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Does The White House Seek Out an Experienced Liar for the Job of Press Secretary or Must They Learn Quickly?
New White House press secretary Josh Earnest speaks to the media during his first briefing as press secretary, Monday, June 23, 2014, in the Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin) AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin

Does The White House Seek Out an Experienced Liar for the Job of Press Secretary or Must They Learn Quickly?

The White House Press Secretary's claim of global tranquility must come as a surprise to Afghanistan, Ukraine, Israel, Iraq and the nations around the South China Sea.

New White House Press Secretary, Josh Earnest, hit the ground running in his new gig. He has been in the job for only a month and already he is so belligerent in his version of truth that it seems like he’s been there forever.

This week in a response to a question about the hot spots across the world, the Press Secretary said:

“I think that there have been a number of situations in which you’ve seen this administration intervene in a meaningful way, that has substantially furthered American interests and substantially improved the, uh, you know, the – the tranquility of the global community.”

That sigh of relief you hear is not coming from Afghanistan.

New White House press secretary Josh Earnest speaks to the media during his first briefing as press secretary, Monday, June 23, 2014, in the Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin) AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin New White House press secretary Josh Earnest speaks to the media during his first briefing as press secretary, Monday, June 23, 2014, in the Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin) 

He didn’t elaborate on President Barack Obama’s call to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in which the president offered to broker a cease-fire in the middle of a shooting war between Israel and the Palestinians.

I feel certain that the prime minister kept his temper in check at the unreality of a situation in which his most important ally seems to be operating in a different reality. Netanyahu is still reeling from the first contact from us when a thousand rockets had been fired into Israel and our State Department called him and told him that the United States would like for Israel not to escalate the tensions by responding in kind.

On another front, perhaps Josh Earnest was focused on the relative peace that exists in the Eastern part of Ukraine after Russia annexed Crimea without having to fire a shot as the world stood mutely by.

Europe, after all, has many commercial complications with the Russians too entangled to be broken off and the United States quietly stood back and gave thanks that we had no NATO ties with Ukraine that had to be upheld. Oh, we did have a commitment to the sovereignty of their borders in return for them turning in their nuclear arsenal, but it wasn’t a formal treaty approved by the Senate anyway. Stuff happens!

BELBEK, CRIMEA- MARCH 22: Russian special forces storm the Ukrainian Belbek Airbase on March 22, 2014 near BELBEK, CRIMEA. Russian troops have seized control of Belbek Airbase, one of the last Ukrainian military bases which have not surrendered after the annexation of Crimea by Russia. Epsilon/Getty Images Russian special forces storm the Ukrainian Belbek Airbase on March 22, 2014 near BELBEK, CRIMEA. Russian troops have seized control of Belbek Airbase, one of the last Ukrainian military bases which have not surrendered after the annexation of Crimea by Russia. Epsilon/Getty Images 

Mr. Earnest apparently admires the tranquility in Syria to which we contributed by ceding our influence in Syria’s civil war to Russia. Syria now is being joined with Iraq by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria forming the caliphate of radical Islam. ISIS, having left Al Qaeda because it was considered too soft, has looted banks and antiquities forming the world’s first terrorist state with territory, money, armies and a purpose. That purpose is to kill all infidels which, as luck would have it, includes you and me and the rest of America as well as Israel.

Tranquility has also settled on Iran. Iran’s promise to stop the process of building a nuclear weapon is running into a bit of a delay and Secretary of State Kerry is on his way to Vienna to complete the last third of the agreement by which Iran ends its development of nuclear capacity. He will assure the other participants that progress has been made and that Iran is committed to the agreement reached in January, even though the final target date of July 20 cannot and will not be met and Iran is continuing nuclear enrichment.

It is easy for Iran to express their good intentions at this point since we already released their $20 billion in frozen assets. They got what they needed and will continue to develop nuclear capacity, but they do so while continuing to meet and pose.

A military truck carrying Shalamcheh missiles drives past the presidential rostrum during the annual Army Day military parade on April 18, 2014 in Tehran. On the right is a portrait of Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. (Photo: Atta Kenare/Getty Images) A military truck carrying Shalamcheh missiles drives past the presidential rostrum during the annual Army Day military parade on April 18, 2014 in Tehran. On the right is a portrait of Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. (Photo: Atta Kenare/Getty Images) 

The South China Sea was probably not on the mind of the White House press secretary in his survey of the world’s global tranquility. The People’s Republic of China is not confronting the U.S. directly and we seem not too interested in whom they are confronting.

They are, though, treading heavily on their neighbors in Vietnam, Taiwan, Brunei, the Philippines, Malaysia and Borneo.

The South China Sea is often called the “Second Persian Sea” and is expected to have large reserves of oil and gas for exploration.

China has an insatiable appetite for energy and is disputing ownership of islands as well as maritime boundaries and shipping lanes. Their military spending has been growing at more than 10 percent a year for some time and they are approaching superpower status. They can be very intimidating.

Our military is developing new tactics to confront China’s slow but steady territorial advances. Our first order of business is to ensure that our tactics do not escalate the disputes into a larger and broader military conflict.

Yes, it only took Josh Earnest a few weeks to survey the world and marvel at the global tranquility President Obama’s policies have settled upon it.

Do you suppose that they seek out an experienced liar for the job of press secretary or must they learn quickly?

John Linder served in Congress for 18 years from Georgia. He and his wife, Lynne, have retired to a farm in Northeast Mississippi. He can be contacted at: linderje@yahoo.com

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