The Yellow Red Line – WaPo Editorial

By Harry Bauskin

“The most morally crimped speech by a president in modern times.” That description of President Obama’s address to the United Nations this week came not from conservative critics but from the editorial page of The Washington Post.

Anybody remember The Obama Cairo speech where he claimed that Housni Mubarak, the Egyptian people and Islam in general have much in common with the American people. At the same time the Obama administration asserted that Assad was a natural US ally, because after all he was an educated man. A doctor who had done his post graduate studies in London, loves western music (especially Chris Brown…wonder why?) and married Asma, educated in the UK with degrees in computer science and French literature. Almost a copy of Obama himself. Well we all know how that turned out….”Mubarak must go!” and then…”Assad must go!”

Lets take a look at all US Allies when the great speechmaker took office. There was the UK, Europe including France and Germany, Egypt, Jordan, Turkey, Iraq, Pakistan, India, most of South America, Africa and so on. Remember how, just a few years ago former Russian Satellites Armenia, Georgia, Belarus and the Ukraine amongst others were all potential US Allies? Thats all gone now. So whats left? US weakness has never been more emphasized than the obscene speech by Obama at the UN.

The red line? What red line? Assad is now the only legitimate leader in Syria today. Anyone (including the UN) who wants to rid Syria of chemical weapons, must talk to Assad. Anyone who believes that it is technically possible to rid the world of Syria’s stockpile of chemical weapons must be as naive as Obama. As for the Middle east, the only influential leader left is Putin.

Iran of course understands that there is no longer a military option with Obama in office. They can afford to chat up the Americans. It leaves them an open highway to Nuclear weapons. Imagine the shock experienced by Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States, Turkey, Egypt and the rest of the Sunni world. Israel has never trusted Obama, so less of a shock there. Putin, Assad, Hizbullah and Khameini must be laughing all the way to the bank.

We are witnessing the greatest collapse in US foreign policy in US History, led by a man who easily is the most isolated leader in modern times. To be remembered for legitimizing mass murder, genocide, rape in all its forms, WMD’s in all its forms, terrorist organizations (Hizbullah and Al Qaeda) and a world where Gay folk are systematically and brutally eradicated. All it took was one telephone call.

Washington Post Editorial  September 27, 2013 
US NEWS UN 6 ABA

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, left, met with President Barack Obama at the United Nations 68th General Assembly in New York on Tuesday, September 24, 2013.


In his second inaugural address, President Obama delivered a ringing pledge of U.S. support for American ideals around the world. “We will support democracy from Asia to Africa, from the Americas to the Middle East,” he promised, “because our interests and our conscience compel us to act on behalf of those who long for freedom

Just eight months later, the idealism is gone. In what may be the most morally crimped speech by a president in modern times, Mr. Obama explicitly ruled out the promotion of liberty as a core interest of the United States. Instead, he told the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday, America’s core interests consist of resisting aggression against allies; protecting the free flow of energy; dismantling terrorist networks “that threaten our people” and stopping the development and use of weapons of mass destruction.

No president should cite democracy promotion as the United States’s only core interest or even, invariably, its first priority. A superpower always must juggle competing concerns of security and commerce. But has a president ever boasted that promoting democracy will not be a core interest? To say that America cares more about the flow of oil than the rights of men and women is to diminish the U.S. soldiers and diplomats who have sacrificed to far higher purpose than Mr. Obama would acknowledge. It is to cede the exceptionalism argument to Vladimir Putin.

In his speech, Mr. Obama said that America’s core interests are not “our only interests” and that the United States “will continue to promote democracy and human rights and open markets, because we believe these practices achieve peace and prosperity.” Presidents from Franklin D. Roosevelt to John F. Kennedy to Ronald Reagan have promoted these “practices” not just to “achieve peace and prosperity,” as Mr. Obama said, but because they believed deeply that every human being has an inalienable right to live in freedom and dignity and that the United States is uniquely positioned to help other people achieve those rights.

As a practical matter, if a president signals that democracy is not a core interest, if it ranks fifth or lower on his list of priorities, it won’t be promoted at all. Mr. Obama made that clear in his discussion of Egypt’s military government, which, since overthrowing a democratically elected government, has slaughtered hundreds and stifled freedom of the press and association. Mr. Obama noted that “we have not proceeded with the delivery of certain military systems,” but he reassured the generals that the United States will continue working with them on “core interests like the Camp David accords and counterterrorism.” The president insisted that “we will not stop asserting principles that are consistent with our ideals.” But if the generals know that those principles don’t count among U.S. “core interests,” why would they pay any attention to Mr. Obama’s “assertions”?

Mr. Obama may believe that minimizing values in foreign relations is tough-minded and realistic. In fact, it can only diminish U.S. influence, including in matters that he defines as core. “It was not all that long ago that farmers in Venezuela and Indonesia welcomed American doctors to their villages and hung pictures of JFK on their living room walls,” Mr. Obama wrote as a presidential candidate in 2007. “We can be this America again.”

He was right. We could be that America again — but not by cherishing oil over liberty.

September 30, 2013 | 1 Comment »

Subscribe to Israpundit Daily Digest

Leave a Reply

1 Comment / 1 Comment

  1. Mr. Obama made that clear in his discussion of Egypt’s military government, which, since overthrowing a democratically elected government, has slaughtered hundreds and stifled freedom of the press and association.

    WAPO supports the muslim brotherhood. They are no better than Obama.