Friday, August 16, 2013

Jackson Diehl, "Obama’s Dangerous Passivity on Egypt and Syria on Display": Imagine If Diehl Hadn't Minced His Words

Do you remember how Obama said that his administration's legislative and foreign policy accomplishments were better than those of any other president, barring perhaps Johnson, FDR and Lincoln (see: http://jgcaesarea.blogspot.co.il/2013/08/new-york-times-editorial-military.html)? Well, Obama might want to take note of what Jackson Diehl had to say about the president's foreign policy in a Washington Post opinion piece entitled "Obama’s dangerous passivity on Egypt and Syria on display" (http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/jackson-diehl-obamas-dangerous-passivity-on-egypt-on-display/2013/08/15/69d085fc-0522-11e3-9259-e2aafe5a5f84_story.html?hpid=z2):

"Instead, this president’s extraordinary passivity in the face of crisis may have achieved its apotheosis this week. On Wednesday, as Egyptian security forces gunned down hundreds of civilians in the streets of Cairo, an unperturbed Obama shot another round of golf at Martha’s Vineyard.

. . . .

The crisis in Egypt has been distracting attention from the civil war in Syria, where Obama’s stubborn refusal to act has facilitated the emergence of the largest and potentially most dangerous incarnation of al-Qaeda since pre-2001 Afghanistan.

. . . .

Obama looks like a president in full flight from a world that looks nothing like what he imagined when he took office.

. . . .

In the last year, U.S. allies in the Middle East and Europe have marveled as Obama doggedly pursued a patently futile attempt to engage Russian strongman Vladi­mir Putin in another round of nuclear arms reduction talks even while tolerating toxic Russian intervention in Syria and rejecting his own national security team’s proposal for U.S. action. They have scratched their heads as Secretary of State John F. Kerry, with Obama’s blessing, has made the renewal of moribund Israeli-Palestinian talks his central focus while keeping a safe distance from Egypt.

. . . .

Obama may have meant to retire the doctrine of the United States as the world’s 'indispensible nation.' Instead, the disastrous results of his persistent passivity may lead to its revival."

Now, can you only imagine how this opinion piece would have read if Diehl hadn't minced his words?

1 comment:

  1. "Obama looks like a president in full flight from a world that looks nothing like what he imagined when he took office."
    Yes, the world is bad to our Messiah. Didn't he give nice, pretty speeches? Didn't he smile and hug?
    And what does he get in return?
    In other words, the problem isn't with Obama - it is with the illiterate, deprived of any knowledge of history and any sensitivity to demagoguery population, which elected this "hope, unity, change" bozo.

    ReplyDelete