Obama's Pooh-bah ( "A childish foreign policy." )

"Winnie-the-Pooh seems to me to be a fundamental text on national security." --former Navy Secretary Richard Danzig, one of Barack Obama's key foreign policy advisers, June 11

The gathering of oh-so-sober pro-Obama foreign policy experts was drowning in solemnity and earnestness. Speaker after speaker had laboriously dilated on the important distinction--unappreciated by the oh-so-stupid-and-bad Bush administration--between soft power and hard power. And this is to say nothing of the synthesis of soft and hard in ... smart power!

Richard Danzig, the luncheon speaker, hoped to wake the slumberers from their torpor. So he took A.A. Milne rather than Joseph Nye as his fundamental text. As the basis of his criticism of the Bush administration, he read the famous opening sentences of Winnie-the-Pooh:

Here is Edward Bear, coming downstairs now, bump, bump, bump on the back of his head behind Christopher Robin. It is, as far as he knows, the only way of coming down stairs, but sometimes he feels that there really is another way, if only he could stop bumping a minute and think about it.

The earnest Washington foreign policy types were dazzled by Danzig's daringly outside-the-box citation. How clever! And how true! If only Bush had stopped to think that there was "another way" to pursue our national security goals, rather than staying the course in Iraq, or detaining terrorists without habeas corpus at home. Alas! And really, isn't Bush also "a Bear of Very Little Brain"?

Or is he? Richard Danzig is an intelligent and well-read man. He's a graduate of Bronx High School of Science and Reed College, with a law degree from Yale and a Ph.D. from Oxford. He was a Supreme Court law clerk. He is well aware that, outside the war zones of Iraq and Afghanistan, al Qaeda has failed to launch successful attacks on Americans since 9/11. Couldn't Bush have been doing something right?

Indeed, Danzig served as Bill Clinton's secretary of the Navy from November 1998 to the end of that administration. During that time the U.S.S. Cole was attacked by al Qaeda, with 17 sailors killed and 39 wounded. So Danzig saw firsthand the insufficiency of the Clinton administration's efforts to prosecute the war on terror through the criminal justice system.

He therefore must know how foolish it is to say, as Barack Obama did last week, "I have confidence that our system of justice is strong enough to deal with terrorists." The lesson of the Cole, as of 9/11, was that "our system of justice" can't deal with terrorists as well as our military and intelligence services. And he must know that there really isn't a pain-free way to fight the war on terror very different from the way the Bush administration has chosen.

Photo Illustrations by arewelumberjacks.blogspot.com; Hat Tip: michellemalkin.com. As for the war in Iraq, well ... there Bush did find another way. In January 2007, he changed commanders and strategy. The new strategy, backed by a surge of troops, worked. Violence is way down, political reconciliation is proceeding, the additional troops are almost all back home--and progress has exceeded the hopes even of those who strongly supported the surge. Danzig is well aware that Obama's stated policy would snatch defeat in Iraq out of the jaws of victory.

But he's ostensibly an Obama adviser. What's the man to do? First proclaim the indispensability of Winnie-the-Pooh as a text on national security, in order subtly to indicate how childish Obama's foreign policy is. Second, quote the first paragraph of the book--but do so incompletely. Here's the sentence that follows the passage Danzig quoted: "And then he feels that perhaps there isn't [another way]."

In other words: What Danzig is indicating, by his quotation, and his purposeful and suggestive omission of the very next sentence, is that there isn't another way than Bush's. Richard Danzig is said to be a leading candidate to be national security adviser if Obama should win. How selfless and patriotic of him to indicate to discerning listeners why Obama shouldn't become president!

RUSH: This guy Obama is dangerous, because he's an idiot. I mean, really. They talk about how brilliant this guy is, that he went to Harvard and so forth. I did some checking. This guy never wrote anything at Harvard Law. He just had a law review. He never wrote anything -- probably on purpose, not to create a paper trail. Number two, he might not have been capable of it, for all I know. But I mean the things this guy says, the people he hangs around with, the associates he chooses to become part of his administration. Hell, he just went to somebody out there. He just hired somebody to be one of his big advisors on something who ended up quoting Winnie the Pooh! I'm not kidding. He quoted Winnie the Pooh in terms of foreign policy, how we have to behave. I'll find this. I've got four stacks here. Ah. Here it is today. It's Richard Danzig.

"Richard Danzig, who served as Navy secretary under President Clinton is tipped to become national security advisor in an Obama White House." By the way, I thought Obama was about all this change. He's getting a bunch of retreads from the Clinton administration to run the show here, just a full bunch of retreads. There's nothing new, here. Anyway, Danzig ran the Navy for Clinton and is going to be national security advisor in Obama's White House, "told a major foreign policy conference in Washington that the future of US strategy in the war on terrorism should follow a lesson from the pages of Winnie the Pooh, which can be shortened to this: 'If it is causing you too much pain, try something else.' Mr. Danzig told the Center for New American security, quote, 'Winnie the Pooh seems to me to be a fundamental text on national security.'" Now, I got this from our old buddy Jim Geraghty at National Review Online at the Campaign Spot. Now, this sounds like something you'd see on a satire Web page. "'Winnie the Pooh seems to me to be a fundamental text on national security.' He spelled out how American troops, spies, and anti-terrorist officials could learn key lessons by understanding the desire of terrorists to emulate super heroes like Luke Skywalker and the lust for violence of violent football fans." These are the people Obama seeks to surround himself with. He's a blooming idiot, folks.

Obama Will Follow Pooh Doctrine

How did we get to this point in our history?

The combined contortions of the 2000 election, 9/11 and the Iraq War have so bent the liberal mind, that all they can do is let loose a primal scream in the form of BO.

So, it is should not be a surprise that the empty word, change, should resonate so strongly with them. I hasten to add though that Carter and Clinton did make much of “change” when they ran. That’s always the mantra of the party out of power.

Since Bush is perceived by “them” to have enraged them with one thing after another, it follows they only become more emotional, more deranged. You bet liberalism is a mental disorder.

If there was ever a time to get in their face, this is it. I’ve never worked in a presidential campaign. As much as I disagree with McCain, I will likely do this because BO represents the very worst.

"Winnie-the-Pooh seems to me to be a fundamental text on national security." -- former Navy Secretary Richard Danzig, one of Barack Obama's key foreign policy advisers, June 11

Exsqueeze me, 'Winnie-the-Pooh'?!? Sheesh, what an idiot this Danzig guy is.

Everyone knows Dr. Seuss is much more qualified regarding national security. His 'Green Eggs And Ham' is right up there with 'The Art Of War' by Sun Tzu. Especially in regards to Islamic Terrorists.

I am Sam, I am Sam, Sam I am.
That Sam-I-am! Than Sam-I-am! I do not like that Sam-I-am!
Do you like green eggs and ham? I do not like them, Sam-I-am.
I do not like green eggs and ham. Would you like them here or there?
I would not like them here or there. I would not like them anywhere.
I do not like green eggs and ham. I do not like them, Sam-I-am.
Would you like them in a house? Would you like them with a mouse?
I do not like them in a house. I do not like them with a mouse.
I do not like them here or there. I do not like them anywhere.
I do not like green eggs and ham. I do not like them, Sam-I-am.
Would you eat them in a box? Would you eat them with a fox?
Not in a box. Not with a fox. Not in a house. Not with a mouse.
I would not eat them here or there. I would not eat them anywhere.
I would not eat green eggs and ham. I do not like them, Sam-I-am.
Would you? Could you? In a car? Eat them! Eat them! Here they are.
I would not, could not, in a car.
You may like them. You will see. You may like them in a tree!
I would not, could not in a tree. Not in a car! You let me be.
I do not like them in a box. I do not like them with a fox.
I do not like them in a house. I do not like them with a mouse.
I do not like them here or there. I do not like them anywhere.
I do not like green eggs and ham. I do not like them, Sam-I-am.
A train! A train! A train! A train! Could you, would you, on a train?
Not on a train! Not in a tree! Not in a car! Sam! Let me be!
I would not, could not, in a box. I could not, would not, with a fox.
I will not eat them with a mouse. I will not eat them in a house.
I will not eat them here or there. I will not eat them anywhere.
I do not eat green eggs and ham. I do not like them, Sam-I-am.
Say! In the dark? Here in the dark! Would you, could you, in the dark?
I would not, could not, in the dark.
Would you, could you, in the rain?
I would not, could not, in the rain. Not in the dark. Not on a train.
Not in a car. Not in a tree. I do not like them, Sam, you see.
Not in a house. Not in a box. Not with a mouse. Not with a fox.
I will not eat them here or there. I do not like them anywhere!
You do not like green eggs and ham? I do not like them, Sam-I-am.
Could you, would you, with a goat?
I would not, could not, with a goat!
Would you, could you, on a boat?
I could not, would not, on a boat. I will not, will not, with a goat.
I will not eat them in the rain. I will not eat them on a train.
Not in the dark! Not in a tree! Not in a car! You let me be!
I do not like them in a box. I do not like them with a fox.
I will not eat them in a house. I do not like them with a mouse.
I do not like them here or there. I do not like them ANYWHERE!
I do not like green eggs and ham! I do not like them, Sam-I-am.
You do not like them. So you say.
Try them! Try them! And you may.
Try them and you may, I say.
Sam! If you will let me be, I will try them. You will see.
Say! I like green eggs and ham! I do! I like them, Sam-I-am!
And I would eat them in a boat. And I would eat them with a goat.
And I will eat them in the rain. And in the dark. And on a train.
And in a car. And in a tree. They are so good, so good, you see!
So I will eat them in a box. And I will eat them with a fox.
And I will eat them in a house. And I will eat them with a mouse.
And I will eat them here and there. Say! I will eat them ANYWHERE!
I do so like green eggs and ham! Thank you! Thank you, Sam-I-am!

His Green Egg and HAM strategy is sheer genius! Let's see Winnie come up with something like THAT!

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