Thursday, April 24, 2014

The Warm Fuzzies


Somehow when this country seems to be doing the right thing, I get the warm fuzzies.  That is, I sense that this or that move is going to make things better … be it domestically or internationally. For some reason, the actions of the Obama administration seldom reward me with this cozy feeling. It is more often a forehead-slapping, “Oh no!” … such as with its recent Keystone Pipeline can-kicking. Or, giving up control of the Internet … ouch! Or, deploying snipers in Nevada … cringe! Or, allowing Iran six more months of plutonium production … groan!

Actually our recent moving of U.S. troops into Poland came close to producing some comfort for me … until I heard the number … 150! I sincerely doubt that this small of a military contingent will keep Russia’s Putin up at night … nor stop any designs he might have on Eastern Europe. In fact, this namby-pamby number may well tell him more about Obama’s intentions … or lack thereof … than the act itself.

And I would love to understand what this administration hopes to get out of its current far-east excursion … other than dining on the best sushi in the world. Yes, I hear the words “better trade” and “reassure allies,” but I don’t really feel that this trip can have any consequences other than the “Hillary effect” …  getting on and off an airplane as a pretend pretext to “doing something.” The mere fact that there are virtually no headlines coming out of this trip tells me how vacuous it really is.

And so, dear reader, this country is sleep-walking through one crisis after another without, it seems, any overarching strategy or design. Fuzzy thinking doesn’t tend to give me the warm fuzzies.

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