Friday, January 11, 2013

"The Twilight of America"


That's the title of a column by British journalist Melanie Phillips.  Amongst other things, she says:

Barack Obama has now proposed filling the three positions in the US administration most concerned with the security of the nation and the defence of the free world, those at State, Defence and the CIA, by three men who have all taken up positions which can only strengthen those who threaten the security of America and the survival of the free world.

. . .

These three men, Hagel, Brennan and Kerry, are all examples of post-Vietnam demoralisation syndrome – the deeply pessimistic belief that America cannot and should not fight to defend its security and values anywhere in the world; that if bad people are defeated in war only worse people will ever take their place; and that therefore the best strategy for America is to buy them all off, pull up the drawbridge and retreat into a self-delusional isolation.

These are people who are the living embodiment of civilisational exhaustion and decline. In any healthy society, they would be considered marginal, third-rate figures characterised variously by moral spinelessness, stupidity and knuckle-dragging prejudice. Yet not only has Obama put such people forward to manage the security of America ... even more stunningly, the American liberal media, along with timid or ideologically partisan US Jewish leaders, remain silent about these astoundingly destructive appointments because it is Obama who is making them.

. . .

If these three appointments are confirmed, Obama will have removed the last vestiges of independent thinking from his security and foreign policy team and honed his administration to deliver his uninterrupted vision for changing the geopolitical balance of the world. The fear is that, against the pivotal threat of our time, this will entail failing to prevent Iran from achieving nuclear capability while putting the screws on Israel to abandon its own nuclear arsenal. Thus the genocidal aggressor will be empowered, while its principal putative victim will be left defenceless --and the west will belatedly wake up to the fact that it is in a war it cannot win.

Beyond terrifying. Beyond belief.

There's more at the link.

I fear Ms. Phillips is correct in her assessment of President Obama's three nominees.  Certainly, all that I've read about them suggests that she is.  They're likely to lead us over an international geopolitical cliff, even as their boss leads us over an economic, fiscal and social one back home.

Those who voted to re-elect President Obama deserve all that's about to happen to them.  Unfortunately, the rest of us are going to be dragged along for the ride.





Peter

1 comment:

BobF said...

As I said in the message fowarding the link to several, that is the most concise and unfortunately most accurate piece I've read on the subject of the three. Thanks for posting, Peter -- would not have seen it otherwise.