International Affairs

As Yoav, 11, Elad, 4, and their parents, Ruth and Udi Fogel, were stabbed to death by terrorists in their home in Itamar, and 3-month-old Hadas had her throat slashed, France’s Sarko urged Obama to open fire on Gadhafi. These were parallel events, although we on the far perimeter of the world’s four corners might not have noticed what was going on in the center of the world. Nor did we notice when Palestinian militants in Gaza fired 50 mortar shells into Israel on Saturday, the heaviest barrage in two years.
 
“Slaughter of a sleeping baby is unacceptable as a tool in the struggle for any type of liberation. It comes from a dark place, from a place that simply wants to destroy you,” said Moshe Feiglin, an Israeli leader who wants Israel to turn “the state for Jews” into a “Jewish state.”

What happened in Japan is truly awful. In the wake of a devastating earthquake that shook the island nation to its very core lies destruction, loss of life and a solemn emptiness that will be felt for generations.

That’s the soul of the Japanese — they care for their own in unimaginable ways. From the manner in which they treat their country’s elderly (many remain with their families to their last days, not in institutions) to their disciplined work ethic, there is much to be admired. Just look at the story of those fearless 50 who, as I write this, are dug in deep into a nuclear reactor core, trying to defuse that situation.
 
But another soul was laid bare this week in response to the tragedy — the benevolent, giving spirit of the American people. From our government to individuals such as The Hill readers, each gives of his or her time, talents and fortunes to help a people half a world away. Even $10 at a time makes a world of difference.

President Obama said last week that he was slowly “tightening the noose” around Col. Moammar Gadhafi, the Libyan dictator.  

Jay Carney, the White House press secretary, said yesterday, "We have acted with the utmost urgency ... together with our international partners to put pressure on Moammar Gadhafi and his regime.”

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton meets with opposition forces in Libya, promising to help.  

In the meantime, Gadhafi keeps rolling up victories in one town after another.

This is winning, Charlie Sheen style.

According to news reports, the latest earthquake pushed Japan 13 feet closer to the United States. On an Earth that charts movement in millimeters, not yards, that is an amazing feat.  

Still, America is going on with its life strangely disassociated from the immense catastrophe that has befallen our closest ally in that part of Asia. The death toll from the tsunami is but one part of the horrific story now being played out in Japan. The other part of the story, of course, is what is going on with its battle with its own nuclear reactors.

Japan has a particularly tragic history with radioactive death, being the only recipient of nuclear weapons in warfare. Despite that history, Japan has for decades embraced nuclear energy, mostly because it didn’t have any real choice. In a land that has few natural resources to produce the electricity that is essential to live in the modern world, the Japanese embraced nuclear energy as the best way to be energy-independent.

There’s an old cliché used by diplomats about their own craft: Think twice before saying nothing. I am reminded of this in the context of Libya, where it looks increasingly unlikely that there will be international military action against Col. Moammar Gadhafi. But in the meantime the hand-wringing goes on.

There has never been any love lost between the mercurial Gadhafi and the Arab League, which raised the pressure over the weekend with a call to the U.N. to enforce a “no-fly zone.” But the 22-nation Arab League added a serious caveat opposing foreign interference in the affairs of Libya. An Arab version, perhaps, of “Yes we can, but … ”

Vice President Joe Biden is in Russia, lecturing officials there on the need for reform but emphasizing his earlier and friendly metaphor, echoed by his boss Barack Obama, that it is time for the U.S. to “push the reset button” in its relationship with Russia. While in Moscow, Biden also met with President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

While Biden is in Moscow, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper is testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee. He tells visibly stunned senators that the biggest threats to our nation are Russian and China. Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.) suggests that in his opinion, Iran and North Korea are more menacing to the U.S.

A lot has been written and said recently about the United States’ position with respect to the Libyan government’s conflict with its people. The situation on the ground is near levels of full-scale civil war. And after this weekend, it appears Col. Moammar Gadhafi is taking back what many rebels captured in the initial throes of this campaign.
 
That’s unfortunate, and I would argue certainly not in the best interests of the U.S., nor for stability in the region. Concepts of “the devil I know …” are continuously brought up when comparing the tyrant to what could replace him in that leadership vacuum.
 
But the potential for terror far outweighs any downsides of a leaderless Libya, at least in my mind. And for these reasons, the United States should begin to get more engaged in the region. A few reasons:

Joe Manchin, the new senator from West Virginia, put it pretty well. President Obama has “failed to lead,” he said.

I might have put it differently. Obama has failed to even show up.

Woody Allen once said that nine-tenths of any job is just showing up. The president is not currently meeting that threshold.

The president has not only failed to lead on the budget negotiations. He is leaving that job to Joe Biden and Harry Reid. Well, let’s be clear. He is leaving all of the negotiations to Harry Reid, the man who just barely beat Sharron Angle last year.

The Wall Street Journal has a story today about pressure on the U.K. government to strip Prince Andrew, 51, of his role as the country’s special trade envoy, in part because of his “ties to a convicted sex offender.”

That would be American Jeffrey Epstein, 58, who served some 13 months in prison before being released last summer. Andrew’s ex-wife Sarah also figures in the story for accepting a loan of $24,500 from Epstein to pay off a debt. In an AP report the headline is more graphic: “Duchess of York got loan from wealthy U.S. pedophile."

The Romans twice ran Libya.

The first time, they brought the Libyans a “Golden Age.” As Wikipedia puts it: “As a Roman province, Libya was prosperous, and reached a golden age in the 2nd century AD, when the city of Leptis Magna rivalled Carthage and Alexandria in prominence. For more than 400 years, Tripolitania and Cyrenaica were wealthy Roman provinces and part of a cosmopolitan state whose citizens shared a common language, legal system, and Roman identity. Roman ruins like those of Leptis Magna, extant in present-day Libya, attest to the vitality of the region, where populous cities and even smaller towns enjoyed the amenities of urban life — the forum, markets, public entertainments, and baths — found in every corner of the Roman Empire. Merchants and artisans from many parts of the Roman world established themselves in coastal Libya and the province was greatly 'Romanized' ... "