In the old days at Officer Candidate School, the “tac officers,” snapping and snarling, would circle a hapless would-be lieutenant:
“You’re lost, Candidate.”
“You’re confused.
“What are you going to do now?”
“Make a decision! Make a decision!”
That cherished image of the bewildered victim of calculated harassment fits President Obama perfectly, when it comes to the shambles he’s made of foreign policy in record time.
Around the globe, our enemies — immediate and potential — are testing Obama to see how far they can go. Thus far, he hasn’t set a limit anywhere. Not a single dictator or terrorist leader got a single time-out.
Last week, North Korea nuke-mooned him, then spit missiles in multiple directions. Our president admonished Pyongyang. Words solve everything in Obama-World.
The Master of the Teleprompter didn’t seem to grasp the basics: Like spoiled brats, the North Koreans were demanding attention (and got it); Pyongyang never honors agreements; and, above all, this isn’t our problem to solve — it’s China’s. We just need to worry about nuke exports and keep our Navy gainfully employed.
Instead, we’ve let ourselves be set up as the bad cop, with Beijing as the good cop. We get the responsibilities, Beijing gets the benefits.
Until Beijing decides to get tough on North Korea, nothing happens. China keeps North Korea on a lifeline, viewing the famine-plagued land of routine horrors as a potential economic slave-state, once the Kim dynasty disintegrates. Beijing’s been confident that it’s ultimately in control of the neighborhood nukes.
Now the Chinese are having second thoughts: By allowing North Korea to go nuke, Beijing made a mistake similar to our own in backing the worst Islamist elements against the Soviets in Afghanistan.
We thought we could manage the Mujaheddin. China thought it could control the North Koreans. Now the dark-suited men in Beijing aren’t so sure.
Toss them the football. We’ve got enough to do.
A pervasive flaw in Obama’s approach to all foreign-policy problems is his chattering-class conviction that individuals and states will behave rationally in a crisis. History suggests otherwise (does Kim Jong-Il look rational to you?). But Obama lives in a world of contractual relations, the realm of the Harvard Law Review.
Our opponents view the world as a zero-sum game. And calm demeanors aren’t their strong suit.
Iran’s also defiant, plowing ahead with its nuclear-weapons program. As it turns out, Tehran has plenty of reasons to be confident that Obama won’t act against the regime: the administration has yanked — hard — on Israel’s military leash while engaging in murky dealings with Iran.
I’d love to know how Obama really feels about Israel.
Then there’s Hugo “Embraceable You” Chavez, who’s almost done dismantling Venezuela’s once-robust democracy. Elected officials from the opposition are beaten, jailed, locked out or driven into exile. Media freedom’s nearly dead. A once-vibrant economy’s a disaster. Corruption and demagoguery reign. And Chavez wants nukes, too.
Out of words, for once, Obama has nothing to say.
What does democracy matter, anyway? Ballots and human rights are so Bush-Cheney. In the next few days, Obama will rush to embrace the authoritarian regime in Egypt before crawling to Saudi Arabia. (How deep will his bow to the king go this time? Will photographers be kept away?)
Al Qaeda’s just a symptom. Wahhabism, sponsored globally by the Saudis, is the disease. And don’t Obama’s swooners-in-sweatpants care about the rights of Muslim women?
Sorry, I mis-wrote. Muslim women don’t have rights. Rights are for college-educated Western BFFs who trade tips on day-spas and where to get the best price on organic cat food.
(Then there’s Speaker Pelosi, who worried so terribly about the human rights of a handful of terrorists at Gitmo, but didn’t dare whisper one criticism of Beijing’s abuses of a billion Chinese during her recent pilgrimage to Beijing.)
And don’t overlook Russia, where we “hit the re-set button.” Well, the button must’ve been made in China, because it not only doesn’t work — it’s poisonous. Putin continues to menace his neighbors, suppress dissent (murderously, when necessary), and undercut every effort we make in the region.
Obama’s so desperate to get an arms treaty that he’s offering huge, unbalanced cuts in our nuclear arsenal. Feel safe yet?
While everything else is falling down around our president, the Obama Doctrine stands: Every enemy is a friend, or can be made into one. Let’s talk about it.
Meanwhile, Obama’s so far out of his depth that the only role-model he can turn to for Afghanistan is LBJ. Don’t have a clue what to do? Send more troops.
In Vietnam, we at least had secure supply lines and sensible rules of engagement. But, then, why feel sorry for our soldiers? Obama’s supporters know that those in uniform are all expendable losers. Since the change in administrations, we haven’t heard many chants of “Support our troops, bring them home!”
The hypocrisy’s inexhaustible.
Pakistan, Iraq, Somalia, our border with Mexico . . . Gitmo . . . better order some back-up teleprompters.
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