Foreign Policy

In the sixty-five years since the end of World War II the most significant and formative single event in American history- beyond any question- is the Vietnam War.  It reshaped our domestic politics, foreign policy, military doctrines, and popular culture in ways that still resonate powerfully nearly two generations after it ended.

"The United States is only one superpower. Today they lead the world. Nobody has doubts about it, militarily….They also lead economically, but they're getting weak….But they don't lead morally and politically anymore. The world has no leadership. The United States was always the last resort and hope for all other nations. There was the hope, whenever something was going wrong, one could count on the United States. Today, we lost that hope."

-Lech Walesa

Writing in this space in May (“Afghanistan: The Untold Story”) I noted President Obama’s oft stated assertion that Afghanistan was the “right war”, the one we “had to win” and commended his decision to send an additional 17,000 troops. I concluded optimistically saying that “In continuing along this necessary road of many difficult steps he deserves our strongest support”.

President Obama has consistently labeled Afghanistan the war America cannot afford to lose. Last March, he announced a “stronger, smarter and comprehensive strategy,” undertaken after “a careful policy review,” and subsequently hand-picked one of America’s most respected military officers, General Stanley McChrystal, to lead the effort.

The global media was all a flutter just last week with the announcement that Iran had agreed in principal with a deal to ship their uranium to Russia for enrichment, and then have it returned for peaceful purposes – energy production. Some of us were skeptical, but the liberal mass media was proclaiming the deal as a bold “breakthrough” in the new world order of hope ushered in by Nobel Peace Prize winning Barack Obama.

Amidst woes ranging from falling approval numbers to the derailing of his overly ambitious legislative program, the one major area where Barack Obama has received generally positive reviews is foreign policy. That is about to change, and in ways that will dramatically undermine America’s international reputation and influence.

(Boston) While the world watched the fraudulent Iranian elections by chance I found myself in Boston, the historic capital of American election fraud.

(Washington) As news from Iraq got progressively better in the last year the reflexive pessimists among us have shifted their focus to Afghanistan where they tell us portents of gloom and doom can be found in abundance.

We hear of a resurgent Taliban advancing on several fronts, the capital of Kabul under siege, insurgents controlling ever more of the countryside, attacks and suicide bombings way up, the Pakistan border uncontrollable, and U.S. and civilian casualties increased dramatically.

WASHINGTON- While it seems strange to be hailing the prophetic gifts of Joe Biden, his prediction during the campaign that a President Obama would face very serious foreign policy challenges within six months of his inauguration retrospectively appears as one of the most astute and honest insights of the election year.

In olden days, miners used to carry canaries with them into mining tunnels. If any noxious gas was present, the small canary would die, alerting the minor to the presence of the often odorless gas. This would provide precious time for the miner to escape. But if the miner were too distant from the exit, the miner would suffer the same fate as the canary. The canary provided a warning signal as to what was about to befall the miner.

If a country ever was a canary in a mineshaft, it is Israel.