Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

The International Crisis Testing Obama’s Mettle
Strategy Page ^ | 10/21/08 | Austin Bay

Posted on 10/21/2008 11:40:14 PM PDT by Dawnsblood

“Mark my words,” Joe Biden told a group of wealthy contributors. “It will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like it did John Kennedy.” A moment later Biden added, “Watch, we're going to have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy.”

So let’s play Name That Crisis, the one Biden says will test Obama within six months of his inauguration. Understand any answer will be tentative. Even if the prognosticator correctly identifies the antagonists and the battlefield, the actual sequence of events will defy astrologers, political science-fiction scenarists and intelligence agencies.

Gomer Pyle’s kitsch litany (from “The Andy Griffith Show”) will damn us once again: “Surprise, surprise, surprise.”

Pyle’s flabbergast served as a plot device in a family comedy. Obama’s test will be an American tragedy. Hope for a better tragedy, one where the body count -- friendly, enemy and in-between -- is minimized and the material destruction manageable.

I know the keyword in that last sentence is “hope,” a word that plays an energizing poetic and emotional role in Obama’s campaign litany.

As president, Obama was supposed to avoid nasty conflicts because he in his very person brings hope and embodies change -- galvanizing hope and fundamental, perhaps utopian change. Review his primary speeches and his oration in Berlin. That’s the messianic message.

Diplomatic and military planners “operationalize” a policy. Obama promised us a messianic operation: Personal negotiations conducted by himself with some of the world’s worst dictators and America haters, with the implicit point that his bold and sacrificial personal diplomacy would rearrange planetary politics.

Of course, lurking behind this megalomania are two hideous assumptions that are the passionate garbage of anti-Americans everywhere. The first one is the lesser lie -- the U.S. and specifically the Bush Administration “don’t talk” to rogues like Iran. Recall Ambassador Ryan Crocker’s testimony in September 2007 when he related, in stoic detail, the results of low- and mid-level diplomatic meetings with Iran: Iranian posturing and rhetorical thrashing.

The U.S. talks to everyone including rogues. Spies chat with spies. The State Department employs “third parties” and “the grapevine.” The trick is to avoid giving a propaganda coup to a thug. Denying gangsters and vitriolic liars equal footing with an American president isn’t stupid or backward or change frustrating behavior -- it’s savvy procedure.

The second lie, the greater lie, is that the U.S. is somehow directly or indirectly at fault when a crisis occurs. This was the agitprop line of anti-Americans throughout the 20th century, stoked by Nazis in World War II, Communists from Stalin and Mao to Gorbachev, and America haters in general. Obama’s forgotten spiritual guide, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, echoed this theme in his noxious sermon that said with the 9-11 terror attacks America’s chickens were “coming home to roost.”

So what is coming home to roost with what Biden assures us is Obama’s imminent test? Obama’s blatant naiveté is a strong candidate for the triggering incident, and in that light Biden’s speech is a “pre-emptive” inoculation. “I guarantee you,” Biden said, “it's going to happen. I can give you at least four or five scenarios from where it might originate."

His scenarios included Afghanistan and Pakistan. Say what? Osama bin Laden challenged America from Afghanistan in 1998 when he declared war on the U.S. Pakistan? That’s where Obama called for a pre-emptive invasion earlier this year. What about Iraq? The certain trigger for debacle in Iraq is wavering U.S. commitment -- and Obama is committed to quitting based on his political schedule, not conditions on the ground. Perhaps a war with Iran over Iraq or the Persian Gulf or in the aftermath of an Israeli strike on Iranian nukes?

Suddenly Obama will face change -- changing conditions that require blood, sweat, toil and tears to sustain hope.


TOPICS: Editorial; Foreign Affairs; Politics/Elections; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: afghanistan; austinbay; biden; bo; challenges; democrat; democrats; election; imrankhan; littlejoe; obama; pakistan; taliban
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-26 next last
The truth sucks Obama :)
1 posted on 10/21/2008 11:40:15 PM PDT by Dawnsblood
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: Dawnsblood

Alquida will have Obamas’s #ss for lunch.


2 posted on 10/21/2008 11:43:35 PM PDT by oyez (Justa' another high minded lowlife.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Dawnsblood

I’ve had a bad China-Taiwan feeling. Maybe I’m crazy. It’s just been nagging at me.


3 posted on 10/21/2008 11:43:49 PM PDT by mmichaels1970 (Stand up for CHUCK!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Dawnsblood

hussein simply wants to invade Pakistan to secure it for his fanatical muslim brothers...he’ll use the osama thing as a ruse..


4 posted on 10/21/2008 11:45:19 PM PDT by cherry
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Dawnsblood

I believe Rimshot Joe was telling us that Obama will give the Muzzies the go ahead to finally take Israel out. The One’s administration will not interfere. That explains the hit in the polls that Rimshot and The One expect to take.


5 posted on 10/21/2008 11:45:32 PM PDT by FlingWingFlyer ("I'm just going to spread YOUR wealth around." - Barack HUSSEIN Obama a.k.a. Barry Soetoro)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: mmichaels1970
China-Taiwan....Russia-former soviet states....Iran/Syria-Israel....marital law/no guns/no gold/ no radio/no speech

just what is it about the hussein you don't like?

6 posted on 10/21/2008 11:46:50 PM PDT by cherry
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: Dawnsblood

This truly terrifying to me, not to me personally but for everyone I love and care about. From reading the poll headlines I’m almost ready to start believing that 2012 crap.


7 posted on 10/21/2008 11:47:40 PM PDT by allmost
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: allmost
I’m almost ready to start believing that 2012 crap.

Alot will change in 6 months

8 posted on 10/21/2008 11:57:37 PM PDT by ninonitti
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: ninonitti
I hope for the better but if we can't have fair elections in this country the dems are the masters. The general infrastructure needs time to ‘change’. I think we will get hit early next year but destruction takes a POS like obama in office for a few years to change. Like any beaurocry.
9 posted on 10/22/2008 12:03:54 AM PDT by allmost
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: allmost
Bureaucracy.
Something about that word...
10 posted on 10/22/2008 12:11:17 AM PDT by allmost
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: Dawnsblood

I don’t know what the crisis will be, but we already have a guarantee from Biden that Obama’s decision about it has already been made and that it will be very unpopular. I wish the newsmedia would focus more on that part of the story than just on the idea that there will be a crisis.


11 posted on 10/22/2008 12:14:26 AM PDT by tiredoflurking
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: tiredoflurking
They're covering for him before it even happens.
12 posted on 10/22/2008 12:19:39 AM PDT by allmost
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: tiredoflurking

The Alinsky way thrives on Crisis. Its the perfect “petri dish culture” to implement large shifts of movement toward their agenda.


13 posted on 10/22/2008 12:32:43 AM PDT by C210N (The television has mounted the most serious assault on Republicanism since Das Kapital.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: Dawnsblood

Obama the candidate of Hope and Change.

Everyone who votes for him Hope that he’s Changed from everything he’s been his entire life.


14 posted on 10/22/2008 12:41:44 AM PDT by sanchmo
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: mmichaels1970
I’ve had a bad China-Taiwan feeling. Maybe I’m crazy. It’s just been nagging at me.

Not crazy at all. I recall the "Wong Wei" incident and our captured aircraft and pilots. The Chinese will definately have their way with the randy, won-ton wimp, Obama. I just hope someone reminds Obama to pull his pants back up before he addresses the nation.

Anyone with half a brain would know McCain's response wouldn't leave any doubts as to our intentions to protect our soldiers and our nation.

15 posted on 10/22/2008 1:53:23 AM PDT by Caipirabob (Communists... Socialists... Democrats...Traitors... Who can tell the difference?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: Dawnsblood

Biden is “Joe the Dumber.”


16 posted on 10/22/2008 2:31:19 AM PDT by syriacus (The MSM has questioned Obama for 2 years. It took a plumber to get Obama to admit he's a socialist.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: tiredoflurking

This is my opinion, too.

Why will zerO’s response be unpopular, seem wrong, and cause his supporters to doubt his ability to lead?

Has any surrogate in history, let alone the candidate for VPOTUS, ever told supporters that their counter-intuitive support will be essential in the event of a future crisis, let alone guaranteed that crisis beforehand?

I want clairification. Why will the decision cause this response and why will blind faith be needed? I would also like to know just one example of zerO’s *spine of steel* and while they are at it, could someone prove to me that zerO’s LSATS’s were *perfect* and what difference that makes in an international crisis?

“Trust me” doesn’t cut it.

Disclosure: when I read the first report of this speech, I vainly looked for the *satire* tag.


17 posted on 10/22/2008 3:44:38 AM PDT by reformedliberal
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: Dawnsblood

Israel is entering its do-or-die days. If Omambi is elected, Israel will have its back against the wall with no one in its corner. It will be isolated and alone, and faced with a direct existential threat. Iran will nuke Israel by the end of 2009 unless it is stopped. The whole Middle East will be primed to explode with an Obambi presidency. My prediction: Israel will launch a pre-emptive attack on Iran. Really, it has no choice. None whatsoever. It attacks Iran or it ceases to exist.


18 posted on 10/22/2008 3:53:25 AM PDT by ought-six ( Multiculturalism is national suicide, and political correctness is the cyanide capsule.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: FlingWingFlyer

“I believe Rimshot Joe was telling us that Obama will give the Muzzies the go ahead to finally take Israel out. The One’s administration will not interfere. That explains the hit in the polls that Rimshot and The One expect to take.”

Agreed.


19 posted on 10/22/2008 3:54:11 AM PDT by ought-six ( Multiculturalism is national suicide, and political correctness is the cyanide capsule.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: ought-six

You gotta love Palin itemizing the potential crisis’.

http://migop.blogs.com/blog/2008/10/sarah-palin-at.html


20 posted on 10/22/2008 3:56:51 AM PDT by Netizen (If McCain really put 'Country First' he'd have been working on securing our borders.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 19 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-26 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson