Obama Fails to Still the Waves, Part 2
In yesterday's illuminating post on President Obama's budget speech, our own beloved Richard Epstein compared the President to King Canute for his belief that he could turn the economy around while simultaneously advancing policies that strangle growth. Well, it looks like that same grandiose imagination has been put to work on the foreign policy front. According to a jaw-dropping (and leak-heavy) piece by David Wood at the Huffington Post:
The White House wanted the Pentagon to come up with a low-cost regime-change plan for Libya. Ideally, this strategy would have toppled Col. Muammar Gaddafi without bogging the U.S. down in another inconclusive foreign adventure. And by no means could the plan have included young American infantrymen advancing under fire across the sand.
The military kept insisting that no such option existed.
Could it be that this president -- long peddled as one of the great intellectuals to hold the office -- is incapable of developing a policy outlook more sophisticated than having his cake and eating it too?
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Comments :
Dec '10
Re: Obama Fails to Still the Waves, Part 2
Consider that, just as Bill Clinton and a huge number of voters did in 1991, Obama has concluded that the US military is all-powerful, with lots of high-tech weaponry and dedicated fighting men and women who will do whatever is asked of them. They've done so much for so long with so little that he now believes they can do anything with nothing.
Why would we expect Obama to have any conception of the real-world capabilities and constraints on the US military? Has he evinced any interest whatsoever in the history, theory and practice of military strategy, tactics and operations -- both for making war and for preserving peace?
Mar '11
Re: Obama Fails to Still the Waves, Part 2
As Mark Steyn pointed out a while back, King Canute was actually demonstrating his limited human abilities, rather than claiming that he had superhuman ones.
Be that as it may, yes, it's obvious that Mr Obama wants gain with no pain (other than for the evil rich), and maybe was not born and raised on this planet, let alone Hawaii.
Edited on Apr 21, 2011 at 11:28amMay '10
Re: Obama Fails to Still the Waves, Part 2
When shopping for Regime Change, Barack Obama chooses the low-cost choices at Wal-Mart!
Sep '10
Re: Obama Fails to Still the Waves, Part 2
Mr. Obama is certainly an enigma. Is he willfully ignorant? A pollyana? An evil political genius? An idoit?
I think he is just spoiled. I postulate that no one has ever told him no. He has always gotten what he wanted. That, I fear, will lead him, and us, to ruin. Think of Elvis or Michael Jackson, surrounded by an entourage of yes men and sycophants. What sense of reality did either on of them have after they were rich and famous?