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At Large
Leading From Weakness
In Obama’s case, that means running away from leadership, as in the case of the Iranian bomb.
President Obama’s highly publicized revival of the left’s Cold War mantra of creating a nuclear free world by creating complex arms agreements provided an excellent cover for the testing of a far more practical and immediate strategic policy change.
When the White House wanted to launch a policy trial balloon in the past it would drift a few suggestions in the direction of the Washington Post or the New York Times. The Obama administration under the guidance of chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, however, has introduced a little misdirection into that old political device. For Obama the new water carrier is the British-owned, internationally distributed, Financial Times.
“US may cede to Iran’s nuclear ambition,” read the April 4/5 headline, well timed to follow their favorite American politician’s self-proclaimed triumphal European tour and simultaneous with Obama’s nuclear arms reduction speech.
The “balloon” carried the very sensitive test message that, as the FT suggested, unnamed U.S. officials “are considering whether to accept Iran’s pursuit of uranium enrichment.” A policy review by the Obama White House supposedly is investigating if the U.S. has any choice but to accept Iran’s position that it will not stop developing its capability to create weapons grade material.
Now the White House sits back and waits to see if its new tack in international security affairs will gain any traction. First, the FT story has to be picked up by the international media. The American media can go along with the White House debutante-like silence until the clever boys of Al Jazeera pick up the story.
It will take a very strong denial now to convince the Obama-enthralled foreign press that there is no truth to the story. Absent that effective denial, the Obamaniks will have built the first steps in making acquiescence and appeasement the foundation of this administration’s foreign policy. The Israelis are already prepared for this eventuality and are honing their scientific and technological counter measure skills for the Iranian nuclear contingency.
Meanwhile the Saudis have already made the White House aware of their intention to match any Iranian nuclear weapon development. Key to this security plan is the recent appointment of the well-known, vigorous and conservative 76-year-old Prince Naif ibn Abdel Aziz, the long serving (30 years) Minister of Interior as the monarch-in-waiting behind his ailing older (85) full brother Crown Prince Sultan.
The Saudis have already made up their mind that the Obama government will not stand up to the Iranians militarily. The Al Saud are planning for the future with a new head of state who already has gained a reputation as a vigorous defender of Saudi security through his campaign against al Qaeda attacks seeking to destabilize the traditional regime. When the Iranian nuclear weapon development is finally acknowledged, the new Saudi sovereign, Naif, already will have been well on the way to creating a Saudi nuclear counter-balance.
In the meantime, as an interim ploy to quiet Saudi fears, as well as those of the other Gulf Nations, the Obama diplomats have been pushing the line that the Iranians may be seeking the capability to develop nuclear weapons without actually fabricating the weapons themselves. It’s a weak but workable theme for those wanting to keep their head in the sand while the Israelis are proceeding apace with their own plans for a unilateral defensive action.
Barack Obama has become convinced that he has no more chance to hold back Israel if it feels threatened than he has to stop the eventual development of the Persian bomb. His solution is to let the Israelis do what they believe they have to — and hope they are successful — while positioning the U.S. in a new international posture as the great peace- maker.
The British term for such calculation is “too clever by half” — and it may be right. The Obama era in American strategic affairs is to be marked by an active withdrawal from any vestige of the post-WWII “containment” philosophy.
Obama’s plan appears so far to be based on the premise that world leadership is neither desirable nor an inevitable responsibility of “the greatest power in the world.” It would be well for the new American president to read the histories of the ancient world. Great powers have no choice. The exercise of military power is always implicit in the maintenance of political power. And the pain never can be avoided — only diminished.
About the Author
George H. Wittman writes a weekly column on international affairs for The American Spectator online. He was the founding chairman of the National Institute for Public Policy.
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Bill Hussein O'Stalin| 4.10.09 @ 8:57AM
When you hear Obama speak on certain subjects, the aroma of burning weed can be invoked. At times I wonder if he's smoked up, and speaking from a college poem that was written by lantern in a bar somewhere, by stoned students out to save the world.
A greater group of Jimmy Carter piss in the face of America wannabes has never existed, and it's becoming clear that the Obama White House is weak on foreign affairs and foreign relations.
The first evidence of that is the shrill, giggly Secretary of State Alewife we have with Hillary Clinton.
Between the ass kissing emoted by her and the President, it's a wonder we don't have to appropriate extra funds to export Chap Stick or some other suitable balm to their victims, for surely their rear ends must be chaffed by so much touching by the dried out lips of Obama and Clinton.
Nick| 4.10.09 @ 10:28AM
Don't forget, the only reason B.O. bowed to the Saudis was because the teleprompter doesn't have a hinge, or TOTUS would've done it.
TEXAS MALE | 4.10.09 @ 11:24AM
Anyone who denies that team Obama has hamstrung American business and the average citizen and the economy as a whole with targeted progress crushing taxes and out of proportion spending has a heck of a task in defense of their argument.
Now we can add the deliberate scaling back and harming of American foriegn poilcy and our most
fundamental national interests across the globe.
Our country is being dismantled at a rapid pace now and we will soon see the "change" that was promised.
Mustafa el Taliban| 4.10.09 @ 3:59PM
Instead of bowing to this Muslim potentate Obama plans to kiss the glutaeus maximus of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. What else can one expect from America's number 1 sphincter? Mustafa el Taliban aka Michael L. Tomlinson
RW| 4.10.09 @ 6:31PM
As much as I hate to pass up an opportunity to cast opprobrium upon Obamamium, I think he and his regime are swamped by the financial fandango, in over their heads, clueless. Foreign policy doesn't get the time of day.
Incompetetance is too strong a word; bumbling.
Wilfried Schuler| 4.10.09 @ 11:46PM
What I have to say first is that too many comments are soaked with hatred. And there is no trace of historical knowledge and understanding. All the tough GOP fans are denieing the fact that
Reagan destroyed the middle class. And Baby Bush impoverished you further. That are the facts. President Obama does not create the mess
Bush left it too him, smirked and ran away.
Wilfried Schuler| 4.10.09 @ 11:55PM
To Nick.
President Obama is speaking fluently without teleprompter. Bush was tumbling all the time in spite of the teleprompter. And finally this device was brought in by the second class actor who became a third class president. The most brillant speaker of America is Rush Limbaugh. And that, seen from outside, makes me shiver. Now you would really need the help of God.
Robert Grant| 4.11.09 @ 4:43AM
Wilfried:
A European socialist doesn't have a clue into the American ethos. During the Reagan years not only did this working class American increase his retirement portfolio and recovered his children's college fund from the financially disastrous Carter years. The world, particularly the many nations who fell under the heel of the communist boots, thanks to a weak-kneed Jimmy Carter. Heaved a great sigh of relief by Reagan's unabashed international projection of American power.
Robert Grant| 4.11.09 @ 5:15AM
Wilfried:
One other, other thing. Pull the American military out of Germany and Eastern Europe and the class- conscious, envious, Europeans would in twenty years be at each others throats, killing whole classes of men, women and children like you have for centuries.
Babylon the Great has fallen| 4.11.09 @ 8:45AM
As long as US service men and women coffins can keep returning filled with the corpse and Opium to traffic on the streets of America, the war in Afghanistan is great.
There will be no free oil coming out of Iran, to prop up your fake economy.
The rest of the world needs America to sell they products to but America have no money to but them, the importance of America is all but over.
Tim| 4.11.09 @ 10:34AM
At least Carter was held hostage in 1979 by a bunch of Islamic Extremists which led to the Reagan Revolution.
Obama, I am afraid to say is being held hostage by a bunch of Pirates in Row Boats for pete's sake...
I sure hope I live to see the next American led Revolution that restores order in our world.
It will make Reagan look like a silly grade schooler playing kick the can.
Alan Brooks| 4.11.09 @ 4:52PM
who is Babylon the great, the anti-semitic bleeding little tw*t from...France? Quebec?
'Daphne' sounds... French.
Alan Brooks| 4.11.09 @ 5:12PM
i curse you forever Daphne Kenward,
DAPHNE THE WHORE OF BABYLON KENWARD-- you burn in hell.
Nick| 4.11.09 @ 5:49PM
Mr. Schuler,
If...um...by...uhhh...fluently...you...umm...mean...uhh...like...ummm...this....uhhh...then...uhhh...yes...umm...B.O....uhhhhhhh....speaks....uhhhhummmm....fluently.
When he's off prompter, that is.
When TOTUS is telling B.O. what to say, he is almost flawless.
Robert Rosencrans| 4.11.09 @ 6:24PM
The British press, who have nothing invested in keeping the myth of Obama alive, excoriated his alleged speaking skills. Oh my, they called him a bore. I'm surprised the American drive-by media didn't go after their British media brethren.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1166498/QUENTIN-LETTS-Obama-told-joke-Brown-laughed--laughed--laughed--laughed.html
Allegedly the most charismatic politician in the world, Mr Obama was a disappointment. It sounded as though he had a blocked nose and so his lack of energy may have been a symptom of a cold. Jet lag, too. He probably wished he could have stayed in bed.
Then there were the bodyguards. The US of A guys have buttons in their lapels and scowl at the world in a quite unnecessary fashion. One is tempted to go up to them and tickle their armpits, just to see if they might smile.
Mr Obama fiddled with the cuff of one sleeve, Prince Charles-style, while Mr Brown hosed him down with treacle. The Prime Minister, fluffing with nerves in a couple of places, spoke of the president's 'leadership, vision, courage, dynamism, energy, achievements...'
He spoke slowly, in a meandering manner. Some might say that he was thoughtful and professorial. Others might call his manner circuitous, even yarny.
Brown and Obama
The President ushers his host from the room
Am I saying that he was a bore? Oh dear. I find that I possibly am.
But in a good way, arguably. He came across as a president who would consult and think thrice before bombing the smithereens out of a foreign capital.
This, comrades, can be counted progress.
The usual goons were in attendance. What a kerfuffle an American presidential creates.
Outside, in the road off Whitehall and in the great court of the Foreign Office, I counted 24 Range Rovers, all of them pretty brand spanking new.
Before Messrs Brown and Obama entered the room where we had been cooped up for two hours, flunkeys and bit-part players came slinking in, David Miliband and Hillary Clinton among them.
What an odd duo Mrs Clinton and the boy Milipede make. She looks like a mother taking her teenage son round a university campus on Open Day.
Jeff Nordlander| 4.12.09 @ 12:40AM
What policy are you actually advocating? Iranian nuclear facilities are hundreds of feet underground. You are seriously mistaken if you think the U.S. has the capability to destroy these facilities without the deployment of nuclear weapons. DROPPING A NUCLEAR BOMB ON IRAN WOULD BE THE STUPIDEST THING WE COULD POSSIBLY DO. The Israelis deploying nuclear weapons would be, if possible, even dumber. You think attacks on Israeli are bad now, the Iranians and the rest of the region would go absolutely fucking apeshit. Israel would cease to be a functioning country. But you guys dont care about that, all you want to do find is any reason to criticize Obama. So you write retarded articles like this while completely ignoring the facts.
Party is up Game is over| 4.12.09 @ 1:51PM
All Empires die, the American Empire has been dead since 1963. presidents of America willing to sell out their country for a dollar a time, and their people for nothing.
ARealist| 4.13.09 @ 12:57PM
It simply boggles the mind that anyone still believes that Obama does not know what he is doing or that he is in over his head.
HE KNOWS EXACTLY WHAT HE IS DOING.
He is a hate America firster Marxist.
First and foremost, decapitate American military power through the ruse of seeking peace and harmony.
Second, bankrupt the USA - totally - and economically destroy the USA, creating chaos and total dependence on the govt.
He is doing a masterful jog in achieving both these goals.
Do not be fooled; Obama is the best politician (not a compliment) in American history.
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XDXFD | 12.21.09 @ 8:35AM
Don't forget, the only reason B.O. bowed to the Saudis was because the teleprompter doesn't have a hinge, or TOTUS would've done it.
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