Fred on Foreign Policy

via NRO. Say this about Fred, he's actually taking the time to speak to the base, and through historically fashionable conservative outlets. My take is that he will announce sometime soon, maybe by Memorial Day. He certainly has a way of getting his point across in plain language without being overly condescending (well, maybe to the French). I'll quote Fred as he runs down a number of foreign nations, and give my opinion parenthetically.

"It bothers Americans when we’re told how unpopular we are with the rest of the world. For some of us, at least, it gets our back up — and our natural tendency is to tell the French, for example, that we’d rather not hear from them until the day when they need us to bail them out again. But we cool off. We’re big boys and girls, after all, and we don’t really bruise that easily. We’re also hopeful that, eventually, our ostrich-headed allies will realize there’s a world war going on out there and they need to pick a side -" (Love the sentiment here, pretty much sums up my feelings on foreign policy!)

Europe - "most of our European friends continue to dismantle their defenses" - (Yup, pretty much sums up their foreign policy.)

Mexico - "Mexican leaders apparently have an economic policy based on exporting their own citizens, while complaining about U.S. immigration policies that are far less exclusionary than their own." (Ouch, that's gotta sting a little, President Calderon).

France - "The French jail perfectly nice people for politically incorrect comments, but scold us for holding terrorists at Guantanamo." (The French talent for hypocrasy appears infinite - much like the Deomcratic House and Senate leadership.)

Russia - "Here is a government apparently run by ex-KGB agents who have no problem blackmailing whole countries by turning the crank on their oil pipelines. They’re not doing anything shady, they say. They can’t help it if their opponents are so notoriously accident-prone."
(He may have Putin putting out a contract on him tomorrow. Fred also notes mysterious little things like anti-government protesters and the media have a hard time getting permits - while pro-government groups appear to have little trouble wiht such trivial matters.)

Unfortunately, he misses several of my favorite targets - China, Cuba, and Venezuela. Maybe next week. I saw something yesterday I found interesting, speaking of Fidel's little island paradise. Apparently a group of ten refugees, two families if I recall correctly, were intercepted by the fine folks of our own US Coast Guard, but apparently Fidel didn't want them back as it was their fourth attempt to leave utopia.
Who then, do you think, in all the wide world, took in these refugees? The US stored them temporarily at Guantanamo (one wonders where Amnesty International was during all this), but the government apparently decided we already have too many freedom loving Cubans or something. Wet foot, dry foot, if I recall correctly, is the US policy - make it on land and we take you, we find you out in the ocean, not so fast.
No, the wonderful Czech Republic, that little bastion of freedom, remembers all too well the wonders of Communism and took in the Cubans. It is the first instance of the Czechs taking in Cuban refugees, and hopefully not the last. The really beautiful thing about the story? The immigrants attitude - the are already inquiring about Czech language lessons and looking for work. Good luck & hats off to them, I wish more US immigrants would take the same attitude.