Radio Moscow Redux

Sales of Depends® doubtless to increase after this news. Now class, let's review: 1. Iran sends a matchstick into space w/ a ham radio-in-a-box atop it; the first one they've built all by their lonesomes & successfully (maybe) launched! 2. Said box whips around earth every few minutes, going "Beep! Beep!" or "It's cold up here, except the half where the local star is frying my circuits." 3. Paranoia strikes. W/ the subtext that the dirty wogs are filthy liars, because they've made similar claims, or that they're incompetent. If & when the air-tight radio stays up long enough, the Petey Paranoids can wave their hands & screech like their forebears did when the savage, primitive Soviets threw Sputnik in their faces. Danger, Will Robinson!

4. Don't let them fool you. This particular piece reached print & visible-electron stage before the satellite launch hit our screens, but you can bet that a greater plea for missile defense could have been worked into until the very last moment before hitting "Send." Don't let anything else in it fool you either.

Like this:

A reduction in defense spending this year would unnerve American allies and undercut efforts to gain greater cooperation. There is already a sense around the world, fed by irresponsible pundits here at home, that the United States is in terminal decline. [...] The announcement of a defense cutback would be taken by the world as evidence that the American retreat has begun.

The many announcements that more troops will begin pouring into Afghanistan are central to Kagan's point, as the righties say. Really don't believe this. It's the newest thing from the wrong side of the political tracks, "Don' t'row me in dat briah patch!"

Cuts in the defense budget would have consequences in other areas of the budget, most notably foreign aid. Some Republicans have already begun to grumble about foreign aid and development spending. If the Obama administration begins by cutting defense, it will be much harder to persuade Republicans to support foreign aid.

"Don't make us not-support foreign aid. Heavens, no, we sure don't want to do that! And if you follow our train of thought, if defense spending is reduced, then Republicans will be less likely to support foreign aid." 

Could they be any less pro-foreign aid? When was the last time Reagan got up on a stump & railed against it? It's '50s- & '60s-reminiscent/nostalgic (They're certainly playing a lot of what they think are their "Greatest Hits" lately, aren't they?) but beyond us. Perhaps in Mr. Kagan's mind those ol' Dems are so enthralled by the prospect of giving Joe the Plunger's unpaid taxes & Tom the Daschle's paid taxes to wogs on the other side of the planet for non-military purposes that in return they'll continue to shovel untold numbers of babies & billions of $pork into the maw of Moloch the Pentagon's pit of Defense profiteers & campaign contributors.

 9/11 changed everything, we know, but isn't Egypt still the largest non-military recipient of so-called foreign aid? May be military "aid" in there as well. And that's just to keep what our Limey cousins used to call "The Gyppos" from jumping all over Israel. (And to help maintain control over the restive fundamentalist population. And rendition. And, &c. No wonder Kagan's in favor of Republican-style foreign aid.) Israel, to whom we sell arms, so it can be a plausible threat to Egypt.

The author of this ode to stimulating the economy & tingling the leg is a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Certainly sounds cute, doesn't it? Worth a closer look? Maybe. Peace & Economic Stimulation Through Defense Spending? Been there, etc.