Michael Ledeen asks, “So what does our government do, when faced with a splendid opportunity to advance the cause of freedom, strike a blow at the world’s leading supporter of terrorism, and perhaps even convince waverers around the world that American support is worth something after all?”
We tell the Syrian opposition to take a hike, that’s what. As Eli Lake tells us,
The Obama administration has turned down a plea from Syria’s democratic opposition to step up diplomatic pressure on President Bashar Assad, who has violently repressed peaceful anti-government protests
Please read that again and notice that the Obama administration turned down a plea for DIPLOMATIC pressure on poor Assad. Faggetit.
Can anyone detect a pattern here? Mubarak must go. Qadaffi must go. But no diplomatic pressure on Assad, nor, aside from the occasional Obama video, any tough talk to the Iranians.
It’s an operational definition of appeasing your worst enemies and dissing friends and (what’s the best way to define Qadaffi?) a would-be or sometimes friend. Which is a very masochistic foreign policy. It’s what you get from a president who sees America as the root cause of mischief, and perhaps even evil, in the world, and is more concerned about punishing his own people than fighting our enemies.
To be fair, it can’t be easy for President Obama to always be the reverse von Clausewitz.
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