Global Leadership? : Nyet

    One could make the case - and Dinesh D'Souza has quite convincingly - that President Obama's policies for much of the world reflect the anti-imperial activism of his Kenyan father and, to a lesser extent, his Indonesian stepfather. Thus, his non-response to the Arab Spring in Egypt, Tunisia, Libya and Syria. Thus his retreat from Iraq without leaving any forces behind. Thus his leaving the fight against Al Queda in North Africa to the French. Thus his ineffectual and ambivalent treatment of the war which he escalated in Afghanistan. Among the progressives on the left and many libertarians on the right, this is OK. There is too much global discord for us to settle it all.

    But what about the "leading from behind" strategy in the rest of the world?  What will eight years of President Obama do to the military and economic Pax Americana that has existed since 1945? There are plenty of clues:

    -  With all of the histrionics about the impact of the sequester on the social safety net, there has been nary a peep from the Commander in Chief about the impact on the military. The closest thing has been the call of narrowly-confirmed Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel for "fundamental (downward) Pentagon spending changes".

    -  The decennial change of leadership in China has received little fanfare in the United States, but it no accident that the first foreign trip of new President Xi Jinping was to Moscow. Or that China is beginning efforts with Australia, Brazil, Russia, and Iran to replace the dollar as the world's reserve currency.

   -  From Vladimir Putin's perspective, the Eurozone's confiscation of Russian deposits in Cyprus, with the blessing of the American-led International Monetary Fund, stimulates a rethinking about Russia's place in the world at a time when the Obama administration has demonstrated its "flexibility" by cancelling the planned Eastern Europe missile defense shield - with no quid pro quo. The Russians have reason to be offended, and latitude to respond.

   - And what of the remaining two members of George W Bush's "axis of evil"?  North Korea and Iran barrel ahead on their paths to become realistic nuclear threats. Realizing that the American "nuclear shield" may no longer be operable, Japan and South Korea are taking first steps to develop their own deterrents. Without a credible assurance of American protection, the same will undoubtedly happen in the Sunni world once Iran crosses the threshold.

   It's not a pretty picture. Maybe the world will move slowly or the House and Senate will be able to exert real pressure on President Obama's military and foreign policies. Maybe there is enough financial strength in the European and American economic systems to retain primacy for a decade or two. But don't look to Barack Obama, John Kerry, and Chuck Hegel to usher in a new era of American global leadership.  Quite the opposite.

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    For this week's video we have NBCs Brian Williams expressing shocked surprise that Obamacare's requirements for extended coverage without real cost containment are driving double digit rate increases. Next step - price controls.  

bill bowen - 4/5/13   

Comments

[Al B]

This will be somewhat on subject, from Charleston SC.

Re Obamacare: My Doc just notified me that he is changing the nature of his practice to "preventive medicine". Not certain exactly what that means, because I looked at him before to help me avoid debilitating disease. As a practical matter, his new practice will limit patients to a small fraction of his earlier patients. The "buyin": it now will cost me $1,500 for an annual access fee to have him as my Doc. Office visits are extra So, we have parted company. My Delaware Doc is offering a similar proposition. So, ObamaCare has brought me to the point of $3,000 annual access fees to see a general Doc, with fees per visit. I am now without a Doc, but with medical coverage if I can find anyone who will accept Medicare Plus. Thank you Progressives for bringing me into equality with those who never worked a day in their lives. Progressivesism at work.

[DickG]

KOREA,WHY WORRY ? The Master Strategist will go to 'The Cash Drawer',guaranteed. As Ralph Nader said; "this President is too Challenge Averse". He will then dispatch Dennis R. into N.Korea with billions in 'Basketball Scholarships'. Following along diplomatically,in support of S.Korea, will be Sec of State Kerry, 'windsurfing' off of Inchon.

[Bill McCormick]

LET's ASSUME--a dangerous word but---that North Korea and Iran, two of the remaining Axis of Evil partners, are actually linked somehow in a nuclear strategy. So, while Iran is the focus of our efforts to constrain nuclear proliferation, North Korea decides to take the heat of them and play the bad guy. After all North Korea seems to be implying they will become the world's supplier of nuclear techology and there is nothing the UN or the US can do about it.

Of course it plays well into Chinese strategy as well countering the US influence on South Korea, Japan and Taiwan in the region. All adversaries of the Chinese.

For 40 years I have advocated turning the situation over to the Chinese and the UN and pulling out the US troops. Had we done that before the North Koreans had nuclear weapons this situation would likely have been resolved. Of course, China is not much interested in a reunited Korea as a competing Asian economic adversary so it would be tough. But, at this point with nuclear weapons coming into play perhaps they are finding more willingness to join in the solution. We'll see.

[Al B]

Bill- Your premise that Obama is governed by an anti-colonialist history probably is correct. This does not mean that he haqd a fundamental dislike for America--just that he sincerely does not buy into the concept of American Esceptionalism. This is true for most Progressives,and certainly for many contemporary Democrats such as Jimmy Carter et al. Harry Truman, Lyndon Johnson and JFK bought into American Exceptionalism. Who know what Bill Clinton buys into-depends on the momentary wind. Progressives generally have little philosoophical base--only a vague concept that the bounties of the earth should be shared equally by all,

Different subject: Watched MSNBC a couple of weeks back when The Sequester was the topic of the day. The MSNBC Moderator lstened empathetically as a California Democratic Congressman and a DC Council Woman expounded on the looming impact on the DC. One Hundred Thousand children were going to starve, and another two hundred thousand DC citizens were going to loose the meals they depended upon. So, 300,000 people in DC alone wer going to starve in the cold. All because the evil Republicans were causing this catastrophe. I thought that the MSNBC Moderator was going to break down in tears. So, mass funerals of the DC poor (not from gunshot) should be dominating our headlines now. But, there is only silence. What do I not understand?

[DickG]

(SIDE NOTE)GLOBAL LEADERSHIP EXISTS, ALBEIT NOT IN WASHINGTON; Today,our area commander on the Korean peninsula, Gen Thurman, refused to return to a Washington Senate briefing. Instead chose to remain with the troops at GROUND ZERO in a possible NUCLEAR STRIKE.
Could it be a lesson of LEADING FROM THE FRONT and by EXAMPLE ?
TAKE NOTE FUTURE VOTERS; YOUR LIFE AND NOT JUST YOUR WALLET MAY NOW BE AT RISK IN THE FUTURE. AREN'T WE GLAD WE STILL HAVE GEN. THURMANS AROUND.

[DickG]

GLOBAL 'MONETIZATION';today's substitute for "Global Leadership" & fiscal responsibility. Now Obama & Bernanke have got Japan taking up the 'monetization' strategy. The present global economic schism has recently been derived all the way back to 1913 and thru the Paulson Panic/Goldman Sachs' financial abuses/Bernanke's mis read of 1929 2.0. . Control was surrendered in '07 and never retaken. The last 'truth teller'in America,David Stockman, recently completed his speaking tour and recent book (700 pgs.)"The Great Deformation".
To give a sense of his approach;he renames the FED as "The Great 'Bubble' Machine ".
Stockman is so well versed he can challenge Bernanke's misinterpretation of the FEd's action and contribution to the 1930 CRASH. A perfect example of the dangers of 'Central Planning'.

Where were YOU,David Stockman, during the 2012 Presidential Campaign ?

[Bill McCormick]

COMMENT: For a President who started his tenure with a speech on eliminating the world's nuclear weapons resulting in a Nobel Peace prize, this one has been ineffective in slowing Iran's program or dealing with the ever increasing threats from a nuclear North Korea. In addition he has reduced US warheads, something I consider reasonable, without the reduction of Russia's nuclear arsenal, something of a puzzle. This seems to follow the idea that bargaining from a position of weakness will work. We relace strength with understanding,patience and world cooperation. I'm for world cooperation and in Libya it was slow but it worked. In Syria it seems slower yet.

World cooperation, in a world designed to favor economics and social needs over military preparedness, dependent for 80 years now on the US military shield, is difficult to get. Will we actually see China push on the North Koreans? Will we see Japan rearm? Will South Korea go nuclear? Will Isreal solve the Iranian problem on their own? Who will get control of the chemical weapons in Syria? Stay tuned as some of the more interesting questions of our lifetime are played out. Will he change the world for the better or will he change America to join the rest of the world rapidly falling into economic decline?