Emasculating America
Emasculating America | JPost | Israel News.
Puzzled by the contradictions and fumbles in US President Barack Obama’s foreign policy, commentators have taken to calling him ham-handed or weak.
They ascribe Obama’s zig-zagging on Libya, Egypt, Iran and especially Syria, along with his failed reset in relations with Russia, to indecision or inexperience; to incompetence or infirmity.
Yet Obama is none of these frail things. He is neither naïve nor inept. He is quite decisive when he wants to be, and very able in advancing his agenda when he really wants to hit the goal. He is, by all accounts, a very focused man.
Moreover, calling Obama maladroit does not sufficiently explain his mishandling of Russia or the Middle East. It fails to account for his apparent indifference in the face of America’s decline. Why has Obama so wantonly and care-freely allowed America’s international reputation and awesome global power to waste away? The answer is that Obama is clearly out to emasculate America; to doggedly drag it down, purposefully so. He seeks the weakening of the United States on the global stage as a good and necessary outcome. He has set this as one of the key goals of his presidency – and he is doing a very good, skillful job at hitting his target! In short, the nonchalance of Obama as America decays is doctrinaire. He ideologically intends it.
From day one, Obama has not been comfortable with American leadership in world affairs. He explicitly views America’s past global performance to be arrogant and high-handed; to be militaristic and not completely moral.
His wife, during the first campaign, called America a “mean” country. Obama termed America “overbearing.” Dozens of times, he has made it clear that he views America not as the leader of the world or the free world, but at best as a partner in the community of nations. Obama himself prefers to preen as a “citizen of the world.”
That self-definition rolls comfortably off his tongue; being a “citizen of the United States” does not. He just doesn’t like America all that much.
His path, then, is to “fundamentally transform” America’s place in the world; to denude the United States of its overwhelming global power; to strip the United States of its superior position; to drag America down from its imperious perch.
Obama very clearly believes that the humbling of America will bring healing to the world; that the diminishment of America’s ability to throw its weight around will make room for other, just-as-moral powers to emerge (such as, perhaps, powerful Islamic actors); that the denouement of America will elevate world politics to a better sphere.
Don Quixote-like, Obama thinks that he will be leaving the world a better place by cutting unexceptional America down to size.
Taking advantage of a war-weary American body politic, and camouflaging his retreat from leadership as a new form of global “engagement” (whatever that means), Obama has proceeded very nicely in wrenching the United States off its traditional, honorable moorings.
In five short years, with three to go, he has succeeded in squandering centuries of American might, prestige and credibility.
Over the past month, Obama has granted Putin a gargantuan international victory, given Assad a new lease on life, emboldened Iran and its allies like Hezbollah, and reenergized the morally-bankrupt UN – while playing Hamlet about his own authority to strike Syria and trashing US credibility.
He leaves America’s reputation in the world “unbelievably small.”
Don’t assume that this erosion bothers Obama, or is the result of any failing. It is exactly where Obama is leading America, brilliantly so from his perspective – on principle, on target, and on plan.
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WarSclerotic 
September 20, 2013 at 12:46 PM
Joseph,
I must get off my ar$e and get in contact with you again…
But anyway, this article elucidates my personal views very well.
With Obama, its not incompetence, its deliberate.
I pray that you Israeli’s do not suffer for it.
David
September 20, 2013 at 2:02 PM
This article is correct outside the individual obama ideology its much bigger than that.
September 20, 2013 at 3:53 PM
During the Cold War, the Soviet Union could not keep pumping up the military and grow its economy as the US could. Communism could not compete with capitalism on both fronts. The Soviet Union collapsed. In the 21st century, world economies will be growing and competing for market share. The US will soon be energy independent and a technological colossus. It will be more than capable of militarily defending itself but not nation building or jumping into every hot spot that pops up. Those days are over. Money the US spent on the global military ventures will now be spent on the American economy. The 20th century is over people, time to adjust to the new normal!!
September 20, 2013 at 6:37 PM
Excellent article which gives the best and most consistent explanation for his foreign policy so far.
Add to that the incompetence and corruption of him and his regime and you have the perfect catastrophy for America.
The same reasoning guides his economic and domestic policies.
Bringing America’s economy down is the best way to bring America’s international weight down and making her unable to rise up to the challenges in the world.
A weak economy on the verge of bankrupcy paralyzes America and makes her unable to react to outside events in the manner that is necessary.
A weak economy cannot provide the resources needed to shape the world in a way that benefits America and the rest of the world who is concerned about liberty and human rights.
With such a goal in mind being incompetent is actually an advantage because it helps bringing this great country down.
From this point of view Obavez is the man best qualified to do the job.
What is his area of expertise? Community organizer!
What does a community organizer do? He organizes people to bring the evil and hated system down!
Some Americans are trying to make themselves believe that America’s retreat from the world is a good thing.
No more Americans in body bags and less money spent. Money that America needs. Peace that America needs.
But as America retreats she leaves a vacuum behind. Sadly this vacuum will be filled by powers who are not champions of freedom and human rights but in many cases they are enemies of these values and, much worse, totalitarian in nature.
As a non-American who loves the old America I am worried by this because it will affect me directly.
Not to speak about the sadness one feels when he sees a great country going down. A country that although acting selfishly has because of its ideals and founding principles given so much to the world even by acting selfishly.
If you are an American you might think: “What do I care about the world?”.
Make no mistake, the vacuum left behind by America is not big enough for the powers I’ve mentioned.
They might leave you alone for the moment but that won’t last long.
There will come the day when those powers and forces having taken the world you left will come to you and you are not big enough and strong enough to fight the whole world.
What makes me even more sad is that Obavez wants to turn America into European style social state and maybe even worse. Nothing exceptional about it anymore. Just another country like the countries of Europe where even the little freedoms that we have is taken away by anonymous unelected EU-bureaucrats producing more and more regulations taking the last remnants of freedom away.
If this happens to you this exceptional country which was alway the last refuge of all the persecuted or hopeless people, of the people who wanted to be free will no longer be that refuge.
If this happens to you, America will lose its attraction it allways had. The attraction which not only drew the desperate people to you but also the best and the brightest people, because they allways knew that they themselves could build for themselves a future in America through hard work and ingeniuity not hindered by social class, religious barriers, ethnic origin or skin color.
If you become just a state like the European countries you will lose these people because what people can a welfare state attract where you are taxed into oblivion for the sake of ‘social justice’, where everything is regulated and you have almost no freedom and where the state builds barriers that hinder you from working yorself to a better future and where your social status is through all these circumstances more or less cemented?
Such a state can only attract poor people who are happy to live off the welfare state. And who can blame the poor hungry guy from Uganda whose standard of life is immesurably worse than that of an unemployed worker in any Europen country?
You will attract these desperate people and also the lazy ones who want to live without working.
The best and the brightest will go elsewhere which means further economic decline and a loss of your leadership in technology which in turn will have negative effects for your military.
America’s science and technology will be average if not below average at best.
We here Europe have neither real freedom of speech nor the right to bear arms. Whe have the right to pay taxes and shut up and once in a while we even are allowed to vote but that’s it.
Therefore my American friends, choose wisely and let not your freedom being taken away.
I admit that I am selfish, because wherelse can I flee when America is no more?
It was a often repeated to the point of almost sounding hollow and meaningless but nevertheless it is true: America is the last best hope of earth.
September 20, 2013 at 7:39 PM
America is the current best hope of the world.
Sadly, no empire lasts forever. The two worst presidents in my lifetime each got two terms back to back. That’s 16 years of nonstop degeneration.
We see the result not only in America’s loss of influence in foreign affairs, but much more frightening and hard to fix, the complete suborning of the democratic system through unlimited money and mass media.
The net result of this is income inequality that has now even outstripped the robber baron era of the 1920s.
Believe it or not ALL of the increased income from the recovery after the crash has gone to the top 5%. I kid you not, ALL OF IT.
It gets worse. 90% of the increased income went to the top 1/10th of 1%.
This is the precursor to the end. This is how empires look before they collapse.
If I hear any more pundits put down “class warfare” I’m going to scream. If we don’t have class warfare soon, and I mean VERY soon, my beloved US of A is finished.
With that in mind, Israel needs to prepare to survive without the US. Our only chance is by beating the world in technology to the EXTREME extent that nobody, no matter how big or powerful would dare attack us.
We’re working on that very project, my friends. Tel Aviv is now number two after Silicon Valley.
We need to be number 1+++ don’t even try to compete with us.
It’s our only chance in the long run. We can no longer count on the US and the rest of the world would just as soon be rid of the Jews for good.
September 20, 2013 at 7:50 PM
Et tu JW? Good grief! The world is not coming off its wheels it’s evolving, and nothing says it has to be a bad evolution… Empire has no place in the 21st century. Self determination does!!
September 20, 2013 at 8:24 PM
You are right, The world can’t rely on America.
But I’m convinced that America is in even greater danger.
Those who believe that America just need to stay out of the world’s business and everything will be fine and dandy are seadly mistaken.
I guess how Winston Churchill must have felt.
September 20, 2013 at 9:59 PM
I wouldn’t write off the USA just yet. The middle class is extremely strong, prosperous, and ready to throw the ‘bums’ out. A huge amount of money is sitting on the sidelines just waiting for this very thing. Then and only then will the economy come roaring back like never before.
As for the article, I think the author gives Obama too much credit. He is not intelligent (affirmative action), he is not articulate (teleprompters), he is not a realist (excessive golf games), his is not a leader (failed in senate), he is an inspiration (Nobel Peace Prize then war), he is not truthful (raising debt limit will not increase spending), he is not respected (bowing down to world leaders), he is a bad judge of people to get the job done (John Kerry), he does not care about the American people (White House concerts), and most of all, he doesn’t give a damn about the military (cut the shit out of their budget while running to them to save his political ass). This, my friends, is not the profile of a man who knows what he is doing. This, however, is the profile of a man who is a self-centered egotist. 😎
September 20, 2013 at 10:02 PM
Correction…he is NOT an inspiration. Wish you had an edit function JW. Damn…and I read it 3 times before posting.
September 20, 2013 at 10:07 PM
Steve….
I wish WordPress had an edit function too…
September 20, 2013 at 10:12 PM
Hi L.S. I see what you see in Louisiana. up here in New.Hampshire. Hardworking people are doing well!!!
September 20, 2013 at 11:37 PM
That’s right JP, I guess you can say rural America is alive and well thank you….meanwhile, the big entitlement ridden cities are going to shit.
September 20, 2013 at 11:54 PM
Detroit comes to mind. I was born and raised in Boston and I must say it’s as vibrant as its ever been.
September 21, 2013 at 2:31 AM
I lived in Houston for 7 years and it’s kicking butt.
September 21, 2013 at 2:58 AM
LS many are, I think our European friends have been inundated with just bad things about the US. We are hands down the greatest technological innovator in the world bar none!!!!! We will soon be energy independent. Militarily we have no equall. I don’t know about you LS but I’m feeling pretty good about where we are headed.
September 20, 2013 at 7:32 PM
“There will come the day when those powers and forces having taken the world you left will come to you and you are not big enough and strong enough to fight the whole world”
Will Europe just rollover? Time for you guys to step it up a bit. Don’t you think? Good god, have all you Europeans gone as soft as Artaxes? Let me send a Whaaabulance. Good greif snap out of it man.
September 20, 2013 at 8:14 PM
Very intelligent remarks from you.
“You whining …”.
Me being soft? You’ve got no clue.
My ancestors fought almost 400 years against Ottoman occupation and later again the Italians and the Germans. I intend to keep this sacred tradition.
Don’t worry about Europe. Europe is in the same shit as it has always been, even before America existed and somehow we always survived.
You should worry more about America instead of taking cheap shots.
All in all, you are pathetic and ridiculous.
Seems to me that you can’t handle the truth that Obavez is leading you on the road to decline.
Europe exists for thousands of years and we will always cope with whatever life throws at us, witjh or without America.
But as I said, it really makes me sad to see your country, which I admire, going down the tube.
The question is not, can Europe survive, the question is, can America survive.
September 20, 2013 at 8:28 PM
That’s better, a little more spunk! We appreciate your concern but trust me we’ll be fine…. Survived Carter, we’ll survive Obama!
September 20, 2013 at 8:42 PM
Yeah, keep lying to yourself. He’s got 3 more years to go.
Mark my words. When he’s finished you won’t recognize America anymore.
Will you survive? Depends on the meaning of it. Survival as a state, yes.
But it will be a radically differentt America.
Just think about what he has accomplished in these 5 short years.
You ain’t seen nothing yet.
You’ll be screwed the hard way.
And if you were so kind to explain the meaning of ‘spunk’. I don’t know this word.
September 20, 2013 at 8:44 PM
spunk
/spəNGk/
noun
noun: spunk1. informal
courage and determination.
synonyms: courage, bravery, valor, nerve, confidence, daring, audacity, pluck, spirit, grit, mettle, spine, backbone; Moreinformalguts, gumption, moxie; dated or humorousderring-do “it took a lot of spunk to blow the whistle on your own boss”
September 20, 2013 at 8:55 PM
You’re kidding right? You’re wound tighter than cuckoo clock!!!
September 20, 2013 at 8:58 PM
SHIP BUILDING once again is alive and well at yards across America, with 10 supertankers under construction and 15 more in the pipeline, all thanks to America’s natural gas boom — and a little-known 1920s maritime law.
Yup, America is going belly up!!!!!
September 20, 2013 at 9:04 PM
With 100% of the revenue going to the top 5%? You bet it is.
All the industry in the world won’t help, my friend.
September 20, 2013 at 9:05 PM
Ok, John. America is doing great. I’d believe you if there were no such thing as fundamental econmy data.
What is the unemployment rate again?
How many people have EBT-cards?
How is your debt doing? Would you please be so kind and give him my regards? Haven’t seen the old pal debt for a long time.
How many people are on welfare?
Yes, America is doing great.
September 20, 2013 at 8:50 PM
Dude, When’s the last time you had a vaction? Me thinks you need a Palm tree, white warm sand and a drink with an umbrella in it. :0)
September 20, 2013 at 8:52 PM
“DUDE”, what makes you think I need it?
September 20, 2013 at 9:20 PM
Ouch, you guys really believe all that you read. I’ve lived in the good old US of A for over 60 years. Guess what, hard work and determination still gets good results.
September 20, 2013 at 9:39 PM
Yep, of course the fundamental economic data should not be believed.
I know, I know, all this data is cooked and manipulated.
I’m hearing all the time from competent people from the good old US of A that this data are in fact cooked and manipulated but the real data is much worse. Who in his right mind would cook data to make the economy look worse?
With this I wish you all a wonderful evening. In the good old US of A and the rest of this remarkable blue planet.
September 20, 2013 at 9:50 PM
THE EMPLOYMENT SITUATION — AUGUST 2013
for the good old US of A
Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 169,000 in August, and
the unemployment rate was little changed at 7.3 percent, the U.S.
Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Employment rose in retail
trade and health care but declined in information.
—————————————————————————–
The euro area seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate was 12.1 % in July 2013, stable compared with June; it was 11.5 % in July 2012. The EU-28 unemployment rate was 11.0 % in July 2013, stable compared with June; it was 10.5 % in July 2012.
YUP usa is going belly up….
September 23, 2013 at 7:37 PM
Are you just stupid or are you simply dishonest?
Anyone with more than two brain cells can tell that your argument is idiotic.
The issue was whether the US is doing well or not.
Comparing the EU and the US does not show that the US is doing fine.
The reason is very simple but as you seem to have a problem understanding this I give you one very simple example.
You and your neighbour have both a horrible accident.
Your neighbour loses two hands. You lose one hand.
Undoubtedly you are better off than your neighbour but your still not doing well because you are severely handicapped.
But even if you insist on doing this, your argument is still worthless because as you can see on this chart EU unemployment rates where ALMOST ALWAYS higher than US unemployment rates for at least the last 20 years.
http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2012/06/us-v-eu-unemployment/
So it does nothing to show us that the US is doing well just because your current unemployment rates are lower than in the EU.
You have to compare like with like. That is, you have to look at US data from the past to determine how the US is doing.
If we are doing just that we can see that by US-standards your employment situation is pretty lousy.
Next you tell us that in area X in the good old US of A the economy is booming.
How stupid is that?
I could make the exact same argument by telling you that I live in Germany, Europe’s economic powerhouse which is doing pretty well.
And I could tell you also that as a highly qualified worker I’ve got a really good income.
But all this would be equally stupid because we have to look at the whole and not just pick and choose the parts that we like.
If we look at the whole neither the EU nor the US are doing well but the US-situation is far worse than it should be.
Hard work pays, you say?
So what? Even in the Soviet Union hard work did pay.
Those who worked only their job at the factory had problems getting food but those who did the extra work of rearing some chicken and working their little garden had a better food supply.
As for the vacation, thanks for your concern.
I just had a wonderful weekend. The weather was great, the food was excellent and the scenery was phantastic.
Your stupid, childish attempt to portrait me and any European who argues like me as a whining, soft sissy who is begging uncle sam to please please help him is not only a transparent distraction but it does also nothing to show that my argument is wrong or that you are right.
Get it through your head that I and others who are arguing like me are doing this because we are convinced that this is the better way.
I don’t need any lecturing on “spunck”. Lecture your spineless, pathetic president on this, Dude.
As I said, Europe (and the rest of the world) will continue with or without the US but that is not the point.
The point is, whether such a world is desirable or not.
I am convinced that such a world is not desirable. Neither for the world NOR for America.
Finally, I find it deeply ironic that you are constantly quoting Winston Churchill (a great Englishman and European).
Europe was pretty much destroyed after WW1 with millions of dead. It was so far the bloodiest war ever fought on European soil.
With that war hardly over it was understandable that many of his contemporaries were against yet another war.
He tried in vain to convince them but still he was right as it turned out a few years laters when Europe had to fight another much greater war.
You are arguing exactly like Curchill’s opponents then when you tell us that the US is war weary and that Israel, Europe and the rest of the world should the hell take care of themselves.
Europe and Israel are taking care of themselves but at least in Israel’s case your president is making it much harder for them to do just that.
I see no difference between your attitude and that of Churchill’s opponents.
From Churchill’s speech on the Munich Agreement:
“Many people, no doubt, honestly believe that they are only giving away the interests of Czechoslovakia, whereas I fear we shall find that we have deeply compromised, and perhaps fatally endangered, the safety and even the independence of Great Britain and France. This is not merely a question of giving up the German colonies, as I am sure we shall be asked to do. Nor is it a question only of losing influence in Europe. It goes far deeper than that. You have to consider the character of the Nazi movement and the rule which it implies.”
September 23, 2013 at 7:56 PM
artaxes….
While I agree with your analysis, I ask that you lighten up on the tone.
This kind of personal attack does not help the position of the one making it and it lowers the general level of the the discussion here.
You came dangerously close to my deleting your post.
The main reason I didn’t was because of the quality of the analysis under the pugnacious and combative overtone.
Please artaxes… You are valued here. “Nobles oblige…”
September 23, 2013 at 8:01 PM
NUTS
September 23, 2013 at 8:09 PM
When they became surrounded and the Germans demanded their surrender, he sent back a one-word reply “NUTS.”
September 23, 2013 at 8:35 PM
Ok, Ok.
You are right. Usually I try to keep the level of discussion high. Sometimes I’m too easy provoked and get carried away.
I really don’t want to get personal. I’ll try to avoid this kind of argument in the future.
It is not my intention to needlessly offend anyone.
Peace.
September 23, 2013 at 7:40 PM
The Wall Stree Journal: Unemployment Rate Drops for Wrong Reasons. (published September 6, 2013, 9:02 AM)
http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2013/09/06/unemployment-rate-drop-for-wrong-reasons/
The U.S. unemployment rate dropped 0.1 percentage point to 7.3% in August and a broader measure of unemployment fell to 13.7% from 14%, but the declines came from the wrong reasons.
The drop in the main unemployment rate was driven almost totally by negative factors. The number of people employed fell by about 115,000. The only reason the rate declined is that the overall labor force dropped by a larger 312,000, a possible sign of discouraged long-term jobless dropping out.
The labor force participation rate, which is the percent of the population either working or looking to work, took a tumble to 63.2% — its lowest level since 1978.