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Impeach Obama?
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March 1, 2013 | 50 comments
A Further Perspective
Heading for Disaster — Without a Care in the World
The U.S. on the eve of an economic and possibly a nuclear meltdown.
What is the best way to embolden a bully — or to incite a sullen mob to mayhem? If the bully has pelted you with rocks, you wipe the blood from your face and respond with ingratiating gestures. If a gang of bullies with rocket-propelled grenades and other sophisticated weaponry has murdered one of your ambassadors and dragged his body through the streets, you repeat the same mistake in the diplomatic arena.
We now see how this approach is working in the Middle East.
Correction: Some of us see it, but many more — perhaps even a clear majority of adult Americans —resolutely refuse to see it.
The smiling, self-assured Barack Obama who appeared on the Letterman show last Tuesday night plainly did not see anything to be alarmed about in what is happening in the Middle East, or anywhere else for that matter — with the possible exception on the ongoing “war on women” (meaning the American version thereof, not the Muslim or Middle Eastern variant, which includes stoning, virtual enslavement, and other real-world atrocities).
Exactly one week after the Sept. 11th storming of the American embassy in Cairo and the terrorist assault on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Obama did not appear to have a care in the world. Following the show he headed off for a fundraiser with Jay Z. and Beyoncé.
It is not as though the seven days between Sept. 11 and Sept. 18 had passed quietly. To the contrary, 20 U.S. embassies across the region had come under siege, with rioters ransacking and burning banks, shops, cinemas, and U.S. fast-food restaurants such as KFC and Pizza Hut.
On Thursday (Sept. 20), the administration announced that it was paying for advertisements to run on Pakistani television featuring video clips of President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as they both condemned and pinned a great deal of the blame for the attacks on U.S. personnel and property in the Middle East on a 14-minute video mocking the Prophet Mohammed which had been made months ago by some obscure person in California. Several days earlier, the administration unsuccessfully sought to have Google remove the video from further airing on YouTube.
Regardless of the ads — or stirred on by them — tens of thousands of anti-American protestors took to the streets in Islamabad, Lahore, Karachi, and Peshawar, setting fire to cars and movie theaters, and battling with police who responded with tear gas and gunfire. At the end of the day, Clinton thanked the Pakistani government for defending U.S. missions in the country and she lamented the deaths of 45 people in the riots, including 17 policemen.
Unlike Iran, Pakistan is not a nuclear wannabe. According to estimates by nongovernment analysts, it already has more than 100 deployed nuclear weapons, and it is continuing to build its nuclear arsenal. Who is to say some of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons won’t fall into the hands of terrorists sometime soon — after another coup, perhaps? Maybe Iran won’t even have to go to the trouble of building its own bombs in order to make good on its promise to destroy Israel in a nuclear holocaust.
But hey, why worry?
In skimming through the Letterman show a second time this weekend on YouTube, I could not find anything more than a fleeting mention of the Middle East. The Late Night comic did not have to furrow his bushy brow even once in pondering events in Pakistan, Libya, or Egypt.
Clearly, that is something that many people don’t want to think about.
Just as clearly, many of the same people — who will be voting for Barack Obama on Nov. 6 — don’t want to spend any time thinking about the economic follies of the current administration: the trillion dollars that were wasted on the de-stimulating “stimulus” bill, the insane march to the enactment of the hated and perversely named Affordable Care Act, and our continuing descent into greater and greater indebtedness that will ultimately end in national insolvency (i.e., a Greek-like inability to go on borrowing the money needed to meet current expenditures).
Here again, Obama demonstrated his cool and nonchalance on Letterman. Asked by the “ass-kissing” comic (Ben Stein’s apt description) to say what the national debt now was, Obama had the audacity to answer that he really didn’t know (most readers of this publication don’t have to be told: It’s $16 trillion and counting, or more than $50,00 per capita).
In thinking about how many people in this country seem to have adjusted their political thinking to tune out unpleasant realities, I am reminded of the childhood game of rock-scissors-paper.
About the Author
Andrew B. Wilson, a frequent contributor to The American Spectator, writes from St. Louis.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (26) | Leave a comment
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RJ| 9.24.12 @ 6:27AM
Who would have thought that the Nobel Prize winner for Peace would claim his main accomplishment is killing bin Laden? I guess Harry Truman won in 1948 for killing Hitler, because Franklin Roosevelt "wouldn't have had the guts to do it." There is more crazy talk than ever during this campaign season. I wonder what the last week will be like.
Boar Hunter| 9.24.12 @ 9:51AM
Under Bush's two terms of office, the media reported the death of every U.S. serviceman as if it were the sad cost of enabling Bush and his oil baron buddies to realize obscene profits from middle east oil, which as usual was a lie.
"Under Obama, the U.S. has taken 1,491 casualties in Afghanistan, over 70% of the total 2,121 casualties sustained since the fighting there began."
Obama may claim credit for killing bin Laden, but his policies are also to blame for the increase in deaths of our servicemen and women for whom he claimed he would end the war.
The Obama administration has failed to even remind anyone why we are still fighting there, choosing instead to ignore it.
The media is silent, since to recognize Obama's failure to end the war or close Git-Mo as promised would publicly elucidate him as the lying dog he is, prior to an election they are struggling to claim on his behalf.
TLP| 9.24.12 @ 5:43PM
EXACTLY.
aware| 9.24.12 @ 6:30AM
That debt and that Mid East debacle are monuments to bi-partisanship. The predictable and lamentable results of Red team/Blue team monopoly. And the interventionist(foreign and domestic) mentality.
Gary B| 9.24.12 @ 6:55AM
aware: I believe you've identified the underlying problem. The ruling class is by-partisan. Reminds me of a (Chinese?) saying - "When elephants fight the ants always lose." Regardless of which corner we ants are in, we always seem to lose.
I envision a two-step solution. Step one - elect Romney and get that world class, do-nothing clown out of the White House. Step two - primary out Romney in 2016 and every RINO in the mid terms. If the GOP establishment winds are blowing too hard, form a third party. In the meantime it would certainly help if governors would band together to resist the accelerating DC onslaught.
Alej| 9.24.12 @ 10:52AM
Last sentence on the money... STRICT enforcement by the states of the 10th Amerndment.
Gary B| 9.24.12 @ 6:40AM
It would be well worth the money to fund an exhaustive study of lemming's uncontrollable urge for suicide. Perhaps then, we would understand what motivates liberals. It wouldn't be so bad if liberals were content to harm only themselves, but they insist in taking all of society down with them. It's clear the thing they hate most is their neighbors' freedom. America: RIP. Cause of death: envy.
The Avenger| 9.24.12 @ 7:03AM
Liberals will destroy this country while we sing to the choir. Every conservative needs to become proactive. When your friends and acquaintances talk B.S. call them out. Make them defend their position. Perhaps when they can't , they will see their folly. We can always hope that will be the case.
chuck| 9.24.12 @ 7:23AM
You can't talk liberals out of their positions. Conservatism is based on real life logic, while Liberalism is based on feelings.
We must educate the 15% who are in the middle, and of course, instill the proper values in our children.
Von Mises Jr| 9.24.12 @ 9:11AM
Liberals are generally cowardly followers. This is the conclusion Le Bon came to just over one-hundred years after their French Revolution. When Robespierre called to "cut off the Noble's heads," to reject risked one's own head. So the "crowd" followed orders.
True hard core liberals will not be convinced until they are foreclosed upon and their pension or entitlement plan is broke. Then they will blame Bush.
But it does not mean that we stop explaining the truths to people that are uninformed or indecisive. We can still win many of those who have been betrayed by false promises by a false prophet. Has anyone checked the sea levels lately???
Pecos Pete| 9.24.12 @ 7:13AM
Obama doesn't know the amount of the federal debt and the race is still close, at least according to questionable polls and the MSM. Obama voters are stuck on stupid. The "smartest president ever" doesn't know the amount of the federal debt. Jeez!
spike59| 9.24.12 @ 9:41AM
he doesn't know..and doesn't care
Joellen| 9.24.12 @ 11:54AM
Spike - he DOES KNOW and he does care because it helps out with his agenda - destroy the Country's economy (and I say morally)!
Appleby| 9.24.12 @ 7:24AM
Apres moi, le deluge.
Bill8472| 9.24.12 @ 12:46PM
So, how old are you?
TLP| 9.24.12 @ 7:51PM
Older than Dirt.
nathan| 9.24.12 @ 7:49AM
To understand Pakistan and the region read the books by Ahmed Rashid, "Descent into Chaos" about our Afghan war, "Taliban" if you want to know and understand them, and his most recent "Pakistand on the Brink" released last year. Rashid is simply the best writer on the region.
Understand though that the drone strikes into Pakistan probably aren't helping us all that much. We may be killing some bad guys here and there, but the civilian death toll is turning the population against us. The value of those strikes need to be balanced against the damage that they also generate. We can talk about "collateral" damage all we want, but when it's your five year old daughter, your wife, all the justifications in the world won't matter to YOU. Seen from THAT perspective, we need to take a close look at the value of those drone strikes and think in terms of restricting them more to really REALLY high level targets.
Aware by the way is absolute correct. Ryan voted for all the Bush social programs which was the biggest expansion of the welfare state since Great Society adding some 2 trillion to the debt. Republicans in this century have to show any real fiscal responsibility and I want any of you to make a convincing that the neocon interventionist policies (Iraq?) are really working. Those polices had broad bi-partisan support too.
nathan| 9.24.12 @ 8:05AM
I should have said Republicans have yet to show any fiscal responsibility, certainly not at the federal level. And kicking the can down the road to 2028 for Medicare, and even further for balancing the budget as Ryan proposes, doesn't help. Again the country is broke NOW and needs solutions NOW. Medicare is insolvent NOW and telling seniors that they don't have two worry about THEIR benefits is ludicrous.
And when you've got George Allen in VA saying sequestration has to be blocked because the huge defense cuts (not that huge by the way) would cost 200,000 good paying jobs in defense and technology, well as one Washington Examiner columnist asked him since when is DOD a jobs program he "grudgingly" granted that government is not to be the employer of last resort. Except those high paying jobs in VA, right?
With friends like these do we really need many enemies?
Gary B| 9.24.12 @ 8:41AM
Until a so-called conservative president shutters a full department, he or she has no credibility with me. The Departments of Energy and Education could be closed tomorrow and none of us would notice.
RJ| 9.24.12 @ 12:33PM
It would improve our society. I would like to add to the list: HUD, Labor, Commerce, much, if not all of Transportation & Agriculture (retaining food inspection duties under agency status). We should also sell federal lands, primarily in the Western states, which would give the Interior Department less to do.
Hardcard| 9.24.12 @ 9:21AM
you refer to THE ONES smile in your article,that's what we call a shit eatin grin. It's time to wipe that shit eatin grin off this moslems puss.
Who Knows?| 9.24.12 @ 11:41AM
For a gut busting hoot, google Pat Condell and watch his take on Muslim riots at youtube---makes Bill Maher look like a pipsqueak!
Peppermint Tea | 9.24.12 @ 2:25PM
Andrew B. Wilson,
In paragraph 7, you wrote "the Prophet Mohammed" in violation of Ben Stein's whine that he is just Mohammed. Be advised.
Havoc| 9.24.12 @ 7:21PM
Pardon me, but - somehow - I find it very easy to tolerate muslims rioting in their own countries. Let's just deport any muslims here, close the mosques, and enforce our own borders. I could deal with that ...