Robert Ehrlich:
I will meet with not just our allies and our friends, but I will initiate tough diplomacy with our enemies. That includes Syria, Iran, North Korea, and Venezuela. I would meet with them, and I would meet with them without preconditions.
— Barack Obama, May 16, 2008
On all of these issues, but particularly missile defense, this can be solved, but it is important for [Putin] to give me space. . . . This is my last election. After my election I have more flexibility.
— President Obama to Russian president Medvedev, March 26, 2012
The former promise was uttered during Senator Obama’s initial run for the presidency. It was intended for consumption by his anti-war base and to let the world know the zero-sum worldview of the Reagan-Bush era was (finally) extinguished. The latter was not intended for public consumption but was nevertheless captured by omnipresent audio during an unguarded moment between the two principals. Both statements genuinely reflect the baseline foreign-policy values and reflexive passivity of our 44th president. You see, Barack Obama was always secure in the belief that the constant projection of American military power was the primary reason for anti-American sentiment around the world.
Alas, seven years later, a seemingly endless stream of apologies, attempts to placate the world’s miscreants, and inappropriate stabs at moral equivalency are primary components of a spectacularly failed U.S. foreign policy. Seems the “cowboy” Bush and all those opportunistic militarists at the Pentagon are not the reason so many bad guys take issue with the U.S. Similarly, the infamous time-dishonored plea for time regarding negotiations with Russia speaks to a comfortable familiarity with weak negotiating positions. With regard to Putin, “flexibility” can be read as “I have to look tough now, but just wait until I’m safely elected to a second term — then I’ll feel free to cut a deal — any deal.”
This “anything goes” desire to cut deals and refrain from antagonizing bad guys (and, in the process, finally earning that Nobel Peace Prize so gratuitously awarded in 2009) explains a problematic series of policy decisions that has worried our allies and allowed our enemies daily batting practice at U.S. expense.
To wit:
An early world apology tour, focused on the Muslim world, during which the newly elected U.S. president issued meae culpae for alleged inappropriate U.S. actions around the world; interestingly, no mention was made or concern evidenced of considerable U.S. blood spent to save Muslim lives.
Obama boils down to a contemptible ‘king’ ready and willing to throw any and all good right under the proverbial bus.
To this day I cannot wrap my head around how amateur this President (Or is that Ms Jarett?) is.
It’s really depressing. Depressing because this is only Half of the incompetence from his ‘Presidency’.