To All the Screeching Partisans

The presidential campaign of 2004 and the confirmation hearings for Dr. Condoleeza Rice are examples of the self-indulgence that is rampant in politics and politicians in general. Forgetting that they serve the people, American politicians have set their sights, not on what they can do for their country, but what they can do for their group of constituents and for themselves rather than for the body of the American people.

The world is a more dangerous place since 2001, not only because of the Islamists. There are other serious problems: “signs of the emergence for the first time since the fall of the Soviet empire, of an anti-American block anchored by Great Powers.”

On one hand, there have been successes in the spread of democracy:

First, the good news. The great project of the Bush administration -- the strengthening and spread of democracy -- is enjoying considerable success. Most recently we witnessed the triumph of the Orange Revolution in Ukraine, which followed the Rose Revolution in Georgia, bringing historic breaks from authoritarianism in two key former Soviet republics. Less publicized were elections in two critical Muslim states -- Indonesia and Malaysia -- in which Islamic parties were decisively defeated.

Elsewhere in the Islamic world, we saw (though many downplayed) the Afghan miracle -- free and successful elections in perhaps the world's least hospitable soil for democracy. That was followed by Palestinian elections and the beginning of political reform. Even more encouraging was a public statement issued just weeks earlier by more than 500 Palestinian intellectuals demanding democracy, the rule of law, transparency and an end to Arafat-style dictatorial rule.

And in spite of the violence in Iraq, the political process moves forward and Al Qaeda has been diminished, although other extremists groups are likely to fill the gap.

Other more familiar dangerous are nascent. Anti-Americanism feelings are becoming more obvious in Europe, specifically in France and Germany, core countries of the E.U., Russia, still a nuclear power, quietly is beginning to revert to czarist authoritarianism and Russia and China are cooperating in economic ventures and military exercises.

China continues to be a concern by “developing relationships with such virulently anti-American rogue states as Iran…various self-styled anti-imperialist flotsam as Syria, North Korea, Cuba and (Chavez’s) Venezuela.”

Closer to home and even more troubling: China is out-producing our trading partners south of the border canceling out the economic gains of Mexico and other American states that would have benefited by free trade in the Americas, making the lure of migration to America more potent.

To thwart America’s interests abroad, “China is building strategic relationships along the sea lanes from the Middle East to the South China Sea in ways that suggest defensive and offensive positioning to protect China’s energy interests, but also to serve broad security objectives that many Pentagon analysts believe will be used to undermine the U.S. and regional security as well as “creating a climate of uncertainty about the safety of all ships on the high seas.”

The U.S. military’s Southern Command produced a classified report in the late 1990s that warned that China was seeking to us commercial port facilities around the world to control strategic “chokepoints.” An example: a Chinese company with close ties to Beijing’s communist rulers holds long-term leases on port facilities at either end of the Panama Canal.

"China ... is looking not only to build a blue-water navy to control the sea lanes, but also to develop undersea mines and missile capabilities to deter the potential disruption of its energy supplies from potential threats, including the U.S. Navy, especially in the case of a conflict with Taiwan," the report said.

Chinese weapons for sea-lane control include new warships equipped with long-range cruise missiles, submarines and undersea mines, the report said. China also is buying aircraft and long-range target acquisition systems, including optical satellites and maritime unmanned aerial vehicles.

To nullify the Monroe Doctrine, China is also developing a relationship with Fidel Castro’s protégée, Hugo Chavez. After a December 2004 visit, Chavez pledged support for Chinese oil exploration in Venezuela.

Emphasizing that bilateral energy partnerships have a "bright future," Chavez, who is visiting China, said the Venezuelan government would grant Chinese companies production permits to explore oil in Venezuela's oil-bearing blocks, the Xinhua news agency said.

He also promised to support Chinese companies' involvement in exploring off-shore natural gas fields in Venezuela, according to Xinhua, which said Chavez made the comments to businessmen.

Noting that Venezuela was planning to form a state-owned petrochemical corporation, Chavez said Venezuela also "welcomes China to help build this plant."

The two countries can also join hands to construct an oil pipeline reaching ports along the Pacific, he said.

The world is fraught with dangers that President Bush alluded to in his 2005 Inaugural Speech. Some of the dangers exist today in spite of the measures that are being taken to root out and thwart terrorist activities that, according to Bush, “can not be prevented even by the most secure borders.”

We have long had problems with narco-traffickers that have now turned to human trafficking for profit, moving illegal immigrants across the border for work and prostitution, and, it appears now for the purpose of terrorism.

Our prisons are overflowing with angry, dangerous and resentful men and women that are being recruited to extremist Islam by other prisoners and by visiting Immams that are there “to minister to the prisoner’s spiritual health.” Prisons are known as school for crime and now are becoming terror-recruitment camps.

Gangs that once were confined to big cities are now spreading out to find other outlets. Youth and adult gangs for both sexes routinely fight over turf and rights to criminal activities and reported are now being recruited for terror purposes.

Mexican irredentists are slowly re-occupying the Southwest. With collusion of the Mexican government, some plan to secede from the Union while others just want to drive Anglos out. Former President Ernesto Zedilla stated in a speech in Chicago that the territory of Mexico extends outside its borders and the present President Vicente Fox is working with President Bush to create a guest worker program that essentially with be an amnesty for the millions of Mexicans that are presently don’t recognize the legality of the U.S. Mexican border.

Extremist Islam has arrived to the U.S. in the form of Saudi Arabian petrodollars that fund everything from university chairs to “experts” in think tanks and U.S. government bureaucracies as well as various Muslim lobbies such as CAIR. Although beheadings and other violent murders have not yet been attributed to Muslim immigrants and have not received much press, such crimes have occurred.
Distrust and suspicion are again mounting between Muslim and non-Muslim as the apparent message of a recent killing in the Egyptian Coptic community is that Muslim extremists plan to continue their murderous ways to silence critics and opponents of Islam.

Screeching self-indulgent politicians focusing only on the Battle of Iraq and turf battles within the Beltway seem not to notice these other dangerous and important issues that threaten America. By appearing divided on the world stage they are heartening our enemies and emboldening terror contractors that believe we are weak and too involved in partisan politics to see or understand their machinations at here and abroad.

To the screeching partisans: shut up already and look around!