We can now add Faux "news" regular Liz Trotta to the extremely long list of right-wingers who will find any excuse possible to call President Obama weak and feckless when it comes to foreign policy.
At least she managed to restrain herself in this hate-filled, rambling, incoherent on air op-ed for Fox that she didn't resort to joking about killing President Obama again, but this one had me wondering what the hell she was smoking before she wrote or read this mess.
History repeats itself with a vengeance. Twenty two years ago, the American troop withdrawal from Clark Air Force Base and the naval base at Subic Bay in the Philippines signaled a final chapter to America's intense involvement in Asia. Once a military might of these two sprawling installations served as prime launching pads for the wars in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos.
The story bases were part of the culture of the 1960's, just as they were for American forces at the end of World War II. Withdrawals signified settled matters, or so we thought until the Commander in Chief gave the order for U.S. forces to return to Clark and Subic last year.
A new buildup is underway, as Mr. Obama pivots towards Asia. Counter China before it's too late. So he made a point of visiting the Philippines on his Asian tour, proving once more that in the history of foreign policy, you can go home again.
How far he would go to abide by mutual security treaties was left in doubt. In a news conference that turned into a speech, the president defended his foreign policy from increasing attacks in the press.
“You don't always hit home runs” he said. A rather undignified admission from the sitting president. Meanwhile, in another return to the past, Russia's staged its first May Day parade in Red Square since Soviet days. Thousands cheered Mr. Putin's campaign to revive the good old days in a march across the Ukraine.
Then came the puzzler. As all this revisionism surfaced, a Wall Street Journal/ABC News poll reported that Americans by half don't want the president to raise the U.S. profile in foreign policy.
We have always noted that two wars have wearied this towering country, but another factor may be at play; the realization that American's may no longer call the tunes. The festering hope that until we are rescued from Obama's amateur advisers, the administration must to no more harm.
We repeatedly stumble in gambling our prestige and influence as in Syria, where Assad is reported to be bombing his people with chlorine gas in the face of an agreement to give up all chemical weapons.
In truth, one suspects that a majority of Americans would prefer a military response to Benghazi, rather than the Ukraine or anywhere else. Yes, we have all seen this before. Justice Foster said, the past isn't dead. It's not even passed.
I just read one of the better responses to this sort of nonsense at the Washington Monthly this weekend. It's very long, but worth the time to read it all if you've got it: Brooks, Wieseltier: Cries of American Weakness by the People Who Weakened America
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