The Discerning Texan
All that is necessary for evil to triumph, is for good men to do nothing.
-- Edmund Burke
-- Edmund Burke
Wednesday, February 04, 2009
Crises Galore -- and a bit of Advice
Uncle Jimbo has a roundup of all the current foreign policy challenges that are popping up like whack-a-moles this week (some of which were raised here yesterday) in his Testing the New Guy: Everybody Plays.
Read the whole thing... and be very concerned.
I don't envy any President in taking these challenges on, but Biden's prediction about foreign leaders immediately testing Obama seems to be playing out exactly as predicted.
How Obama handles these challenges will IMO define his Presidency in History for good or ill. The actions he takes (or shirks away from) right now will be extremely revealing to our adversaries, and will impact our security, one way or another. If he shows weakness, expect our enemies to be emboldened and to take even more hostile or agressive action. The World is in an economic crisis, just as it was prior to World War II. In that war, aggressive nations needing expansion for economic gain, i.e. Germany, Japan, and the Soviet Union took matters into their own hands while the rest of the world stood on its heels until it was almost too late. In those days Western Europe was stronger; at least it had armed forces willing to fight for principle.
Today things are very similar as far as the conditions which foment war. Only today Europe is pretty much emasculated; today our adversaries know that only the United States stands in their way. They know that Europe will not lift a finger if we do not.
Thus, in the spirit of "politics ending at the water's edge": Mr. President: please show some backbone in responding to these challenges. Be tough and firm, but avoid making tough statements only to back down later. If you take a tough stand, back it up with action. Nothing can pull a dog-paddling President out of a slump faster than foreign policy success; but nothing can do more damage to a Presidency than showing weakness to our enemies and then being played for a fool on the world stage. Just one man's opinion, but there it is. You are not going to be able to just throw this stuff over the wall to Hillary at State. You wanted this job: welcome to it.
So what is it going to be, sir: "weak horse" or "strong horse"? Chamberlain or Churchill? Our enemies seem to think it will be the former; I hope they are wrong about that.
Read the whole thing... and be very concerned.
I don't envy any President in taking these challenges on, but Biden's prediction about foreign leaders immediately testing Obama seems to be playing out exactly as predicted.
How Obama handles these challenges will IMO define his Presidency in History for good or ill. The actions he takes (or shirks away from) right now will be extremely revealing to our adversaries, and will impact our security, one way or another. If he shows weakness, expect our enemies to be emboldened and to take even more hostile or agressive action. The World is in an economic crisis, just as it was prior to World War II. In that war, aggressive nations needing expansion for economic gain, i.e. Germany, Japan, and the Soviet Union took matters into their own hands while the rest of the world stood on its heels until it was almost too late. In those days Western Europe was stronger; at least it had armed forces willing to fight for principle.
Today things are very similar as far as the conditions which foment war. Only today Europe is pretty much emasculated; today our adversaries know that only the United States stands in their way. They know that Europe will not lift a finger if we do not.
Thus, in the spirit of "politics ending at the water's edge": Mr. President: please show some backbone in responding to these challenges. Be tough and firm, but avoid making tough statements only to back down later. If you take a tough stand, back it up with action. Nothing can pull a dog-paddling President out of a slump faster than foreign policy success; but nothing can do more damage to a Presidency than showing weakness to our enemies and then being played for a fool on the world stage. Just one man's opinion, but there it is. You are not going to be able to just throw this stuff over the wall to Hillary at State. You wanted this job: welcome to it.
So what is it going to be, sir: "weak horse" or "strong horse"? Chamberlain or Churchill? Our enemies seem to think it will be the former; I hope they are wrong about that.
