First, the reasoned position…which is supplied by Leon Weiseltier, literary editor of The New Republic:
[T]heUkrainian crisis is not a transient event but a lasting circumstancewith which we will be wrestling for a long time. We must mentally armourselves against a reality about which we only recently disarmedourselves: the reality of protracted conflict.
Thelack of preparedness at the White House was not merely a weakness ofpolicy but also a weakness of worldview. The president is too oftencaught off guard by enmity, and by the nastiness of things.
Therereally is no excuse for being surprised by evil. There is also noexcuse for projecting one\’s good intentions, one\’s commitment toreason, one\’s optimism about history, upon other individuals andother societies and other countries: narcissism is the enemy ofempiricism, and we must perceive differences and threats empirically,lucidly, not with disbelief but with resolve. . . .
That is a beautifully written, studied, intellectual view of Mr. Obama\’s reaction to the what vladimir putin is doing in the Crimea portion of The Ukraine.
And now a somewhat more concise, earthy translation, courtesy of powerlineblog.com\’s Paul Mirengoff:
“Obamaneeds to stop believing his own bullshit.”
Interesting, isn\’t it, how differently two men can say exactly the same thing….
