Monday, July 28, 2014

The World Is A Mess

"The world is a mess," declared former Secretary of State Madeleine Albreight on Face the Nation this week.

 Liberals act as though Putin's aggression, the rise of ISIS, the attack of Hamas on Israel, the gains made by the Taliban in Afghanistan, our forced abandonment of our embassy in Libya and ounce and our own border crisis are independent occurrences.  I assure you, they are not.  They are a direct consequence of the foreign policy (or lack thereof). It began with the "apology tour" early in the administration when Obama trotted around the globe beating his breast about America's sins, stating that America "has shown arrogance and been dismissive, even derisive" toward Europe, and that be believed in American exceptionalism the same way, "the Brits believe in British exceptionalism and the Greeks in Greek exceptionalism."  In a unipolar world, Obama saw the U.S. as "getting too big for its britches" and a source of instability in the world.  The reality is just the opposite.  Without the moral, economic, and, yes, military force of America pushing back against totalitarianism, those forces envelope the world.  When America leaves a void, others fill it.  When America stops asserting its influence, others being to assert theirs.

Adversaries listen to what you say and watch what you do and respond accordingly.  When you draw red lines and then don't follow through, when you "pivot away" from a region, when you "let the Europeans come to their own conclusion [on Putin]," when you "lead from behind," when you announce precisely when you are going to withdraw your troops, when you slash your ability to fight 2 wars simultaneously to 1 and then to 1 but only if it is short, when you cut your navy to the lowest level in a couple generations, your enemies notice.  And so do your ever dwindling supply of friends.

No, it's no accident that in a single administration, the Islamic fascists have basically gotten a head start on establishing a caliphate in the Middle East and simultaneously Russia has begun the process of reassembling the Soviet bloc.  All the while, Hillary Clinton is asserting straightfaced that, "the reset with Russia worked,"  It did.....for Vladimir Putin.

If you are an adversary of the West, now is your time.  In 5 1/2 years, Obama has largely undone  the gains of the surge in Iraq and is on his way to reversing the collapse of the Berlin Wall.

Saturday, July 19, 2014

How's that Reset Button Going For Ya?

Five years ago, the Obama administration and Hillary Clinton pledged to hit the "reset button" to improve relations with Russia after they had turned icy following Russia's invasion of Georgia.

You see, Republican foreign policy is stuck in the the past.  Hanging on to old notions of the Soviet Union is so 70's and 80's.  It's time we recognized that Russia has progressed since the days when they would invade other sovereign countries and shoot down passenger airliners...and then lie about it.

Right?

Every day I am more nostalgic for Jimmy Carter.

With Hillary as the presumptive front runner for the Democratic nomination in 2016, if the Republicans can't derail her on the Benghazi and "reset button" with Russia alone, they don't deserve the White House.


Saturday, July 5, 2014

Own It!

A Quinnipiac Poll released this week showed that a plurality of Americans now believe that President Obama is the worst president since 1945.  If I were included in the survey, I think it would go back a bit farther, but the worst in 70 years is a far drop for a president that came into office on a crest of hope and change and Roman columns in the background.

How did this happen?  The New York Times is writing this swoon off to the sour mood of America or the general staleness of the 6th year of his administration.

Despite my general opposition to the bulk of his policies, I do not believe that his drop in the polls is due solely to staleness or to our sourness.  It is mostly, I believe, due to his administration's failure to take ownership of any of the difficult issues that it faces.  Not a single one.  Even more astonishing is that no one was held responsible for any of these pratfalls.

Here is my list of items that have gone south for this administration and to whom it ascribed blame:

ISIS in Iraq - Bush's fault
Worst post war economic recovery- House Republicans [for not spending more]
Government shutdown- See above
Healthcare.gov- House Republicans again [for not approving additional funding]
Benghazi- Filmmaker's fault
Failure of Mideast peace process- Netanyahu's fault
Monster debt and deficit- Rich people's fault
NSA spying- Snowden's fault
Mexican children piling up on our border- House Republican's fault [for not doing immigration reform]
Trayvon Martin- inherent racism in America's fault
IRS scandal- Local "rogue" administrator's fault
Crimea- Putin's fault
Keystone pipeline-Climate change deniers' fault
VA scandal- Bush's fault
Resurgence of Taliban in Afghanistan- Bush's fault again
Iranian nuclear program- You guessed it--Bush's fault
North Korean nuclear program - Truman's fault
Fast and Furious- Still trying to find out whose fault it was.  In any event, it was not Holder's fault He didn't know about it.
Unwanted pregnancy of Hobby Lobby employee- Bush's fault for nominating Sam Alito
High gas prices- Oil company's fault
Destruction of Lois Lerner's emails- hard drive manufacturer's fault

I think I have it about right.  Contrast this list with Ronald Reagan's ownership of the Iran-Contra scandal.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Pa4_NBlYK8

In it, Reagan takes ownership for the scandal unfolding on his watch and blames himself for not asking the right questions.   Is it any surprise, then, that Reagan was viewed as the best president since 1945.

Policies aside, it comes from owning it.