Smart Power?

During her run in the primaries, Hillary talked about "Smart Power," of setting priorities in foreign affairs; a realistic approach to achieving limited goals. Of course, she was in the mainstream of the Democrat Party that saw an advantage in losing the Iraq war so as to make George Bush unpopular and through that regain control of Congress. That is the genesis of the present disastrous foreign policy of the Obama regime.

Obama argued that he was not really for defeat, but that the real war against Islamic extremists was in Afghanistan and Pakistan, not in Iraq. So, Obama is tied to the tar baby of fighting a war in Afghanistan, a task far more difficult than the war in Iraq. Difficult as the task of fighting the Jihadist Taliban is, it is made even more so by the customary idiocy of Democrats and what amounts to their use of power: something that might be called "Stupid Power." Democrats project internationally an image of indecisiveness, of being naive, of being pushovers. Our would be enemies think of a Democrat President as a paper tiger. That is why enemies feel that they can take liberties that eventually lead to war. Jimmy Carter was perceived as a wuss, so the Khomeni regime of Iran felt safe to attack the American Embassy and take our personnel hostage. Khomeni felt justified when Jimmy Carter's half-baked idea to rescue the hostages ended up as an embarrassing disaster. Contrast this to the response of Ronald Reagan to the terrorism sponsored by Libia. Khadafi got the message that messing with America was not safe.

Fast forward now to Bill Clinton, another Democrat. Our enemies (Al Qaeda this time) felt safe to attack out embassies in Africa and a warship in port. Bill Clinton did as the Jihadists expected: he agonized about the legalities of capturing Bin Laden then he botched the operation in Mogadishu. By worrying about cooperation between the CIA and the FBI, Clinton set the stage for 9/11.

Fast forward now to the usurper of the Presidency: Obama. Obama has committed himself to fighting the war in Afghanistan, but he ruled out the idea of winning the war. The alternative to victory is defeat. Americans know this and it is just a matter of time before the support for the war in Afghanistan disappears. That is "stupid power."

In the meantime, Hillary lost her power base and became part of the Obama regime. Not only that, but she is on record of being the author of stupid power.

Honesty compels me to point to a use of "stupid power" during the Bush Administration as well. No, not the Iraq war, but the US support of Georgian idiocies. The Russians had ample justification to fear a massacre of the Russian minority in Georgia, so they supported separatists in Ossetia with Russian troops as 'peacekeepers.' Not an ideal situation. The proper policy would have been to reassure Russia on the future of Russians in Ossetia. After all, Russia did not feel it necessary to re-invade Latvia, Lithuania of Kazahstan to support Russian minorities. Instead, there was talk of admitting Georgia to NATO and giving them Western arms. How Georgia felt it safe to attack Russian troops in Ossetia is the worst failure of American foreign policy. Rumors that Russia's Army was dead were premature. Georgians paid a heavy price and may never get back Ossetia. As if this was not bad enough, the Bush Admin decided to put ABMs in Poland and the Czech Republic, ostensibly to counter Iranian missiles of the future. Sheesh, this reminds me of the story of King David leaving behind a trusted advisor to give Absolom bad advice.

The Obama regime is taking stupid power to a new level of stupidity. By telling the Islamic world that Bush was wrong just encourages the Jihadists to continue their effort toward a world Caliphate. And to make matters worse, the Obamabots are dismantling our anti-terrorist efforts and aim to prosecute those who kept us safe during the Bush presidency. In the face of this CHANGE Democrats have only HOPE that their weakness and use of stupid power will prevent an even greater disaster than 9/11.