Maariv, Israel
The President Is Sinking:
Obama Gets in Trouble and
America Loses Altitude
By Ariel Vitman
As for Israel — we would do well to not trust the U.S. as we have done so far.
Translated By Danielle Morris
1 June 2014
Edited Brent Landon
Israel - Maariv - Original Article (Hebrew)
America's international influence shrinks as it turns out it does not support its allies and does not fight its enemies. This can be attributed, among other things, to the many scandals troubling Obama at home.
It seems as though Obama has not had a moment of rest in the past year. In recent months he has been through a series of scandals causing him great damage politically, but mainly to his image. Support for the president in public opinion polls has reached an unprecedented low, and bad news regarding Obama continues to enter the media.
The hot topic in the U.S. is in the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. On Friday morning, the U.S. secretary of veterans’ affairs announced his resignation. The resignation follows the exposure of the harsh conduct regarding the medical care given to veterans.
For example, it emerged that hospitals under the control of the office simply stood by and let patients die, while avoiding reporting to their superiors, fearing that disciplinary action would be taken against the hospital. In other cases, hospitals were afraid to show long wait times, and removed patients from the waiting list to meet time standards.
It also turns out that a report of these failures was submitted to the government back in 2008, but nothing was done. For this reason, the spotlight has been turned toward the president and his style of management, with criticism heard even within the president's party. During the last week, several senators called for the president to dismiss the secretary and establish an inquiry committee. Meanwhile, White House press secretary Jay Carney announced he will be resigning at the end of the month.
The Flagship Has Failed
If all of this wasn't enough, Obama's flagship policy, the health care act bearing his name — "Obamacare" — was unveiled a few months ago with much fanfare. But the website through which Americans were supposed to register for the health insurance crashed dozens of times, preventing people from registering, while there is a law stating that anyone not registered will be required to pay a fine ...
Additionally, the implementation of this law caused at least 5 million Americans to lose their health insurance, although being the result of a law which was actually supposed to eradicate the phenomenon of the uninsured within the American society.
And there is more. Just when it seemed as though the headlines about the murder of the American ambassador in Libya were fading, a letter came to light, sent by a senior adviser to the president, containing explicit instructions for the CIA to change the report of the incident to not call it "act of terrorism," certainly not Islamic terrorism.
Instead of calling it what it was, the suggestion was to report that the attack was a result of a YouTube video slandering the name of the prophet Mohammed. Following the discovery, Congress established an inquiry committee with authority to summon witnesses, one of which was the almost definite Democratic Party presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton, who was the secretary of state at the time of the attack and would have to explain why she did not authorize additional security for the ambassador — which he requested dozens of times.
It is no wonder the president does not make time for foreign affairs. The U.S. is slowly losing its international influence, and it seems that President Obama is not really interested in what is happening outside of his country's borders.
A Broken Reed
The number of those killed in the civil war in Syria has almost exceeded 200,000 and the number of refugees is reaching the millions. The president's "red line" regarding the use of chemical weapons has been crossed dozens of times and the president is silent. In Ukraine, Russian forces, which have already taken the Crimean Peninsula, received a weak response from the U.S., and beyond declarations, nothing has actually been done. A similar thing is happening with Egypt, where the natural U.S. ally, el-Sissi, is not receiving financial, political or declarative support.
Even the more moderate Arab nations trying to preserve the axis against Iran feel abandoned by the U.S. It seems that with the retreat of forces from Iraq and Afghanistan, President Obama is sending a signal to his friends in the Middle East that they are not to trust America, the country which has always appeared large and strong.
As for Israel — we would do well to not trust the U.S. as we have done so far. The decline of the American empire brings with it opportunities for new alliances. The rise of the east allows Israel to disperse the influence and not put all its eggs in one basket.
The visits of prime minister and president in eastern countries appraise a welcome change in direction, and it would be worthwhile to start thinking ahead, considering renunciation of America military support, which chains us down to security and political decisions made by the American administration. Why, we've come here to be a free people in our own land, not protégés of the American administration, which apparently can't even support its friends in times of trouble.
http://watchingamerica.com/News/239957/the-president-is-sinking-obama-gets-in-trouble-and-america-loses-altitude/
