"PERDICARIS ALIVE OR RAISULI DEAD," NO SUCH LUCK TODAY

TEDDY ROOSEVELT'S BRAND OF DIPLOMACY

STILL "GALLANTLY STREAMING?

Tuesday, 8:30 AM.  15 degrees F, wind WNW, light with stronger gusts. It is cloudy, overcast and beginning to snow in earnest, after depositing some light crystalline snow on roads and roofs overnight.  The humidity is 68% and the barometer is down or steady at 30.15".   It looks like yesterday was the best day to deer hunt so far and I missed it because I had an appointment with a plumber.  That's life, I guess.
    I talked with neighbor Eric this morning who hunts way out in the boondocks and usually gets his deer opening weekend, but he has seen nothing and is not going out until Friday when the weather is predicted to improve.  I will watch the weather and may go out and scout around a bit this afternoon, but it looks pretty futile at this point.  But at least we aren't getting hit by the big storm coming up from the gulf that is hitting the South and the East Coast.
   Secretary of state John Kerry, obviously with President Obama's approval, has completed negotiations in coordination with other major world powers, to allow Iran to continue its nuclear program for another six months with some rather dubious assurances it will not be used to produce an atom bomb.  Israel and Saudi Arabia are appalled, and congressional members of both parties are concerned, to the point of open rebellion by Democrats against the president.  I think the agreement a dubious deal at best, but at the moment I have other comments concerning it.
   The political philosophy we call Progressivism has more than a century of history, starting with the Granddaddy of all Progressives, Theodore Roosevelt.  He was a a night in shining armor to some, a rogue on horseback to others, but one thing was certain: he was an American patriot first and foremost. He projected American power as few American presidents before him, constructing his almost mythological Great White Fleet and sailing it around the world to convince both friends and foes of his nation's reach and power.  Love him or hate him, he never backed down from a fight and stood up for American values and interests abroad.
   Iran presently holds  several  Americans in its prisons: an Iranian-American Christian pastor who has been sentenced for preaching the gospel; an ex-marine who was nabbed while visiting family in Iran; and possibly a retired FDBI agent who was in all probability kidnapped from an Iraqi island.  The aforementioned negotiations with Iran were an obvious opportunity to pressure Iran for their release, as were the secret American-Iranian meetings which paved the way for the negotiations.  When we had maximum leverage and opportunity to obtain freedom for our citizens not a finger was lifted to gain their release, and they  are left twisting in the Iranian wind.
   Now page back in history to Theodore Roosevelt in 1904, and the Perdicaris Incident.  Ion Perdicaris was a less than admirable individual, a wealthy playboy of Greek heritage who subsequently was found to not even technically be an American citizen, but he was perceived to be so at the time he and his wife's son by a previous marriage were kidnapped by a Moroccan bandit named Raisuli and held for ransom.  The Sultan of Morocco was implicated as not being willing to negotiate with or confront the bandits (much like Tehran's situation with "students" supposedly holding Americans hostage during the Carter administration).
   Teddy Roosevelt's reaction to this affront to American national dignity was to send a flotilla of warships and a contingent of United States Marines to seize the customs houses of Morocco and then attack Raisuli if the hostages were not immediately released unharmed.  John Hay, Roosevelt's Secretary of State,  issued the unequivocal statement,  "Perdicaris alive or Raisuli dead."
   The hostages were quickly released and the message was sent to pirates and bandits and sultans everywhere that the United States was not to be trifled with, and that it would protect its citizens with the engines of war when necessary.
   How different from the message we are sending today: that the United States of America, despite its unrivaled  military  and economic power, will turn its back on its citizens in distress in foreign lands if it is convenient to do so; that being an American citizen is no longer a shield from pirates and brigands; that we have abandoned our sacred pledge to never leave one of our own behind.
   The Iranians embarrassed and diminished President Carter and the United States by  holding our Embassy staff hostage from November 4, 1979 to January 2, 1981.  They are doing the same to President Obama and the nation today.  In retrospect the Iranians did us a favor back then, as it caused us to dump the feckless Carter for the valiant Reagan.  No such luck today, as we are stuck with the current occupant of the White House for another three years.
   TR was a Progressive, but he upheld the nation's honor and abandoned neither our citizens nor our American heritage.   No such luck today.