Between the Jewish High Holidays and the death of my brother in law, I had little time or inclination to blog. Sorry. So here are some comments on the latest:

Iran is back in the news. It clearly decided to follow the North Korean strategy of forcing the world's hand. It told the IAEA what the Western intelligence services claim they knew but pretended not to know so that they can claim that negotiations with Iran is a viable option or serious sanctions a real possibility.

The result? The usual suspects Obama, Brown and Sakozy got in front of the camera to tell Iran it better start behaving or else. Missing from the line up were Russia and China. In other words, Obama's good will gesture towards Russia, i.e., throwing Eastern Europe to the bear, failed to achieve the intended result.

Encouraged, Tehran continued following the North Korean script by testing short range missiles which can reach Israel.

So far Iran's strategy is working beautifully. The world is refusing to acknowledge that appeasement failed. Ahmadinejad can continue oppressing his own people, denying the holocaust, threatening Israel with extinction and giving interviews to MSM reporters.

Matters in Afghanistan are going from bad to worse. Stanley A. McChrystal, the man hand picked by Obama, submitted his report. It predicts that absent an additional 40,000 U.S. troops, the Taliban/Al Qaeda coalition will retake Afghanistan. His boss, Defense secretary Gates sits on the report. The frustrated commander decides to go public with the help of none other that the famed Bob Woodward.

Gates responds by promising not to force Obama to make a decision by not showing Obama officially the report everybody can read on the Washington Post. Bob Woodward tries to regain Obama's favor by going on This Week and arguing that Obama is special as he is willing to listen to many voices. Bush acted on gut feelings, Woodward says. Obama has no gut feelings. Of course, America's enemies are counting on Obama not having any guts, period.

What can I add except that on this Yom Kippur, I plan to fast and pray real hard that the price we are going to pay for having an inexperienced narcissist in the White House will be as low as possible?

Oh, yes, I will also pray for my unemployed fellow citizens whose numbers keep swelling each day.