Obama foreign policy “is like the Brazilian national soccer squad”
“like the Brazilians, they folded, they collapsed, they just absolutely capitulated”
Greg Gutfeld sat in for Bill on the O’Reilly Factor last night and in one segment, he interviewed Bret Stephens of the Wall Street Journal.
The focus of their discussion was the meltdown of the Obama presidency with an eye to foreign policy. Watch below:
The column Stephens wrote for Commentary Magazine which is referenced in the interview is excerpted here:
The Meltdown
In July, after Germany trounced Brazil 7–1 in the semifinal match of the World Cup—including a first-half stretch in which the Brazilian soccer squad gave up an astonishing five goals in 19 minutes—a sports commentator wrote: “This was not a team losing. It was a dream dying.” These words could equally describe what has become of Barack Obama’s foreign policy since his second inauguration. The president, according to the infatuated view of his political aides and media flatterers, was supposed to be playing o jogo bonito, the beautiful game—ending wars, pressing resets, pursuing pivots, and restoring America’s good name abroad.
Instead, he crumbled.
As I write, the foreign policy of the United States is in a state of unprecedented disarray. In some cases, failed policy has given way to an absence of policy. So it is in Libya, Syria, Egypt, Iraq, and, at least until recently, Ukraine. In other cases the president has doubled down on failed policy—extending nuclear negotiations with Iran; announcing the full withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan.
Sometimes the administration has been the victim of events, such as Edward Snowden’s espionage, it made worse through bureaucratic fumbling and feckless administrative fixes. At other times the wounds have been self-inflicted: the espionage scandal in Germany (when it was learned that the United States had continued to spy on our ally despite prior revelations of the NSA’s eavesdropping on Chancellor Angela Merkel); the repeated declaration that “core al-Qaeda” was “on a path to defeat”; the prisoner swap with the Taliban that obtained Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl’s release.
It’s a long article but you should read the whole thing.
[Featured image source: AP YouTube]
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Coupla thangs…
1. the world is exactly where Collectivists wanted it. They broke it, they buy it. For generations, we have been told how EEEEeeeeeeeeEEEEEeeevile the U.S. was, and Barracula was marinated in that sewage. And so was Hill-larry and John F’ing Kerry. The whole Obami. This is the natural expression of that whole bucket of crap.
2. We are too in decline. But decline is a CHOICE. We could and I hope will be turning this around soon. But not JUST by a changing in president, but by real reform. That MUST start from the bottom up. And it will take application and diligence.
3. IF we are lucky, we’ll have time to avoid a cataclysm. If not, we’re in for some very hard, dark times.
Well, he said he was going to fundamentally transform the United States. He never claimed it would be a positive transformation.
And nobody thought it prudent to ask, beforehand, what exactly he meant when he said he wanted to fundamentally change the greatest country on earth. Like an army of useful idiots they marched into the voting booth and pulled the lever, twice! Idiots.
As that was never his intention
Appreciate the sentiments, but Obama is not melting down.
Obama is exactly as and what he always was: incompetent, a pretender, a poseur, a person acting at being the president. All of this was obvious from the very beginning.
This is the man who was boosted into Harvard by others, not on his college record. This is a man who won the presidency of his law review without writing a single article. This is a man who was offered a book deal to write about himself (!) before he’d even held a job — and got it ghost written. This is a man who on his own has accomplished absolutely nothing in his lifetime that would qualify him for the presidency.
This is a man who came into the White House and substantially copied the Clinton administration appointees. A fraud. Copying, acting. This is a man who, when he said absolutely nothing of substance on issues, constantly was hailed as “brilliant” by numerous media publications whose writers repeatedly delusionally perceived that he was “signaling” something [whatever they wanted to hear.]
So he’s not voting “present” any more because that’s not an option when there are actual urgent situations that required immediate action and will have immediate outcomes. Uh oh.
It’s easy to say let’s get out of war (and do it stupidly). It’s easy to insist on this or that program (when the bad fallout won’t happen for a while, and especially when the sycophants and psychotic euphorics are loudly applauding.) It’s easy to lay blame at the beginning on the predecessor and even later on this or that when it’s not so obvious who has been the decision-maker. It’s easy to pretend that’s not my job if there’s any way to point the finger.
It’s not so easy when there are actual emergencies and immediate public decision-making — with repercussions — is required.
Obama is frozen in his inept incompetence and pretending. Actors playing the president on TV shows follow scripts, and anything is possible in the fantasy world — like Channing Tatum’s moron movie White House Down. And he has surrounded himself with political cronies, and other clueless entourage whose realm of expertise and advice ends at political spin.
Obama is not melting down. His cover is what is melting down.
well said….your last sentence nails it
Spot on.
It is of little import whether Obama’s consistent record of failure was born entirely of incompetence, evil design, or some combination. He has failed utterly at everything.
For the first two years of his Presidency, his party controlled both House and Senate. For more than half that time, a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate; for the rest, only one Republican needed to be brought on board to break a filibuster.
Yet even then, all he could pass were his two huge boondoggle spending bills at the start, TARP II and ARRA, wasting over $1 trillion for little observable effect beyond enriching donors and cronies. And his signature achievement, PPACA, was so flawed he has had to unlawfully amend over two dozen major provisions.
He’s a figurehead for the policies of the Democratic Left, now in total control of that party. Obama is not now and has never been a leader or achiever, and never will be.
Obama has yet to achieve the title he has set for himself. What he has accomplished is what he wanted to achieve. First becoming Senator, then President. He is ready to sit out the next two years governing by fiat while weighting any action with inaction and placing our country in one crisis after another, creating more chaos until he has inflicted both external and internal carnage to America. He will then simply walk away with “Mission Accomplished”, and continue his profound “Hope” (his) and “Change” (as promised) in going “Forward” (orig, Marxist Campaign Slogan) taking advantage of the benefits of a former President. Obama in his third act will be better financed and have name recognition to have both a national and international platform where he will continue to advance his deconstruction of America. His financial support will still be highly funded, ( think Hillary and Bill for public speaking fees and book deals) to push a race based socialist isolation policy ( think Al Sharpton) doubled down.
As we continue to experience his incompetency to govern and his apathy for any public or foreign affairs policies and his total disregard of knowledgeable advisers in the balance of his current term, we will continue to dangerously slide backwards. Leaving office is no reassurance as Obama will be even more dangerous for Americans out of office as he ever was in. Obama’s narcissistic mission is formed and described and foretold in his own words “Dreams From My Father”. From Obama’s perspective, he’s winning. He is achieving his goals for America. While some perceive and describe him as the “Dude of Cool”, Obamas’ own reality is he is on his life time achievement quest and will not be deterred; Martyrdom perhaps the crown jewel.
mr. creeper wonders about that martyrdom. Dems are sure impeachment would accomplish the same goal but Reps won’t play their game. That doesn’t leave many options for securing the legacy of this hist(ri)o(ni)c president.
It’s pretty dark staring into this abyss.
What Bret Stephens does well here is deliver intense criticism of Obama while simultaneously remaining an upbeat tone about America.
All of Obama’s foreign policy testosterone went into Reggie Love’s rectum the night of 9/11/2012 while in the Lincoln Bedroom.
CAIR bought and paid for the Democratic Party, lock, stock and barrel, then hired Barack Obama to lance that noxious suppurative MidEastern boil known as Israel. With everything else going to Hell, the Foley decapitation, the barbarians massed on the Southern border, fully loaded passenger planes being shot out of the air, willy-nilly, Al Sharpton in Ferguson, Mo behaving like the chimpanzees at the zoo who strangely attacked the male zoo goer in front of his family gouging out his eyeball, biting off his nose and testicles, lancing the Israeli boil has become job number one. The debt to CAIR isn’t something trivial that can be completely ignored and forgotten about like the $100,000 stipend from a certain Chicago University to teach, write and lecture on constitutional law or the millions from the Chicago Annenburg Foundation meant for the Chicago school kiddies that he and Bill ayers frittered away.
American foreign policy over the last several decades has resembled a Borderline Personality Disordered patient with intermittent psychotic episodes.
Every 4 to 8 years and sometimes less, there is a dramatic change of policy that does not relate to anything constant or substantive…just change of regimes, change of make up of congress, election year, etc.
Look at this video by Andrew Klavan for an example. http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/truthrevolt-org/andrew-klavan-democrats-at-war/
Then we have Obama denying it was his decision to withdraw from Iraq, when he bragged about doing it earlier during a campaign year.
Obama’s foreign policy is most like the Clintons, in that it lacks logic, integrity and is more a matter of partisan political agenda and personal interests. Obama’s foreign policy reflects his personality, belief system and moral compass and is CONSISTENT with the tenor of his entire presidency. In both foreign and domestic policy, Obama always acts in a way that is entirely against the welfare and best interest of this nation and its citizens.
Just watched the Klavan video. Thanks. Excellent.
While watching it, and further to my comments above, note that Obama, like other pretenders, does his thing by imitating what he’s seen others do. It hit me that the “surge in Afghanistan” mimicked Bush’s surge in Iraq. There are numerous other examples.