OBAMA FAILS TO STAND UP FOR AMERICAN INTERESTS IN HONDURAS
Does the fact that the coup is in the interests of the United States even matter to our president?
One less Chavez stooge - a designation that everyone agrees is correct and was the proximate cause of the coup to begin with - is very much in the interests of the United States in Central America. And yet here’s our president, hopping on the international politically correct bandwagon to condemn it.
Obama does not see the clown Chavez as a threat despite his attempts to meddle in Colombian politics by supporting narco terrorists to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars in aid. Nor does Chavez exporting his “revolution” to other countries where his influence is magnified and where his stooges try to emulate his anti-democratic policies seem to bother our commander in chief. And I guess the fact that the Lebanese terrorist group Hezb’allah setting up training camps in Venezuela has no connection to the geopolitical alliance between Chavez, Syria’s Assad, and the Ayatollah’s in Iran.
In fact, after swearing off “interferring” in Iran where demonstrators were getting shot, beaten, and axed to death, our clueless Chief Hypocrite worked frantically behind the scenes to save Honduran President Zelaya’s job, thus interferring on the wrong side while making himself out a liar on Iran.
Paul Kiernan, Jose de Cordoba, and Jay Solomon of the Wall Street Journal report on the attempt by the White House to save Chavez’s stooge:
The Obama administration and members of the Organization of American States had worked for weeks to try to avert any moves to overthrow President Zelaya, said senior U.S. officials. Washington’s ambassador to Honduras, Hugo Llorens, sought to facilitate a dialogue between the president’s office, the Honduran parliament and the military.
The efforts accelerated over the weekend, as Washington grew increasingly alarmed. “The players decided, in the end, not to listen to our message,” said one U.S. official involved in the diplomacy. On Sunday, the U.S. embassy here tried repeatedly to contact the Honduran military directly, but was rebuffed. Washington called the removal of President Zelaya a coup and said it wouldn’t recognize any other leader.
The U.S. stand was unpopular with Honduran deputies. One congressman, Toribio Aguilera, got prolonged applause from his colleagues when he urged the U.S. ambassador to reconsider. Mr. Aguilera said the U.S. didn’t understand the danger that Mr. Zelaya and his friendships with Mr. Chavez and Cuba’s Fidel Castro posed.
Retired Honduran Gen. Daniel López Carballo justified the move against the president, telling CNN that if the military hadn’t acted, Mr. Chávez would eventually be running Honduras by proxy. It was a common view Sunday. “An official who was subverting legality and had violated the Constitution was removed,” wrote Mariela Colindres, a 21-year-old Honduran who is studying at Indiana University, in an email. “Everything was done legally and this does not imply a rupture in the constitutional order.”
First of all, it should be pointed out at the outset that the Honduran military has already handed power back to the civilian authorities - an almost unprecedented action in these banana republic coup d’etats. The Honduran legislature named Roberto Micheletti, the nation’s Congressional leader and member of Zelaya’s own political party to replace the ousted Chavezista - another almost unprecedented act.
Further, the military was acting under the orders of the Honduran Supreme Court although they apparently exceeded their authority by whisking him away to Venezuela. And finally, it was Zelaya’s actions in violating the constitution, ignoring a ruling by the Supreme Court that any referendum be put on would be illegal, and the universal belief in Congress, the military, and much of the populace that eventually, he would little more than a stand in for Chavez if he was allowed to carry out his illegal referendum that sealed Zelaya’s fate.
And yet our president, acting contrary to American interests, chose the route of least resistance and condemned what many Hondurans believe was a restoration of constitutional order. The president will find himself in familiar territory with this condemnation - Castro, Ortega, and other Latin American leftist thugs also condemned the coup. Maybe someone could look it up but when was the last time we were on the same side with Cuba on any international issue?
Way to go Barry. Like, we should listen to the Castros when they complain about democratic procedure not being followed?
This was always the biggest risk in electing Barack Obama president with his mushy headed belief that we must subsume American interests to those of the rest of the world so that we could be popular again. That he would fail to stand up for American interests when the chips were down should not surprise us. He said as much during the campaign and he is simply carrying through with that promise.
What will he do if Chavez decides to use the military he has purchased from Russia and China with his oil money to invade Honduras and re-install his stooge Zelaya? How could we possibly intervene when the president has gone on recrord agreeing with Chavez that what happened was “illegal?”
Chavez has proven in the past to be more bluster than anything but he is so unpredictable, such action would not be impossible.
Then what, Mr. President? When Honduran democrats are crying for help, will you dismiss them as you have dismissed the protestors in Iran? It would seem Obama would have little choice now that he has sided with the enemies of democracy in the region.
The world Obama is creating - one with a supine and pliant America who bows to the wishes of every thug, every dictator who struts across the stage, threatening their neighbors or their own people - is a more dangerous world, a less free world, and a world where our traditional advocacy for stability and democracy is lost amidst the pious platitutdes of this starry-eyed leftist ideologue.
What happened in Honduras is a good thing for America and for the Honduran people. Given Obama’s rhetoric during the presidential campaign, it should come as no suprise that he refuses to recognize this and instead, curtsies to Hugo Chavez and other thugs in the region whose policies are inimicable to US interests.
This blog post originally appears in The American Thinker.
Quite right: but please avoid using the term “coup.” Properly it was an impeachme3nt- the removal, on Constitutional grounds, of a rogue president who was openly defying the law and the Supreme Court.
So, Ogabe yukking it up with Chavez was just “manners,” huh?
Comment by Bohemond — 6/29/2009 @ 8:48 am
Did Glenn Beck write this for you Rick?…..or Malkin? or was it Ann Coulter?
I have been saying since this man began to run for president that he was advocating a policy of subsuming American interests in order to placate the rest of the world. He has made this absolutely clear and the American people knew full well that this was his foreign policy when they voted him in.
The only people who are arguing that the impeachment of Zelaya (voted on by the Honduran congress for his unconstitutional actions) is illegal are people who agree with Obama that American interests should take second place to other nation’s interests.
Considering that each of those worthies you mention have come in for a scathing critique of their positions on issues by me - particularly Beck and Coulter - it is a mystery why you would say that except that you are incapable of independent thought and are only able to mouth talking points instead of making a rational argument. That bespeaks a stupidity that I find quite prevalent among most leftists.
ed.
Comment by JoJo — 6/29/2009 @ 8:49 am
just waiting for a carbon health care coup of our own, nice piece rick, thanks for doing your homework…
Comment by jambrowski — 6/29/2009 @ 9:24 am
Bravo… well said.
Comment by lionheart — 6/29/2009 @ 9:37 am
I think the fact that the media and the White House keep referring to it as a “coup” (as in an illegal act), when the Honduran military simply arrested the President and immediately handed off power to the Constitutional government, is revealing.
Comment by Mike Giles — 6/29/2009 @ 11:37 am
BRAVO! Rick, you hit the nail on the head on this! Imagine if Al Gore ignored the supreme court and showed up on inaguration day and tried to become president in 2000? Or if the city of New Haven chose to ignore the supreme court ruling handed down today? The armed forces had to act. This Zelaya was trying to change the constitution to benefit HIMSELF! Just like President Piggy has done in Venezuela. This makes former president Carter look like a right-winger. President Obama should be ashamed of himself!
Comment by Mark J. Goluskin — 6/29/2009 @ 1:11 pm
I can certainly understand a desire to have a public stance that doesn’t convey support of yet another Latin America coup (given our history. And yes I understand its not a “coup”) but this response seems to be counter to the “nuance” that Democrats are so proud of pursuing. Is it not possible to express a simple “concern” about the process and then let it quietly go (and quietly give a sigh of relief)
I would be deeply disappointed if the Obama administration did no understand the problem of Chavez-lite governments throughout Latin America.
Saw that spin coming out of the state dept. this morning. My point is that why care what other Latin American leftists think? Yes, we have an awful history with regards to over throwing governments. But as I have made the point previously, we also have a record of doing good as well - aid packages over the years totaling hundreds of billions in investment, food, shelter, medicine, and other basic needs. That story rarely gets told nor does our support for democrats over the last 25 years against communists. It’s a mixed bag to be sure but it is one dimensional and untrue to say it’s all bad.
ed.
Comment by c3 — 6/29/2009 @ 2:18 pm
An excellent article, it really brings us up to speed on the events in Honduras. Thanks for being there.
Comment by Stogie — 6/29/2009 @ 7:08 pm
[...] words, Zelaya was blatantly abusing his power, and this prompted the military to arrest him. Rick Moran puts his finger on key questions: Further, the military was acting under the orders of the Honduran [...]
Pingback by Shape Shifter « The Pugnacious Irishman — 6/29/2009 @ 8:30 pm
[...] other words, Zelaya was blatantly abusing his power, and this prompted the military to arrest him. Rick Moran puts his finger on key questions: Further, the military was acting under the orders of the Honduran [...]
Pingback by Shape Shifter (Updated) « The Pugnacious Irishman — 6/29/2009 @ 8:43 pm
The entire role of Zelaya seems a little uncertain. I know he had been talking about running for second term of office in defiance of the Hondurian Constitution, but had he actually started to carry out actions towards this end? Perhaps the Army acted too soon; had they waited until Zelaya had showed his anti-democratic credentials more strongly, they could have been rid of him for good. Coups are very serious business, and it is unclear that this one was absolutely needed at this time.
Now the dude has sympathy from all over Latin America. Could it be that Obama is tentatively supporting Zelaya finishing his term, so that we doesn’t piss off our newly upset neighbors by supporting a pre-mature coup?
Comment by Surabaya Stew — 6/30/2009 @ 12:02 am
This post has been linked for the HOT5 Daily 6/30/2009, at The Unreligious Right
Comment by UNRR — 6/30/2009 @ 5:22 am
[...] other words, Zelaya was blatantly abusing his power, and this prompted the military to arrest him. Rick Moran puts his finger on key questions: Further, the military was acting under the orders of the Honduran [...]
Pingback by Shape Shifter (Updated) | Mosaic Media — 7/2/2009 @ 8:46 pm
Comment to #11. It was not a premature “Coup”, or a coup. The VERY DAY Zelaya was taken out of power, he was planning on dissolving the Congress. The poll he was taken was going to be used to set up a Constituent Assembly. The Constituent Assembly has complete power over all parts of the government, thus, Zelaya, was actually planning on giving the country a Coup, in his name, that very day, June 28th, when the army came in and took him off power. He had only published the real intent of the poll on June 27th, where it stated that the people would be voting to decide wether or not they wanted to set up a Constituent Assembly. This is the reason the army and Supreme Court had to act the way they did. It seems rash when seen from the outside, but Zelaya really didn’t leave much of a choice. If they hand’t acted, Honduras currently would be under the power of a Constituent Assembly set by him and in the power of reforming the Constitution to his and Hugo Chavez and the Castro’s liking! But the current constitution in Honduras is so strict and so well written that it has 8 articles that can’t be reformed, because the mere pretense of trying to reform one of them constitutes treason. And it clearly states that whoever tries to reform them immediately ceases to hold their title and will not be able to hold public office for the next 10 years. You can reform all other articles without a Constituent Assembly, so it is understood that if you want to form a Constituent Assembly it is for the sole reason of changing one of those 8 unchangeable articles. And that is the reason that Constitution has lasted as long as it has and no one has been able to become a dictator since. Please, write to the White House, Congress, let them know your concerns as US citizens! The USA should be defending Democracy and Freedom!!
Comment by jc — 7/6/2009 @ 10:26 pm