He got his wish, yes he did.
Posted on 07/27/2014 12:12:14 PM PDT by Kaslin
The world is a hot mess. Pro-Russian separatists shot down a passenger jet over Ukraine. Iraq is under siege from Islamic radicals, the Taliban is rebounding in Afghanistan and civil war grinds on in Syria.
Israel is fighting in Gaza. Negotiations on Iran's nuclear program have come up empty. China is bullying its neighbors.
When trouble flares up around the world, U.S. presidents get blamed. The latest polls show that only about 36 percent of Americans approve of Barack Obama's handling of foreign affairs -- down from 51 percent in May, 2011, after the death of Osama bin Laden.
Republicans have not been reluctant to place responsibility on him. "Obama has presided over a recent string of disasters that make even (Jimmy) Carter look competent," wrote Marc Thiessen, a former speechwriter for George W. Bush. "The world is on fire -- and Obama's foreign policy legacy is in tatters." Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina charged that "his policies are failing across the globe."
The indictment implies that had the administration been tougher or smarter, Ukraine would be intact, Syria's dictator would be gone, Iraq would be stable, Hamas would surrender, China would be a gentle lamb and Iran would give up its nukes.
Conservatives say Obama thinks he's king. But they seem to confuse him with God.
It's easy to forget that planet Earth has always been a turbulent locale. During the Reagan administration, often fondly recalled as a golden age, there was endless strife hither and yon: civil wars in Central America; Americans taken hostage in Lebanon; a U.S. military barracks blown up in Beirut; and Libyan terrorists bombing a Pan Am plane.
The Soviets shot down a South Korean passenger jet. South Africa's minority white government tried to suppress a black revolt.
Reagan may get credit for causing the collapse of the Soviet Union, but tranquility didn't follow. It wasn't long before Iraq invaded Kuwait, Yugoslavia erupted into bloody ethnic conflict, civil war broke out in one African country after another, famine ravaged Somalia, Palestinians rose up against Israeli rule, and Pakistan and India fought a war after acquiring nuclear weapons.
And the 21st century? It did not turn the world into a serene oasis where America consistently got its way. The 9/11 attacks, the war in Iraq and the war in Afghanistan are still fresh in our minds. The Russian invasion of Georgia, al-Qaida's migration into Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen, Israel's war in Lebanon, the civil war in Sudan -- those are easy to forget.
North Korea cheated on a nuclear deal under Bush. Iran took major strides in its own nuclear quest. Vladimir Putin gutted Russian democracy. China tried to intimidate its neighbors.
When was this era of harmony that Obama has somehow forfeited? It never happened. And it's not likely to emerge under his successor. Even at the height of our post-Cold War power and influence, nasty events happened all the time, and we couldn't stop them.
The Cold War era was a bit more controlled, because so many governments were dependent for their security on either the U.S. or the Soviet Union, who could often keep them in line. But there was still plenty of bloodshed in plenty of places -- from Vietnam to the Indian subcontinent to Lebanon to El Salvador. Often, neither Washington nor Moscow got what it wanted.
Nor is it obvious Obama could have achieved much with more assertive tactics against the Russian government or the Syrian government: His options were few and unpromising. Nothing short of a NATO military response -- which even the hawks didn't propose -- would have stopped Putin from seizing Crimea.
Arming the Syrian rebels could have meant giving aid to the militants marching on our ally in Baghdad. Staying in Iraq and Afghanistan, as many Republicans advised, was a formula for wasting American lives to merely delay the inevitable.
Yet the belief persists that the difference between a bad outcome and a good outcome is a willingness by the U.S. government to exercise leadership or show toughness or otherwise get involved. In practice, our interventions often exact a terribly high price for a dismal result. If there are two ways to get a dismal result, maybe we should choose the one that doesn't cost us thousands of lives or billions of dollars.
We like to think we can easily shape the world to suit our preferences. But as the 19th-century historian Henry Adams pointed out, chaos is the law of nature, and order is the dream of man.
The World is in the state Bho wants it to be!
His last move is to crush The American People!
It began in Egypt and now is in Gaza.
All on Obama’s watch, orchestrated by our State Dept.
“Is Obama to blame?”
No.
But, George Bush is, ya know?
/sarcasm/
IMHO
...like the ripples on a pond...’ You have to ask?
Obama is quick to claim credit—like Slick Clinton—when things *don’t* actually go tits up, so yeah: It works both ways.
US domestic and foreign policy are sucking out loud and there’s only one guy who claims an ability to legislate with executive orders and who writes checks on the US Treasury to ROP adherents who jam heads on spikes.
And yeah, he claims an ability to lower the ocean levels and the Earth’s temperature, is driving coal companies into bankruptcy and wants to spend billions on on `climate change,’ and almost 4 billion on settling illegal invaders, but won’t consider spending 7 billion on a sturdy barrier along our southwest border.
So it’s all on The Won, and his GOP-e minions.
AMEN, remember Satan can’t kill an eternal soul.
Yep. When other leaders see ours as very weak, they know they can do anything and they do.
You said it
He got his wish, yes he did.
Which one? If a Republican occupied the White House he would have been blamed by the media for rising food prices. I'd say Obama is to blame for that. Playing golf doesn't increase the supply of food.
There’s no shortage of food. There’s an oversupply of dollars.
Speaker “Blank Check” Boehner keeps Obama in power by not controlling spending or Impeaching Obama.
Morman Reid shuts down the Muslim Obama Government, (MOG), anytime that Boehner refuses to write Obama a Blank Check.
Muslim Obama is happy enough to play hooky from his day job to raise Campaign money for Morman Reid’s Senate Candidates.
Boehner is the key man to allow Muslim Obama to continue to wreck America, and Obama knows it.
Force Boehner to resign, and Obama will be at the mercy of New Speaker Jim Jordan or Trey Gowdy - - - .
Your article is crap
Obama is to blame for his failure as President
The IRS Treachery
The VA scandal
The NSA debacle
The Bengazi Travesty
The Media Blackout of His “Transparency”
The Eric Holder/Janet Reno sockpuppet reverse justice fiasco
The Fast and Furious death of Americans
The slap in the Face to Israel
The Executive order end run around the sep of powers
The aloofness to all of it
The arrogance
The Pompousness
The sneering,sniping,Lying, carping,sniveling,simpering
nose in the air,golfing,pissing away of billions of taxpayer dollars.
He is the WORST PRESIDENT ever, and a TRAITOR
period.
Yes he is but the Clinton/Hanoi Boi Kerry fiasco should also get their share of the credit. Barry owes Slick Willie’s wife and Hanoi Boi each one third of his IgNobel Peace Prize, IMHO.
Perhaps not all but close to 90%.
Simply, yes - he spent five years squandering America’s prestige and authority by apologizing to the rest of the world for our strength and achievements, and now there is no good guy left with any moral authority or even a big stick to help keep the troublemakers in line - Obama stuck a big “Kick Me” sign on this country’s back, and Putin, AlQaeda, ISIS and all the rest are happy to oblige.....
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