The Democrats' 'Smart Power' Lies in Ruins

National Review ^ | Tuesday, September 3, 2013 | Jim Geraghty

[kristinn]

Welcome back from Labor Day weekend. From the first Morning Jolt of the week:

Democrats Suddenly Realize What They Miscalculated About the World: Everything

As we await Congress’ decision on authorizing the use of U.S. military force in Syria, Democrats are suddenly realizing that their foreign policy brain-trust completely misjudged the world.

Being nicer to countries like Russia will not make them nicer to you. The United Nations is not an effective tool for resolving crises. Some foreign leaders are beyond persuasion and diplomacy. There is no “international community” ready to work together to solve problems, and there probably never will be.

You can pin this on Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, Susan Rice, but most of all, the buck stops with the president. Those of us who scoffed a bit at a state senator ascending to the presidency within four years on a wave of media hype and adoration are not quite so shocked by this current mess. We never bought into this notion that getting greater cooperation from our allies, and less hostility from our enemies, was just a matter of giving this crew the wheel and letting them practice, as Hillary Clinton arrogantly declared it, “smart power.” (These people can’t even label a foreign policy approach without reminding us of how highly they think of themselves.) They looked out at the world at the end of the Bush years, and didn’t see tough decisions, unsolvable problems, unstable institutions, restless populations, technology enabling the impulse to destabilize existing institutions, evil men hungry for more power, and difficult trade-offs. No, our problems and challengers were just a matter of the previous hands running U.S. foreign policy not being smart enough.

[kristinn]

More at the source link.

[Diogenesis]

[Hardastarboard]

LOL!! Good one!

[IbJensen]

Obama is so eager, or stupid that he is climbing atop his antique desk. Meanwhile, the wise soothsaying vice-president strokes his chin in contemplation. (You can't make this crap up, folks. These 'rulers' are incredibly stupid, but thanks to their abettors, the Republicrats, they just keep rolling along on the path to our destruction!

[Rennes Templar]

I would imagine now that daily, there are multitudes of supposed high-information Democrats having buyers remorse.

[USS Johnston]

Meanwhile, the wise soothsaying vice-president strokes his chin in contemplation.

That's "Gravitas".

*eyeball roll*

[Venturer]

What is even worse is that this same “smart power” woman may be our next President practicing the same stupid foreign policy as the Muslim we have now.

How smart can you be to be a part of the Huma Abedin honeytrap? Sleeping with a Muslim Brotherhood big wheel.

Even if we get a Republican will it be any better with people like McCain and Graham picking him for us?

Our country is in more danger from domestic idiot politicians than we have ever been in danger before.

[Thebaddog]

Get your feet off the desk, moron. It’s rented, you don’t own it.

[Red Badger]

....Democrats are suddenly realizing that their foreign policy brain-trust completely misjudged the world.

As they always do. They think, I mean really really think, that if we are 'nice' to everyone, everyone will be nice as well. It's ingrained in their thought processes, from childhood. It's that whole 60's era hippy-dippy-feel-good-peace-love-we-are-the-world gobbledy-gook that bites them in the ass every time. You can not appease yourself to a peaceful world. Neville Chamberlains fill the government with idiots.............

[Hotlanta Mike]

[nascarnation]

Whatever happened to the famed “reset” of foreign relations ushered in by that “man of the world” Caliph Baraq?

[Hotlanta Mike]

[Hotlanta Mike]

Libs always use the opposite terms to promote their failed policies, like The Affordable Health Care Act or The Great American Recovery and Reinvestment Act...

[A CA Guy]

Remember Hillary from the first debates in 2008?

Most memorable line for me was...
WE WILL TAKE THINGS FROM YOU
Of course Obama had no problem doing that and then some, but Hillary is a good communist/socialist IMO all on her own.

[tgusa]

Just shows the utter contempt the man-boy holds for our country.

[ClearCase_guy]

I probably won't live to see it, but at some point, people will look back at this time in our history and their jaws will drop open.

But what can we say today? It's like German citizens in 1946 saying, "But we didn't know! We didn't see! No one told us!"

How can the people not know? I see it every day whether I want to or not.

[Jack of all Trades]

From the article conclusion When it hits the fan elsewhere in the world, the EU is not going to come running with peacekeepers. There is nobody else but us.

The U.S. can not and should not be the peacekeeper to the world.

[Dubh_Ghlase]

“And how we burned in the camps later, thinking: What would things have been like if every Security operative, when he went out at night to make an arrest, had been uncertain whether he would return alive and had to say good-bye to his family? Or if, during periods of mass arrests, as for example in Leningrad, when they arrested a quarter of the entire city, people had not simply sat there in their lairs, paling with terror at every bang of the downstairs door and at every step on the staircase, but had understood they had nothing left to lose and had boldly set up in the downstairs hall an ambush of half a dozen people with axes, hammers, pokers, or whatever else was at hand?... The Organs would very quickly have suffered a shortage of officers and transport and, notwithstanding all of Stalin's thirst, the cursed machine would have ground to a halt! If...if...We didn't love freedom enough. And even more – we had no awareness of the real situation.... We purely and simply deserved everything that happened afterward.”

― Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Resolve in your heart now to fight, for your sake, and the sakes of your children and grandchildren.

For myself, I will not go quietly into the night...

[dforest]

I notice the old hag hasn’t weighed in on Syria lately. Neither has he husband.

She is hiding out on this one.

[radioone]

"The Affordable Health Care Act or The Great American Recovery and Reinvestment Act" All poll-tested and approved by the DNC.