Backtrack (Oliver North)

Creators Syndicate ^ | November 11, 2010 | Oliver North

[jazusamo]

SAN ANTONIO — The world's most famous teleprompter reader has lost his audience. For two years, President Barack Obama had the American electorate and world leaders eating out of the palm of his hand. At virtually every U.S. and overseas venue, he was welcomed by huge cheering throngs. His oratory was described as "magnetic," "eloquent" and "spellbinding." Just nine months into his term, his "accomplishments" were deemed worthy of a Nobel Prize. Not anymore. After being chastened by the voters in one of the greatest electoral reversals in American history, the president flew away on the most expensive foreign junket ever taken by an American head of state. But his appearances this week in India, Indonesia and South Korea have made it vividly clear to all that Obama is incapable of shaping events. Though he still panders to every audience, his obsequious bows to foreign potentates and apologies for America's misdeeds no longer hold the allure and cachet they carried just months ago. In New Delhi, he reiterated his Utopian plea for a world without nuclear weapons and spoke of supporting India's bid for a permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council — without mentioning that both India and Pakistan hide their atomic arsenals from U.N. arms inspectors. He paid homage to Gandhi, danced with schoolchildren in Indonesia and went to the G-20 summit in Seoul, where he continued to whine about trade imbalances and currency manipulation while defending further devaluation of the American dollar. Along the way, he missed yet another opportunity to define our enemy as radical Islam and ignored American troops in harm's way by treating Iraq and Afghanistan like flyover country. The president's rhetorical flourishes and quests for applause lines on this trip provide striking examples of his chaotic, uncertain leadership at home and abroad. While he was reiterating his campaign pledge to bring all American troops home from Iraq, his defense secretary, Robert Gates, was suggesting the newly formed Iraqi government may want U.S. troops to stay beyond the 2011 deadline for withdrawal. But on Afghanistan, Obama may have begun to backtrack. This week, he said: "While I have made it clear that American forces will begin the transition to Afghan responsibility next summer, I've also made it clear that America's commitment to the Afghan people will endure. The United States will not abandon the people of Afghanistan — or the region — to violent extremists who threaten us all." He says he has "made it clear," but he hasn't. Ever since he announced the "surge" in Afghanistan a year ago, he has been talking about commencing the withdrawal of U.S. troops next July. Now he says we will "begin the transition to Afghan responsibility next summer." Does that mean we're going to stay long enough to finish the job — to actually win in Afghanistan? No one seems to know. While Obama was enjoying state dinners across Asia, Sens. John McCain, Joe Lieberman, Lindsey Graham and Kirsten Gillibrand were in Afghanistan for a firsthand look at what's happening on the ground. After meetings in Kabul with Gen. David Petraeus and Afghan President Hamid Karzai, McCain told reporters: "It was wrong to set the date of July" for withdrawing U.S. troops. "It sent out the wrong message, and it created a problem." The former prisoner of war is right — but he understates the case. The original Obama promise to start bringing American troops home from the shadows of the Hindu Kush — a pledge made to placate the anti-military base of his party — created a whole host of new problems. It told the Taliban they can wait us out. It told the Iranians and elements in Pakistan to increase efforts to control the outcome. It told our allies to start packing their bags for home. And it told Karzai and every corrupt government official in Afghanistan to steal as much as they can while the gringos still are writing checks. Perhaps worst of all, Obama's "withdrawal promise" told the American people we aren't there to win — that the sacrifice of their sons and daughters was futile. That's not how Christine and Terry — the parents of Marine Lance Cpl. Terry E. Honeycutt Jr. of Waldorf, Md. — feel, nor should they. Their son died Oct. 27 after being wounded by an improvised explosive device in Helmand province. Anti-military protesters intended to disrupt their son's funeral, until the Patriot Guard Riders were alerted to the protesters' plan. Instead of having to endure a disgusting graveside demonstration, scores of God-fearing veterans will honor a fallen Marine and his grieving family. Obama owes all who are fighting this war — especially Gold Star families like the Honeycutts — a clear and unambiguous declaration that we are in Afghanistan to win. The time for equivocation has long since passed. In the case of his "withdrawal date," he must do some serious backtracking.

[jazusamo]

OLIVER NORTH PING!

Please Freepmail me to be added to the Ollie North ping list.

[Uncle Ike]

” President Barack Obama had the American electorate and world leaders eating out of the palm of his hand. “

Actually, somewhat less than *half* of the ‘American electorate’....

(A, perhaps, minor quibble with an otherwise excellent article - but inaccuracies like this are what continues to feed the beast....)

[Jim W N]

For two years, President Barack Obama had the American electorate and world leaders eating out of the palm of his hand.

Well, just means that those who are studying his mercurial and incredulous rise to power will know that they will have to work even fast to consolidate power to complete the coup d'état before they know what hit 'em. I think he's out there - just waiting for his chance.

[jazusamo]

Yes, and comme 2012 the “Grifter” is not going to have that support here at home and probably not abroad either.

[PhilDragoo]

ONE OF THESE IS THE PROUD MOTHER OF ONE WHO SERVES. . .AND ONE IS JUST A MOTHER

[jazusamo]

comme = come

[kromike]

Obama owes all who are fighting this war — especially Gold Star families like the Honeycutts — a clear and unambiguous declaration...

Yeah, well, good luck with that. We're STILL waiting for his birth certificate, school records, actual Presidential demeanor & cordiality, declarations that DON'T have a 20-second expiration date, etc.

Oh, and Santa Obama, please bring me my government-guaranteed Skittles-pooping Unicorn that I can ride thru the air to your magical, fairy-land Utopia that you seem to base all your decisions on.

What's that? Your Magical Fairyland is closed to the public masses? Only racists and perpetually-grieved politically-correct minorities are allowed in? Gotcha...

[jazusamo]

BUMP to the truth!

[righttackle44]

A very minor quibble. The point undermines Colonel North’s excellent arguments and presentation.

[onyx]

YES! Thanks very much Phil Dragoo!!!

[True Republican Patriot]

The Perfect Comparison of Character, leadership and Patriotism verses a Two Bit buffoon, fraud and Communist wannabe Dictator who isn’t worth his weight in Pig Poop!

[rockinqsranch]

Thanks for the ping jaz. This guy Obama is no President. He shouldn’t be called “President”.

He’s a Proxy.

[loveliberty2]

North refers to the purported "eloquence" of candidate Obama. There also was the claim of a superior "intellect" who was to become president and world leader.

The so-called "progressives," like the president, portray themselves as the "intellectual" elite, although they are totally bereft of any real knowledge or understanding of the great ideas which were the seedbed of America's 200-year experiment in liberty.

With all of their domination of academia and Far Left politics, they seem to fit into a category described in T.S. Eliot's essay on Virgil:

"In our time, when men seem more than ever to confuse wisdom with knowledge and knowledge with information and to try to solve the problems of life in terms of engineering, there is coming into existence a new kind of provincialism which perhaps deserves a new name. It is a provincialism not of space but of time--one for which history is merely a chronicle of human devices which have served their turn and have been scrapped, one for which the world is the property solely of the living, a property in which the dead hold no share."(Bold added for emphasis)

Without intellectual anchoring in the enduring ideas which provided the philosophical foundation of America's Declaration of Independence and Constitution, their vain imaginations of superiority only expose their limited world view.

Yet, the America which rose from obscurity to greatness, from crude hoes and axes to putting a man on the moon, and from oppression by King George to a symbol of liberty for millions all over the world--that America provides shelter for them, even as they attempt to "change" her into something unimagined by the Founders.

If they are allowed to succeed in their own little provincial experiment, their posterity never will know the "blessings of Liberty" proclaimed by the Preamble to America's Constitution, enjoyed by previous generations, and honored by the magnificent sacrifices of of brave soldiers and leaders of the past.

[Ben Hecks]

Thanks for the ping, Jaz. I have always thought that Obama’s speeches sounded like a freshman drama student.

My neighbor attended Ollie’s book signing at our local book store yesterday - he got a copy autographed for his son who is a LTC USMC and his brother who is retired USA Spec Forces. Ollie also signed a photo of himself and an Army captain who is the son of another friend. Sadly, I had another appointment and couldn’t go.

[jazusamo]

Thanks for relating that, Ben. I’m hoping he’ll have a signing out this way, I’d love to get a copy for my son and me.

[EDINVA]

Col. North might have used the word ‘media’ instead of electorate. While Obama received only 52.9% of the votes cast in November ‘08, at the time of his inauguration he enjoyed a 68% approval rating.

That approval declined rather rapidly, so I’d be more inclined to taking exception with the statement that Obama had enjoyed strong public support for two years rather than only the first few months of his presidency.

[Ranald S. MacKenzie]

" Just nine months into his term, his "accomplishments" were deemed worthy of a Nobel Prize.

I think they actually voted to give him the prize two weeks after he took office.