Who is Harshing our Memorial Day Weekend? Better yet, WHY?

I was going to try to take a breather and stick to spring cleaning and cocktailing this weekend.  The rest of the world evidently doesn’t know it’s the official start of the US summer!  I suppose one of the things about blogging is its ability to play to the obsessive streak that probably exists in all bloggers. So, let me put this to you, because no one at BJ’s over on Rue Dauphine last night would engage my question. Doesn’t it strike you as being extremely coincidental that the same day North Korea sets off an underground nuke, we also wind up with a fleet of Iranian warships in the Gulf of Aden effectively threatening both Yemen and Saudi Arabia and we get a big no on the nuclear negotiations? I mean, what is up with this? Did the stars align just correctly on a Memorial Day weekend to send all  moonbat dictators on world threat alert?

North Korea exploded a nuclear device Monday morning, startling the world with its second underground test in three years and vexing the Obama administration, which has said it wants to solve the nuclear impasse with North Korea.

The test, described as “successful” by the communist state’s official Korean Central News Agency, escalates a pattern of provocation that this spring has included a long-range missile launch, detention of two U.S. journalists, kicking out U.N. nuclear inspectors, restarting a plutonium factory and halting six-nation nuclear negotiations.

So, the Iranian rationale for sending six warships to the Gulf of Aden is piracy.  However, theses pirates are from Somalia which is not so close to the Saudis.  Some of the problem areas have been near Yemen but more south in the Indian Ocean and out toward the Arabian Sea.  Why are these ships so far north?

Navy Commander Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari announced on Monday that Iran has sent 6 warships and logistic vessels to the Gulf of Aden and the surrounding international waters.

Sayyari, who made the remarks while visiting the development projects and installations of the Iranian Navy here in Tehran, described the measure as “unprecedented in the history of the Iranian Navy”, and added, “This important move indicates the country’s high military capability in confronting any kind of foreign threat along the coasts of the country.”

He expressed hope that the Iranian Navy experts and specialists would continue daily progress in all fields of surface and sub-surface and arms technology and production.

On May 15, Iran dispatched two warships to the troubled waters off the coast of Somalia and the Gulf of Aden to safeguard Iranian trade cargo ships against piracy.

The move was in line with UN resolutions 1838 and 1846 and a request by the Safety Committee of the International Maritime Organization (IMO).

Perhaps this is just a little bit of pre-election posturing by Iran’s ever colorful Ahmadinejad.  Yes, maybe the mullahs have declared jihad on pirates.  However, this news was also announced about the same time they rejected the latest Western nuclear deal.   The most interesting part of the rejection was the challenge from Ahmadinejad to POTUS to engage in a debate on the floor of the UN. (Guess Ahmadinejad watched the Democractic primary debates and decided it would be an easy take down.)

Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Monday rejected a Western proposal for it to “freeze” its nuclear work in return for no new sanctions and ruled out any talks with major powers on the issue.

The comments by the conservative president, who is seeking a second term in a June 12 election, are likely to further disappoint the U.S. administration of President Barack Obama, which is seeking to engage Iran diplomatically.

The United States, Russia, China, France, Germany and Britain said in April they would invite Iran to a meeting to try and find a diplomatic solution to the nuclear row.

The West accuses Iran of secretly developing atomic weapons. Iran, the world’s fifth-largest oil exporter, denies the charge and says it only wants nuclear power to generate electricity.

Breaking with past U.S. policy of shunning direct talks with Iran, Obama’s administration last month said it would join nuclear discussions with Tehran from now on.

Ahmadinejad proposed a debate with Obama at the United Nations in New York “regarding the roots of world problems” but he made clear Tehran would not bow to pressure on the nuclear issue.

So, FOX news has trotted out John Bolton who of course sees this as a vindication of his overtly militaristic approach to diplomacy.  Thankfully, all he can do is bloviate with the other bloviaters at this point and SOS Clinton is currently on the phone with the other countries involved with the so-called six party talks.  Bolton’s analysis seemed to contradict all that  Bush insistence on the six party talks.

“This is a moment of truth for this administration,” Bolton told AFP.

“They put all of their faith in the six-party talks. The North Koreans have thumbed their nose at the administration and now we have to see what kind of stuff they (the new administration) are made of,” Bolton said.

He urged Obama’s team to first put North Korea back on the list of state sponsors of terrorism following its removal in the waning months of the Bush administration.

Bolton also urged the UN Security Council to expel Pyongyang from the world body as a “persistent violator” of UN resolutions.

Ultimately, Bolton said, North Korea wants nuclear weapons because it is motivated by the desire to preserve its isolated dictatorship, adding it has no interest in nuclear diplomacy.

Excuse me, but if you’re complaining that we’ve had such bad results from the six party talks over the years, isn’t part of that your faulty strategy?  Or are you now saying you were just following orders then?  So, why are all these thing escalating right now?  AND, why are they harshing a perfectly good three day American Holiday?  Inquiring and obsessive bloggers like me, want to know.