The Beat Goes On

I confess that I have never quite seen a foreign policy grand strategy like this one.   In keeping with our posture of turn our backs on our friends and offer unilateral concessions to our foes, the Obama administration once again, without consulting Congress, grants the Cuban tyranny legitimacy by re-establishing diplomatic relations.

This follows the "reset" button with Russia in which we threw our allies Poland and the Czech Republic under the bus by suddenly scrapping missile defense in Europe and then promising Medvdev "flexibility" after the elections.    After those warming gestures, we were treated to Russian tanks in the Crimea.  

Then we loosened up sanctions against Iran, hoping that gesture would show that we are acting in good faith and that showing them warmth would coax them into giving up their nuclear program.  Of course, the Iranians pocketed the concession, and now the NEW deadline is July 1, 2015.  Don't hold your breath, fellas.

Yet, we continue to harangue Israel on the settlements and have even considered sanctions against them.  No such remonstrations against Cuba for its human rights violations.  Hmmmm.

Now, without any concessions on elections, a free press, or human rights or any of the things we at least used to care about, the Obama administration is restoring diplomatic relations, reasoning that "what we have been doing for 50 years wasn't working."  It actually did work.  Cuba was isolated and largely contained.  With the mortality tables telling us that the Cuban government is about to transition the octogenarian Castro brothers out of office, the Obama administration shrewdly deemed it a wise policy to open up the economic floodgates to ensure that the pesky island stays in Communist hands for another 50 years.  Indeed, less than 24 hours after Obama's announcement, Raul was affirming his country's commitment to Communism.

But, I've been accused of taking an unduly harsh view of Team Obama's acumen with respect to foreign policy matters.   So let's look at the bright side and the possible benefits of this new relationship with Cuba.  In particular, I thought of a few reasons why Obama and some others might welcome this development.

• Having gotten the hang of ruling by fiat, Obama might want some ideas on how to keep a regime going for 50 years.
• Cuba does have universal health care, so he might be eager to learn how they got their website to work.
• Jerry Reinsdorf will no longer have to pay money under the table to get quality ballplayers on his roster.
• Another nice, warm place to golf.
• Ideas for best practices for state owned enterprises.
• Maybe another Mariel boatlift to dovetail with the administrations's immigration policies.
• And, of course, the cigars.

It is a sad reflection that on the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, this administration's policies have gone a long way toward rescuing expansionist Russia and Communism  out of the dustbin of history.

Ferguson

"What we see in Ferguson is not restricted to Ferguson."
Eric Holder

What did we see in Ferguson, exactly?   A multi-racial grand jury decided that we saw a police officer following his training and appropriately defending himself against a 6'4", 300 lb violent criminal that happened to be black.

Who is responsible for the death of Michael Brown?  Michael Brown and no one else.

And what we see in Ferguson is more people acting violently because they don't like facing that reality.  Personal responsibility is a bitch.

Unlike the Trayvon Martin case where Zimmerman was not a professional and had an opportunity to avoid a confrontation, this case is unambiguous.   Brown was going for Officer Darren Wilson's service revolver, leaving him very few options other than the use of deadly force.  The liberal press continues to use the word "unarmed" to described Mr. Brown, but the stark fact is that Mr. Brown was ONLY unarmed because officer Wilson got to his revolver before Mr. Brown did.

The liberals and the looters WANT a different narrative.   They want the story to read that an overzealous redneck, racist, trigger happy cop gunned down a poor, innocent unarmed African American.  Unfortunately, no matter how they attempted to distort the facts, they don't fit that narrative.   And because they are desperately trying to tell a different story, they do a great disservice to the black community and the rule of law in Ferguson and elsewhere.  

No matter what race you are, the easiest way to avoid getting shot by a cop is to cooperate and, for God's sake, don't assault an officer.  It's that simple.  Secondly, burning cars and looting are bad responses to outcomes we don't like.  Michael Brown apparently committed several crimes.  It was a sad and unfortunate consequence that he paid for those crimes with his life.  But none of the prosecutor, the grand jury or Officer Wilson are responsible for his death, nor is the vestiges of racism.  Mr. Brown ultimately made bad choices and the responsibility rests with him.

I agree with Mr. Holder that what we see in Ferguson is not limited to Ferguson.   It is an attempt to deflect responsibility for bad outcomes away from the person that is ultimately responsible for those outcomes.

Protection Please

Several weeks ago, I questioned why the government permitted Ebola victims to be flown back to the U.S. for treatment.  The safest way to deal with a virus is to keep it out.  Period.  Organisms are hard to control and mutate and scientists have been warning of a for some time.  Pandemics are to biological systems what crashes are to economic systems. They happen.

But the Obama administration blithely ignored those risks and not only brought victims here, refused to impose a travel ban on flights from Africa that are known "hot zones."  Of course, the predictable happened (even though Obama asserted that it would be unlikely).  Ebola got here.  People made mistakes.  And now we have had our first transmissions of Ebola in the U.S.

Tom Frieden, head of the CDC gave us cold comfort when he cavalierly asserted that, "we can control Ebola."  I feel so much better now.

Job 1 for the government is to protect its citizens from harm.   The problem now is that government has gotten so big and so preoccupied with all the other things that it has undertaken, that it cannot perform its primary function.   And, under Obama, we have seen repeated failures to protect and those failures are disturbingly frequent.  In the past couple of years, we have seen Benghazi, the rise of ISIS, the failure of the Secret Service to protect the White House, and now, a micro-organism.

The rank incompetence of government now is breathtaking.  And those in charge simply blame shift.  ISIS has been blamed on Bush.  Susan Rice blamed Benghazi on some two bit filmmaker.   Lois Lerner blamed the IRS targeting of conservatives on a "rogue office" (and now asserts that holding her accountable is due to anti-Semitism).   Eric Holder blamed Fast and Furious on low level functionaries (and similarly asserted that criticism of his administration was due to racism).  The Obama administration follows a predictable pattern.  In today's New York Times, Obama is reportedly angry over the response to Ebola.  First, they blame shift.  Then they get angry.

Contagions, like nuclear weapons, often do not allow for a large margin of error.  This government has now shown that it cannot adequately protect its leader or its embassies.  How can we expect it to protect the rest of us?  Obama admitted that he underestimated ISIS.  Is he now similarly underestimating Ebola?

Obama now is contemplating appointing and "Ebola czar."  If he appoints Kathleen Sebelius, I think I may head to the North Woods with a survival pack for awhile.

Are You Serious?

Just weeks after it was revealed that the Centers for Disease Control may have lost control of vials of smallpox, anthrax and bird flu and shut down a laboratory because of it, the CDC and the State Department are facilitating the transport of two Ebola infected citizens back to the US for treatment.

What could possibly go wrong?

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.

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.

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.