switched sides, an abomination that ensures a legacy of infamy.
All politics, all the time for de Blasio
The quote of the week comes from Cathy Nolan, a Queens Democrat who heads the Assembly education committee. She’s very tight with the teachers unions, which gives her a prime seat on the de Blasio bus. Yet in discussing mayoral control of schools, Nolan hit the bull’s-eye of the mayor’s mistake.
“Everything with the de Blasio administration is a campaign,” she told The Wall Street Journal. “It’s time to get real.”
In his second year, just like his first, Bill de Blasio would rather campaign than govern. He panders to his 17 percent base as though that’s all there is to leading and managing an international city of 8.4 million people. It’s all politics, all the time.
On schools, his plans are union-pleasing, but routinely revealed as empty of merit. His chancellor, Carmen Fariña, looks backward 25 years for ideas, seeming not to have noticed the abject failure of that era.
The mayor himself stumbled into the policy dead zone. Trying to persuade legislators that his school control should be extended and not whittled down by state powers, de Blasio ended up defending Michael Bloomberg’s stewardship.
“It’s obvious that mayoral control works,” he said, calling it a “profound reform” that has been “proven in the biggest school system in the country for over a decade.”
Whoa, Nellie. This from the guy who repeatedly denounced Bloomberg’s performance and is dismantling and fighting many of Bloomy’s changes, including support for charters.
None of this makes any sense. Then again, that’s Putzie in a nutshell.
Charles in charge
Harry Reid’s decision to retire and endorse Chuck Schumer to succeed him in the Senate is a huge case of local boy makes good. It is an honor for Schumer and a testament to his work in building the party’s agenda.
Now comes the real test. Will Schumer continue to support the destructive policies of Obama in the name of party loyalty, or will he put his duty to country first?
Ultimately, nothing else matters.
Truth behind gov’s ‘insult’
Gov. Andrew Cuomo is taking heat for saying the indicted Sheldon Silver still calls the shots in the Assembly. Al Sharpton accuses Cuomo of “insulting” all blacks because the new speaker, Carl Heastie, is black.
Perhaps, but notice that neither Silver, Sharpton nor Heastie claims Cuomo was wrong.
What’s old is news at Times
Albert Burneko, writing on Deadspin, offers this priceless description of The New York Times: “a grandfather clock that tells you what time it was five minutes ago.”