I find it amazing and disheartening that the highest echelons of the USA can see (presumably) clear trajectories of war and catastrophe and choose to do nothing about it. Does this not qualify as a grave dereliction of duty? Are we to sit passively by and accept a fate that could be averted? Where is the leadership that will counter Obama's passivity and negligence?
Krauthammer's take (from NRO):
In her foreign policy speech today at the Brooking Institution, National Security Adviser Susan Rice announced that the United States is not facing a threat “of the existential nature we confronted during World War II.” Yes, it’s not World War II,” Charles Krauthammer agreed on this evening’s Special Report. “It’s the 30s.”
“What we have,” said Krauthammer, “is a threat spreading and growing around the world, of which this administration either doesn’t recognize the threat or doesn’t want to admit it. It is pretending it doesn’t exist and will not actually even name it.”
“At the same time it’s negotiating a deal with Iran,” which is constructing an intercontinental ballistic missile, or ICBM. “There is only one reason for an ICBM: to hit another continent, to hit the United States. And,” Krauthammer added, “you don’t place dynamite on the tip of an ICBM. It’s not exactly cost-effective. There is only one purpose [for an ICBM]: nuclear weapons.”
“We are preparing the ground, as in the ‘30s, for a metastasizing enemy, an existential enemy, that is not yet ready to take on the West, but will be if we continue these policies.”
Me: Rush Limbaugh correctly notes that this President doesn't like the United States. I agree with Rush. But my question is, does Obama's dislike -- even hatred? --- for the U.S. motivate him to play dice with its future? I don't know. By Obama's refusal to think and act strategically on behalf of the U.S.'s safety one wonders how devoted he is to America's preservation. On Obama's dislike for America Rush notes:
We have a guy, we have a man who really has a problem with this country.
He has a problem with this nation's founding. He has a deep-seated problem with this nation's existence. He doesn't like the fact that we're a superpower, thinks it's not been honestly earned. We're cheaters and we're thieves. We are rich beyond the rest of the world's comprehension, not because we've had a unique way of creating wealth and prosperity. No, no, no, no! We've run around the world and we've stolen things from other people. We've stolen cultural things; we've stolen resources; we've stolen money.
In fact, there's nothing special about the US.
The US was founded as a racist, slave, bigoted nation, and we still haven't paid the price for that as far as he's concerned.
Update: Susan Rice contends we do not face an "existential threat" at the moment. That is precisely Krauthammer's point. It is not World War II; it is the 1930s.