The Miley Cyrus of International Diplomacy

BEND OVER AND PREPARE TO BE PROBED.

America is in decline because America chooses to be.  Last November, Americans went to the polls and voted for four more years of lies, deceit and incompetence.  They voted for a man who didn't run on his record, but on a caricature of Mitt Romney's.  He didn't run on his war successes, but on an imaginary war on women and the valor of Seal Team Six.  He didn't run on his broken promises to end the influence of K Street; he ran on the money of K Street, Wall Street and Sesame Street.

 

One must begin to wonder, if one wonders, whether Obama is completely incompetent or incredibly sinister.  Even a blind squirrel is said to occasionally find an acorn, so Obama should be statistically ready to stumble on an acorn in international diplomacy.  If Obama doesn't sniff out the acorn in Syria, then why would anyone trust his perceptions on the really big issues such as NCAA brackets, why Cambridge police act stupidly and what surprised, enchanted, troubled and humbled him in his first 100 days?

 

My hunch is: Obama won't find the acorn.  The only acorn left to find is the destruction of Assad's air force which can be accomplished with stand-off weapons and not putting American airmen in harm's way.  Only a serious strike against Assad's military will have any meaning.  Should Obama just launch cruise missiles to cover his ass, that will be worse than doing nothing.  America's opponents will only intensify their probing of Obama's weaknesses.  And that's got to hurt. 

 

Not taking out substantial military assets will damage the moderate Syrian rebels' morale and embolden Assad.  The radical Islamist rebels will just smile and cut off another Christian head.  It will illustrate to Iran that America is a tiger only on paper and never will force the issue of Iran's nuclear ambitions during Obama's second term.  Israel will know that Iran's nukes are her problem alone.  Russia and China will confidently push their agendas as America's allies never again question America's resolve.  How do you question something that doesn't exist?

 

If you are depressed by what you see happening to America,  my advice is Don't fret over things you can't control.  We - the country - wanted this.  Attila the Hun didn't herd the children of a looted village ahead of his army to storm our gates.  He didn't pile dead bodies into ramps to breach our walls. 

 

We elected Atilla.