E Pluribus Unum

Rosemary Esmay writes (presumably in her husband's place, who has vowed to stop reading this blog):

My grandfather was taken away to Stalin's camps for the crime of being an Elder in a small farm village full of dirt-floor one-room houses. My parents and aunts and uncles were rolled over by that murdering
bastard Stalin...

...All this was still going on while he was allied with the U.S. and Great Britain against Hitler. He was still busy murdering Jews--and Poles, and Catholics, and other Slavs--while he was meeting with Roosevelt and Churchill at Yalta....

Dean's right. You still haven't said clearly what you want the Bush policy to be. Even now you still haven't done this. You're also being selective. Dean's never defended the Sauds. He's repeatedly called them pigs and treacherous snakes. He also never said you were a Bush Basher because you've said you won't vote for him.

You're being very selective in what you quote, when you aren't just making things up.

By the way, do you ever get tired of that Valley Girl "What. Ever." business?

You still believe I haven't said clearly what I want the Bush policy to be?

I'll try again, in words of one syllable.

This would be my "Teddy Roosevelt" approach:

1. Send a clear sign,
   
2. And/or take new steps.
   
3. But pull back, if need be.

   I pause while you contemplate...Moving on:

4. They must see: things are worse.
   
5. We may take the first step to end talks.
   
6. We may take the first step to send them home.

   I pause again while you contemplate...Moving on:

7. This is not a joke.
   
8. Time is short.
   
9. Make it clear: what goes down next is up to them.
   
10. P.S. ==> DON'T. TEST. ME.

Sorry if that is over the 25-word limit. I think it's a fair and balanced approach. It is proportional. It is calibrated. We speak softly and carry a big stick.

The big stick? You know. Seizure of the oil fields and air bases. Everyone knows the US is capable of doing it.

But do we need to SAY it? Nope. Everyone knows the realities.

Should we DO it? Must we do it? Time will tell.

When in doubt, please consult steps 8-10 above.

Bottom line? Speak softly, but carry a big stick.

You might feel that we are being rude to them. Even if I thought that was true, my reaction would still be to say, "tough luck."

But it won't be rude because it could be done entirely back-channel, if necessary.

That's what the "striped-pants" boys (again, Truman's phrase) are paid to do.

On another point, you say Dean never defended the Saudis. You say he's repeatedly called them pigs and treacherous snakes.

Well. Is this why he said the following?:

"I think that all these folks have their hearts in the right place."

Which is it? Pigs or soulful allies? You can't have it both ways.

If it's the latter, then I'm reminded of Jimmy Carter's literal embrace of Leonid Brezhnev just before the Soviets invaded Afghanistan.

There's an eery reprise of that in Bush's declaration that he had gazed into the eyes of the former KGB head Putin and seen that he had a good soul.

Hope Bush's thing turns out to be more accurate than Carter's. But I'm an American; I have experience with Murphy's Law.

Re: your long recitation of Stalin's bloody history...I have two comments.

First, I'm well acquainted with the record. And (if anything) it proves my point, not yours.

I know that the alliance was a calculated risk by Churchill and FDR. They knew that Stalin would open up the Eastern front and kill Nazis. They could not have predicted the scale of the next 50 years of horror and slavery and oppression and death that the Allies would get in the bargain.

And if they did, then may God have mercy on their souls.

That said, we are the beneficiaries of 20-20 hindsight.

Shouldn't we at least be debating a bit more whether we want to REPEAT that prior episode in world history...

...instead of vilifying and mocking those that question ANOTHER such alliance...? Come on! Stalin killed Nazis! What are the Saudis doing? They are covertly funding the killing of Jews!

My second comment:

Rosemary, my life has been pretty good in America. I thank God that my father brought us here. It was the best thing he ever did and he did a lot of good things in his life.

I think you probably feel the same way, too, about your life and your family.

But the reality is that, because neither one of us was born here, we have no illusions about the rest of the world out there.

We know what the world is like, in a way that native born Americans can only imagine.

My children's grandparents on both sides have experienced first-hand the horrors of war, genocide and Holocaust.

But I've taught them that we're Americans now.

What does that mean? It means two things: It means that we can forgive but we must NEVER forget.

Ara

P.S. As far as the "valley girl" thing? Sorry. But I've been meaning to ask Dean -- What's up with calling people a "butt-head?"

Tell him I said hi.