[img]1|left|Ari Noonan||no_popup[/img]More than any of the numerous folly-fueled policies of President Obama, his bullheaded refusal to become even remotely serious about Iran, the bomb and the idiotic Smiling Dwarf is my choice for his most ill-advised decision.
I have argued for months that Mr. Obama’s remarkable inattention to the Smiling Dwarf stems from the hushed-up $50 million campaign donation the Dwarf handed to him in July of ’08. The deal was that the President would ignore the way the Dwarf ran Iran and, by the way, wink-wink, built a bomb designed to scare, kill or both.
Swish Obama probably is the most immature, undisciplined, unprepared President to step into the White House — even more incapable than Mr. Lincoln’s successor, alcoholic Andy Johnson. One difference is that an Obama mistake could rupture or destroy America, not to mention Israel, whom the Dwarf regularly threatens to annihilate.
A Johnson gaffe was so incidental by comparison that it probably would not even make the newspapers.
This morning’s critical question:
Is Obama performing so spectacularly incompetently while acting as his own perpetual motion foreign minister because he does not know any better or because he is chillingly calculating?
At this still-early stage of his Presidency, we cannot tell. I know of no one, left, right or elsewhere, with a truly convincing conclusion.
How Do You Read His Clues?
Smart conservatives are divided.
The erudite Michael Ledeen is a scholar who probably comprehends, and dissects, modern American foreign policy more pristinely than anyone within four countries of Washington.
Even though he is a mainstream thinker, you are not likely to read Mr. Ledeen’s reasoning many places because of the dominance of liberals mesmerized by the glow around Mr. Obama’s head. They sing Obama Alleluia every morning instead of soberly assessing his performance and policies.
Judging harshly but, I believe, fairly, Mr. Ledeen says of President Obama:
He is not an admirer of America. He believes that America’s past behavior is the root cause of the world’s problems, and he wants to bring America under control by making it just another European country: impotent in world affairs (except for spreading the wealth) and stripped of its traditional exceptionalism at home.
That’s what his latest initiatives are all about, the new nuclear policy and the removal of clarity from our national-security doctrine by banning words like “jihad” and “Islam.” Since he considers us the problem, he imposes a nuclear doctrine that reins in America — the root cause of evil in the world. And since he wants to turn America into a weak country that will accept the political correctness of the feckless “international community,” he adjusts our language to bring it into line with the U.N.’s version of Newspeak.
Let us turn to the brilliant Prof. Victor Davis Hanson of Cal State Fresno, who believes that in seemingly running around to a different continent every day, making chest-thumping pronouncements, that the President lacks savvy, is confused and broadly uninformed.
Speaking wistfully, Prof. Hanson says:
If only Obama treated Iran or Syria as he does Bush, Sarah Palin and the top 10 percent of American taxpayers.
He continues:
During the 2008 campaign, the Obama group argued that Bush & Co. were insensitive to allies and had acted in clumsy, unilateral fashion, permanently damaging our stature in the world. Given the first 15 months of foreign policy in the new administration, we can see now that Obama's critique largely meant that we had damaged relations with supposed belligerents like Cuba, Iran, Russia, Syria, and Venezuela — inasmuch as right now, British, Colombian, Czech, German, Honduran, Indian, Israeli, Japanese, Polish, and South Korean leaders might privately prefer the good “bad” old days of the supposed cowboy Bush.
Whatever the reasons, I think the seeds have been sown and the harvests will soon be upon us. Any initial delight that the world’s masses found in a post-national, post-racial, charismatic young American President will begin to be eclipsed by their leaders' realpolitik calculations, both old friends and enemies — namely, that the U.S. will probably not assist (other than in soaring rhetorical cadences of empathy) any past ally in its hour of need, and will probably not oppose (other than in meaningless deadlines and melodramatic contextualization) any past enemy in its newfound efforts to readjust regional realities.
Finally, Prof. Hanson warns that it is open season to say or do anything one wishes with Israel. Further, he says, Israel should accept that the U.S. no longer will provide support for it at the U.N.
I wonder how the 53 percent of American voters whom President Vague fooled a year and a half ago are feeling as they sit amidst the wreckage of our zigzagging foreign policy.
At least Russia — Russia? — is thrilled to have a nuclear tampdown agreement with us, which means we can sleep peacefully, doesn’t it?
