Danger Through Weakness

FOCUS ON NATIONAL SECURITY -
by Gary Bauer, Contributing Author: America is regrettably reaping the bitter fruit from the seeds of appeasement Obama has sown over the past year. Since taking office, Obama has made it his mission to apologize to our enemies and ignore our allies. He is the anti-Reagan, rejecting the notion of peace through strength. Rather than projecting confidence, he’s signaled weakness and put us in danger. Thugs and tyrants the world over sense that Obama is soft.

For example, Iran has executed several leaders of the pro-democracy movement and sentenced more to death in recent days with barely a peep of protest from the administration. In response to Obama’s conciliatory efforts to contain Iran’s nuclear program, Ayatollah Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, promised a “punch” that would leave Western nations “stunned.” And Iranian “president” Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced that the Islamic regime is enriching more uranium and expanding its military facilities.

Just as serious was a statement from senior Chinese military leaders this week. Responding to U.S. arms sales to our ally Taiwan, Major General Luo Yuan said, “Our retaliation should not be restricted to merely military matters, and we should adopt a strategic package of counter-punches…” Yuan added that China could “attack by oblique means and stealthy feints. For example, we could sanction them using economic means, such as dumping some U.S. government bonds.”

China currently holds nearly $800 billion in U.S. bonds, and it is financing Obama’s astonishing spending spree. Now China is threatening an economic Pearl Harbor. Whether it’s Arab oil or Chinese credit, under Barack Obama America is becoming more dependent on our enemies, and no superpower will long survive in such a weak position.

Speaking of Security - While the administration continues to search for solutions to its self-imposed problem of what to do with the GITMO detainees, one influential senator offered the White House some advice. Here’s what he said:

“My advice to the president is, with a great deal of respect, take New York Off your radar screen. Find another location. The most logical place is in some isolated military base that is completely far away from population centers and is self-contained.” That sounds like GITMO to me, and the senator was none other than New York liberal Chuck Schumer. When a liberal like Schumer sees the light, conservatives are clearly winning the debate.

But here’s more evidence of the Left’s misplaced priorities. Remember the Department of Homeland Security report last year that suggested that conservatives, soldiers and pro-life activists were potential “domestic terrorists”? The administration took a lot of heat for that report and eventually retracted it.

But we’ve learned in recent days that it also acted on the report. The Associated Press broke a shocking story this week that the Obama Administration did in fact track pro-life activists in Wisconsin last year, conducting a threat assessment on several groups even though they clearly posed no threat to national security.

Unfortunately, this Administration is incredibly sensitive about making sure that admitted terrorists get their constitutional rights. But when it comes to American citizens, the administration tramples on the Constitution because its ideology tells it that the war against Islamic terrorism is just a misunderstanding and that conservatives pose the real threat.
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Gary Bauer is is a conservative family values advocate and serves as president of American Values and chairman of the Campaign for Working Families. He submitted this article in an email to the ARRA News Service Editor. Bauer was a former Republican presidential candidate and served as President Ronald Reagan’s domestic policy adviser.

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