Richard Epstein has a thought on Obama's dithering - Granite Grok

Richard Epstein has a thought on Obama’s dithering

Obama says you are the enemyAnd it all stems from Obama’s worldview and where America fits into it; the problem of ISIS brings it into focus again:

The Obama personal hesitation stems, unfortunately, from reasons unrelated to the military and political issues. Part of his problem is that he cannot bring himself to acknowledge that he was wrong to oppose the Iraqi surge in 2006, and wrong to pull out American troops from Iraq as President. A strong president learns from his past mistakes, but Obama does not.

One reason for his dogged persistence lies in his flawed world view, which deep down, regards the United States (and Israel) as akin to colonial powers, whose actions should always be examined under a presumption of distrust. His ingrained uneasiness with the values of western civilization makes it impossible for him to think and act as the leader of a western nation. Instead, he much prefers to regard himself as a nonpartisan critic and a bystander to world affairs. He has no firm conviction in the rightness of his cause, and hence no confidence in his ability to get others to act as perils mount.

I believe Epstein is right – how can Obama violate his “leading from behind” philosophy concerning ISIS  and keep putting America leastwise when it is now obvious that everyone (and every other country) is looking at him, looking at the US, and waiting for him to lead?  Certainly, if he does not, America will be diminished on the world stage at this time and for some time to come (and based on my Determined Weakness theory of Obama, that is par for the course).  However, he can’t lead – for it would be against everything he believes he stands for.

In this, the Shakespeare quote comes to mind – “to thine own self be true”.  The rub comes is that we expect our President to be true to this Country to which we elected him President.  May this dark time, of unconstitutionality and lawlessness by his Administration, and the fecklessness of his action be remembered for a long, long time.

Along with the Media that allied themselves with him, his distrust of this country and its values, and acted at his cannon fodder.  They, and a lot of other people, enabled this behavior.

 

(H/T: Hoover Institute via Betsy’s Page)

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