Senator Santorum hard pressed turns to...

A hat-tip to Captain's Quarters for an article on Senator Rick Santorum (R-PA) who is facing an uphill fight to retain his seat.

And that links to the NRO text of Sen. Santorum's speech, which I will extract a few salient pieces from:

I am here again today talking about this issue because Islamic Fascism continues to rear its ugly head. And because it is being joined by others, becoming a hydra.

The war is at our doorsteps, and it is fueled, figuratively and literally, by Islamic fascism, nurtured and bred in Iran.

Islamic terrorists planned a mass kidnapping at the Central Synagogue in Prague just a few weeks ago. They intended to carry it out on Rosh Hashanah, when large numbers of Jews would be celebrating the New Year. Once the world's attention was focused on Prague, they intended to make impossible demands, and then blow up the synagogue and all within.

Those people were not marked for death because they supported the war in Iraq, or supported George W. Bush, or sent troops to Afghanistan. They were targeted because they were guilty of being Jews. This is evil.

Bolding is, of course, my own.

Now, Mr. Santorum is flipping things around on the 'hydra' bit, because Transnational Terrorism is much larger than *just* the Islamic offshoots, although those are currently the worst of the lot. And Islamo-Fascism does serve as a relatively good category term for those involved in the extremist, non-Nationalist offshoots of the Islamic varieties. But here he is doing something that the Left will absolutely hate: he is defining what people are doing by their ACTIONS not their INTENT. Although both are evil in the case of Islamo-Fascism from everything that can be seen, but this is a distinct 'no-no' to the Left. Actually judging people by what they DO is just unheard of in those precincts. Needless to say he has already written that part of the electorate off to his opponent, so no loss there.

Now here, Mr. Santorum is heading into troubled waters:

How many Americans realize that Iran declared war on us 27 years ago - in 1979 - and has been killing Americans ever since?

Actually, I have been for quite some time and lay quite a bit at their feet in the way of deaths of US Civilians and Soldiers in Tehran, the two Beirut Embassy bombings, the Marine Barracks bombing in Beirut and the Khobar towers bombing. The US and its Citizens have been an active target for Iran since 1979 and remain so to this day. Those are all Casus Belli which have NO statute of limitations upon them.

Why is this troubled waters for the Senator?

The answer is simple: who sets the Nation to war when warlike acts are taken against the United States?

It is *not* the President who merely carries the standard forward to battle and secure the Nation with the Armed Forces.

No, the answer is: Congress.

Now he realizes that this IS hot water and starts to swim, and quickly:

He is only the latest in a series of Iranian leaders who have vowed death to us and visited death upon us. Our troops in Iraq are killed by Iranian weapons paid for with Iranian money, smuggled into Iraq by Iranian logistics, and utilized by Iranian-trained terrorists. A couple of years ago you needed a security clearance to know this. Today it is common knowledge. Iran is the centerpiece of the assault against us and the other countries in the civilized world, which is why I fought so hard for passage of the Iran Freedom and Support Act.

I fought for it, and, after years of opposition from the Democrats, some of my own colleagues, the State Department and even the White House, it is now law.

And when was the Iran Freedom and Support Act passed into law? On 30 SEPT 2006. Now there have been a few other bills, here and there on this topic, but this one is a teensy bit more assertive than those. The Iranian Hostage Crisis started on 4 NOV 1979 and ended on 20 JAN 1980. So using that last date the time between those dates is: 9,750 days. More than 26 years.

In that time Congress has changed hands, the Presidency has bopped back and forth and, in general, no matter how much one tries to pin this problem on *one* party, BOTH of them are at fault for not doing a thing to address this. Strange that the Republicans have had Congress to control for so long and only *now* start to address their responsibilities to the Nation in this area.

Still, its good chutzpah!

'Look I've been the cause of the problem for not addressing this and so has my party and NOW I promise to address it!'

Now he is *also* missing the mark by singling out Iran's Second Foreign Legion - Mahdi Army and not recognizing that they have been doing this since the establishment of their First Foreign Legion - Hezbollah in Lebanon. And as Hezbollah is now operating openly in Venezuela and recruiting there and Argentina and Brazil, there have been scattered reports of a Third Foreign Legion forming up in South America. Add that to the weak-State Syria acting in puppet fashion and you have quite a confluence of nastiness.

Is he serious about this? Well, read on:

Our growing challenge, however, is that Iran is not alone in its rhetoric, intent or capacity to threaten the security of the U.S.

It is important for Americans to know that the threat is more complex, and has grown more complex. The enemy that has to be named is greater than Islamic Fascism.

Just last month, in advance of the meeting of the U.N. General Assembly, Iran, Syria, North Korea and more than 100 other nations met in Cuba to discuss a push to broaden the world's definition of terrorism to include the "U.S. occupation" of Iraq and the "Israeli invasion" of Lebanon. Participating countries drafted a declaration condemning Israel but made no comments about Hezbollah's missile attacks on Israel.

Following this meeting of the non-aligned movement, I introduced a Senate resolution that expressed concern relating to the threatening behavior of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the ideological alliance that exists between the countries of Cuba and Venezuela. We must support the people of Iran, Cuba, and Venezuela in the quest to achieve a truly democratic form of government.

So, maybe he is trying to do something, but not putting any condemnation upon the UN *and* the so-called 'Non-Aligned Nations' is falling a bit short of the mark. In point of fact he still hasn't gotten to the entire concept of Internetworked Terrorism allying itself to Nations to strengthen the entire network. Cuba, North Korea and Syria are all implicated, but China, by not cracking down on illegitimate North Korean banking cannot be held blameless and Russia, surely knowing that North Korea was contacting one of the IRA's to pass supernotes, shouldn't be getting a free pass in this, either.

Now, he does go on to cite the problems with North Korea, but those are more properly those of China... which hasn't done much about Mr. Kim, save starve his people. HE gets enough food and so does his military. The US is merely a supporter of its allies in that area and we should act that way... with, perhaps, Congress pushing for that?

Luckily he comes back to talk more immediately about Iran and Venezuela:

Look again at the Iranians' strategy. A couple of months ago Ahmadinejad signed a mutual defense pact with his pal, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. Two dictators, awash in petrodollars, and besotted with hatred for the United States.

President Chavez, who called President Bush "a devil" at the podium of the U.N., spoke to the applause of those in attendance as he decried America. Calling America an "imperialist power," he says his ambition is to become leader of global alliance of nations to "radically oppose the violent pressure that the (American) empire exercises." This summer Chavez honored Ahmadinejad at a gala and plans to visit North Korea, at which an "oil-for-missiles deal" may be on the agenda.

And a bit further on:

Did you know that Venezuela will shortly spend thirty billion dollars to build twenty military bases in neighboring Bolivia, which will dominate the borders with Chile, Peru, Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil? The bases will be commanded by Venezuelan and Cuban officers. This is what the brilliant Carlos Alberto Montaner-a survivor of Castro's bloody regime-calls "a delirious vision of history," and it is driven by a new alliance of dictators from Iran, Cuba and Venezuela.

It is part of the grand design so proudly announced by Ahmadinejad: the destruction of our civilization.

Now Mr. Chavez is buying a bunch of toy crap from the Russians and Iranians which isn't much good for military purposes against the US. We have gotten quite far beyond *advanced Soviet technology* and can pretty much make a scrap heap of a force armed with such. Venezuela, no matter how much it buys, will never have the fighting spirit of the Old Iraqi Army under Saddam... the one that vaporized as it was defeated. You remember the lack of *any* Iraqi forces to stand-down after the war there? The Iranian strategy, however, is to keep the US distracted until it has an operational Foreign Legion in South America that will be hard to root out. Iran would *like it* if a few other Nations in South America fell, but they are not counting on as they see the direction of the production of Venezuela for oil is in decline. What they are buying is distraction and breathing room to get their OWN forces put in place. Forces aligned to them and paid by them, just like in Lebanon and Iraq.

Still he gets the final design goal right, so not bad for a politico trying to operate in Foreign Affairs.

But then Mr. Santorum proves himself to be an astute watcher on things and finally *does* come out and say what the problem is:

And the sad irony is, we are dependent on the very people who hate us. American imports 60% of the oil we need to fuel our economy. We are underwriting their efforts to undermine us.

Venezuela is our fourth largest supplier of oil. President Chavez called oil "a geopolitical weapon" and said "I could easily order the closing of the refineries that we have in the United States. I could easily sell the oil that we sell to the United States to other countries of the world ... to real friends and allies like China."

A recent Congressional report found that Hezbollah may, right now, have established bases in Venezuela, a country which has issued thousands of visas to people from places like Cuba and the Middle East, possibly giving them passports to evade U.S. border security.

To make matters worse, Cuba and China, with help from Venezuela, are together exploring and drilling for oil only 50 miles off the US coast. 50 miles off our coast. In an interview on Al-Jazeera, Chavez said working with Cuba is an example of how they will "use oil in our war against neoliberalism."

The most painful part of that is the very pointed *jab* at the Left with the 'neoliberalism' bit! That is a painful knife to receive and glad someone worthy is on the receiving end of it. Bravo! Now he has gotten to the meat of the matter and WHY it matters, which has taken a bit to get there, but he is a politician, after all. I have verbose speaking so will not speak ill of his inabilities there as mine are bountiful. And what is even better is that he does not have Seatwarmerism: the ability to say you will do something on the border and then wait 20 years to think about it.

Now he goes on to make many references to past conflicts and the inaction of America before they began and gets to the modern time:

Many Americans are sleepwalking, just as they did before the world wars of the last century. They pretend it is not happening, that it all has to do with the errors of a single American administration, even of a single American president. Some even pretend that it will all go away if only the Democrat Party-including my opponent who did not even know the name of the former Iranian president whose presence kicked up a firestorm a few weeks ago by coming to America-is elected in November.

How do they propose to save us from these people? By negotiating at the United Nations? By removing U.N. Ambassador John Bolton office? By relocating American forces from Iraq to Okinawa? By abandoning the Iraqi people to Iranian and Syrian slaughter and domination? By engaging in more direct talks with a nuclear North Korea?

No wonder Mr. Casey won't say anything about the danger from North Korea's nuclear bombs. He can't. He has virtually nothing to say. Except he does have something to say about preparing to defend ourselves against North Korea. He told the Council for a Livable World he opposes building nuclear bunker buster weapons and would halt deployment of national missile defense until, quote, "further research proves the system will work."

Time for research is past. North Korea has been building nuclear weapons to put on missiles that can reach our soil.

It's time to wake up.

Why yes, indeed it is, Mr. Santorum and well past time since 1979 and definitely in the '80s and by the time of the Clinton era non-response, we were well mired in a fight that we had not even started yet. And now, what will Mr. Santorum do? Read on, after some diatribing against his ostrich-like opponent:

It's time to stop dreaming and start acting. We have to bring the fight to our enemies, and that means we have to do a lot more than respond to their attacks in Iraq. We must go after the regimes that recruit, pay, train and arm terrorists. I am not-NOT-talking about sending more American troops onto foreign battlefields, or even dropping precision bombs from safe altitudes. I am talking about political and economic warfare, to bring down the terror regimes in Tehran and Damascus. The best way to do that is to support their own people, most of whom are eager for freedom.

That is why I drafted legislation that commits America to support freedom in Iran. A free Iran will be our friend, not an implacable enemy. We know that is true, because public opinion polls taken by the regime itself show that more than seventy percent of Iranians want to choose their own system of government and elect their own leaders.

Now, think about this very carefully. Here we have the vestiges of 20th century views that are mired in the mid-20th century, at that. Transnational Terrorism can and does exist without Nation State backing. al Qaeda is a case in point, but Aum Shinrikyo, for all of its strange 'end of the worldism' beliefs was actually *more* capable and able to leverage Western industrial capability and knowledge in an effort to just kill and do nothing else. It received little spin-up from the overall terror network, but it *fed into it* methodologies and designs based on what they had done. Luckily the Islamic brands of terrorism aren't industrially savvy and so don't get the fine points, but al Qaeda did pick up methodology and then some just by observing another organization at work. NEITHER of those was State sponsored, supported or funded and will exist WITHOUT Syria, Iran, North Korea or Cuba. One was supported by rich Sheiks in Saudi Arabia and by a distributed financial network, and the other was supported by a network of computer sales stores and low cost religious labor. While the information and contacts that flow IN to the network from Nation States gets distributed throughout the entire network, the network ITSELF is not amenable to simply removing Nations.

That is the *problem* with having survived the 20th century, an era when Nation States ruled supreme: we are not used to thinking about things in *any* other way until it is too late.

Going on, from there to cite 'Free Trade' without mentioning the fact that such supplies our Enemies with low cost goods at NO added burden to the seller starts to wildly miss the mark. So close to the final conceptual leap and then turning hard back to the 20th century for answers.

From there he goes on to energy policy, which I find amusing as it is Big Government band-aidism at its worse. He does understand some of the problem and has stated the problem with lack of drilling and refining capability, but then moving into coal liquefaction is... well, interesting but not salient. I have looked at an Energy Independence Policy that puts government into the back seat, just enforcing some bare minimums and giving polluted Federal Land to folks wanting to run refineries, all the time paying prizes to companies willing to get the one, true source of energy down *pat* for the Nation. I look at some other folks trying to do the 'green' route and then offer a stop-gap policy from now until the final energy solution is up and running.

That is the sort of wide-ranging ideas I *expect* from a Senator and am not seeing. Big Government is not helping this problem and is a cause of much of it and 'band-aid' solutions without a framework will have their own problems due to lack of foresight. That is only minimally better than the other Party wishing to move back to caves at some point so as to lower pollution levels.

He closes up with some nice phrases here and there, and is basically saying: the other side is clueless and I have got ONE CLUE!

Well, better than nothing, thats true.

But a way forward to 20th century solutions that DIDN'T WORK THEN?

So interesting to come that close and then step away from saying: 'I am going to push for Congress to let *any* American willing to fight in their own way to take Warrant and Letters to do so and the Government will reward them for those things Congress sees needs be done.'

All trust in the Government.

None in the People.

And for that BOTH Parties are guilty.

Oh, and who is he appealing to?

Jacksonians.

We take the Direct Approach.