Monday, September 28, 2009

Obama the weak

Regardless of party, I was really hoping that Obama would succeed as president but it is becoming increasingly obvious that he is a weak leader and not ready for the job. Forget the fact that his primary domestic goal of health care reform is DOA, the bigger problem is his terrible foreign policy. It's like Jimmy carter left him his playbook in the oval office and Obama thought hey it's 30 years later, maybe appeasement will work this time.

He has basically given Russia a green light to bully any of the former soviet states when he agreed to dismantle our weapons shield in Europe. The Russian's view this as weakness and know that they can now do whatever they want and we will back down. If I was Georgia I would be very, very worried.

Iran is brazenly moving ahead with the nuclear weapons and Obama can't even get economic sanctions against them much less a military option on the table. I heard his advisor say this weekend that they wouldn't even confirm that Iran is seeking nuclear weapons. Can you say Naive?

The war in Afghanistan is headed in the wrong direction and Obama looks to be folding his cards instead moving all in. He should never have changed the focus to Afghanistan before counting the cost. Now we are left with either pulling out and giving terrorists the same home base they had before 9/11 or we have to commit a lot more soldiers to fight in a part of the world that is known for outlasting their attackers.

We now have dictators freely acting abroad and a foreign policy that is afraid to confront them. What is driving this lack of confrontation? It is rooted in Obama's lack of resolve that America is right and that our enemies are completely in the wrong. He is nuanced and likes to point out our faults while giving our enemies the benefit of the doubt.

This naivete is not what the American people voted for in 2008. Many people were tired of Bush's black and white world view but frankly our enemies laugh at shades of grey. Obama has to realize that Iran, Russia, China and North Korea don't respect him. In fact, they trust that he will not respond with force. That's a bad signal to rest of the world who look to America for leadership.

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