President Obama’s press conference on
December 16th was remarkable in several respects. His claim that we’re so much
better off today than when he took office shows that he continues to live a
bubble of self-delusion. His domestic policies were soundly rejected by voters
in the last two off-year elections and in the last presidential election, yet
he blames these disasters on messaging rather than substance.
On the international front the
President did acknowledge some responsibility for the atrocities in Syria that
have left 500,000 civilians dead and 2,000,000 others displaced. But he claimed
that any action he could have taken would not have been in the interests of our
long-term national security. Those were the words of the man who drew a red
line on Syria’s use of chemical weapons and then failed to act when Assad
gassed his people. Those were the words of the man who did nothing when Russia
moved in and began to bomb the civilians of Aleppo. The most powerful
man in the world did nothing to stop the genocide. Nothing.
President Obama, in the short time
he has left in office, has been given a chance at redemption in the South China
Sea. The Chinese have stolen an underwater drone right under our noses in a
brazen act of piracy that some have called an act of war. This calls for a
strong and immediate response from the United States. Thus far Obama has done
nothing to prevent China from militarizing the area and threatening the
security of our Asian allies. Will he take action now? Or will he add the surrender
of the South China Sea to the genocide in Aleppo as his legacy?
What we heard last Friday were the
words of a man who will be remembered not as the most powerful man of his time,
but as one of history’s greatest cowards.
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