Nature abhors a vacuum
And the nature of power is no different:
The baton was officially transferred Monday to the world’s new sole superpower ”” and Vladimir Putin willingly picked it up.
President Obama (remember him?) embraced the ideals espoused by the United Nations’ founders 70 years ago: Diplomacy and “international order” will win over time, while might and force will lose.
Putin, too, appealed to UN laws (as he sees them), but he also used his speech to announce the formation of a “broad international coalition” to fight ISIS in Syria and Iraq…
And who’d lead this new coalition? Hint: Moscow has always celebrated the Allies’ World War II victory as a Russian-led fete.
Oh, and if anyone wondered which Syrian players the coalition would rely on as allies, Putin made it clear: “No one but President [Bashar al-]Assad’s armed forces and Kurd militia are fighting the Islamic State.”
Recall this from 2012.
And also this.
See also this, which I wrote in 2009. An excerpt:
If Obama has anything to say about it, there will be further steps in America’s journey of penance and redemption through the mechanism of his presidency…Foreign policy is a major mechanism by which this country will be made level with other countries–just one nation among the rest, stripped of much of its power and its weaponry.
Not so sure this is an example of nature abhorring a vacuum as much as it is a demonstration of nature’s unwillingness to leave things in the hands of an asshole.
Hudson Institute panel (moderator Lee Smith, panelists Tony Badran, Michael Doran, Hannah Thoburn): Does Putin’s Move on Syria Make Russia the New Middle East Power Broker?
I was one of those who saw a great deal of merit in the sentiment that impetuously asked, why should the USA be the world’s policeman?
I still see some merit in that sentiment, I admit, but I am sobered by the thought of who steps in and assumes the role.
(Of course, I did not envision us ever getting bullied about by the world’s new policeman. We were always going to be strong and secure and capable of managing our destiny.)
Be careful what you wish for, a saying goes, because you just may get it. I sadly admit, I don’t like what I’m getting.
Older and presumably wiser . . .
Be careful what you wish for, a saying goes, because you just may get it. I sadly admit, I don’t like what I’m getting.
A strategic deficient in your vision.
It’s impossible for the US to liberate other countries, when we ourselves live under slavery and the blacks have been living on slave plantations on and off again under Democrats.
And what have people done about it?
The problem wasn’t America being a superpower or defender of righteousness and justice. The problem was America was being a hypocrite, which few people can stand, including our allies. Former allies.
M J R Says:
“I still see some merit in that sentiment, I admit, but I am sobered by the thought of who steps in and assumes the role.”
Yep. What rules will come down from Russia and China to play in their newly developing spheres of influence?
The boy is stuck on stupid.
Preening is his policy.
Taqiyya, too.
There goes the Carter Doctrine.
President Carter, 1980 State of the Union Address:
Related, I wonder to which political economic sphere “climate change” restrictions will be applied.
M J R,
That’s an astoundingly blinkered view for a Neo regular. Keep in mind that the opposition to American leadership of the free world that has been exploited competitively by the Russians and Obama’s rise to the presidency is a competitive vulnerability produced from the right as well as the left.
blert,
He’s not stupid. He sets up preconditions.
Add: The propaganda that the Democrats and Left used against Bush on Iraq was the same propaganda that the Russians used against Clinton on Iraq.
Bho does care if he is sowing chaos, emboldening adversaries, and alienating allies. His goal is to degrade America’s global influence. The only question is how much more damage can he accomplish in the next 15 months?
Oops, should be does not, not does.
From the AP today:
NEW YORK (AP) – In a year of diplomatic breakthroughs, President Barack Obama can’t escape the shadow of Syria’s intractable crisis.
Obama arrived for his annual trip to the United Nations this week eager to tout the restoration of U.S. diplomatic ties with Cuba and the completion of a landmark nuclear accord with Iran. He shook hands with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif, the first such encounter by an American president since the 1979 Islamic revolution, and held formal talks with Cuban President Raul Castro.
To the president, the openings with Cuba and Iran are not just validation of his own belief in the pursuit of diplomacy over military force, but also affirmation of a broader international order that marginalizes bad actors while giving them clear pathways to redemption.
There you have it. Validation, affirmation, redemption. AP suckups.
Eric, 3:36 pm — “M J R, That’s an astoundingly blinkered view for a Neo regular.”
I wrote, but this time with emphases added,
“I *was* one of those who saw a great deal of merit in the sentiment that impetuously asked, why should the USA be the world’s policeman?
“I still see *some* merit in that sentiment, I admit, but I am sobered by the thought of who steps in and assumes the role.”
Eric continues, “Keep in mind that the opposition to American leadership of the free world that has been exploited competitively by the Russians and Obama’s rise to the presidency is a competitive vulnerability produced from the right as well as the left.”
Yes. To quote the great M J R, “I am sobered by the thought of who steps in and assumes the role.” I do nonetheless see *some* merit in the *sentiment* — it’s a sentiment, not a substantive, carefully considered thought — but trust me, it is tempered by sober reality.
Dr. Yasser Dasmabebi explains the Obama Doctrine as it applies to the Mid East. He ends with the question – Capisce? — which I think is less a question and more dare.
M J R,
I saw the tense. It’s good you’ve changed your mind, but you were wrong at the fork in the road. At this point, the damage is done and being done.
Dr. Yasser Dasmabebi
… Is the present master of the run-on sentence.
Before parsing it, I parsed the good doctor’s name.
Heh.
“The USA as the world’s policeman” is a fairly rude and crude straw man.
It was the Cold War, and the USSR was the bad guy to the US’s cop.
But the Cold War has been revived with Obama’s craven currying of the forces of evil. Obsequious, thy name is Obama.
Everything is going Putin’s way. In an utterly abstract and disinterested geopolitical sense he is a damn successful man.
I have been admiring his fencing for some time; he has become a master. Obama will always be hot air abroad, and malicious at home.
Putin’s problem is that he’s writing geo-political cheques that can’t clear.
His currency is riding the toboggan.
His cabal is sweating bullets.
He’s got a Muslim problem far worse than that of Europe.
(Moscow looks like Muslim on the Seine — ie Paris)
The Crimea is a drought stricken money pit, always has been, always will be.
He’s forcing Minsk to accept a Soviet military base — over protest.
He’s had to effectively cancel his stealth jet fighter program. It’s a complete dud.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sukhoi_PAK_FA#Procurement
Wiki omits the minor detail that New Delhi is backing out. India had seen too much of the American stuff when the USAF visited for a fly off.
The Indians were astounded to discover that F-15s were able to fly six missions a day — day after day. It would take a squadron of Mig-29s to sustain against four F-15s, as most would be in the shop being repaired. Yet the F-15s would actually be showing up in equal numbers.
When the Indians visited Nellis, they were permitted to fly against the F-22. All confidence built up back home evaporated.
So, it’s back to the drawing boards (spying) for Putin & Co.
KSA’s price war in OPEC crude is taking Putin down for the count.
0bama is is ace in the hole. The big monies that Barry is cutting loose to Iran are being hugely revectored towards Moscow. 20% has already flown out the door.
So, in a loopy way, Barry is financing his own humiliation.
America is in as a ride-along.
I’d say Putin has until January 20, 2017 to get his economy unstuck.
It’s during this countdown to reality that we may see truly dangerous table stakes adventurism.
Horrible but:
Obama is a bigger threat to America than Putin. If Putin can humble Obama, its better for us.
Putin will take care of ISIS.
Obama is a complete disaster. But he could do even worse things. Europe deserves its own fate. We gave them freedom. They rejected it.
Eric, 6:12 pm — “M J R, I saw the tense. It’s good you’ve changed your mind, but you were wrong at the fork in the road. At this point, the damage is done and being done.”
You know,
[point #1] That “fork in the road” may have taken place four years ago, or it may have taken place forty years ago. Unless you’ve been spying on me, I don’t believe you know when, and under what current-events circumstances, it took place (yes, I’m easily that old) — but please see point #2.
[point #2] That “fork in the road” in any event was for me more of a gradual realizing, not a specific turning point in time; and so the Yogi Berra Fork-In-The-Road Maxim may not even apply. I’m not sure it does in this instance.
Either way, regarding my being wring, I *can* assure you of this: I have been wrong about a number of things in my life, including important things, and I can even assure you I’ll be wrong about a few more, unless I die tomorrow.
BUT — I do have this insurance policy: if at any time I am wrong and do not realize it right away, my dear wife will happily let me know, complete with illustrative example [smile].
Eric, you married?
Eric; M J R:
Well, I was certainly wrong at many forks in the road.
So, I wager, were each of us. At different forks and different roads, but wrong.
I wasn’t wrong at that particular fork, but so what?
“…but also affirmation of a broader international order that marginalizes bad actors while giving them clear pathways to redemption.”
Where, in O=speak, “marginalizes” means “empowers” and “redemption” means “conquest”
========
“So, in a loopy way, Barry is financing his own humiliation.”
Um, no. What any normal person’s view of Obama’s “humiliation” is actually, in Obama’s view, his ultimate victory over the American regime and the evil it represents.
That is, it is not his “humiliation” but his “redemption” (see above)
========
BTW, turns out (as everyone ought to know) that there’s an awful lot of natural gas in the Eastern Mediterranean basin that Putin intends to “redeem”….
File under: Pulp Fiction
From Russia’s point of view, America is the new USSR, the USSA, and Russia is the defender of local freedoms and autonomy.
Communism went from the Soviet Union to America, where the virus has mutated and gone rogue once the Soviets went kaput. Now America is exporting that virus the same way the Soviets exported communist totalitarianism.
The Russians do have a thing for irony, but it won’t stop them from fighting American power merely because of it.