Cringe-Worthy

Waking up each morning and getting an international news update has become a cringe-worthy event. In virtually every geopolitical zone, our influence has waned, our mistakes continue to grow, and instability, trouble, violence, or chaos have become the norm.

This has happened on Barack Obama's watch, and although he is not responsible for all of it, his feckless foreign policy, bad decisions (and indecisiveness), and fantasy worldview have contributed to significant problems in many parts of the world.

Bret Steven summarizes this when he writes:

In July, after Germany trounced Brazil 7–1 in the semifinal match of the World Cup—including a first-half stretch in which the Brazilian soccer squad gave up an astonishing five goals in 19 minutes—a sports commentator wrote: “This was not a team losing. It was a dream dying.” These words could equally describe what has become of Barack Obama’s foreign policy since his second inauguration. The president, according to the infatuated view of his political aides and media flatterers, was supposed to be playing o jogo bonito, the beautiful game—ending wars, pressing resets, pursuing pivots, and restoring America’s good name abroad.

Instead, he crumbled.

As I write, the foreign policy of the United States is in a state of unprecedented disarray. In some cases, failed policy has given way to an absence of policy. So it is in Libya, Syria, Egypt, Iraq, and, at least until recently, Ukraine. In other cases the president has doubled down on failed policy—extending nuclear negotiations with Iran; announcing the full withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan.

The most astonishing thing about Barack Obama and his Team of 2s is that they don't seem capable of adaptation. It's almost as if they are robots that have been programmed with a leftist narrative of how the world should be.

The Obama administration robot crashes repeated into the wall of reality (i.e., hard men with defined agendas who are unwilling to compromise when they perceive weakness). Instead of adapting to reality, the Obama foreign policy robot just keeps repeating the program—over and over again. Worse, the program is incapable of recognized a failed algorthm and with each collision with the wall, calls up a subprogram that makes excuses, but then returns to the same failed algorithm.

Never mind past history, never mind repeated failures, never mind that hard men cannot be cajoled with efforts at Kumbayah. The world was supposed to bend to the sheer magnificence of Barack Obama, but guess what? It hasn't.

Every successful president has adapted throughout his presidency. FDR adapted, LBJ adapted. Regan adapted. Clinton Adapted. Even George W. Bush adapted.

The problem with this president is that he seems incapable of adaptation. As a consequence, even some of his most ardent defenders are beginning to raise questions. We have two more years of this ... and that's even more cringe-worthy than the morning news.