by Dan Bubalo
The free-fall of the United States from world-prominence is not an accident nor happenstance, but instead a manifestation of naïve foreign policies which failed to identify and acknowledge exterior threats, combined with a flurry of debilitating and pernicious domestic policies aimed at dismantling America’s economic infrastructure, freedoms, and laws.
President Obama has consistently misjudged the intentions of our enemies and believed that cajoling and making nice with opponents bent on our destruction would somehow ameliorate the threats. He began with a world-wide Apology Tour in the first months of his administration, then compounded that gross miscalculation with a flurry of vindictive domestic initiatives, leading one to conclude that he only had one adversary in his sites from the day he assumed office: the United States itself, and to that end, he began and continues with an abdication of the presidential oath to “preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution.”
How does one square the violation of Fourth Amendment protections by sic’ing the NSA on citizens to such an extent that it catalogs every text, email, and phone call? How can one reconcile First Amendment infringements by utilizing the IRS to bludgeon the right to free speech and freedom of assembly of political opposition? What motivates a president to randomly observe certain laws, subjectively ignore others, and illegally amend laws outside the auspices of Congress? Why categorically reject out of hand developing our energy resources when that decision increases dependence on avowed enemies of the state? What justification can be made for arming and empowering a shadow army at Homeland Security while simultaneously proposing we disembowel the military?
I suppose it’s the same type of individual that believes it is better to placate radical leaders with weapons and aid so that he can concentrate the attack on the menace he perceives to exist in his own country—–all the better to centralize government control like the despots he apparently envied and idolized. That is of course, until he got into a stare-down with Vladimir Putin.
The difference between the two men is stark. Despite a crumbling façade, Obama still deludes himself into believing he is the sage, even-handed leader of the free world. (despite secretly wishing he was king.) By contrast, Putin unabashedly controls everyone and everything in his domain, and if he covets the resources of another sovereign country he will not equivocate about his intentions to become the world’s most feared and powerful tyrant. Now that the distinction between the two is on full display, and at a time that Putin’s aggression must be confronted by an immovable force, Obama wilts, resorting to wagging his finger and threatening sanctions against Russia that have no more substance than cotton candy, and in the process reduces himself to little more than an impotent blowhard. Such is the difference between a community organizer cum president who draws up foreign policy with crayons and pastel colored pencils, and an opponent who never stops scheming and thinks nothing of bloodshed in order realize his ambitions.
Obama’s initial salvo to give Putin and Russian oligarchs pause was to warn them a month in advance that he would freeze their stateside assets if aggression continued in Ukraine. How toothless, especially in light of the fact that it takes less than an hour to move funds from a domestic bank to a foreign concern.
Next, Obama and John Kerry began a tsk-tsking campaign, proclaiming Putin to be on the wrong side of history, as if that would make the thug re-think his takeover in Crimea.
Immediately thereafter Obama suggested that we could fill the needs of Europe by supplanting Russia’s supply of oil and natural gas by delivering our own, though there are a couple major flaws with that plan: Obama has placed innumerable hurdles in front of domestic energy development, and the logistics necessary to supply Europe would take three years or more to establish. By that time, Putin will have reclaimed all the Baltic states and have his eyes on former Eastern Bloc countries.
Lastly, at a time when our president should be the catalyst behind a strong NATO response to Russia, the relationship in that alliance is fractious and filled with distrust due to revelations of the NSA eavesdropping on allied leaders.
Obama’s detachment and inability to engage has created a vacuum of leadership, making it clear to our enemies that no cogent plan is even on the horizon. The result not only strengthens the hand of Russia but further emboldens countries like North Korea, Iran, and China to test America’s resolve, and what is the president doing? Retreating into his comfort zone of appearing busy while accomplishing nothing at all. Imagine the reaction of our allies when they see the leader of the world’s once, singular superpower preoccupied with filling out a March Madness bracket, going rogue in the dispensing of more exemptions and sops to salvage the wreckage known as Obamacare, and pandering to illegal aliens who have infested the United States because of his reluctance to defend his country’s borders.
When one operates without a clear strategy it is apparent there is no back-up plan, and Obama’s deficiency in this regard is increasingly troubling now that a foe like Putin is flexing for all the world to see. Most assuredly, Putin has plotted out his next ten moves and has contingency plans for each at a time when Obama persists with his desire to shrink the military to pre-WWII levels, and after he just finished championing transgender surgeries for military personnel with orientation issues.
Putin isn’t quaking with fear, he’s shaking with laughter and doubtlessly blinking his eyes in bewilderment, along with all the other countries in the Axis of Evil.
