For 8 years I have been saying that Obama hates America, the land that, supposedly, gave him birth. From childhood on he was steeped in Leftist propaganda. He is in truth the ultimate “red diaper baby”. But, at least he has an excuse. He was born to a Communist mother. He was brought up during his crucial formative years in an Islamic country. His mentor Frank Davis was a devoted member of the Communist party, His spiritual advisor, Reverend Wright, was an ardent Black Liberationist who hated America and was an anti-Semite to boot. What could one legitimately expect of such a man!
But how to explain all those willing accomplices who voted to make this man President of the United States? Stupidity? Guilt? Identification? Ignorance of reality? any one aspect will do when one is predisposed to give into one’s prejudices. Put all four together and you have a very toxic self-destructive mix.
Glick: The Obama Doctrine, Unplugged
Reading Obama’s view of Putin the same day the Russian leader surprised the US in announcing his decision to immediately withdraw Russian forces from Syria was instructive.
Reading Obama’s view of Putin the same day the Russian leader surprised the US in announcing his decision to immediately withdraw Russian forces from Syria was instructive.
Putin, Obama sneered, is “constantly interested in being seen as our peer and working with us, because he’s not completely stupid. He understands that Russia’s overall position in the world is significantly diminished. And the fact that he invades Crimea or is trying to prop up [Syrian President Bashar] Assad doesn’t suddenly make him a player.”
Moreover, Obama said, Putin’s decision to deploy his forces to Syria would have no impact on Russia’s global influence.”
“The notion that somehow Russia is in a stronger position now, in Syria or in Ukraine, than they were before they invaded Ukraine or before he had to deploy military forces to Syria is to fundamentally misunderstand the nature of power in foreign affairs, or in the world general. Real power means you can get what you want without having to exert violence.”
Although they sound smart, Obama’s statements were utter hogwash.
By sending his forces to Syria, Putin no only secured Russians military bases in Syria for the foreseeable future. Putin vastly improved Russia’s international position – and did so at America’s expense.
Putin exposed the emptiness of Obama’s global leadership in the campaign against ISIS. Among other things, Putin called Obama’s bluff by threatening US combat jets with his air defense batteries.
Rather than confront Putin for his refusal to deconflict his forces from US fighter craft, Obama ordered US forces to end manned aircraft sorties in the area around Russia’s air defenses and reduced the vaunted US anti-ISIS campaign to drone strikes. In other words, he allowed Russia to create a no-fly zone against the US Air Force.
Obama’s readiness to stand back and allow Putin to replace America as the superpower power broker in the Middle East isn’t all that surprising. In his conversations with Goldberg, Obama derided the need uphold America’s commitments.
Obama’s first open move to upend America’s global credibility – what Goldberg refers to as his “liberation day,” came on August 30, 2013. That day, Obama decided not to attack Syrian regime targets in retaliation for Assad’s use of chemical weapons gas against Syrian civilians in the Damascus suburb of Ghouta on August 21. Some 1,400 people were reportedly murdered in the strike.
“The moment Obama decided not to enforce his redline and bomb Syria,” Goldberg wrote, “he broke with what he calls, derisively, ‘the Washington playbook.’” Obama told Goldberg, “I’m very proud of that moment,” when he shuffled off the “overwhelming weight of conventional wisdom and the machinery of our national-security apparatus.”
Just as the foreign policy establishment – including Obama’s advisers and cabinet secretaries – was mortified by his decision to trample on US credibility that day, so its members remain flummoxed by his refusal to deal seriously with the growing threat that ISIS poses to key US interests.