Keep America Feared
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Liz Cheney’s “Keep America Safe” group, a new-fangled PR initiative against executive branch “weakness” on foreign policy, is obviously preposterous. But then what should one expect from the Angler’s spawn? Have a gander at their spooky-spook ad:
Deborah Burlingame, sister of the pilot whose plan crashed into the Pentagon on September 11, 2001, has been on Fox cheerleading Cheney Jr’s campaign. She says that America under Obama is returning to the dreaded — you guessed it – “pre 9/11 mindset.” Burlingame no doubt means well, but for readers of realist persuasion, the Obama policies she objects to are surely the most (only?) attractive aspects of his presidency. With America still ruining herself abroad thanks to the Bush Doctrine, the idea that it is of tantamount importance for Obama to preserve precisely the same foreign policy as his predecessor is laughable.
But the worrying aspect of this beware-Obama-the-appeaser rhetoric is the effect that it might have on Obama’s supporters. Rather than laugh it off, the Obama faithful, more concerned about their man’s image than the complex realities of international relations, appear to feel he must act tough to silence his hawkish critics on the Right. Even Gideon Rachman, the Financial Times’s estimable and fair-mindedly pro-Obama foreign-affairs commentator, is urging Obama to show that he can “punch harder”. One fears what that could mean. It would be a sad irony if Obama, accused of being a weak-kneed PR man, responded by sending men to their death for some good PR.
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The neo-cons and their idiot in chief did a great deal to weaken our defense posture by squandering our blood and treasure in fools-errand wars. Who can take these people seriously? Charles Krauthammer as military pundit would be funny if it weren’t so vile. What does an ex-Canadian Psychiatrist know about warfare?
“…the Angler’s spawn…”
Apt.
Michael J Fox is Canadian. And he is a proud adherent to all things Canadian.
http://www.michaeljfox.org/newsEvents.cfm
Except, um, the medical thing… and the um career thing… oh, and the national defense thing.
Other than those, I guess the Canadians have one of the best systems in the world.
Obama could learn a thing or two from those Canadians, and those Norwegians, and such.
George Soros made his money betting against the pound. Maybe he can teach Obama to bet against the dollar, and then we can be like the brits, and US foreign power will be increasingly less relevant on the world stage.
I know the russians and the chinese would appreciate that.
Why has the hard right always been such a lonely place? Its “ideology” is comprised of the most sensible set of moral (as in moral of the story) principles. Is the power of the state that irresistable, or are the representatives of the state that effective? Other than the internet, I rarely hear or read anyone criticizing Obama Democrats and the GOP in the same breath. Thank you TAC.
That being said, I’m not so sure that Obama’s realism vis-a-vis Afganistan can be accurately described as realistic except in political terms.
I don’t think there’s much chance of the “Obama is an appeaser” meme generating any pressure on the Administration. I mean, when you’ve got Liz Cheney and William Kristol as your frontmen, you might as well call the group ‘Nepotism Survivors Anonymous’ and give up.
Not that they won’t get plenty of coverage from the conservative media, but that’s just to be expected. No one outside the Beltway gives a flying one about the opinions of Cheney or Kristol, for the very simple reason that reality-free neo-conservatism isn’t that popular as an ideology these days.
Can we invent some cause, that will make people worldwide recognize that the US sees the error of it’s ways, and is willing to make amends?
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1008958
Cass R. Sunstein is the Administrator of Obama’s White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. Check out his ideas.