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Obama's Failed Stewardship
PolitiSite.com ^ | 17 September 2013 | Colonel Steven B. Vitali USMC (Ret)

Posted on 09/17/2013 8:36:26 PM PDT by Col Vit

Obama’s Failed Stewardship

The stewardship of America under President Obama is a national embarrassment. Obama left adrift in a quagmire without a defined national security strategy and international support for his Syrian attack was locked floundering in sinking US polls and a Congress where he lost the support even of his own Democratic controlled Senate.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, an old KGB thug, recognized the humiliating box that Obama clumsily entered and the sheer panic settling in his administration. Putin struck, seizing the opportunity to diminish Obama’s stature while providing him an opening to “save face” from a sure Congressional defeat. In return, Putin demanded that Obama denounce further intent on striking Syria or the removal of the Syrian President, Bashar al-Asad.

Obviously impressed with his ability to run circles around Obama, Putin, in effect, took charge of US foreign policy in the Middle East while continuing to ship sophisticated, advanced military arms to the Syrian Army that reversed the momentum in the civil war in favor of the Syrian government. The surrender to Putin is the pinnacle point of Obama’s legacy of an appalling abdication of American leadership that will enshrine him as the most naïve and inept President in the history of the United States.

Americans are faced with an astonishingly weak and feckless leader who wages a “take no prisoner” ground warfare against his political opponents in the US, but instinctively coddles international extremist such as the Muslim Brotherhood who are bent on America’s demise. To our allies, Obama’s timid and noncommittal support demonstrates clearly that Obama is a man not to be trusted.

Obama praises himself for the withdrawal of US forces from Iraq and now Afghanistan. His short-sighted and feign focus on these former Al Qaeda strongholds recklessly destroyed years of pushing the Taliban on the defensive, wasted the lives and blood of our servicemen and as they say, “by his actions he is known,” our pathetically weak President’s decisions emboldened and enabled the terrorist to reconstitute their strength and activities in both these countries. In the twelve years of the Afghanistan war, 73% of US casualties have come under Obama’s watch.

The Syrian debacle has set America’s influence in the Middle East region back decades. Middle East countries like Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Iraq and even Israel fear for their survival under a nuclear Iran umbrella. Our friends in the Middle East are in shock and they are turning to Russia as the power broker in the region that can help protect them.

Russian President Putin bracingly set himself up as the world’s Statesman and wrote an op-ed piece in the New York Times where he lectured Obama and simultaneously smacked the face of all Americans as he attacked our expressed belief of “American Exceptionalism”. In a way, Putin only sounded the same chorus that Obama expressed in one of his speeches as he undermined “American Exceptionalism” with an exceptionalism that is contained in all nations. It is not!

President Obama acquiesced to the Russian demands and withdrew his demand for a UN resolution granting a military option if Asad failed to turn over all his chemical weapons.

Intelligence reports indicate Asad is currently secretly dispersing many of his chemical munitions in a fifty-mile radius and it will be almost impossible for UN Inspectors to identify and account for all of al Asad chemical weapons. The whole affair is a delay action similar to what we saw with North Korea and with Saddam Hussein in Iraq. Now that the US has agreed to the Russian plan, Obama can spin about working with the international community to force Syria to surrender their chemical weapons all he wants, but Americans see through this ploy. Obama agreed to take any military consequence to Syria off the table if they failed to deliver. Obama offers all carrot but no stick.

A year has passed of unencumbered weapons flowing into to the Syrian regime by Iran and Russia without any notable weapons aid given to the Syrian rebels by the US. “Leading from behind,” Obama now authorized the CIA to ship non sophisticated weaponry to the Rebels, but unfortunately, Obama’s hesitation allowed the best equipped and organized rebel groups to be controlled by Al Qaeda linked factions. Any sophisticated anti-tank or anti-air weapons the CIA delivers to the Syrian rebels stand a good probability of falling into the hands of Al Qaeda.

Our enemies around the world have Obama’s number. The blinders are pulled back and the world sees Obama as another con-man void of gravitas, vision, and trustworthiness. In summary, the end result in Syria under Obama’s leadership is: al Asad remains in power, American influence and stature in the world greatly diminishes, Asad retains stocks of hidden chemical weapons, Middle East States seek Putin’s protection instead of America’s, and Russia becomes the dominate power broker in the region.

Well done President Obama! In almost five years, your foreign policy leadership successfully decimated four decades of US diplomacy in the Middle East and significantly degraded our national security posture as well as the future safety of all Americans.

Since Obama’s election, our military apparatus has steadily dismantled to pay for Obama’s redistribution welfare state. General Martin Dempsey stated in testimony to Congress that the military is “so degraded and unready, it would be immoral to use force.” Under Obama’s leadership, the US military program is on track to rapidly decline to pre-WWII capabilities. Our technological edge, advanced new weapon systems, platforms, and manpower are seriously eroding to extreme danger levels. For the first time, our military is no longer able to respond to two simultaneous conflicts. Chinese and Russian military budgets have grown extensively and they are rapidly building their military capability to confront America’s vital interests throughout the world.

The clock is ticking on Iran obtaining a nuclear weapon program. The proliferation by Iran of nuclear weapons surreptitiously transferring to radical Islamic terrorist groups will happen. There is no mutual self-destruction deterrent for an Islamist religious zealot. Israel and the United States will bear the fruit of an apocalypse if Obama fails in his duty to stop Iran’s nuclear program. Unlike Syria, Iran’s nuclear weapons development is a vital national security threat to the United States, and the priority of our foreign policy objectives must be to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons at any cost.


TOPICS: FReeper Editorial; Foreign Affairs; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: failedstewardship

1 posted on 09/17/2013 8:36:26 PM PDT by Col Vit
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To: Col Vit

Embarrassment is a poor word choice since it implies damage only to one’s pride. Obama has been a complete disaster, causing real damage to America, not just a bruised ego.


2 posted on 09/17/2013 8:40:06 PM PDT by SpaceBar
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To: Col Vit

like obama gives a rat’s ass


3 posted on 09/17/2013 8:41:36 PM PDT by yldstrk (My heroes have always been cowboys)
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To: Col Vit

He is exceedingly successful when it comes to his own agenda.


4 posted on 09/17/2013 9:24:25 PM PDT by Bravada (Wherever I Stand, I Stand With Israel!)
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To: Col Vit
Well done President Obama! In almost five years, your foreign policy leadership successfully decimated four decades of US diplomacy in the Middle East and significantly degraded our national security posture as well as the future safety of all Americans.

You are too kind kind Sir...

decimated & degraded = demolished.

5 posted on 09/17/2013 10:29:28 PM PDT by spokeshave (While Zero plays silly card games like Spades - Putin plays for keeps.)
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To: Col Vit

“Under Obama’s leadership, the US military program is on track to rapidly decline to pre-WWII capabilities.”

And Obama wants the U.S. to ally itself with the same Al Qaeda dominated force that:

1. Attacked our consulate in Benghazi and

2.Is now getting its ass whipped by the Russian and Iranian backed Syrian army.

The next time Obama sees an idea coming at him, he had better duck.


6 posted on 09/17/2013 11:08:01 PM PDT by haroldeveryman
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