The Gathering Storm - Part 4: Foreign Policy; The Biggest Cloud of All

Foreign policy is, and will be, President Obama’s Achilles heel. It will ultimately destroy his presidency. Political Science 101 teaches that everything is perception. Truth to our adversaries is what is perceived. For all the fawning of foreign governments over Barack Obama during the election, our foreign adversaries and allies are quietly shaking their heads in amazement at his naiveté and weakness. That spells trouble for us.

Start with his mea culpa tour of foreign capitals last month. For all his dissing of America, his criticism of our so called misdeeds, he has not garnered one more dollar, not one more troop, not one more allied consensus to the dire problems facing the world today. As always, foreign governments leave defending the world to us when they are not actually trying to cut us off at the knees.

While Iran continues to develop nuclear weapons, Obama is parsing words with “terrorism” vs. “man-made disasters.” While North Korea is shooting off missiles, Obama’s Homeland Security chief is worrying about right wing political groups recruiting big, bad veterans for violent purposes. While the Taliban moves to within sixty miles of Islamabad, Obama is trying to figure out where in the United States to move the prisoners in Guantanamo. And while Obama begins the slow escalation of the war in Afghanistan, he is neutering the CIA while threatening banana republic political trials against his predecessor’s administration because we supposedly tortured the people who killed 4000 Americans on 9/11. Is this guy serious?

Ronald Reagan brought the Soviet Union to its knees by brute force, or the perceived use of brute force. He was living proof of the peace through strength doctrine. His bold move to build the “Star Wars” nuclear defense shield overwhelmed the Soviets. They were technologically and financially unable to compete. Reagan hoodwinked them into believing we had the technology. We didn’t. And it didn’t hurt that he rebuilt our defenses after the gutting of the military by Jimmy Carter. The military didn’t even have spare helicopter parts to go after our embassy hostages in Tehran.

Those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it. The Carter redux is happening right before our eyes. Moral leadership as the primary tool of foreign policy does not work in an immoral world. It only makes us vulnerable. Unless Barack Obama is willing to go the distance without the liberal political shackles he has put on this country, the war effort in Afghanistan will be a debacle that will make Vietnam look like a walk in the park. The enemy are roaches, and the only way to defeat them will be to annihilate them using whatever means are necessary…massive bombing, ignoring borders, and torture if necessary. If the world believes we will do those things, only then will be able to excercise the type of moral leadership President Obama wishes to employ. The world didn't like President Bush, but they respected him. It's a good thing if you allow those who oppose you to believe you are a little nuts.

As an aside, one of my great hopes for this administration, Hillary Clinton, has turned out to be a bust. She is the Un-secretary of State. Unless she is doing something behind the scenes on anything, it’s like she is non-existent. She is ineffective. And that, my friends, is scary.

The biggest storm cloud in the gathering storm is the dangers that are lurking out in this big, bad world. The press can ignore them, or sugar coat them, to make their golden boy look good. But this is dangerous stuff. If Obama doesn’t come into the real world quickly, it will be his downfall. I only hope he doesn’t take the rest of us with him when he falls.