Over the past five years, The Washington Post has not been a complete suck-up to President Obama. But it has usually been right in the mix.
Not today, though.
The latest display of Mr. Obama\’s astonishing lack of competence in foreign policy (among other areas) – i.e. his latest feckless interaction with Vladimir Putin of Russia – has resulted in a blunt, honest, and mostly spot-on editorial that everyone who cares about the United States should read.
I strongly urge you to use the link I\’ve provided and do just that. But, for the moment, here are a few salient excerpts:
PresidentObama\’s foreign policy is based on fantasy
FORFIVE YEARS, President Obama has led a foreign policy based more onhow he thinks the world should operate than on reality. It was aworld in which “thetide of war is receding” and the United States could, withoutmuch risk, radically reduce the size of its armed forces. Otherleaders, in this vision, would behave rationally and in the interestof their people and the world. Invasions, brute force, great-powergames and shifting alliances – these were things of the past.Secretary of State John F. Kerry displayed this mindset on ABC\’s”This Week” Sunday when he said, of Russia\’s invasion ofneighboring Ukraine, “It\’sa 19th century act in the 21st century.”
That\’sa nice thought, and we all know what he means. A country\’s standingis no longer measured in throw-weight or battalions. The world is toointerconnected to break into blocs. A small country that plugs intocyberspace can deliver more prosperity to its people (think Singaporeor Estonia) than a giant with natural resources and standing armies.
Unfortunately,Russian President Vladimir Putin has not received the memo on21st-century behavior. Neither has China\’s president, XiJinping, who is engaging in gunboat diplomacy against Japan andthe weaker nations of Southeast Asia. Syrian president Basharal-Assad is waging a very 20th-century war against his ownpeople, sending helicopters to drop exploding barrels full of screws,nails and other shrapnel onto apartment buildings where familiescower in basements. These men will not be deterred by the disapprovalof their peers, the weight of world opinion or even disinvestment bySilicon Valley companies. They are concerned primarily withmaintaining their holds on power.
AsMr. Putin ponders whether to advance further – into easternUkraine, say – he will measure the seriousness of U.S. and alliedactions, not their statements. China, pondering its next steps in theEastChina Sea, will do the same. Sadly, that\’s the nature of thecentury we\’re living in.
Exactly right.
President Obama can delude himself and some (less and less, I suspect) of his supporters on the domestic front, by pretending the economy is better now than it was when he took over, or that he halved the national deficit (which he himself rose to the level he is “halving”) or that ObamaCare is working just fine, and a host of other ridiculous fantasies which do not bear out in the real world. And he will have plenty of Accomplice media (usually the Washington Post among them) to back those fantasies up.
But in foreign policy, he does not have the luxury of dealing with a Democrat-majority senate and an Accomplice Media. He is dealing with foreign leaders and an international press…who have made it clearer and clearer that they think of him as a weak, incapable dolt.
The saddest part is how often he proves them right. As Vladimir Putin is doing right now, with potentially disastrous results for eastern Europe.
Other than the Sorosian leftists, the MSNBC crowd and the geniuses whose answer to every Obama blunder is that his critics are racist, does anyone take him seriously anymore?
