Friday, August 13, 2010

Okay, so I am impressed

with this article.

He has ten reasons, but this one (number 8) was the one of most poignant interest to me:

It is hard to think of a single foreign policy success for the Obama administration, but there have been plenty of missteps which have weakened American global power as well as the standing of the United States. The surrender to Moscow on Third Site missile defence, the failure to aggressively stand up to Iran’s nuclear programme, the decision to side with ousted Marxists in Honduras, the slap in the face for Great Britain over the Falklands, have all contributed to the image of a US administration completely out of its depth in international affairs. The Obama administration’s high risk strategy of appeasing America’s enemies while kicking traditional US allies has only succeeded in weakening the United States while strengthening her adversaries.

I'm not going to start on a rant against Obama, or even avid praise of Nile Gardiner. But, I'll say this.

One of the most striking things (to me) about Obama's role in the presidency has been his failure to act like a leader. He talks (a lot) to these people and those people, about this thing and that thing. He talks like every nation, race, religion, sect, foreign opinion is equally right and deserving of gratifying attention. It's like he is trying to hold his hands out to everyone and appease them all. The result may be that everyone will hate him. When you try to please everyone, your friends feel betrayed and your enemies no longer respect you.

While many people disliked the decisions of George W. Bush, at least he made them and stuck by them. (He changed some in his later years, but that's a different story.) He was a leader.

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