Sunday, October 4, 2015

Opuscula

Strongman rule
Putin vs. Obama
And "Arab Spring"

 

Obama's Arab Spring tried to depose all Arab tyrants that Obama didn't like; in particular in Libya and Syria. The result of his meddling in Arab affairs is civil war in Libya and Syria.

It is interesting to note Obama's Arab Spring did not include Saudi Arabia or the Gulf states. .

Russia's Putin, being a political strongman himself, knows the value of powerful leadership. He had put Russia in bed with both the ayatollahs of Iran and Syrian president Bashar al-Assad.

WHILE PUTIN IS doing everything he can to "show the world" that Russia is a power with which to contend, Obama is rapidly destroying any vestiges of respect for the U.S. left from his first term as U.S. president.

Unlike Sarah Palin, who could at least SEE Russian territory from the state she governed, Alaska, Obama had zero international experience, which the voters conveniently overlooked in both elections.

Obama exudes weakness, indecisiveness, and like the Bushes before him, a lack of planning that reaches a position that advances America's interests - or at least causes no damage. Even "Tricky" Nixon had a plan to extract us from Vietnam - a legacy from JFK & LBJ* - and to open diplomatic relations with China, a move that may in the end be the worst thing Nixon ever did.

Putin is, as he proved in the Ukraine, a bully, but there seems to be no one who can reign him in except perhaps the Islamists. In that case, the "cure" is worse that the "disease." Putin would like to see the former USSR restored and Soviet influence once more dominate much of Europe and Asia. Obama shakes his finger and figuratively says "naughty, naughty" and Putin laughs at the impotent U.S. president.

 

* I am aware that Dwight Eisenhower sent in limited personnel Military Advisory Groups before JFK sent in a division-size units at a time until it was decimated, then he sent in another division; LBJ tried to end the war by inundating Vietnam with thousands of troops. Nixon, having learned the lesson of the French - who earlier has been chased out of Vietnam with their tails between their legs, ended the war. Not proudly, but at least with an end to U.S. deaths and injuries. Interestingly, Johnson, who actually tried to win the war - was the target of the leftists - not JFK - who talked of LBJ's "Youth In Asia (euthanasia) program." Maybe they still were angry for LBJ lifting a beagle off its front paws by its ears.


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