Sanity Sentinel

Maxwell Smart of Get Smart?

Comparisons are already being forged between former president Jimmy Carter and current president Barack Obama as worst president in American history, and the practice is quite understandable. That being said, it must be remembered that Jimmy Carter was a genuine fool lacking both experience and guidance which led to his utter ineptitude. The jury is still out on Obama’s “guidance” and his backers, even as his intellect is touted as supreme, despite the mounting evidence to the contrary.

As the debate grows over the wisdom of our interference in Libya – and Obama’s very own authority to impose that sort of meddling – there is also the prospect that the same rebels we endeavor to aid may be members of the same group that attacked us a decade ago. It has even been recently acknowledged by the Libyan “rebel leader” that al Qaeda is active in that countries dispute. We may be fighting alongside our enemy. But don’t despair just yet.

Despite the curious motives of Obama’s illegal action in Libya, and regardless of the bald hypocrisy of the Democrats who defend his actions, there may be a positive outcome in Libya when all is said and done.

Remember back to a decade ago. It was al Qaeda who hijacked our own planes and attacked the World Trade Center in New York, the Pentagon in Washington, and an empty field in Pennsylvania, thanks to Todd Beamer and his fellow passengers. That was September 11th, 2001. On September 18th, a week later, the 107th Congress issued a joint resolution - Public Law 107-40 [S. J. RES. 23] – which stated, in part, “Whereas, the President has authority under the Constitution to take action to deter and prevent acts of international terrorism against the United States.”


In October, we were in Afghanistan hunting al Qaeda and bin Laden, but it was rough work. Trying to find certain individuals in mountainous terrain and determining whether they were shepherds or the enemy was problematic. It was akin to a police academy shooting test where a disproportionate amount of the pop-up targets were pigtailed school girls or grandmas pushing grocery carts with an occasional bad guy springing up.

The lament was that al Qaeda had no country, no flag and no uniforms, making them quite the unconventional adversary. What if they were to have these things, then? What if we inadvertently hand them Libya?

Yes, let them raise their flag, sew their uniforms, and feel like they have achieved a victory of sorts. Let them gather in Libya and chase away the remaining Muslims not interested in the jihad, and once this is complete let them dance.

I would suggest that they also rename the country. Something appropriate. Does anyone know the Arabic translation for Very Large Target?

Searching for Foreign Policy

In the presidential campaign for 2008, we were warned of the danger Sarah Palin posed as a potential vice president. She was painted as a lightweight with no experience who couldn’t be trusted one heartbeat away from leader of the free world. The media went so far as to ridicule her, with Katie Couric asking inane questions in an interview, much of which was left on the cutting room floor.

Tina Fey did such a good job – right down to the stunning resemblance – that the phrase, “I can see Russia from my house!” is generally attributed to Sarah Palin, even though she never said such a thing. It was misconstrued from her answer to a question in another interview with Charles Gibson, who never even attempted to conceal his utter disdain for the woman.

In September of 2008, I wrote about why Sarah Palin was a credible candidate with enough foreign policy experience to handle the job. I quoted from an article that speculated that she may have been more qualified than Joe Biden at the time, based on her tenure as Governor of Alaska and its proximity to Russia, and as Commander in Chief of the Alaska National Guard. I never had any doubt that she was more qualified than Obama, yet a fawning press convinced far too many that I was wrong.

Combined with the aid of an adoring media, Obama brought a slick campaign style and shiny veneer to the battle, wowing crowds who were already receptive to him simply because they thought it was time for a Black president. None of the substance ever mattered in the campaign, and the result was what we see now. And the veneer is proving very thin and vulnerable to corrosion.

The fact of our economic anemia, high unemployment rates, and out-of-control debts and deficits aside, we are starting to see the absolute ineptitude of this man in the arena of foreign policy. Some wonder privately – and others are beginning to do so publicly – whether Obama is actually engaged in the happenings around the globe. I simply maintain that he is completely out of his league.



Libyans Under Seige

As the people of Libya fight their dictatorial leader for freedom, Barack Obama picks his March Madness NCAA brackets on TV, and plays golf on the weekends. As Japan struggles with the horrendous aftermath of an earthquake, a resultant tsunami and several nuclear reactors on the precipice of meltdown, Obama is planning to jet off to Rio, where he will give some meaningless speech about something while his family enjoys the sights.

And it’s getting harder for his allies in the media to cover for him. As Joshua Hersh adroitly points out in an article in The Daily, even Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is on her last nerve with this administration, announcing near the end of her Libya mission that she will not return even if Obama wins a second term. In dealings with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Clinton’s exasperation was clearly evident, repeatedly and cryptically responding to Sarkozy’s urging more action from the White House, “There are difficulties”.

Hillary’s passion for pressure on Gaddafhi was obviously one of those “difficulties”, in that Obama never took them very seriously. In fact, at the Gridiron Club Dinner last week, Obama joked that His Secretary of State’s passion made it difficult for him to sleep “for the past few weeks”, quipping that she was “out there on Pennsylvania Avenue shouting, throwing rocks at the window”.

North Korea defiantly fired ballistic missiles toward our shores, Iran thumbs its nose at our insistence  that they cease attempts to acquire nuclear weapons, leaders of strong allied countries are embarrassed and rebuked by this administration, and China treats us like their little brother. Meanwhile, the saplings of liberty struggle to break the surface of the soil in Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Bahrain, and now Iran, while President Obama dances at the White House.

Yet the same media who fretted over the unlikely prospect of a President Palin seem to not even notice that we currently have an actual President who not only can’t see Russia, but probably doesn’t even know in which direction to look for it. Nor does he care.