Scary times!
"President
Theodore Roosevelt said, "Speak softly, and carry a big stick." More
than a century later, President Barack Obama speaks loudly (and
incessantly) and carries a twig.
Like Nero of
ancient Rome, Obama fiddles, takes selfies and does Internet interviews
while the world burns. Is he trying to distract himself, or us? To use a
sports analogy, is he trying to "run out the clock" and leave office
before terrorist fires consume us?
We have a
president who is mismatched to the times in which we live. He is
unserious when seriousness is required. The tyrants of the world have
taken notice and rightly calculated they can pretty much do what they
want without paying a heavy penalty.
The
administration is pleased about a "cease-fire" between Russia and
Ukraine, negotiated by the leaders of France and Germany, but even they
are skeptical Russian President Vladimir Putin will abide by it. Why
should he? Who's to stop him from solidifying his land grab in Eastern
Ukraine, not to mention Crimea, which he has already "digested" with
little response other than sanctions? For now he seems willing to endure
them.
This does not bode well for a
negotiated deal with Iran over that country's nuclear weapons program.
Iran's mullahs don't believe they will pay much of a price for lying to
the West about constructing a nuclear bomb and a missile system to carry
it as far as the U.S., but an agreement will allow President Obama to
brag about the "success" of diplomacy and justify his reluctance to do
what is necessary to stop them."