Posted on 07/27/2014 12:12:14 PM PDT by Kaslin
The world is a hot mess. Pro-Russian separatists shot down a passenger jet over Ukraine. Iraq is under siege from Islamic radicals, the Taliban is rebounding in Afghanistan and civil war grinds on in Syria.
Israel is fighting in Gaza. Negotiations on Iran's nuclear program have come up empty. China is bullying its neighbors.
When trouble flares up around the world, U.S. presidents get blamed. The latest polls show that only about 36 percent of Americans approve of Barack Obama's handling of foreign affairs -- down from 51 percent in May, 2011, after the death of Osama bin Laden.
Republicans have not been reluctant to place responsibility on him. "Obama has presided over a recent string of disasters that make even (Jimmy) Carter look competent," wrote Marc Thiessen, a former speechwriter for George W. Bush. "The world is on fire -- and Obama's foreign policy legacy is in tatters." Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina charged that "his policies are failing across the globe."
The indictment implies that had the administration been tougher or smarter, Ukraine would be intact, Syria's dictator would be gone, Iraq would be stable, Hamas would surrender, China would be a gentle lamb and Iran would give up its nukes.
Conservatives say Obama thinks he's king. But they seem to confuse him with God.
It's easy to forget that planet Earth has always been a turbulent locale. During the Reagan administration, often fondly recalled as a golden age, there was endless strife hither and yon: civil wars in Central America; Americans taken hostage in Lebanon; a U.S. military barracks blown up in Beirut; and Libyan terrorists bombing a Pan Am plane.
The Soviets shot down a South Korean passenger jet. South Africa's minority white government tried to suppress a black revolt.
Reagan may get credit for causing the collapse of the Soviet Union, but tranquility didn't follow. It wasn't long before Iraq invaded Kuwait, Yugoslavia erupted into bloody ethnic conflict, civil war broke out in one African country after another, famine ravaged Somalia, Palestinians rose up against Israeli rule, and Pakistan and India fought a war after acquiring nuclear weapons.
And the 21st century? It did not turn the world into a serene oasis where America consistently got its way. The 9/11 attacks, the war in Iraq and the war in Afghanistan are still fresh in our minds. The Russian invasion of Georgia, al-Qaida's migration into Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen, Israel's war in Lebanon, the civil war in Sudan -- those are easy to forget.
North Korea cheated on a nuclear deal under Bush. Iran took major strides in its own nuclear quest. Vladimir Putin gutted Russian democracy. China tried to intimidate its neighbors.
When was this era of harmony that Obama has somehow forfeited? It never happened. And it's not likely to emerge under his successor. Even at the height of our post-Cold War power and influence, nasty events happened all the time, and we couldn't stop them.
The Cold War era was a bit more controlled, because so many governments were dependent for their security on either the U.S. or the Soviet Union, who could often keep them in line. But there was still plenty of bloodshed in plenty of places -- from Vietnam to the Indian subcontinent to Lebanon to El Salvador. Often, neither Washington nor Moscow got what it wanted.
Nor is it obvious Obama could have achieved much with more assertive tactics against the Russian government or the Syrian government: His options were few and unpromising. Nothing short of a NATO military response -- which even the hawks didn't propose -- would have stopped Putin from seizing Crimea.
Arming the Syrian rebels could have meant giving aid to the militants marching on our ally in Baghdad. Staying in Iraq and Afghanistan, as many Republicans advised, was a formula for wasting American lives to merely delay the inevitable.
Yet the belief persists that the difference between a bad outcome and a good outcome is a willingness by the U.S. government to exercise leadership or show toughness or otherwise get involved. In practice, our interventions often exact a terribly high price for a dismal result. If there are two ways to get a dismal result, maybe we should choose the one that doesn't cost us thousands of lives or billions of dollars.
We like to think we can easily shape the world to suit our preferences. But as the 19th-century historian Henry Adams pointed out, chaos is the law of nature, and order is the dream of man.
I don’t mind granting him a permanent vacation
I don’t think that Leavenworth is bad year round.
“Conservatives say Obama thinks he’s king. But they seem to confuse him with God.”
I disagree. Obama seems to think he is a god and HAS caused a lot of the unrest around the world. Why is he giving our tax dollar to Hamas, a terrorist enemy?
Un, artistic license?
Yes, but less blame attaches to him than to the schmucks who voted for him, part deux.
The best we can do as individuals is to lead a life close to Jesus. We continue to try to be good and to try to be good examples for our young to imitate.
One doesn’t need “power” to retreat. Retreating is weakness.
Obama has retreated from the world - “lead from behind” is his mantra - which is an oxymoron in the light of day. It is the Emperors New Clothes all over again...
When we retreat, we open the world to other players that have very different goals. And that is what we are seeing now.
Power vacuums are always filled. But it usually takes some time to fully bear fruit - deadly fruit...
It isn’t very complicated. You have to be willfully blind to not see it.
This question is right up there with “Is Obunga a muslim?”
All of them, no. Plenty of them yes. He’s not only shown indecisiveness and fecklessness, but he has generally given the green light to anything the Muslim world wants to do; good, bad, indifferent, as long as he gets to show his peculiar brand of tepid acquiescence to Islamization on every front. He’s shown appalling amateurishness placing crony incompetents such as HRC and Kerry into positions where their foolishness and inexperience can only encourage the malcontents.
Gonna take a solid 20 years to undo the damage 0bama has done both home and abroad.
Sadly no. Reality is serial, today’s troubles always have seeds in yesterday’s, which were grown from seeds before them. We started on the path for some of these troubles before Jesus. And they’re planting the seeds for the next wave.
Yes. Yes he is.
-PJ
IF Obama had been on vacation, golfing, etc. the World would have continued diving into the depths of the cesspool it’s in due lack of leadership.
The USA has been the defacto leader of the free World for many a year, but now as WE have no leader, there’s a multitude of wannabe’s attempting to outshout each other to lay claim to that World leadership position American’s cavalierly tossed aside in the name of a fantasy hope, and change.
It won’t be long we’ll see a new World leader stepping up to take over where the USA dropped out. Probably a well known, and quite undesirable entity such as the United Nations.
Out of chaos comes control. It just might be the plan.
Apologetics for a Communist Islamist? He belongs in jail.
Are you sure? Obama says it's Bush's fault.
`Let It Ride’ BTO
Try try try, to let it ride (?)
He still has to take the guns in the final battle.
Even if Obama doesn’t deserve all the “credit,” he’s certainly on the short list imo.
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