A Piers Morgan Foreign Policy

 

Mark Twain once told the story of a gentleman who came home to his wife, irredeemably  impaired after having too much whiskey. Ever the helpful spouse, she suggested that, in the future, after he had consumed as much whiskey as he wanted, he should simply order a sarsaparilla.  “Yes,” said her husband, “but when I have drunk all the whiskey I want I can’t say sarsaparilla.”  

So it is that Barack Obama, intoxicated on the elixir of international retreat and American decline, finds himself unable to summon such rudimentary concepts as leverage while Vladimir Putin schools him in the audacity of brute force. For those of you too young to remember Jimmy Carter’s foreign policy, you’re seeing it now.

As America recedes into the faceless assemblage of nations, reducing its strength and influence, others are more than happy to fill the void. Such was our weakness last time around that Russian tanks moved into Afghanistan in a brazen move that tore international law asunder and reduced Jimmy Carter to a sputtering mess. Our military was but a fragile shell of American strength, with our waning influence reducing us to a piñata for Iran’s Ayatollah and an international punchline for Muslin fanatics and the enemies of freedom.

“This is a callous violation of international law and the United Nations Charter,” said President Carter in 1979, before gathering enough courage to boycott the Olympics and curtail Soviet fishing rights in American waters. This, as you may recall, had Kremlin officials shaking, though mainly with laughter. Today, Secretary of Capitulation John Kerry calls the Russian incursion an, “incredible act of aggression,” adding that, “It’s really 19th century behavior in the twenty-first century.” One is surprised he didn’t blame the Tea Party while he was at it.

Mortified that human nature has not yet yielded to the relentless tutorial of progressive ideology, and without any Olympics to boycott, what’s a liberal to do? Lock up another YouTube video producer? Present Putin with another shiny red Reset Button? Reduce American troop strength to pre-Revolutionary War numbers? Have Hillary Clinton ask what difference it makes? Or perhaps the President can boycott a meeting of his own security team even as Russian tanks roll!  (Sadly, our Commander-in-Chief did this, but to no avail, the tanks moved stubbornly along.)  The unfortunate reality is that, until such time as we can retire Barack Obama and the entirety of his horribly misnamed “National Security Team,” to the confines of a golf course somewhere, things will only get worse. 

What we are seeing is a sort of Piers Morgan foreign policy, which finds virtue where good people are defenseless, where weakness is confused with strength, vulnerability is confused with courage, and mediocrity is confused with exceptionalism. At home, this approach leaves the American citizen helpless in something called a “gun-free zone,” which in reality becomes a shooting gallery where deranged savages, who remain invincibly indifferent to the law, prey on the innocent.  In the international arena, it whets the appetite of ruthless men and invites aggression.  

“There is a rank due to the United States among nations which will be withheld, if not absolutely lost, by the reputation of weakness” wrote George Washington in 1793.  “If we desire to avoid insult,” he continued, “we must be able to repel it; if we desire to secure peace, one of the most powerful instruments of our rising prosperity, it must be known that we are at all times ready for war.” Human nature has not changed, and the truisms articulated by our first President are not suspended by the wishful thinking of those who, with fetishistic determination,  pursue American disarmament. 

With Russian tanks yet again on the move, a strong leader would, among other things, announce the immediate cancellation of all defense cuts, and reverse the 2009 cancellation of missile defenses to our friends in Europe. He would move to revoke Russia’s membership in the G-8 and on the UN Security Council. Overtures inviting Ukraine’s membership in NATO would renew quickly, and Vladimir Putin would be reminded what happened last time his country provoked the West, with the President warning that his new-found “flexibility” includes the flexibility to introduce that big reset button to ol’ Vlad’s digestive processes.

These things are as likely, in the short term, as the prospect that I will grow a third ear, it being as unnatural for me to do so as it is for Barack Obama to stop conflating the world as it is with the world as he wishes it would be. Nevertheless, we are about to learn some very hard lessons yet again, for the world doesn’t stop revolving while America decides to take yet another reprieve from history, and the ostensible pure intentions of the progressive do not absolve Obama of the responsibility for his starry-eyed inflictions on innocent people. 

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  1. Profile Photo Member
    @BlueStateBlues

    Dave,  you have a gift of hitting the nail on the head better than almost any of the professional pundits I read.   If you ever get tired of driving a truck, you might have a promising second career in writing, if enough people care to hear the truth.

    • #1
  2. Profile Photo Member
    @RonSelander

    I agree!

    And, I nominate the phrase “Mortified that human nature has not yet yielded to the relentless tutorial of progressive ideology” for the phrase of the decade!

    • #2
  3. Profile Photo Member
    @BlueStateBlues

    For me, it was “…Barack Obama to stop conflating the world as it is with the world as he wishes it would be.”  Perfect description of the quintessential flaw in progressive thinking.

    • #3
  4. Profile Photo Member
    @Giantkiller

    Dave – I could not agree more with all you said here.

    • #4
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    @BarbaraKidder

    What I find so galling is that we know well that Mr. Obama is quite capable of being suspicious, bellicose, aggressive, wily, angry and decisive in the face of an adversary, but only when that opposition comes from American conservatives!

    • #5
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    @user_19450

    So, Dave, if President Obama were to have a sudden moment of unfettered clarity (a stretch of the imagination, granted) and ask you to be Secretary of State, would you take it? Because you are a far more suited to the job than those he has chosen as  yet.

    • #6
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    @DaveCarter

    Songwriter, only if such a request was accompanied by his resignation, because it’s inconceivable that I could simultaneously serve him and the national interest.

    • #7
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    @DavidWilliamson

    I am old enough to remember the gas lines of the Carter years (I was living in England at the time, where the government of the day was even worse).

    Our current Dear Leader is much worse – but worse still is the fact that the American electorate voted for him twice!

    I’d like to think that there will be a Reagan and Thatcher to follow… but at least Piers Morgan will hopefully be returning to the UK and a spell at Her Majesty’s pleasure.

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  9. Profile Photo Member
    @RonSelander
    Barbara Kidder: What I find so galling is that we know well that Mr. Obama is quite capable of being suspicious, bellicose, aggressive, wily, angry and decisive in the face of an adversary, but only when that opposition comes from American conservatives! · 15 minutes ago

    Barbara, while I don’t really disagree, I confess that I laughed out loud when I read “Obama” in the same sentence as the words “capable”, “aggressive”, and bellicose”.

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    @RobertELee

    I suppose it’s too much to hope that Obama will quit embarrassing the country by just shutting his mouth.  The rest of the world knows that the United States can not be trusted to keep it’s word about anything that even remotely requires actual effort on our part, so all the bluster in the world from DC is merely an annoying background noise to those really involved in the situation.

    • #10
  11. Profile Photo Member
    @

    The only issue I take with this most excellent Post is that you have dignified the name of Piers Morgan by applying it to an Execrable Foreign Policy.

    It is an insult to even the Foreign Policy you have described to associate it even tangentially with the name Piers Morgan, which I will not utter again.

    • #11
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    @Devereaux
    Robert E. Lee: I suppose it’s too much to hope that Obama will quit embarrassing the country by just shutting his mouth.  The rest of the world knows that the United States can not be trusted to keep it’s word about anything that even remotely requires actual effort on our part, so all the bluster in the world from DC is merely an annoying background noise to those really involved in the situation. · 44 minutes ago

    Actually, if you look at history, what is apparent that the United States Democrats cannot be trusted to keep their/our word about anything. ALL the episodes of our nation leaving a friend alone on the field happened under Democrat political control.

    • #12
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    @robertowsley

    just read your bio. thank you for your service.

    • #13
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    @ChrisO

    Nevertheless, we are about to learn some very hard lessons yet again, for the world doesn’t stop revolving while America decides to take yet another reprieve from history

    Unfortunately, there are some on this site that need this lesson as well. The difference: they probably will learn.

    This crisis is going to shape the world in years to come. China is watching, salivating at the prospect of bringing Taipei back into the fold. Obama has done nothing to discourage this. Events of the next several days could well determine how aggressive China’s policy will be.

    American interests and allies are in trouble, if not directly threatened. Obama’s lack of interest invited this. Now, he finds a world misbehaving and his reaction, if we go by John Kerry, is petulance.

    That’s not enough.

    • #14
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    @CuriousKevmo

    Just one question, does Secretary of Capitulation require Senate confirmation?

    • #15
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    @HoraceSvacz

    That’s what I want to know: who’s the YouTube video producer who got us into this mess? I can only hope that Sec. Kerry moves on this as swiftly as Sec. Clinton did.

    • #16
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    @KayofMT

    Again I am putting your post on facebook.

    • #17
  18. Profile Photo Member
    @

    The picture says it all…doesn’t even get the game.

    Watching the movie Argo, it was hard to believe that America, with all its money spent on war games, soldiers, weapons, etc. let that go on. I wonder if any military person has written a book about how it could have been played? Anyway, here we are again…

    • #18
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    @Eeyore

    I think Obama still has a few more tricks up his omnipotence (or rather self-importance) sleeve. Since the world has refused to acknowledge the power of his teleprompted genius, and, particularly Putin, gone ahead against his wisdom and pursued their own interests, he’s got a strategy that’ll really wow them:

    “You people saying I’m weak? Ha! Watch me kick Israel’s ass!!”

    • #19
  20. Profile Photo Member
    @

    With you here, Dave (and with those with more active solutions, as well).

    • #20
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    @ManfredArcane

    The only thing missing from this post is anything thoughtful on what exactly we, as a nation, should do in response to Putin’s thuggery.  Why is it all ‘tut-tut’ery here at Ricochet, and never any constructive thinking?

    (Consider a seed germ from which to grow ideas for an effective national response:

    http://ricochet.com/member-feed/How-to-really-get-back-at-Putin-for-his-Crimean-Incursion

    )

    • #21
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    @Klaatu

    Manfred Arcane,

    The only thing missing from this post is anything thoughtful on what exactly we, as a nation, should do in response to Putin’s thuggery. Why is it all ‘tut-tut’ery here at Ricochet, and never any constructive thinking?

    Did you perhaps miss the paragraph of this post which begins,“With Russian tanks yet again on the move…”?

    • #22
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    @Rascalfair

    Dave, as usual, right on  But when you write “At home, this approach leaves the American citizen helpless in something called a “gun-free zone,” which in reality becomes a shooting gallery where deranged savages, who remain invincibly indifferent to the law, prey on the innocent,” you’re perilously close…close…to calling to “hoard bullets.”  

    Sorry, but I just can’t help myself.

    • #23
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