Powers explicitly names five nations with whom we would presumably lose influence: Britain, China, France, Russia, Germany. Let us consider America's relations with these nations since Obama took office:
Britain: He commenced his first administration by sending back the bust of Winston Churchill and made clear his personal hatred of the British Empire inherited directly from his alleged father and namesake.
China: He is dealing with with China from a crouch of servility and will demonstrate more of the same in the upcoming visit of Chinese head of state. Of all the countries on Earth, China respects power and despises weakness.
Russia: despite the comic opera attempts of Hillary Clinton to "reset" our relationship with Russia, our relationship as well as our influence has gone from wariness to outright hostility. Much of this can be traced to Hillary and Obama's ill advised bombing of Libya which so outraged Vladimir Putin. Our imposition of sanctions because of Ukraine has given us the worst of all worlds, they have offended the Russians, they have disaffected the Europeans, they have proved ineffectual. The Europeans are turning against America as a result of the sanctions and the Russians turn toward China. God help us if…
Germany abandons its fidelity to NATO and to America and joins with a Russian/Chinese coalition. Here is another irony, Barack Obama was terribly popular here in Germany upon his election, they gave him the Nobel Prize because he qualified on two counts: he was not George Bush and he was black. That he was not George Bush was not only personal-although virtually every German I ever met despised and ridiculed George Bush from the day they first heard his name-but it is symbolic. The Germans despise American adventurism (styled often as a "cowboy" foreign policy) and want the kind of foreign policy that Obama has offered up, to wit, "leading from behind." The irony is that no matter how much the Germans get what they want, no matter how many threats arise around the world as a result, the more they blame America.
Samantha Power is correct, the grand coalition represented by NATO can very well disintegrate but whether the United States Congress summons up the integrity to repudiate the Black Messiah really is beside the point. Either America resumes its role arising out of a vibrant economy and a coherent foreign policy and attracts nations to the side of the winner or it muddles on with an incoherent foreign policy, a belligerency toward its allies and an unrequited appeasement to its enemies inevitably assuring the absolute isolation of the United States.
The model for a winner is, of course, Ronald Reagan whose foreign policy caused 1 million Germans to take to the streets in protest in Berlin and a half a million Germans to take to the streets in Munich in protest of his foreign policy concerning the Soviet Union but at the end of the day Ronald Reagan won the Cold War. He presented a coherent foreign policy grounded upon a coherent strategy, "we win, they lose" and a consistent and reliable conduct of affairs. He left America safe and secure and he had Europeans only too eager to be America's ally. He was a patriot.
There is the fundamental problem with the Obama administration, Obama despises America, he wants it undermined because he sees America as the principal stumbling block to a transformed world. His ambition is not limited to transforming America, he wants to see the world transformed by transforming America.
Repudiating this misbegotten "deal" with Iran is but the first step in a road back to self-respect as well as to sanity.
