A Lesson in Unintended Consequences for Our President
President Barack Obama just received a double slap in the face. Russia’s paramount leader, Vladimir Putin, in a display of steely contempt, has said “nyet” to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s entreaties to sanction the Iranians for developing nuclear materials for weapons use. Furthermore, Reuters reports that the Russians will not preclude the use of nukes preemptively — nearby or far away.
However the White House or Foggy Bottom spins it, Putin’s boorish refusal to play ball must be a jolt to our Nobel Laureate president, who, but a few short weeks ago, came to Putin lugging a hefty olive branch.
To Putin and, incidentally, to his hand-picked successor Dmitry Medvedev, the president gave the gift of the pulled plug — on elements of a land-based missile defense in Eastern Europe. Nothing expected in return — well, not entirely. There are always strings. But Mr. Obama expected nothing tangible in return. Not the relinquishing of one megaton of destruction. Not even a squirrelly pledge from Putin to keep his hands off the Ukraine or Georgia. Not even a bowl of Borscht.
What the president expected, one guesses, was consideration and cooperation. Giving the heave-ho to the Poles and Czechs was supposed to thaw Putin’s icy veins.
When Mrs. Clinton came a-knocking on behalf of Mr. Obama in a spirit of one-worldliness, Putin was supposed to demonstrate a readiness to put the kibosh on the mullahs’ nuclear ambitions.
Instead, Putin flatly refused. Talks with the Iranians, he argued, were underway. Sanctions would be premature. Let’s not act so precipitously, he counseled.
By refusing to join hands with Mr. Obama, Putin gave a big gift to the mullahs: the gift of time. More time to develop nuclear materials, leading to nuclear weapons capability. It’s the Putin Grand Stall; a gift that he may just keep giving to the Iranians if he can pull it off. By a degree of separation, though, it was really Mr. Obama’s gift to the Iranians. The president’s unilateral capitulation on missile defense telegraphed to Putin that he’s a Grade-A patsy. All Putin did was re-wrap Mr. Obama’s offering.
So, what President Obama is getting in return isn’t cooperation from the Russians, but a lesson in the often merciless law of unintended consequences. His ill-considered gesture toward the Russians makes a nuclear-armed Iran more likely, not less.
And following the logic, the more imminent Iranian nuclear weapons capability is, the more likely Israel is to strike Iran preemptively — and unilaterally if necessary.
Next we should get rid of our nuclear weapons, so the Iranians may see the light and stop developing theirs.
Putin knows that this sort of treatment at the start of the relationship will have Obama begging him for attention before long. Putin was trained to recognize a sick puppy when he sees one, and Obama is one sick puppy.
Regards
One ultimately has to blame the American people for putting an incompetent in the White House.
RE:
“One ultimately has to blame the American people for putting an incompetent in the White House.”
Exactly right. And if the American people don’t boot his backside out in 2011 now that their eyes should be wide open to his unsuitability for the job then they deserve everything he and his cronies inflict on them.
Do words like naive and incompetent adequately describe the Undocumented President? Isn’t it time to start using words like stupid, moronic, imbecilic to describe this marxist.
His decisions are so absurd that one might think his grand plan is to weaken America so much that it will be considered unworthy of attack. And the world’s smartest woman looks pretty stupid in her role as his lap dog.
Now the Marxist Academic Theorist In Chief gets to see what most of us learned in our elementary school playgrounds, appeasing bullies never works. What an incompetent fool.
As an article in the NYPost points out, Russian leaders negotiate with a clear knowledge of who they are and the long sweep of their history.
It seems that American leaders negotiate with little understanding of even their own history, only wishful thinking, and with an eye only towards the near future and facilitating their own re-election.
In other words, Russians play chess, while Americans can no longer even play checkers, but are more like preschoolers playing chutes and ladders. From GW Bush, who looked deep into Putin’s eye and fell in love with Putin’s soul, to the current left wing appeaser/apologizers like Obozo and Clinton who came to Russia with a “reset”/overcharge button (how hokey, juvenile and moronic was THAT stunt?) our leaders have sold our future out to a by far more ruthless foe. All for what? They got zilch in return, but no matter, they got to feel good and it makes them all warm and fuzzy inside. The Russians got all the tangibles and will emerge the victors.
Checkmate.
Optimistically, Obama & Co.’s failures result from the erroneous belief that Russia is slowly imploding society whose pretensions it is better to placate then oppose, since whatever damage the Russians intend to do can only be short- or medium-term. This is an error that would require too much bandwith to address here. Since I know this and I’m just a guy with an Internet connection and an Amazon.com account, however, it is highly unlikely that there is not something else happening here.
Most Pessimistically, Obama’s purpose is to accomplish a critical strategic pivot in which several things occur, all with the purpose of converting the USA to the Chinese model. The Chinese model, essentially, is total control of culture and especially the vast public expressions of political and social opinion, including control of the internet and university publications, coupled with opaque government which exercises fiat power over every aspect of the government and directly manages a sizable chunk of it. This, of course, requires the introduction of a national surveillance service.
Whether the pessimistic option is possible is uncertain, but there should be no doubt that it has been contemplated for a very long time by the supple and opportunistic disciples of Leninism, whose apotheosis Obama is. Possibly the USA presents a novel strategic experiment for these folks, since so much of its elite has been converted – through various means – to a really implacable adherence to Leninist goals, if not necessarily the methods of the Soviet 1920s, or at least to an implacable antipathy to the political opponents of Leninism everywhere – “conservatives.” Even Stalin allowed (look it up) that it may be possible to convert a society to Communism by means of a very long-term strategy extending over decades in which the target society would be denatured and slowly replaced with Communism.
Obviously there is much, much more reality to this possibility than to anything like Nazism, which after all was a partial creation of Stalin’s for the purpose of starting the Second World War and the opportunity for World Revolution by Conquest that all the Old Bolsheviks dreamed – and wrote – about.
[...] Obama’s gesture to Russia in dropping plans for a missile shield in central Europe brought him nothing in return. [...]
Nothing, indeed, yet this nothing is now generating more troubles:
1) A legitimate question: was that decision a blunder, a mis-estimation, the Mega-Deliberative President being poorly advised in that matter by staff? Or, like in so many other Obama endeavors, something more obscure & devious lies underneath?
And since here, isn’t it curious (since now it’s official), that Obama has rejected Merkel’s invitation at the international Berlin ceremonies marking the 1989 fall of the Berlin wall, symbol of collapse of the East European communist system? (Event bemoaned by Vladimir Putin and the KGB establishment as the greates geo-political catastrophe of the 20th. century?)
And doesn’t this loud dis-association with the celebration of communism’s fall remarkably resemble Obama’s “lack of interest” for last months’s Gdansk commemoration of the end of WWII?
What views this person dba Obama truly harbors? Other than the self-congratulatory paragraphs in his autobiographies (?!?), we simply KNOW NOTHING about dba Obama’s true political views – and as things unravel, it may well happen that we’ll undergo a harsh learning process regarding this.
2) Then, as second part of Obama’s deal with Russia -
Not only that we got nothing in exchange, but, as it was reported, Russia now is advancing the Part II of their scheme, i.e. they have expressed concerns regarding the remaining American missiles defense system in South-East Europe and Middle East – so probably Obama will again oblige and alleviate Russia’s concerns in this matter and will let this time Israel and South East Europe completely in the wind.
And leaving aside Obama’s truly phenomenal deliberative attitude in the Afghanistan matter, attitude which has transcended from deliberative in sheer seditiousness, one can legitimately ask WHAT ARE ACTUALLY OBAMA’S TRUE POLITICAL VIEWS AND INTENTIONS?
President Obama is being played like a puppet on the string; he is weak & showing all of his cards to enemies who he wants to be dear friends & soul mates. His misplaced trust will make the world more dangerous for Americans & the USA at large. In the meantime, President Obama treats our traditional allies of the UK, France, Germany, Israel, etc al like sh*t. Yet Pavlov’s dog Obama still comes in thinking he’s the smartest one in the room when he’s really the fool. Who needs Jimmy Carter back when we have President Obama?
Congress is not going to allow the USA to disarm. As usual, Obama is all blusterous platitudes & in this case, I’m glad.
But President Obama will continue to give away the farm to our enemies with nothing in return.
Putin has made a complete and total fool of Obama, if O. even has the sense to see it. Do the idiots in the White House not have enough sense to understand that it serves Putin’s purposes to see us as weakened as possible? This is his moment! Russia and China are getting stronger by the day, we are getting weaker and weaker at a rapid pace, partly due to the incompetent administration now “ruling” us. And our narcissistic president runs all over the place giving one campaign speech after another. I shudder to think how this is going to end.
I beg to differ. I believe unintended consequences occur when you seek one outcome, and instead another occurs — that you could not foresee. Do you really think that not one person on Pres Obama’s policy team asked the question , “What if Putin gives us nothing in return? Won’t we end up with egg on our face?”
Surely, someone thought of it.
Didn’t they?
I hope.
Soon will come the “It’s Bush’s fault” Obamabots.
When you play in the big leagues you don’t pitch underhand, and that is precisely what the One is doing.
9. misanthropicus:
WHAT ARE ACTUALLY OBAMA’S TRUE POLITICAL VIEWS AND INTENTIONS?
That same question and its lack of an answer by Mr. Transparency has been overlooked and artfully dodged for years. Our Stealth President may never take the truth serum and reveal all. I would agree with you in that continously pushing the hard questions may hopefully discover the ‘what he really means’ agenda. One wonders if he knows or is he just being played.
Such a tragic personality that America has elected to lead it’s people!
Maybe we should get Obama some knee pads.
Sometimes I wonder if these are unintended consequences. Obama clearly wants a weak America.
Am I mistaken? Did Obama not swear publicly to uphold the constitution? What he has done in the nine months he has been in office rises to the level of, if not actual treason, then certainly the “crimes and misdemeanors” that are impeachable.
This is a brush we could certainly use to paint Pelosi, Reid, et al. as well.
Sheesh.
Has no one been paying attention to this guy’s rhetoric? Doesn’t anyone recognize this as complete validation of BHO’s thesis on America? The only consistency between his campaign and his adminstration has been his tireless admonition (and now action) aimed at bringing America low by punishing us for the myriad past sins that he and the left have convinced themselves we must atone for. This is evident in every single thing he says and does.
The Russians screwed the U.S.A. BHO’s response: “Good! America – the bad, nasty, cowboy, unilateral, neocon America that planned a warmongering missile shield in the first place – that America deserves to be screwed, and I’m just the guy to invite the screwing.” U.S. foreign policy needs to be utterly discredited, and he’s just the guy, with Hillary’s bumbling, Alinsky-revering, self-serving help, to do it. They’re achieving this goal with blitzkreig efficiency.
These consequences were not “unintended” in the slightest. And the longer we keep pretending that BHO has America’s national interests in mind when it comes to stuff like this, the more geopolitically vulnerable the Republic will become. These actions are no less calculated than those which resulted in the seizure of the banking industry, the seizure of the automotive industry and (soon) the seizures of the health care and energy industries. That’s the whole ball game, folks. Welcome to totalitarian America.
U.S. economic policy – as implemented by the Fed and the historically unprecedented debt this government has incurred, unnecessarily – is destroying the financial credit of the U.S. This has had real-world consequences. They were not “unintended”, they were wholly predictable and often predicted. What’s been the response to those consequences, now that they’ve come to pass? Why, to step up actions that will further destroy our credit. Practical result: America declines as a global economic force.
U.S. energy policy has made us more, not less, dependent on foreign energy sources. Now oil prices are creeping back up. What’s been the response? Continued resistance to development of our own natural resources, refusal to pursue nuclear energy, emphasis on “alternative” energy sources that have no hope of meeting current demands, and cap-and-tax-and-spend legislation aimed at making energy in America even MORE expensive. Practical result: America declines economically, culturally and militarily.
U.S. foreign policy is now designed specifically to allow Iran to engage in nuclear war with Israel. Israel is finally realizing that this will be inevitable and will soon be forced to act. It’s no longer a question of politics, but one of survival and of course whichever Israelis are left after the radiation dies down will be held accountable for ‘war crimes’ by the UN and our quisling, lickspittle government. Ultimately, what’s the outcome? A middle east nuke exchange decimates U.S. military forces in the region AND simultaneously makes Russian oil orders of magnitude more valuable. Practical result: America declines militarily and economically.
The list goes on. None of the consequences we’re seeing can even be remotely misconstrued as “unintended”. We elected an Enemy of America, as demonstrated by his own statements and actions.
“Obama’s gesture to Russia in dropping plans for a missile shield in central Europe brought him nothing in return.”
Really? This action weakened democracies in Eastern Europe. Weakening democracies, including ours, seems to be an Obama priority. Democracies historically allied with America get special negative treatment.
If you are in a speculative mood today, please entertain the following proposition: Putin spoke first and said “I’m pulling all my occupation forces out of Georgia. It’s my gesture of goodwill, so we may together press the reset button”. I know, I’m challenging your common sense, but hang on for a minute: Do you think the US would have responded by saying “Okay, then, forget about missile defense, we just won’t put it up! Which side gets the medal for stupidity? I think Putin would rather have its paw Georgia than a Nobel prize, but that’s just my opinion…
I am irresistibly reminded of Carter and Brezhnev’s “walk in the woods” in Geneva in 1978. That time, carter initiated it, by canceling virtually everything and the “inviting ” Brezhnev to come and do likewise. He was utterly shocked (according to him) when Brezhnev said “Nyet”.
A few years later, Gorbachev tried a similar ploy with Reagan, promising to (maybe)not deploy new ICBMS if we didn’t go ahead with SDI. That time, Reagan said, “No”, the Russians tried to “overbuild” to defeat any such defense by sheer volume, and bankrupted themselves in the process.
Putin learned an important lesson from both situations. Namely, that when an American President offers up something without any preconditions, it’s a green light to do exactly as he pleases. And just now, it pleases him to side with Iran.
As for the Iranian mullahs, anyone who thinks that the concept of Mutual Assured Destruction will deter a group of millenialist mystics who operate on an eschatological timetable of their own preconception, does not grasp the concept that radical Islamists are dead serious when they talk about martyrdom. Especially if they get to take everyone they don’t like with them. Think of it as a homicide bombing writ large, and you have the general idea.
clear ether
eon
A ruthless nationalist brought up on realpolitik,and risen through merit,encounters an affirmative action,dweeb and compulsive groveler .Result? Dweeb gets rolled.
I’m sure that those who are so concerned about Israel will volunteer to fight by their side in the war against the islamofascists.
And I’m sure J.Robert Smith will be the first one to fight the Iranians, being that he’s so concerned about the Iranian threat.
Or maybe war is just another racket, and the racketeers are annoyed because they’re not getting as much money funneled to them now.
The irony is rich. When Russia in late eighties and nineties was coming up with one one-sided peaceful act after another (destroying Warsaw Pact, removing troops from the Eastern Europe, destroying Soviet Union, going forward with unification of Germany, playing well with others in UN, supporting war in Afghanistan, giving access to Central Asian states, etc) the West was taking it all in and looking for more (NATO expansion, EU expansion, establishing rabidly anti-Russian puppet regimes in Georgia and Ukraine, etc). Now when the US has its own Nobel prize winner in the mold of Gorby, some people are unhappy. Go figure.
J. Robert, are you Kim Zigfield, or did you at least get “her” in the Washington Post four months late, despite their pesky publishing rules? That would take a D.C. insider and not someone up in New York, don’t ya think?
“Now when the US has its own Nobel prize winner in the mold of Gorby, some people are unhappy. Go figure.”
Exactly, these people are terrified someone’s going to do to them what they’ve been pushing for the past twenty years.
24. a:
The irony is rich.
Indeed ironic if there is a parallel to behold. The United Soviet Socialist Republic was fractured and disunited, in short, due to an overspending fiscal crisis. This sounds like America with its strong polarization of red and blue states and a deficit approaching 100% of GDP. The ultimate conspiracy or revenge of Putin would be the dissolvement of the United States.
J. Robert Smith:
I think that your research on Russia might mention that they have already been supplying the Iranians with nuclear technology as well are radar and air defense missiles. The Cold War was good for Russia, why would they want it to end?
Obama is doing what he set out to do and receiving what he intended to receive. He did not spend his time in Indonesia and Kenya loving America. The emperor has no clothes.
In my opinion, what he does have is a criminal organization with the intent to bring down this country financially, and physically with death and destruction. Those who funded his entry into ivy league schools and into the oval office have a plan and he is the executor.
Thank you for at least talking about our treacherous path toward destruction. The smokescreen created by Axelrod of the “war against Fox” has been an effective cover. The bait was taken by Beck through Hannity with the MSM in between. Axelrod knows that most persons cannot resist talking about themselves and he was more than clever.
What Obama thinks of Fox is unimportant. That he wants America destroyed, is.
“Dave K.”,
If your side decides like you that war is a racket, while the other side finds it advantageous to wage war once it has no real opposition, what do you expect will happen to you? Or do you imagine that there is no other side?
Is it really possible that what we have here is a true Manchurian candidate? The evidence certainly points in that direction.
Why, during all the interviews of the candidate was the classic interview question not asked? “Not including your fabulous family, what do you consider to have been your best accomplishment in your life?” What could this cypher possibly have answered?
RE: Exclude me pal, I voted for the other guy. I didn’t like Obambi from the first moment I became aware of him, there was always something, to me, that was not quite real, sort of slimy and underhanded about the guy. Anyway, for Iran the answer is obvious. Israel is going to take out Iran and I don’t think the ME is going to blow up over it. Iranians are Persians, not Arabs and the Arab states in the region will be relieved that their ancient enemy has been destroyed. Sure sure they’ll make the usual inflammatory statements and the populations will gather in the streets and demand retribution but the reality is that the governments of those Arab states are more interested in staying alive then in attacking Israel. Obambi is not only incompetent but inept and won’t be able to stop Israel from defending herself regardless of how much he threatens.
Panther piss 5 days too late, Vald is not the one with a military option on the table. If the Iranian do not act in god faith which is what the US has done act in good faith.
Putin’s protection meant nothing, it was 5 days to late. I am still living in the 80′s so he is still a KGB Lieutenant Colonel and there was plenty of lose in the service.
If there is going to be no ice in the Arctic why the need for more ice breakers, think of going 2020-2025? Ironic enough Iran is being used by the Soviets as a security threat to divert US assets in relation to the Arctic. Russia can’t meet their long term energy contracts without the Arctic field otherwise their economy will shrink and thus their military which means they will no longer be a player in geo-political matters. So they are prepared to go to war and use tactical nukes. Make or break. If they lose that then Cold War part two will be completed and they will be put into submission never to bother the world again.
The church has been infiltrated just like during Soviet times, the head poo-bah a KGB asset, hence the statements about nuclear weapons to the flock.
Before 2020-25 Georgia may have a reactor, BM’s and interceptors and NATO membership.
Just like looking in a mirror. If they move the Black Sea fleet to Abkhazia it can be boxed in with UUV’s hunting in wolf packs. 
They need 5 more battalions of S-400′s than they have allocated funding for acquisition. 
The US are playing nice, but the Russians are not, so when the US gets nasty there will be a surge in aspirin sales among the Soviet apparatus.
Secondly that was Soviet policy during the Cold War to use tactical nukes pre-emptive against western Europe.
This is the stuff we have to go through dialogue, sanctions before we remake the Flintstones Barny Rubble.
The difference between Republican and Democrat foreign policy is sand on the boots, not the use of air power as can be seen by VP Biden’s proposed policy for Afghanistan/Pakistan. As Saddam found out when 42 launched air strike against Iraq.
We do not need the GOP to drop the MOP.
Oh and Stalin was the anti-Christ so those that worship Stalin worship the anti-Christ and are ungodly people.
#23 DAVE K: I for one am totally opposed to interfering in the internal affairs ,of poor oppressed, Iran.When the Iranians lob a nuke, it will be aimed where you live, a blue city, in a blue state.What’s to worry?
Obambi is completely unarmed in a battle of wits with Putin, it’s that simple.
It’s really very simple.
Someone high up in the Russian foreign policy establishment took a credulous american counterpart aside and in an earnest and confidential (but entirely bogus) fashion said something to this effect: “you know, you are really making it difficult for president Putin and the foreign policy people. They are nervous about Iran too, but they can’t just cave in. They’ve been affected by too many years of George W Bush, too much encirclement. They need a concession, so as not to lose face. Putin’s proud, and he’s under pressure from his people, you have to give him soemthing in return”.
If that’s not the precise scenario, it’s not far wrong. It’s the oldest trick in the book of shabby soviet diplomacy, and the neophytes and fools in the US foreign policy establishment, right up to Clinton and Obama, fell for it hook line and sinker.
Goofy bunch, this administration. At home, they try to be tough-guy bullies against domestic opponents, and instead end up looking like a clique of middle school mean girls. Abroad, they remind me of those pathetic dweebs who say “excuse me” when someone else deliberately bumps into them.
These spineless cretins must really like the taste of sand.
23. I don’t know if Mr. Smith will volunteer to fight the Iranians, but I can say that I would, if only the Navy would let me. So please, tell President Obama that Asperger’s should not be a medical disqualification from military service, and I’ll gladly put on the uniform I was so rudely stripped of on my birthday, and take command aboard a submarine, to defend liberty silently.
#27. Exactly!: Obama is doing what he set out to do and receiving what he intended to receive. He did not spend his time in Indonesia and Kenya loving America. The emperor has no clothes.
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On target, but please desist with the ‘no clothes’ simile. It brought up an ugly mental image.
Comment 18. Again, the Goy strikes the nail with the hammer and slams it into the wood! Nothing this pig Obama has done is unintended. He is bringing down your nation on purpose. And it is about time you Americans figure out that the biggest traitor you have is in the Oval Office – and do something about it.
What is not for me to comment on.
What, no swarms of La Russophobe sock puppets pretending to be some chick from New York but really one dude sitting in Alexandria? I’m disappointed.
I guess Orion Strategies is running a bit short of cash since the Pawlenty campaign doesn’t pay as well as McCain/Saakashvili did together.
His decisions are so absurd that one might think his grand plan is to weaken America so much that it will be considered unworthy of attack. And the world’s smartest woman looks pretty stupid in her role as his lap dog.
One might THINK??? EVERYTHING this idiot has done has but one firm purpose, and I might add, as inept as he is to lead ANYTHING, he has thus far been quite successful in that purpose: to utterly humiliate the USA. Jimmy Carter, as useless as he was, was only a forerunner of this buffoon of a man, named barack hussein obama. And we have had other evil presidents, but none were on par with bho.
we are playing chess with the master commie, and this time we aren’t putting up a boy genius. damn where is that cowboy when we need him? Shane come back, come back Shane! 2010 we got to check the congress hard, so we can put a kibosh on his tired plans.