An Unteachable President
For Obama, it isn’t the man in the arena who counts. It’s the speaker on the stage.
By Bret Stephens
Barack Obama told the U.N.’s General Assembly on Monday he’s concerned that “dangerous currents risk pulling us back into a darker, more disordered world.” It’s nice of the president to notice, just don’t expect him to do much about it.
Recall that it wasn’t long ago that Mr. Obama took a sunnier view of world affairs. The tide of war was receding. Al Qaeda was on a path to defeat. ISIS was “a jayvee team” in “Lakers uniforms.” Iraq was an Obama administration success story. Bashar Assad’s days were numbered. The Arab Spring was a rejoinder to, rather than an opportunity for, Islamist violence. The intervention in Libya was vindication for the “lead from behind” approach to intervention. The reset with Russia was a success, a position he maintained as late as September 2013. In Latin America, the “trend lines are good.”
“Overall,” as he told Tom Friedman in August 2014—shortly after ISIS had seized control of Mosul and as Vladimir Putin was muscling his way into eastern Ukraine—“I think there’s still cause for optimism.”
It’s a remarkable record of prediction. One hundred percent wrong. The professor president who loves to talk about teachable moments is himself unteachable.
Our President has said more than once that Putin, Assad, and the Ayatollah “are on the wrong side of history.” It’s a handy phrase, loosely translated as, “You’re going to lose eventually, so why don’t you give up now?” That is his foreign policy – wait and read a history book in 100 years. Everything will be OK!
As moronic as that phrase may be, it is sadder still that it is drawn Marxist philosophy. Marx popularized the idea that opposition to the inevitability of socialism was anti-intellectual and anti-scientific. The progression of history is scientifically knowable, quoth the Marxists, and so we need not listen to those who object to our program. Of course, Obama was raised and tutored by Marxists. So why should I be surprised!
And thanks to HP for sending this to me.
Roy Filly
The Rugged Individualist 