RUSH: Everett Rosenfeld, CNBC yesterday. I’m reading to you from a news story. “Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday admonished those who supported democratic revolutions in the Middle East, telling the United Nations they led to the rise of a globally ambitious Islamic State.”
What happened yesterday at the United Nations is that Vladimir Putin just walked in and took over the role of leader of the world. Not leader of the free world, but leader of the world, and he was able to do it because we handed off, essentially, by virtue of our own country’s policies as orchestrated by President Obama, we’ve thrown it away.
We have abandoned our role as leader of the free world or any other part of the world because, in Obama’s view, it’s not our job, it’s not our responsibility, it’s not our right. We have no business doing anything that we’ve done in the past. It’s time for us to just leave it all alone. We’ve committed too many mistakes. We’re responsible for too much of the strife and the poverty around the world. It’s time that we got out. Putin recognized this and marched right in and is now running as much of the show as he can.
Here is what he said. This is through a translator. This is at the UN, Vladimir Putin, former KGB. And remember, folks, once you are KGB, you are always KGB. No one ever leaves the KGB. Here’s what Putin said: “Instead of the triumph of democracy and progress, we got violence, poverty and social disaster — and nobody cares a bit about human rights, including the right to life.” Putin said through a translator. “I cannot help asking those who have forced that situation: Do you realize what you have done?”
This, to me, is almost unfathomable. What Vladimir Putin said at the UN yesterday is what we used to be known for. Here is a former communist KGB agent talking about the right to life. We won’t even talk about the right to life in this country from our vaulted White House anymore. It leads me to ask, what’s the big deal about life on Mars anyway? We won’t even defund Planned Parenthood, which butchers life, so what’s the big deal about life on Mars?
Vladimir Putin, KGB. They’ve replaced it with a new name, but it’s still there, and he still runs it. Vladimir Putin at the UN. “Instead of the triumph of democracy and progress,” in the Middle East he’s talking about, versus ISIS, with Egypt, Libya, the Arab Spring, Syria, all of it is a gigantic mess. Putin got together with other leaders in the region and he and they have agreed on a new pact where they will share intel against ISIS. We aren’t part of it.
Vladimir Putin again: “Instead of the triumph of democracy and progress, we got violence, poverty and social disaster — and nobody cares a bit about human rights, including the right to life. I cannot help asking those who have forced that situation: Do you realize what you have done?” He added that “the power vacuum following these revolutions led to the rise of terrorist groups in the region — including the Islamic State group. He told the General Assembly it would be an ‘enormous mistake’ not to cooperate with the Syrian government to combat the extremist group. ‘No one but President (Bashar) AssadÂ’s armed forces and Kurdish militia are truly fighting the Islamic State and other terrorist organizations in Syria,’ he said.” Well, this, of course, is diametrically opposed to what we think. We think that Assad is murdering his own people. How many red lines has Obama drawn in the sand and dared Assad to cross? He’s crossed a bunch of them and we haven’t done anything.
“In an earlier speech at the UN , President Barack Obama said it would be a mistake to think that Syria could be stable under Assad.” Here’s Putin saying not only is it a mistake to think that, it’s the only way he can be stable, the only way the Middle East can be stable is if Assad remains in power and I, Vladimir Putin, am gonna make sure it happens. And Barack Obama and the United States become immediately irrelevant. Obama wasn’t even applauded that much at the UN yesterday, and he’s out there, he’s talking about how all of these military efforts have been bogus and a waste of time, that all of this is the result of a failure of diplomacy?
The UN is a failure, period, and its mission is diplomacy. Diplomacy, the lack of it, or the ill definition of it is precisely why the Middle East is in the mess it’s in. The world is not governed by the aggressive use of diplomacy. The world is not governed by the aggressive use of speeches. Our world is governed by the aggressive use of force. And we’re not playing. We’ve opted out. There’s a vacuum. Vladimir Putin, who wants to reconstitute Russia back into the great Soviet Union happily moves in to fill the vacuum and then lectures us on our abandonment of human rights, including the right to life, and then asks, “Do you people who’ve done this, do you have any idea what you have done?”
Now, there’s some people that criticized Russia yesterday over the Ukraine, Crimea, so forth. Putin said (paraphrasing), “Yeah, okay, fine, criticize me all you want, but I and Russia, we are only proposing to help save the world from terrorism.” But Obama doesn’t want ISIS called terrorists. He doesn’t want ISIS related to Islam. He doesn’t want Islam related to ISIS. He doesn’t want anybody thinking there’s any common ground there. And because of that his hands are tied in fighting these people. We will not dare refer to them as they are. They are militant Islamic extremists, but Obama won’t even say that. Putin does say it, says they’ve gotta be stopped.
He said, “‘I must note that such an honest and frank approach from Russia has been recently used as a pretext to accuse it of its growing ambitions — as if those who say it has no ambitions at all. However, itÂ’s not about RussiaÂ’s ambitions, dear colleagues, but about the recognition of the fact that we can no longer tolerate the current state of affairs in the world.’ He proposed a ‘generally broad international coalition against terrorism,’ likening the suggestion to the anti-Hitler coalition that brought together disparate interests to battle fascism in Europe.”
Well, that didn’t fly with Obama, either. He doesn’t want any of this that ISIS is engaging in in any way, shape, manner, or form compared to Hitler. Nobody wants to be compared to Hitler, obviously. But Hitler and militant Islamic extremists did happen to have a lot in common and did happen to be on the same side in World War II. Putin is simply calling a spade a spade here, but Obama doesn’t want any of this terminology popularized. He doesn’t want any of it used. He doesn’t want Hitler in the same sentence even with ISIS, and certainly not with militant Islam.
“Putin warned that international policy toward the region has led to an Islamic State with plans that ‘go further’ than simply dominating the Middle East. And citing recent data about failures in successfully recruiting ‘moderate’ Syrian opposition, Putin said countries opposed to Assad are simply worsening the situation.” He pointed a finger right at us. I never thought I would see the day where the Soviet leader — and that’s what Putin wants to be — was saying things that you had to pause and consider for a moment. And I never thought I would see the day, on one hand you’ve got the Soviet leader, the other hand the president of the United States, and being conflicted. Never thought I’d see that day.
Putin said, “We believe that any attempts to play games with terrorists, let alone to arm them, are not just short-sighted, but hazardous. This may result in the global terrorist threat increasing dramatically and engulfing new regions.” I mean, he’s pointing his finger right at us and Obama’s hands-off policy and Obama’s quest to make sure everybody understands that there’s nothing at all in common between ISIS and Islam. Think about this. We have a former KGB — well, no one ever leaves the KGB — KGB agent, president of Russia, a Russian leader, schooling us on human rights and moral clarity. That’s just unfathomable to me.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: No, no, no, no. Don’t misunderstand me. I’m not claiming that Vladimir Putin has assumed some leadership position with moral authority and so forth. I’m saying he’s gone in and claimed it, but that’s not who he is. He hasn’t changed. That’s what makes this so rotten and dangerous. Vladimir Putin is not a humanitarian. He doesn’t care about human rights, civil rights. He knows how to speak the language. He knows how to speak the language of the UN.
He knows how to speak the language of squishy, linguini-spined leftists. So he goes out and talks about all this stuff. The problem is, he’s able to. The problem is we’ve abandoned our role as moral leader of the world, defender and liberty of freedom in the world. We’ve abandoned it. We’ve left. We’ve gotten out of the world. Putin is moving in because he wants to reconstitute Russia as the Soviet Union. This is a power play.
What’s in the Middle East?
Oil.
What do you think Putin wants here? He wants domination for Russia. Nothing’s changed. It’s exactly what the old Soviet Union was all about. So we’ve checked out, and he’s checking in, and using the language of the left to soften them up and make them think he’s this new guy that we can all do business with. Anyway, it isn’t good, is the point. And to have this guy talking this way and sounding like American presidents used to sound, it’s insulting.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Yeah, and why is Putin able to use this language that mollifies all these linguini-spined libs at the UN? He uses the language and gets away with it because we’ve abandoned it. We’ve abandoned the language, we’ve abandoned the leadership, we’ve abandoned the positions involved. So he’s able to go in and fill the vacuum. And while he’s conquering in the Middle East and making deals with Iran for oil, we’re sitting back thinking everything’s safe.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: The news in the Middle East regarding Putin. I want to stress this again. I don’t want there to be any misunderstanding. I was not praising Putin as a new humanitarian. I found it incredible that he’s able to assume that role, because Vladimir Putin is not a humanitarian. Vladimir Putin is a tyrant. He has ambitions and dreams of reconstituting the old Soviet Union. He thinks that the dissolution of the Soviet Union was the greatest geopolitical disaster in modern times.
He has openly stated this, and he openly has stated his desire to rebuild and reconstitute the Soviet Union, not just Russia, which means reconquering a bunch of satellite countries. His focus now is in the Middle East, and the focus in the Middle East is due to one thing: Its oil. Well, the unrest as well, but look at what Putin’s been able to do with our help. He’s essentially kicking us out. We are abrogating any responsibility in the region.
We’re abrogating roles that we formerly assumed that were in existence rooted to our moral values, and that is protecting liberty and freedom and sponsoring it and promoting it all over the world. We now have a leadership that thinks that’s none of our business, and it never was our business, and that we need to pay a price for this assumption that we were special. And the price that we’re paying is the unrest brought about by our exit from the region.
So Putin is able to sound like former American presidents, talking about human rights, the right to life, democratic values and lecturing us and other nations at the UN yesterday in his speech. “Do you realize what you’ve done by basically turning the Middle East over to ISIS?” New York Times: “Obama and Putin Played Diplomatic Poker Over Syria.” That’s Obama’s not even at the table. Putin’s the dealer, but Obama’s not playing poker, 21, blackjack, or anything of the sort. From The Daily Beast of all places (this is the website started by Tina Brown):
“After Four Years of Failure in Syria, Obama Looks to Russia and Iran for Help.” This is from a website sympathetic to Obama from the first day Obama came on the scene. “When President Barack Obama spoke at the United Nations today, he opened the door wide to cooperation with Iran and Russia in an effort to end the Syrian civil war that has shattered the Middle East, spawned ferocious new terrorist forces, and driven millions toward the frontiers of Europe to seek safety.”
By the way, our policies of abandonment of the region are creating these refugees. Our abandonment of Iraq has led to the creation of ISIS. This is not just idle chatter here, folks, and it’s not just partisan politics. These are real-world events that our policies have resulted in. ISIS is a direct reaction to the US reducing its presence in the region, particularly in Iraq. Benghazi? That whole thing with Benghazi was in some convoluted way related to Syria. And Obama’s been all over the place in Syria in terms of who we support and who we don’t support.
Putin has come in to fill that vacuum as well. Obama thinks that Assad has to go. Putin said, “Oh, no, no, no. The only way this thing gets stabilized is if he stays as my ally.” So here’s Putin making new allied arrangements with Syria and with Iran, and you cannot take oil out of that equation. Here is Putin trying to get his hands on Mideast oil. You know, he already controls the flow of natural gas into Europe through pipelines. Putin single-handedly has the ability to turn off the flow of natural gas into the UK, for example, into the European Union.
He’s making moves now to similarly conquer, if you will, the Middle Eastern oil supplies that are currently held by Iran. But the thing that this Daily Beast story doesn’t quite get right, is Obama’s failures in the Middle East go back much longer than four years. It was Obama’s beloved Arab Spring back in the December 2010 era that started the civil war in Syria in the first place. Our fingerprints are all over this so-called Syrian civil war because we were sponsoring this great Arab Spring. What were we told the Arab Spring was?
“An uprising of democracy throughout the Middle East by citizens who had been under jackbooted thugs for who knows how long,” and it was the exact opposite. The Arab Spring was the rising of militant Islamic governments and organizations. Start with the Muslim Brotherhood. Now Obama has caved again, and nobody seems outraged about this. Look, that’s understandable, too. I find it a risk to even talk about this stuff on the radio. I don’t know how many people are interested in this anymore.
What with the excitement going on in the presidential race. All of this stuff in the Middle East, people don’t think it’s gonna touch us. “Who cares?” The only thing they care about there in the Middle East to any extent maybe the Iran nuclear deal, and that’s a done deal as well. (interruption) It is all related, which is why I’m taking the time to explain the latest machinations of it. It is all related. And this migration of all these so-called refugees is huge and holds terrific lessons for us. It’s a precursor. It’s a little look, if you will, at the future, perhaps, in this country.
There are other stories in the Stack today. NBC News: “Obama at United Nations: We Must Stamp Out ‘Apocalyptic Cult’ ISIS.” You know, Obama, it’s a strange thing with this guy. He’s gone now to even refusing to call Muslim extremists terrorists. He won’t even call ISIS terrorists. He calls some highly devout Muslim extremist a cult. But he will not call them terrorists. Now ISIS is an apocalyptic cult. The one word he will not use about anybody if they happen to have any ties whatsoever to Islam is the word “terrorist” or “terrorism.” And then he quickly walked it back. Turns out that it’s ignorant for non-Muslims to equate Muslims with terrorism. That’s his point. It’s stupid. Any of you who equate Muslims with terrorism are bigots and shortsighted, and you don’t understand what you’re talking about.
So I just think this stuff continues to happen, roll on around the world, and it’s considered like much of foreign policy, to be so far away that it is not relevant. But of course it is relevant. Obama’s not the last liberal there’s gonna be. Obama leaving in a year and a half or whatever, he’s not the last liberal. There’s Joe Biden out there, and there’s John Kerry and there’s Hillary and whoever else. The Democrat Party is full of these people. So the ongoing quest here is to educate, inform, open people’s eyes about liberalism and liberals and what happens when these people are in power.
Look at what’s happening to the American health care system. Now we’ve got even more Obamacare co-ops that are failing left and right. The Obamacare system is slowly falling apart. And we still do not have a Republican opposition party taking advantage of that in a political sense to move in and wipe it out and restructure it and rebuild an American health care system that actually works that is close to affordable, that at least is put on the right path. There’s destruction all over this country. There’s economic malaise. There is an overall decline in the country that a vast majority of the American people sense. It’s reflected in polling data.
There’s one reason for it. Who are the people responsible for this? You can’t say it’s the Republicans. They haven’t stood up for anything. As a result their fingerprints aren’t on anything. However, their fingerprints are also not on any effort to stop any of this. I’ll tell you what codified this for me, folks. When I kept seeing stories in the news media about despondent and depressed Millennials, despondent and depressed over their futures. Despondent because they have educations that are worthless. Despondent because the job is changing and there aren’t very many traditional career jobs, or not nearly as many. The job market is flooded with more Americans not working than ever before. The welfare state is on the rise.
Everybody understands this is not the way this country works. And you talk to Millennials, and they say, “Well, I guess the country’s best days are behind it. We kind of just missed it by the accident of our birth.” So a lot of Millennials are running around thinking that this great America that they’ve heard about, they’re gonna miss it, they were born too late. They do not associate current circumstances, whatever they be, economic, political, you name it, with the current administration.
For some reason they’ve been convinced that all of this is previous Republican presidents’ faults, starting with George W. Bush. And that Obama is some great hero trying to keep his finger in the hole in the dike doing whatever he can to stop all this from happening, but he may not be able to. He’s working and trying really hard. It’s absurd. So that’s why I continue the effort here to inform as many as possible about liberalism and about liberals and leftism in general.
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