I have been extremely critical of the foreign policy of Barack Hussein Obama and rightly so and this article from Family Security Matters sums it up well when he talks about how America has become an observer of world happenings and not a leader in those events. In the past, the world stood still waiting to see what America would do...but today, after a little over two years of this novice-in-chief, the world is moving chaoticly through crisis after crisis with no American leadership in sight.
From the article:
Yet to the regret of many the U.S. has not asserted any leadership. It is as if we are mere observers of a revolution that has the potential to alter international relations permanently. The level of institutional blindness was evident when intelligent chief Clapper argued the Muslim Brotherhood is largely a secular organization. I wonder if Mr. Clapper asked why it is not named the Secular Brotherhood.
This response may not be treasonous, but it assuredly is inept. The lack of coordination; the many voices claiming to speak for the administration and the striking and conspicuous silence of the president have produced an air of uncertainty.
Most significantly, it has produced in the mind set of our enemies in Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas, Syria and even Turkey a U.S. that is weak and ineffectual. Its rhetoric is inconsistent with its action or lack thereof.
What I wanted to focus on here is the danger that is presented by this continued pattern of inaction by Obama - a danger created by the world's misfits knowing that Obama will do nothing. What we have confronting us now is the perception by every rogue nation in the world that the planet is now a playground for bad behavior. There are no consequences to evil intent and actions.
I could argue that in the past the U.S. has stuck its nose in TOO many places but to sit idly by consistently now without ANY action in some serious affronts is ten times worse. We have given the rogues of this world an inch for over two years and they haven't just taken a mile...they have taken countries.
The really sad part of all of this is that it simply won't change - you can't change the mettle of a man. Sure, there might be some forced reactions by Obama but the core situation is this is a man who believes in just letting the chips fall as they will. And for every American that spells BIG trouble.
A Test of U.S. Mettle
Two Iranian warships travelled through the Suez Canal on their way to Syria with weapons material on board in defiance of American government restrictions and there is barely a word of denunciation from our State Department.
Radical Sheikh Yousef al Qaradawi spoke to a million Egyptians in Cairo’s Tahrir Square urging the new Egyptian government to open the Rafah border into Gaza so that “we can facilitate aid to our brethren” in their effort to defeat our enemy (Israel) and “capture Jerusalem.” Qaradawi extolled the Muslim Brotherhood calling for “freedom and democracy” as a vehicle for an “Islamic state based on sharia.” Yet remarkably neither the State Department nor most intellectuals condemned Qaradawi’s speech.
In Libya Colonel Muammar Khadafy has used overwhelming force including air bombings to resist the national movement of rebellion. Despite the use of military weapons to kill his own citizens, it took five days before the Obama administration responded to the bloodshed, and even then the response was divided with Secretary of State Clinton saying the U.S. would consider a “no fly zone over Libya” and Secretary of Defense Gates arguing that is not a policy option.
In his 1928 book La Trahison des Cleres(The Treason of The Intellectuals) Julien Benda explained how the abandonment of truth abetted totalitarian ideologies in the twentieth century. He noted with prophetic accuracy how a denial of reality led directly to World War II. Clearly one can extrapolate from this analysis 93 years ago to the present, a present in which intellectuals and government leaders deny the reality of radical Islamism, including sharia, jihad and infidel hatred.
With Arab government roiled by rebellion, the question that emerges is whether this is the moment for the efflorescence of democratic sentiment or a slide back into a past in which violent theological states are created for the essential purpose of creating caliphates. How conditions will unfold remains unclear, but on one matter there isn’t any confusion: the United States has a stake in the outcome.
Yet to the regret of many the U.S. has not asserted any leadership. It is as if we are mere observers of a revolution that has the potential to alter international relations permanently. The level of institutional blindness was evident when intelligent chief Clapper argued the Muslim Brotherhood is largely a secular organization. I wonder if Mr. Clapper asked why it is not named the Secular Brotherhood.
This response may not be treasonous, but it assuredly is inept. The lack of coordination; the many voices claiming to speak for the administration and the striking and conspicuous silence of the president have produced an air of uncertainty.
Most significantly, it has produced in the mind set of our enemies in Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas, Syria and even Turkey a U.S. that is weak and ineffectual. Its rhetoric is inconsistent with its action or lack thereof.
In the film “First Knight” an antagonist of the hero played by the late Heath Ledger says “You have been weighed and measured and found wanting.” The hero’s courage and will were being tested. It is not farfetched to contend that our national will has been weighed and measured and it appears as if we have not met the challenges of our time.
Instead of playing the role of a key protagonist, we are mere spectators confused by what we see on the global stage and in a state of denial. History is passing us by the way it did for a generation in the 1930’s that had the opportunity to forestall war, but couldn’t marshal the will to do so. This drama has not yet reached its final act and it is certainly not too late for decisive action. However, the curtain may close soon enough revealing a world condition distinctly inhospitable to our interests.
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