Author Topic: Koffler: The Four Roots of Obama’s Foreign Policy Catastrophes  (Read 543 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Online mountaineer

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 78,119
The Four Roots of Obama’s Foreign Policy Catastrophes
by Keith Koffler on March 28, 2014, 1:12 pm
White House Dossier
Quote
President Obama’s foreign policy is a disaster. He cruised along for awhile, but then the rest of the world figured him out and started taking matters into their own hands, for which the Devil has made ample use.

And now, as everyone can see, we’re in deep doodoo in every corner of the globe.

Here’s why:

1. Obama never cared about foreign policy

The president came into office with one thing in mind: To “fundamentally transform” the United States into a a kind of Northern Cuba where he could “spread the wealth around” to the poor from the rich, the upper middle class, and anyone else who’d gotten to the “point” where they’d “earned enough money.”

Foreign policy and the wars the United States has been fighting were a terrible distraction for Obama. Sure, he wanted to do his best to protect the country – kill bad guys with drones, etc. – but otherwise the goal was to wind down the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and pay minimal attention to world affairs.

2. Obama is a naïve peacenik

I’m a peacenik too, but hopefully not a naïve one.

If you went to college, Obama was the guy whose room you went to smoke pot – he knew where to get the Hawaiian!! – and talk about how Ronald Reagan was a dunce who starred in a movie with a monkey, how the United States was spreading its capitalist, imperialist philosophy of greed around the world, and how Communists in Latin America were just trying to make a better life for their people.

Such thinking – this trust in the benign intentions of those who want to destroy us combined with a mistrust of the West – still animates this president. This is why he fails to understand that Islamists want to first do Eurpostan and then move on to Ameristan – and can’t be trusted to, say, run Egypt – and that bad people will try to extend their influence around the world as we pull back from it.

3. Obama is not ready for prime time

Obama not only was bereft of any serious experience before becoming president, but he lacks, as my gastroenterologist would say, the intestinal fortitude for the job.

He draws red lines, and then whimpers away. He makes tough statements without the means to back them up. He fails to even try to bend others to his will, unless they’re Israeli. He lacks the relish for mixing it up in the ring when he has to, the boyish pugilism that comes out when a great leader needs it. He’d rather play golf.

4. Last but not least, there’s this:



Hillary Clinton was a disastrous choice for Secretary of State, and a choice made for all the wrong reasons.

She had absolutely no qualifications for the job, no serious understanding of foreign policy, and nothing resembling a strategic vision. She’s Henry Kissinger, except without the Henry Kissinger. You don’t hear about an Obama Doctrine because there is none. There are no guiding principles to this president’s foreign policy, because there was no one around to think any up.

I believe that Hillary was chosen as Secretary of State because Obama’s political advisors told him to do it.

Hillary was Obama’s chief political rival among Democrats. The only presidents in the last 50 years who either lost their reelection race or figured they didn’t like their chances and decided not run – Lyndon Johnson, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, and George H.W. Bush – all had serious challengers from within their own Party.

Hillary had to be removed. And so he put her on political ice in the most effective way possible: by bringing her in at a very high level.

Also, he read a book that said Lincoln surrounded himself with his political rivals, and Obama wanted to be like Lincoln.

But a president needs a good Secretary of State. And Obama got one who failed to lodge a single noticeable foreign policy achievement during her four years on the job.

And so neither has he. And now, the lack of attention and competency is causing hundred of venus flytraps to bloom all over the world.
Support Israel's emergency medical service. afmda.org

Offline Gazoo

  • Inactive Members
  • *****
  • Posts: 3,959
Re: Koffler: The Four Roots of Obama’s Foreign Policy Catastrophes
« Reply #1 on: March 28, 2014, 06:17:13 pm »
How Hillary Clinton is so high in the polls is beyond me. She is nothing but gaffes. Benghazi was derelict of duty. The misspelled Russia re set button was atrocious. One of her most ignorant gaffes is very underreported.

Clinton Gaffe At Our Lady Of Guadalupe Shrine
http://nicedeb.wordpress.com/2009/03/28/clinton-gaffe-at-our-lady-of-guadalupe-shrine/
"The Tea Party has a right to feel cheated.

When does the Republican Party, put in the majority by the Tea Party, plan to honor its commitment to halt the growth of the Federal monolith and bring the budget back into balance"?

Online mountaineer

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 78,119
Re: Koffler: The Four Roots of Obama’s Foreign Policy Catastrophes
« Reply #2 on: March 28, 2014, 06:23:42 pm »
Quote
Leaving the basilica half an hour later, Mrs. Clinton told some of the Mexicans gathered outside to greet her, “you have a marvelous virgin!”
Oy.  :thud:
Support Israel's emergency medical service. afmda.org

Offline Gazoo

  • Inactive Members
  • *****
  • Posts: 3,959
Re: Koffler: The Four Roots of Obama’s Foreign Policy Catastrophes
« Reply #3 on: March 28, 2014, 06:32:53 pm »
I hadn't read that far. She said that? Holy crap, why do they have huge staffs that get paid very well? Do they not have one ounce of protocol skills or advisors to tell her what she is touring and what NOT to say? I mean, really.
"The Tea Party has a right to feel cheated.

When does the Republican Party, put in the majority by the Tea Party, plan to honor its commitment to halt the growth of the Federal monolith and bring the budget back into balance"?

Offline Chieftain

  • AMF, YOYO
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 9,621
  • Gender: Male
  • Your what hurts??
Re: Koffler: The Four Roots of Obama’s Foreign Policy Catastrophes
« Reply #4 on: March 28, 2014, 07:31:30 pm »
Couple of points....

The Hildebeest cut herself a deal to be SecState in exchange for stepping aside and allowing Obama to be nominated without a fight at the Convention.

Second, Joe Biden (Joe Biden!!) was added to the ticket because he was supposed to be Obama's best Foreign Policy advisor because he had been a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for decades, even though guys like Bob Gates say Biden has been wrong on every foreign policy matter for the last forty years...