Jack of All Trades

In a stunning revelation on this morning's TV program "Morning Joe" on MSNBC, Robert Gates, our former Secretary of Defense under both Bush '43 and our current president revealed that, at one of his large staff meetings, Obummer bragged that he could do everyone's job in the room better than they could. Wow! Double wow! This kind of selfie-stick monster ego ... colored by delusion has got to be a first for any president (except maybe Slick Willie).

If this were truly what had been said, then our regal leader has done one of two things ... either surrounded himself with doofuses ... or been ego-massaged to the point of the vainest of vainglory. My guess is that it is a little bit of both. If I could have but one wish that was sure to come true, I would love that this bigger-than-life man-child would be able to read what historians have to say about him in about fifty years. I kinda doubt that they might view him the same way he sees himself today ... in front of his preening, self-loving mirror.

(Perhaps jack-off of all trades?)

The World Map

I've just coined a new word, "neo-iso." Neo-iso stands for neo-isolationism (or ist) … apparently this is the Obama administration’s new and evolving foreign policy.  Ever since he drew and then erased the red line in Syria, President Obama has become less interested in insinuating the United States into foreign adventures. This inward-turning policy toward world conflicts could perhaps reflect our country’s legacy distaste for our role in resolving international disputes. But I am somewhat doubtful that, in the majority, the American people have become dyed-in-the-wool neo-isos.

Clearly President Obama’s previous more belligerent stances in Afghanistan and Libya may have been … as former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates suggested in his recent book … merely for political purposes.  But realizing that these blunted excursions onto the world’s battlefields brought him little leadership purchase or respect from those world political A-listers whose adoration he craves, I believe that our "leader of the free world" has now opted for the new pre-qualifier -- “former.”

Into this vacuum created by this floundering disinterest on the United States’ part has stepped the wanna-be despots of the world … Russia, China, North Korea, Iran and Venezuela.  They see their opportunity and are seizing it … and we have, I am afraid, just begun to see the mischief that they can create for the free-world. This expansionist muscle-flexing on their parts is likely to last for decades.

If free Europe and Japan do not step up to counter this power eschewing on the United States’ part, I’m afraid that the map of the world may need considerable revisions before our fearless leader leaves office in 2017.  Then, the rebuilding of American hegemony will not occur overnight … if our next President can accomplish it  … or even if he/she so chooses.

For the strategic high ground, once surrendered, is very costly to retake. And it is very doubtful whether China or others would front us the funds for such an effort ... or, if not, whether our welfare state could be pared back enough in order to pay for our return to a position of military dominance.

Yes, Obama has clearly fulfilled his campaign promise “to fundamentally change America.”  However, I believe that our voters might have been better off to have asked for a few more specifics.

Pearly Gates

I have had mixed feeling about Obama’s former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates … see: Swinging Gates.  However now that Gates has unloaded on President Obama, former Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, and VP, Joe Biden, Gates has suddenly risen in my estimation.  (“The enemy of your enemy is your friend.”)

Now Gates has written a soon-to-be-published book, portions of which have been leaked to Bob Woodward in the Washington Post ... and it does not sugar-coat his feelings toward these three administration hacks.  Viz: Obama is two-faced, a very poor manager, and willing to sacrifice American lives in Afghanistan to no real purpose.  Biden is anti-military and has been, over the years, consistently wrong on all foreign policy issues.  And Hillary Clinton’s motivating factor has been how something might play politically … independent of the true merits of each situation.

Gates even takes a deserved dump on Congress. 

When this book, “Duty.” comes out next week,  I look forward to more of such relishing revelations.  However, I do think that Bob's Gates and Woodward will receive even fewer invites to inside-Washington social elbow-rubbings than they are getting today ... but they should get a gold star on St. Peter's ledger.

Afterward: See also: Wall Street Journal Article.

Swinging Gates

I have held Robert Gates to be one of President Obama's better Secretarial appointments. He was a Bush holdover who had done yeoman service under our previous President. He had overseen the successful Surge Strategy in Iraq and he seemed to be a straight shooter when it came to his congressional testimony over the Defense Department's budget appropriations. He often suggested the scrapping of wasteful defense systems that were nothing more than Congressional pork. But over the last week my approbation for Gates is rapidly turning to aversion.

Firstly, Gates shaded the facts surrounding Obama's decision to cut the legs out from under Poland and the Czech Republic over our commitment to install a missile defense shield on their territory. Gates's biggest fib was that Iran did not have a credible long-range missile capability. He conveniently overlooked the fact that Iran sent a satellite into space this past winter ... see Iran Space Shot. If Iran can boost a satellite into space, it can surely send an equivalent payload anywhere in the world.

Secondly, Gates is now rationalizing Obama's decision not to decide on whether to send more troops to Afghanistan. If General McChrystal says he needs 40,000 more troops, Obama should either supply them or shut down the Afghan mission altogether. Obama's excuse for shushing McChrystal is that he wants to re-think his Afghan strategy (which he claimed he had decided last March). Obama's vacillating on this strategy in Afghanistan, after nine months in office, is, to me, unforgivable. We have service people losing their lives in this country with the potential that these sacrifices might well be in vain.

Step up Mr. Gates ... and encourage your boss to do his job one.