Posted on 09/12/2013 10:58:37 AM PDT by mojito
....No, the man known as President Obama left the building after his Syria speech. What’s left in the White House is Barry Soetoro or whatever he goes by now: a shrunken, confused husk surrounded by court jesters, second-rate ideologues, and sycophants. And while it may be tempting to gloat at his reversal of fortune, the truth is that the collapse of the presidency represents the most dangerous moment in America since the September 11, 2001 attacks.
Olympus has fallen. America’s leadership is functionally impaired in the face of a thrusting, fast-moving, and possibly brilliant opponent. Of course, the fact that Putin was up against a broken reed made it easier for him. Yet however one may admire Putin’s skills, it must be an admiration tempered by fear, of the kind felt by the British 8th Army in the face of Rommel, of the sort with which Gamelin regarded Guderian. Nothing can disguise the fact that Putin is the enemy and America is less-than-competently led in its contest against him. Something must be done to stem the tide. But what?
(Excerpt) Read more at pjmedia.com ...
This is a neo-con load of crap.
From the article: “Olympus has fallen. America’s leadership is functionally impaired in the face of a thrusting, fast-moving, and possibly brilliant opponent.”
And? This is the same ‘leadership’ that has gotten our country into unceasing wars in every third world s***hole imaginable for the last two decades. If this is what the author wants from ‘leadership,’ then I’ll take a pass.
“He might have added that America is everywhere wide open. Unless people are prepared to see everything go over the cliff, then some means of recovery must be found.”
Everything? Hmmm. No it sounds to me like the only thing going over a cliff is our nation’s willingness to spend the foreseeable future in perpetual wars that benefit no one except the war profiteers and the entrenched political class. So I’ll skip the next ‘summer of recovery’ as well.
“It remains to be seen whether Washington has the institutional depth to reconstitute itself in a crisis.”
God, let’s hope not. We’ve all seen their skills at work in resolving the health care ‘crisis.’
“But reconstitute it must. The current team in the White House is broken. Change must come if there is to be hope.”
‘Hope’ defined as_____? Another glorious war in the middle east? Bombing some third world aspirin factory? No, while I have hope for change, it’s not going to be achieved by installing another bj clinton, john mccain, or other napoleon wannabe in the white house.
Reading comprehension?
The author’s point was that Syrian initiative was surrendered to Putin via inaction. And what Putin did with that was counter to US interests: protect the Assad regime, discredit US opposition to Assad’s rule, and most importantly a Russian-designed program for assuring Syria’s chemical weapons are under foreign supervision -a flawed premise since they’ve already been dispersed and hidden.
“the only thing going over a cliff is our nation’s willingness to spend the foreseeable future in perpetual wars that benefit no one except the war profiteers and the entrenched political class.”
No one has been talking about a ground war in Syria. At most they would have attritted Syria’s forces to allow a rebel victory -and the Qatari pipeline. So Europe will continue to have to pay Russia’s price for NG imports. Big deal. Just like Reagan warned.
It would have been good for Assad to go then chase out Al Queda so the gasline could be completed to compete with Russian gas. But noooooo, that was bobbled. Well, SA and Qatar shouldn’t have backed amateurs. They lose.
Great article taking Obama apart. However, Obama’s sycophantic team is probably telling Obama that he hit it out of the park with his handling of the Syria problem, and Obama is probably standing in front of his magic mirror shouting:”Who’s the greatest of them all?” The mirror, if it wasn’t reprogrammed, would probably just disintegrate into a million pieces.
No problem. I like this forum because the give and take here really sharpens the issues into focus. The quality of the comments is outstanding. Too many other forums descend into juvenile playground taunts.
So thanks to Jim for hosting.
“Reading comprehension?”
Just fine, thanks.
“No one has been talking about a ground war in Syria.”
What we intend and what we get are often two different things. Acts of war have a real nasty tendency to get you into REAL wars that involve troops on the ground, etc. The fine words of our political class would mean little to those who get to fight it.
This isn’t our civil war, it isn’t our problem.
“So Europe will continue to have to pay Russia’s price for NG imports. Big deal. Just like Reagan warned.”
Again, it’s not our problem.
“Well, SA and Qatar shouldn’t have backed amateurs. They lose.”
Better they lose than us.
Clearly Mr. Klein has no sense of irony here. That's the funniest thing I've read all day.
Assad scathingly called Obama not a president but the head of a social media network.
I think that is a very astute observation. We observe a gaggle of swooning Kos Kiddies and a swarm of smarmy DU sycophants but very little in the way of real substance in his followers. He even had to tell the Black Caucus to shut up.
Putin has taken Barack Obama’s Narrative apart and handed him the smoking pieces in a bucket.
You can do that if you aren't beholden to or intimidated by the thoroughly neutered U.S. media. Let's not forget that it isn't only 0bama who has taken a butt-kicking here, but his legions of media celebrities who appear to believe that so long as they can spin it or just don't report on it, it didn't happen. Well, it happened.
I am not inclined to mourn overly for a loss of "U.S. Influence In The Middle East" which was largely a media fiction to begin with. Anyone there who was basing foreign policy decisions on the swirling, insubstantial gas emanating from the 0bama administration was a fool anyway, and although nearly all of the persons concerned are hard, cold, calculating, ruthless despots, they aren't fools. The Middle East was ugly and murderous before. Had 0bama's pro-Muslim Brotherhood currents carried them to power they'd be ugly and murderous. As it is, their victorious opponents will be ugly and murderous. Their backers Russia and Iran are ugly and murderous. The defeated Salafi parties in Saudi Arabia are ugly and murderous. These, collectively, are people the United States needs defense against.
It would not surprise me terribly now to learn in a few more days that Barry has been hustled out of a press conference by handlers when he has become actually incoherent, babbling. are Democrats contemplating Biden now? We will know that something really drastic is in the works if Biden has a disabling accident or disease shortly.
He's the pivot man alright.
Just wait until the first nuclear weapon is detonated by Iran on US troops or US assets, and then you can thank Putin for assisting Iran with reactors, technical help, material help, political and economic cover. Then we can talk about the Sino/Russian Axis. Putin is not your friend and the enemy of your enemy, in this case, is still your enemy.
Great article. Thanks for posting it.
See tag line.
Are you saying we have an effective strategy to deny Iran nukes, and that it would succeed but for Putin?
Because I'm not buying that. If Iran gets nukes I will blame the feckless cowards running our country, not Putin.
I think the attack on Syria is to deny Iran the ability to attack Israel by land using Syria as a proxy. With Assad gone and the country in chaos Iran will be next.
And this is/was going to happen under Obama?
Again, I ain't buying it. We weren't going to do crap about Iran's nukes.
—> Putin is not your friend and the enemy of your enemy, in this case, is still your enemy. <—
Amen.
http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/us/2013/09/12/crossfire-gingrich-putin-rant.cnn.html
I am fairly certain that at this point a person could enjoy far more liberty in Russia than in the USA. They may be cruel, ruthless etc. but I cannot imagine the Russian government worrying about what size drink a person can buy.
I have to hope you’re just getting swept up in the moment with that kind of hyperbole. We have a president who’s a disaster for our country, but it sickens me to see people posting things like this. You’re certain you would enjoy “far more liberty in Russia than in the USA”? Really?? Without your 1st amendment rights? Good luck with that...
Hey, I agree with Gingrich on something? I remember everyone on the board wanted Gingrich to be the Republican nominee. I got banned for a couple of hours for reminding everyone here his stance with Nancy Pelosi on Global Warming. I agree with him on here on Crossfire and he echoes some of my earlier thoughts.
Yes, Newt has a lot to offer.
Congratulations, America.
Nice president you elected.
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