maxparrish
Veteran Member
- Joined
- Aug 30, 2005
- Messages
- 2,262
- Location
- SF Bay Area
- Basic Beliefs
- Libertarian-Conservative, Agnostic.
With slightly more than a year left in office, Barack Obama is leaving his foreign policy legacy of failure . The rise and terrorist successes of ISIS, and the growing Russian-Iran hegemony over the mid-east are merely the last year of "capstones" of failure, dating back to his (and Hillary's) proclamation they would "reset" with Russia.
The list of numbskullery of delusion, failures, and intentional surrender is shocking. It began in 2009, with Obama-Hillary's touted "reset". Obama appealed to Putin's "better nature" by scrapping the Western missile-defense system that the Poles and the Czech Republic had desired and agreed to. And the "reward" thereafter has been Putin's support of Assad, support of Iran's nuclear ambitions, the Russian Crimea invasion, and Putin's creation of a blood-letting insurgent war against the Ukraine.
Obama's record in the Mid-East has been particularly hapless: "Leading from behind" in the "model intervention" of Libya (establishing a terrorist base), pushing out Mubarik and destabilizing Egypt into the hands of the Muslim brotherhood , and the refusal to arm and assist the more moderate Syrian rebels before ISIS even existed. To that list one can add the premature withdrawal of troops in Iraq, the rise of "jay-vee" ISIS, the meek mid-east apology tour, the failure to support the democratic uprising in Iran (the Green Revolution), failure to give serious arms support of the Ukraine, and the pushing of a badly flawed Iran nuclear deal that seems to be heading into in a mid-east nuclear arms race.
In the wake of the Paris attack, it has become increasingly clear that Obama has become delusional, and unlike Jimmy Carter, stubbornly unable to admit his world view was flawed. After Obama's Turkish press conference (wherein he at first, being tone deaf to events, discussed climate change) both MSM reporters and some Democratic politicians were incredulous that he was sticking by a failing policy, and steeped in delusion. They are now wondering "what the hell is wrong with their President?".
The source of Obama's failure is rooted in his mish-mash of old "progressive" biases, his failure to adopt or develop a framework of principles, and his near pathological narcissism immune to outside criticism.
His lack of framework is the most perplexing. Many of those in political science are familiar with different foreign policy doctrines, the goals which dictate management. Some are internationalists, others isolationists, yet other interventionists. However, Obama is an "Obama-ist", which is (charitably) setting priorities by headlines, impulses, and shifting commitments that Obama has no intention of keeping.
His incoherence is perplexing to all but himself. Red lines in Syria are announced...and ignored. Warnings are issued over the Ukraine, without any credibility (or retaliation on Putin when ignored). When confronted by seeming contradictions he twists and snakes, parsing terms. He believes moral lectures on 'the side of history', hashtag offensives and dodging the term "radical islam" is an effective strategy.
Obama is a President without strategic vision or goals - he is merely a risk-averse bad tactician. And today he stubbornly clings to a losing and disastrous ISIS policy.
The list of numbskullery of delusion, failures, and intentional surrender is shocking. It began in 2009, with Obama-Hillary's touted "reset". Obama appealed to Putin's "better nature" by scrapping the Western missile-defense system that the Poles and the Czech Republic had desired and agreed to. And the "reward" thereafter has been Putin's support of Assad, support of Iran's nuclear ambitions, the Russian Crimea invasion, and Putin's creation of a blood-letting insurgent war against the Ukraine.
Obama's record in the Mid-East has been particularly hapless: "Leading from behind" in the "model intervention" of Libya (establishing a terrorist base), pushing out Mubarik and destabilizing Egypt into the hands of the Muslim brotherhood , and the refusal to arm and assist the more moderate Syrian rebels before ISIS even existed. To that list one can add the premature withdrawal of troops in Iraq, the rise of "jay-vee" ISIS, the meek mid-east apology tour, the failure to support the democratic uprising in Iran (the Green Revolution), failure to give serious arms support of the Ukraine, and the pushing of a badly flawed Iran nuclear deal that seems to be heading into in a mid-east nuclear arms race.
In the wake of the Paris attack, it has become increasingly clear that Obama has become delusional, and unlike Jimmy Carter, stubbornly unable to admit his world view was flawed. After Obama's Turkish press conference (wherein he at first, being tone deaf to events, discussed climate change) both MSM reporters and some Democratic politicians were incredulous that he was sticking by a failing policy, and steeped in delusion. They are now wondering "what the hell is wrong with their President?".
The source of Obama's failure is rooted in his mish-mash of old "progressive" biases, his failure to adopt or develop a framework of principles, and his near pathological narcissism immune to outside criticism.
His lack of framework is the most perplexing. Many of those in political science are familiar with different foreign policy doctrines, the goals which dictate management. Some are internationalists, others isolationists, yet other interventionists. However, Obama is an "Obama-ist", which is (charitably) setting priorities by headlines, impulses, and shifting commitments that Obama has no intention of keeping.
His incoherence is perplexing to all but himself. Red lines in Syria are announced...and ignored. Warnings are issued over the Ukraine, without any credibility (or retaliation on Putin when ignored). When confronted by seeming contradictions he twists and snakes, parsing terms. He believes moral lectures on 'the side of history', hashtag offensives and dodging the term "radical islam" is an effective strategy.
Obama is a President without strategic vision or goals - he is merely a risk-averse bad tactician. And today he stubbornly clings to a losing and disastrous ISIS policy.
