OBAMA & TYRANTS: HOW DOES IT LOOK TO THE BOYS IN THE CAMPS?

Update 4/23/09 - Daniel Henninger expands on the theme in his Wall Street Journal article, "Obama Among the Dictators."

(Original Post) - What does that mean? you ask.  Jay Nordlinger explains,

"That is the line attributed to Vladimir Bukovsky, the great Soviet dissident. When making policy or holding meetings, Westerners should pause to consider, “How will it look to the boys in the camps?”

Nordlinger says,

I imagine that, if they know, they are demoralized. What’s next? Necking with Kim Jong Il? Reagan and Bush rocked the boat, to a degree. And that was extremely heartening to political prisoners. Natan Sharansky (then Anatoly Sharansky) writes about this in his book Fear No Evil. Many others have testified to it as well.

In his article, Nordlinger points out how far we have moved from Bush's 2nd inaugural address when he declared:

All who live in tyranny and hopelessness can know: The United States will not ignore your oppression, or excuse your oppressors. When you stand for your liberty, we will stand with you. . .   [more]

Update:  Jamie Glazov's article, "Remembering Ortega's Gulag," recounts the Sandinista terror instituted by Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua.  This is the man who lectured Obama for 50 minutes at the Fifth Summit of the Americas! 

Update 4/21/09 - Mitt Romney accuses Obama of being "a timid advocate for freedom" who has failed his early foreign-policy tests.  

-- Mona Charen says, "By extending a friendly handshake to Hugo Chávez, Obama diminished his own moral standing, and by extension, ours."  She notes, among other things, Chavez' brutal treatment of Jews, about which I blogged previously.