George Rebane
We anxiously await President Obama’s foreign policy speech tomorrow in which he will again make “perfectly clear” a strategy with which no one, and I do mean NO ONE, in the world has seen as anything but meak, muddled, or missing. RR is on record as one of the earliest to recognize that this president is a naïf on foreign affairs (including geography), and demonstrably not suited for his high position – most recently expanded on 10aug14 in the ‘The Foreign Policy of a Community Organizer’ and the 7sep14 ‘Shamed into Strategy?’.
The main problem with Barack Obama has turned out that he has no backbone nor much sitting on top of it for understanding America’s required and, yes, self-sacrificing role in the maintenance of a liberal world order. He arrived at our helm at the terminus of a lavishly ladled and lapped up line of bullshit that defined the sum of his ‘achievements’, and then thought he could also make those assets work in prime time on the international stage. It turned out that the only ones he would bamboozle in that effort was the Nobel committee – but that’s another story.
Today we see Samantha Powers at the UN finally admitting that Syria did not declare all of its chemical WMDs that Team Obama so proudly hailed as justifying why the president’s vaunted ‘red line’ was quickly erased after Assad stepped over it and gassed some more of his people. Well, who in hell believed that Assad would put everything on the table for someone like our clueless leader? But recall that Obama’s lackeys kept trumpeting the success of that revanchist policy while quoting that 95+% of Assad’s chemical weapons had been destroyed under the UN’s supervision.
Most certainly the leaders of Russia, Iran, Iraq, al Qaeda, North Korea, China, ISIS, Saudi Arabia, Gulf Emirates, … again saw that as another confirming measure of the man, and went on with their plans to give us today’s world.
Bret Stephens in the 9sep14 WSJ pointedly asks ‘What Does Vladimir Putin Want?’. He points out the answer that has been obvious to most not in Obama’s wake – Putin wants, nay, needs to occupy Russia in its historical business of contending and expanding its borders to divert attention from the perennial failure of its autocratic governments to promote an economy that gives Russians a satisficing quality of life. Putin, with some justification, does see himself as a Bonaparte who, from an economically failing France, conquered a continent with other people’s money.
And Putin realizes that he must make hay while the sun shines. He must pursue and bank his ‘near abroad’ gains (e.g. Crimea, et al) before backbone and brains again inhabit the White House. That is the prime reason why NATO’s members have agreed to set up a brigade sized ‘rapid response force’ that is supposed to rush to defend the borders of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland, lands where Putin has already set his sights for once more ‘defending the interests of Russian speakers’. Recall that Stalin already conquered these countries in WW2 and actually removed the eastern part of Poland (Stalin’s putative ally) that became a permanent part of the USSR, and is now part of Belarus and Ukraine.
All this is going on in Europe while the Islamic State has evolved from al Qaeda as the first embodiment of Islam’s caliphate that promises to send thousands of its European and American passported fighters to wreak havoc in the west, and ultimately fly its flag from atop the White House. And America continues leading the world in the belief that this is a kind of limited fight against some brand of vanilla terrorism with no provenance. RR has joined (preceded?) other commentators in correctly identifying the ongoing strife in the Balkans, Caucuses, Middle East, the Levant, Africa, Indonesian peninsula, and soon India and Indonesia as a global war between Islam and the west (along with major nations of the east such as China, Japan, Philippines, …).
I have already argued (‘Silence of the Lambs’) that the mindset and sentiments of the so-called moderate Islam are sitting on the fence to see which way the final winds will blow. In the meantime they are giving every evidence that their established populations in Europe, and soon in America, are really non-assimilating colonists. The successful sprouting of such enclaves has provided fertile soil for radicalizing indigenous Muslims, and will redouble that enterprise as the west continues the current feckless defense of its culture and way of life.
Finally, is hard to see today how a viable strategic response can be fashioned to oppose radicalized Islam, as it seeks to become the worldwide norm, if we do not correctly identify the fundamental nature of what is going on in the world today. I believe that such an ‘identification’ can only come from the west’s leadership, which sadly today has President Obama as its dysfunctional yet titular head. Perhaps, he will surprise us tomorrow.
To conclude this diatribe, I keep looking at the sources from which Obama takes strength to maintain his malformed worldview. And lo, this morning’s 9sep14 Union presents us with an Exhibit A in the form of a commentary from a vociferous and well-spoken Obama constituent Ms Cheryl Cooke, also a member of the paper’s editorial board. In the appropriately titled piece ‘To Insure Domestic Tranquility’ vs the Second Amendment, the lady takes us through another tortured version of America’s formation and jaundiced history that is now familiar to every student of our public schools’ progressive curricula. She again lays the basis for turning inward for our self-flagellation, and concludes that “the real and present danger has proven to be the threat from within: the Second Amendment right of any individual to bear arms opposed to the good of larger community… the sake of something greater.”
So there you have it. Our progressive population continues the mantra of fundamentally transforming ourselves into an introspective and compliant population that cedes, without recourse, to an ever-growing government which takes more as it convinces us to demand less out of life (even to the point of how many slices of salami are allowed on school lunch sandwiches). One can’t help but see how Barack Hussein Obama and his ilk take great comfort from such sentiments spread like peanut butter and jelly for millions of low-information voters at the country’s grass roots. Contending data aside, these politicians see the Ms Cookes as true voices of the people, and continue to work diligently in their behalf (as soon as they have taken their own half).
[10sep14 update] Well, we all heard it and sure enough, shamed through devastating polls, our president attempted to gin up a little backbone – but the brainbone still seems a little thin. Obama’s approval numbers today came in over the lowest range in his term of office – only 27 to 37% approve of his performance in office, and significantly over 50% flat disapprove of his performance. When the topic is focused on foreign policy, his disapproval ratings are about 75%. His speech tonight will not help him change those numbers too much.
Viewing the videos of Bush2’s July 2007 speech launching the surge in Iraq, and of candidate Romney’s admonishments of what the future of the world will be if Obama continues to fecklessly lead America in its retreat, one see that this man has less talent in the White House than his constituents had in the voting booths. He has no realistic or enduring vision of what America should do on the world stage, but is simply the sock puppet of his know-nothing inner circle (led by Valerie Jarret), and echoed by the braintrust of the likes of Biden, Kerry, and Hagel – talk about the Three Stooges.
So Obama will now 1) promote ISIS to full varsity status and bomb their butts in both Syria and Iraq, 2) reverse himself from a month ago, and now arm with sophisticated weapons and training the secular Syrian opposition that he denigrated as composed of “doctors, pharmacists, and farmers” – they too have achieved varsity status, and 3) establish a “broad coalition” of allies to get their boots dusty while guaranteeing that none of them will be worn by our GIs.
The lying Left still maintains that Bush2 went unilaterally into Iraq, but now Americans are being reminded of the embarrassing fact that Bush2 had 37 nations – a really broad coalition of the willing – committed troops into combat in 2003, while after all the territorial gains, slaughter, and beheadings by ISIS, Obama has managed to get only 9 nations that may lean forward in their foxholes when the time comes to engage the ragheads. And all the while the vaunted “moderate Islam” remains mum. One of the bigger whoppers of the speech was that ISIS was not Islamic because no religion promotes the slaughter of the innocent – well, that sounded good to the unread, but the Quran begs to differ.
Obama is toxic to his Democratic candidates, and he showed that by his tightrope walk tonight. He “invited” Congress to back him with this restart of the Mideast war, but he really needs the congressional Republicans to whom he didn’t even throw a bone. He will need to put American troops on the ground at least with the insertion of special forces teams. Everyone, save he, knows that you don’t conquer territory from the air. We have no idea how, under their new government, the Iraqi Sunnis, Shia militias, and Kurdish Peshmerga will join with the Iraqi army who have so far only demonstrated how fast they can strip their uniforms and run.
In the final analysis, there is no doubt that more allies will quietly join us in yet to be determined roles. But no one trusts this president. No one knows if and when he will desert the field again when the volatile public opinion polls indicate the wind now blows from a different direction. What a leader!
[12sep14 update] Well, things are beginning to move toward a more robust implementation of President Obama's vow to "destroy" ISIS. Stratfor reports that three additional carrier task groups – CVN-68 Nimitz, CVN-70 Carl Vinson, CVN-73 George Washington – have left ports and are headed across the Pacific. The Vinson is specifically ordered to the Middleast to augment CVN-77 GHW Bush that is on station and has already been carrying out airstrikes against ISIS. The other two task groups will be in the proximity for quick reinforcement/replacement as the air campaign is slated to heat up.
Now if we could only get more allies to commit instead of telling us what they will NOT do. France's Hollande has promised French air, but will not put their force under a coordinated command. That is another problem with having a president being seen as a flake with a promise not to put any American combat boots on the ground – 'OK, let's you and he fight.'
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