Everything
that Barack Obama touches seems to turn to dross. Think of it for a
minute. He inherited a quiet Iraq (no American combat deaths at all in
December 2009). Joe Biden bragged of the calm that it would be the
administration’s “greatest achievement.” But by pulling out all U.S.
peacekeepers — mostly for a 2012 reelection talking point — Obama
ensured an ISIS wasteland. He put his promised eye on Afghanistan at
last, and we have lost more soldiers there than during the Bush
administration and a Taliban victory seems likely after more than a
decade of lost American blood and treasure. The message seems to be
that it is better for Obama to have his eye off something than on it.
Remember those threats to Syria? After the U.S. threatened and backed
off, the violence only escalated and spilled into Iraq.
That is the real Obama legacy: there are no politics any more, just an
endless class war between patriotic progressives and
counter-revolutionary clingers.
Libya was no paradise under Gadhafi, but it is now Mogadishu on the
Mediterranean. Not even the president’s supporters believe that he told
the truth about Benghazi. Reset with Russia green-lighted Putin, as he
sized up Barack Obama as a lamb waiting to be eaten. The Bowe
Bergdahl-for-five-terrorists swap (likely illegal) is not headline news
only because dozens of scandals since have eclipsed it, and the likely
deserter is apparently still kept incommunicado, lest he speak in the
fashion of his father at the earlier White House press conference. I
don’t think Bergdahl is a model for future negotiations with the
Taliban.
Israel? We never have been more estranged from the Jewish state. Open
mic outbursts against Netanyahu define our true policies. The terrorist
state run by Hamas is now a partner for peace – tunnels, missiles,
syringes, handcuffs and all. Did outreach to Hamas lessen or spike
violence?
Did the “special relationship” with the Islamist Recep Erdogan lead to
regional calm, and does it still exist?
The war on terror? Obama has derided most anti-terrorism protocols,
even as he kept some Bush-Cheney policies — to the incoherent point
that no one has any idea what the U.S. is doing. Jihad a personal
odyssey? Muslim Brotherhood largely secular? Major Hasan’s murdering
mere workplace violence? Outreach to Islam NASA’s primary mission?
Remember overseas contingency operations and man-caused disasters? In
the Obama war on terror, waterboarding three architects of 9/11 is our
“folks” torturing their “folks”; but judge/jury/executioner drone
strikes that blow up 2,000-plus suspected (not confessed) terrorists —
and anyone in the general vicinity when the missile hits — are far more
moral. Out of sight, out of mind.
When CIA Director John Brennan speaks, we all assume he is not telling
the truth, as in the past. Whatever the DC dictate is at the present,
Brennan makes the necessary immoral adjustments.
Past cabinet heads? No one knows exactly the circumstances under which
Lisa Jackson, Hilda Solis — and even David Petraeus — left their
offices.
Iran and the bomb? Look to red lines in Syria for an example of how our
Iranian threats will work out. One cannot distinguish parody from
Obama’s Iranian policy. We worried more about sanctions hurting
Iranians than forcing them to comply with non-proliferation promises.
The world sort of likes the new reduced profile of the U.S. This is
especially true of Russia, China, and Iran, as they fill the regional
voids. The weaker we become, the more likely Obama is popular overseas,
and the more likely the Left applauds his new global likability.
In the Obama view, millions do not like Israel, Britain, or any
pro-American Western democracy, and so applaud his new corrections.
At home? Obama has wrecked our healthcare system. Every promise about
the Affordable Care Act proved an outright lie. No one can define
Obamacare or explain how it is supposed to work. In fact, no one really
even tries any more.
The budget? Obama’s legacy is ...
(Victor
Davis Hanson cont)
