Obama's Successful Foreign Failure

From Norman Podhoretz:

The president may look incompetent on Syria. But his behavior fits his strategy to weaken America abroad.

...as astute a foreign observer as Conrad Black can flatly say that, "Not since the disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1991, and before that the fall of France in 1940, has there been so swift an erosion of the world influence of a Great Power as we are witnessing with the United States."

Yet if this is indeed the pass to which Mr. Obama has led us—and I think it is—let me suggest that it signifies not how incompetent and amateurish the president is, but how skillful. His foreign policy, far from a dismal failure, is a brilliant success as measured by what he intended all along to accomplish. The accomplishment would not have been possible if the intention had been too obvious. The skill lies in how effectively he has used rhetorical tricks to disguise it.

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Some commentators on the right, Rush Limbaugh comes to mind, have been saying that the President is a radical leftists who intended to destroy American power and prestige from the very beginning. I've always had a hard time swallowing that idea, and I was getting tired of hearing it repeated. But, as it turns out, if Obama does intend to deliberately weaken the United States he could hardly have been doing a better job of it.

The crowd that Obama has run with all his life all thinks that America has been a destructive and retrograde force in world affairs. They undoubtedly regard these developments as positive.

From Roger Kimball:

Remember when candidate Barack Obama promised his acolytes that they were only “five days away from fundamentally transforming the United States of America”? That was back in October 2008, when the hectic flush of Obamamania was at its peak. To be fair, it’s took a bit longer than five days, but here we are, five years into the most destructive presidency in the country’s history and we can see that fundamental transformation at work just about everywhere.

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Nevertheless, I still think that incompetence is a better explanation for it.

LowDown said:

From Norman Podhoretz:

Some commentators on the right, Rush Limbaugh comes to mind, have been saying that the President is a radical leftists who intended to destroy American power and prestige from the very beginning. I've always had a hard time swallowing that idea, and I was getting tired of hearing it repeated. But, as it turns out, if Obama does intend to deliberately weaken the United States he could hardly have been doing a better job of it.

The crowd that Obama has run with all his life all thinks that America has been a destructive and retrograde force in world affairs. They undoubtedly regard these developments as positive.

From Roger Kimball:

Nevertheless, I still think that incompetence is a better explanation for it.

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Obama is just like Carter, not out to destroy America but he thinks making us weaker is a good thing.

What fundamental changes?
Obama is just an extension of the Bush Administration.

Some conservative commentators will come up with any reason, no matter how tangential, to link any action by the Obama administration as proof of the anti-American/socialist meme invented by them.

0bama had "zero" experience when he was elected. Once he got to the White House, he surrounded himself with lapdogs and simple "yes men." Five years later, 0bama still has no clue what to do, in regards to foreign policy.

Just look at the Middle East:
He has shown clear contempt for Israel.
He's befriended and supported the Muslim Brotherhood, despite their savage, animalistic violent background, and hatred of the United States.
We're still in Afghanistan.
We assisted our enemies in making Egypt worse off than it was under Mubarek.
We assisted our enemies in making Libya worse off than it was under Gaddafi.
He's hell-bent on getting involved in Syria (again...assisting our enemies), against our allies' wishes, even though we have no national interests in doing so.

Seriously...has the guy accomplished ANYTHING meaningful, in regards to foreign policy? Say what you want about George Bush's policy, but at least he didn't turn his back on our allies, and he wasn't weak on our enemies. Today, 0bama has estranged our allies. Our enemies laugh at us, and are no longer afraid of his "paper tiger" threats.