http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323595004579062811443943666.html ****
* * *Obama's Successful Foreign Failure***** ** ** The president may look incompetent on Syria. But his behavior fits**** his strategy to weaken America abroad.**** ** ** By NORMAN PODHORETZ**** September 8, 2013**** ** ** It is entirely understandable that Barack Obama's way of dealing with**** Syria in recent weeks should have elicited responses ranging from**** puzzlement to disgust. Even members of his own party are despairingly**** echoing in private the public denunciations of him as "incompetent,"**** "bungling," "feckless," "amateurish" and "in over his head" coming**** from his political opponents on the right.**** ** ** For how else to characterize a president who declares war against**** what he calls a great evil demanding immediate extirpation and in the**** next breath announces that he will postpone taking action for at**** least 10 days—and then goes off to play golf before embarking on a**** trip to another part of the world? As if this were not enough, he**** also assures the perpetrator of that great evil that the military**** action he will eventually take will last a very short time and will**** do hardly any damage. Unless, that is, he fails to get the**** unnecessary permission he has sought from Congress, in which case**** (according to an indiscreet member of his own staff) he might not**** take any military action after all.**** ** ** Summing up the net effect of all this, as astute a foreign observer**** as Conrad Black can flatly say that, "Not since the disintegration of**** the Soviet Union in 1991, and before that the fall of France in 1940,**** has there been so swift an erosion of the world influence of a Great**** Power as we are witnessing with the United States."**** ** ** Yet if this is indeed the pass to which Mr. Obama has led us—and I**** think it is—let me suggest that it signifies not how incompetent and**** amateurish the president is, but how skillful. His foreign policy,**** far from a dismal failure, is a brilliant success as measured by what**** he intended all along to accomplish. The accomplishment would not**** have been possible if the intention had been too obvious. The skill**** lies in how effectively he has used rhetorical tricks to disguise it.**** ** ** The key to understanding what Mr. Obama has pulled off is the**** astonishing statement he made in the week before being elected**** president: "We are five days away from fundamentally transforming the**** United States of America." To those of us who took this declaration**** seriously, it meant that Mr. Obama really was the left-wing radical**** he seemed to be, given his associations with the likes of the**** anti-American preacher Jeremiah Wright and the unrepentant terrorist**** Bill Ayers, not to mention the intellectual influence over him of**** Saul Alinsky, the original "community organizer."**** ** ** So far as domestic affairs were concerned, it soon became clear—even**** to some of those who had persuaded themselves that Mr. Obama was a**** moderate and a pragmatist—that the fundamental transformation he had**** in mind was to turn this country into as close a replica of the**** social-democratic countries of Europe as the constraints of our**** political system allowed.**** ** ** Since he had enough support for the policies that this objective**** entailed, those constraints were fairly loose, and so he only needed**** a minimum of rhetorical deception in pursuing it. All it took was to**** deny he was doing what he was doing by frequently singing the praises**** of the free-enterprise system he was assiduously working to**** undermine, by avoiding the word "socialism," by invoking "fairness"**** as an overriding ideal and by playing on resentment of the "rich."**** ** ** But foreign policy was another matter. As a left-wing radical, Mr.**** Obama believed that the United States had almost always been a**** retrograde and destructive force in world affairs. Accordingly, the**** fundamental transformation he wished to achieve here was to reduce**** the country's power and influence. And just as he had to fend off the**** still-toxic socialist label at home, so he had to take care not to be**** stuck with the equally toxic "isolationist" label abroad.**** ** ** This he did by camouflaging his retreats from the responsibilities**** bred by foreign entanglements as a new form of "engagement." At the**** same time, he relied on the war-weariness of the American people and**** the rise of isolationist sentiment (which, to be sure, dared not**** speak its name) on the left and right to get away with drastic cuts**** in the defense budget, with exiting entirely from Iraq and**** Afghanistan, and with "leading from behind" or using drones instead**** of troops whenever he was politically forced into military action.**** ** ** The consequent erosion of American power was going very nicely when**** the unfortunately named Arab Spring presented the president with**** several juicy opportunities to speed up the process. First in Egypt,**** his incoherent moves resulted in a complete loss of American**** influence, and now, thanks to his handling of the Syrian crisis, he**** is bringing about a greater diminution of American power than he**** probably envisaged even in his wildest radical dreams.**** ** ** For this fulfillment of his dearest political wishes, Mr. Obama is**** evidently willing to pay the price of a sullied reputation. In that**** sense, he is by his own lights sacrificing himself for what he**** imagines is the good of the nation of which he is the president, and**** also to the benefit of the world, of which he loves proclaiming**** himself a citizen.**** ** ** The problem for Mr. Obama is that at least since the end of World War**** II, Americans have taken pride in being No. 1. Unless the American**** people have been as fundamentally transformed as their country is**** quickly becoming, America's decline will not sit well. With more than**** three years in office to go, will Mr. Obama be willing and able to**** endure the continuing erosion of his popularity that will almost**** certainly come with the erosion of the country's power and influence?**** ** ** No doubt he will either deny that anything has gone wrong, or failing**** that, he will resort to his favorite tactic of blaming**** others—Congress or the Republicans or Rush Limbaugh. But what is also**** almost certain is that he will refuse to change course and do the**** things that will be necessary to restore U.S. power and influence.**** ** ** And so we can only pray that the hole he will go on digging will not**** be too deep for his successor to pull us out, as Ronald Reagan**** managed to do when he followed a president into the White House whom**** Mr. Obama so uncannily resembles.**** ** ** __._,_.___ __,_._,___ -- -- Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. 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