Posted on 03/02/2014 4:45:39 AM PST by SkyPilot
For much of his time in office, President Obama has been accused by a mix of conservative hawks and liberal interventionists of overseeing a dangerous retreat from the world at a time when American influence is needed most.
The once-hopeful Arab Spring has staggered into civil war and military coup. China is stepping up territorial claims in the waters off East Asia. Longtime allies in Europe and in the Persian Gulf are worried by the inconsistency of a president who came to office promising the end of the United States’ post-Sept. 11 wars.
Now Ukraine has emerged as a test of Obama’s argument that, far from weakening American power, he has enhanced it through smarter diplomacy, stronger alliances and a realism untainted by the ideology that guided his predecessor.
It will be a hard argument for him to make, analysts say.
A president who has made clear to the American public that the “tide of war is receding” has also made clear to foreign leaders, including opportunists in Russia, that he has no appetite for a new one. What is left is a vacuum once filled, at least in part, by the possibility of American force.
“If you are effectively taking the stick option off the table, then what are you left with?” said Andrew C. Kuchins, who heads the Russia and Eurasia Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “I don’t think that Obama and his people really understand how others in the world are viewing his policies.”
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
‘Nature abhors a vacuum’
What we have now is a giant sucking sound from Barry, Lurch and Hagel!
Thanks for the ping!
0bama drawing down our military is deliberate...
And “aiding and abetting”...
:(
Biden will be named as co-conspirator
Say hello to Pres Boehner unless another tenacle leads to him
“Biden will be named as co-conspirator
Say hello to Pres Boehner unless another tenacle leads to him”
That would be “universe shattering” to be sure!
He’s not even using the “diplomatic’ route because he has absolutely no support among other countries. A phone call from the clueless, condescending idiot in the White House, who spends all of his time seeking and destroying what he perceives as his domestic enemies, is not diplomacy.
Obama should have called for a meeting with the UK and Russia, since these three countries had a memorandum, signed in the 90s, to guarantee Ukrainian borders. He should also have called a Nato meeting and should even have called on the UN to get involved (although since Russia controls the UN, that might not have been much help).
However, Obama is either despised or regarded as a laughing stock by the whole world; he has turned our allies against us (the UK, for example) and has emboldened our enemies, who no longer see us as having the moral force or even the basic military force and resolution to back up anything we say.
Essentially, he has destroyed the US as a world power. Russia is the one surviving world power, and they know it.
This affects me, because I have recommended enlistment to more than a few. Selecting those fit for combat, then burning them out, and then dumping them; that's the pattern. Throw in all sorts of affirmative action nincompoopery ...especially among the higher enlisted ranks, and it ain't a pretty military picture.
The military is chewing up a lot of good young fel;lows and then spittin'em out. Don't understand it.
RF, I believe you may be missing a key point. No matter what the nature of the military service, experienced, solid professionals are needed at every level and fulfilling every task.
A quartermaster corporal is an important cog in the machine. If that's as high as a guy is going to go, so be it. In professional armies the world over, battalion level officers are honored to retire as majors, "Up or Out," isn't always a hot idea.
There is also the notion of "cadre," that is having a solid professional core at every level to quickly get new soldiers into serving condition when they are needed.
IMNVHO, one ought not to think of the military as a commercial venture. J.C. Penney it ain't.
What US military force?
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3129076/posts
It’s an Obama World… Gays Perform First Drag Show on US Military Base (Video)
http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2014/03/its-an-obama-world-gays-perform-first-drag-show-on-us-military-base-video/ ^ | 3/3/14 | Jim Hoft
Posted by Nachum
It’s an Obama world… Gays and lesbians performed the first official drag show on a US military base this week. The Week reported:
The recently formed OutServe-SLDN chapter, a nonprofit advocacy group for the army’s LGBT community, sponsored the event. This Week reported:
Troops based at the Kadena Air Base in Japan know how to party. On Saturday, six gay and straight service members applied some of their finest makeup and lip synced to “I Wanna Dance with Somebody” in what is believed to be first drag queen and king show on an American military base. The show was thrown in support for the base’s recently formed OutServe-SLDN chapter, a nonprofit advocacy group for the army’s LGBT community.
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