U.S. Foreign Policy: Bookerista Perspectives

Deroy Murdock: "Obama’s Great Chinese Bank Snobbery"

The libertarian Republican commentator argues that the president foolishly disses China: "In one of today’s richest ironies, America’s fiscal health — such as it is — hinges on the generosity of the Chinese Communist [P]arty. Annoying Beijing’s mandarins could prompt them to skip our Treasury auctions. If China stops lending the Treasury money to underwrite Uncle Sam’s spendaholism, the Federal Reserve will need to print even more dollars to nudge the day of reckoning back over the horizon. The Chinese have urged Washington to stop spending and printing so much money, lest inflation turn China’s $800.5 billion in Treasuries into a giant misfortune cookie. Chinese officials have grown increasingly vocal — and decreasingly diplomatic — in asking the U.S. government to start practicing fiscal discipline....In other words, like a panda bear in a jewelry shop, China is tiptoeing away from the dollar and into gold, and doing so quietly enough not to rattle commodity and currency traders. This month, China also bought $50 billion in Special Drawing Rights, the International Monetary Fund’s brand-new Esperanto currency that blends euros, pounds, yen, and dollars."

He continues his commentary: "The Bush-Obama administration’s fiscal incontinence is staggering, unprecedented, and potentially lethal. Fiscal year 2010’s budget deficit likely will reach $1.4 trillion. Far worse, the Heritage Foundation’s Brian Riedl estimates, President Obama will generate $13 trillion in fresh deficits by 2019, swelling publicly held national debt to $20 trillion, or 99 percent of gross domestic product. Obama should shift into reverse. He should use his formidable persuasive skills to secure an immediate spending moratorium, slash the budget across the board by, say, 20 percent, and set future expenditures at or below inflation. If he cannot do this, America will have little choice but to keep the Chinese Communists cheerful and eager to buy U.S. bonds. But rather than pursue the fiscal conservatism counseled by [Chen] Siwei [former vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the Chinese National People’s Congress] and other sober Chinese — or just keep Beijing calm and cooperative — Obama did something supremely idiotic: On September 11, he launched a trade war with Beijing. For the next three years, Chinese tires will face a 35 percent import duty. This is like slashing your banker’s steel radials just before handing him your home-mortgage application. Fiscal recklessness aside, this is dreadful trade policy. First, no surprise, the target of protectionism retaliated. China immediately commenced anti-dumping actions against U.S. chickens and auto parts. Americans in those industries soon will suffer."

More: "In yet another irony, Obama promised to be the multilateral, consensus-building antidote to the venomous George W. Bush and his allegedly go-it-alone, my-way-or-the-highway diplomacy. Today, Barack Obama looks like quite the unilateralist."

Ken Blackwell: "Camp David Syndrome"

The conservative Republican commentator opines about the Obama administration's latest effort toward crafting a Middle East peace settlement: "What we have yet to hear is why the U.S. should want a Palestinian state to be formed in the Mideast. When the Israelis evacuated from Gaza and the local residents held elections, they promptly voted in Hamas, the terrorist organization. Hamas supporters stormed the residence of the late Yassir Arafat and stole his Nobel 'Peace' Prize. Now, there’s poetic justice. On the West Bank, Arafat’s loyal lieutenant, Abu Abbas, maintains a precarious perch. The U.S. is giving $900 million in aid to his so-called Authority for allegedly humanitarian purposes. This is where bombers use ambulances to run rockets to and from Palestinian hospitals and where children dance in mock explosive belts before PTA meetings in schools named for suicide bombers. This is what we want more of? For Peace’s sake? For Pete’s sake! I was amazed to see President Obama come on TV so soon to call for a Mideast breakthrough. I didn’t think he was in that much trouble on the domestic front already."

Cobb: "Obama's Foreign Policy Is Useless"

Asserts the moderate-conservative Republican blogger in Redondo Beach, Calif., on the Iran situation: "Increasingly, Barack Obama sounds like one of those stentorian orators of the era of the League of Nations and disarmament. Iran is building, hey guess what, a second nuclear enrichment plant. And experts are beginning to see the light that it's very likely that they can build a nuclear weapon within the next six months. Ours is the president who extended the unconditional hand of high level diplomacy and got smacked in the face. So what's he going to do? Condemn the actions with the strongest rhetoric possible, I'm sure."

Ripclawe: "White House Won't Make Guantanamo Closing Deadline"

The conservative Republican blogger in Florida writes about the four months left to meet the Obama administration's self-imposed deadline: "When they made the big announcement early in the year of closing Gitmo in one year, they were told without a plan and not counting the diplomatic/political obstacles this was not a smart move. Now reality which probably set in months ago is being made public to smooth the upcoming delay announcement."