Charles Krauthammer takes Obama to task this week for his naivete, especially with regard to Iran, the U.N. and nukes. Couple that with unfolding story of Obama and his commander in Afghanistan, General McChrystal, and Krauthammer's point couldn't be more clear.It is, however, a point that most of us saw long ago, including Krauthammer. He isn't new to this view of Obama.
As things stand at this point, Obama is (finally) meeting with McChrystal on Air Force One at this moment. What will come of that? We shall see. It seems to me, and I'm no military strategist by any stretch of the imagination, but it just seems common sense to me that McChrystal would be the one to know what the situation is in Afghanistan. For Obama to sit upon high and override his hand picked General seems the height of arrogance to me. But, maybe he has other information that the rest of us don't know.
With regard to Obama grandstanding at the U.N., Krauthammer says this:
Confusing ends and means, the Obama administration strives mightily for shows of allied unity, good feeling, and pious concern about Iran’s nuclear program — whereas the real objective is stopping that program. This feel-good posturing is worse than useless, because all the time spent achieving gestures is precious time granted Iran to finish its race to acquire the bomb. Don’t take it from me. Take it from Sarkozy, who could not conceal his astonishment at Obama’s naïveté. On September 24, Obama ostentatiously presided over the Security Council. With 14 heads of state (or government) at the table, with an American president in the chair for the first time ever, with every news camera in the world trained on the meeting, it would garner unprecedented worldwide attention.
Unknown to the world, Obama had in his pocket explosive revelations about an illegal uranium-enrichment facility that the Iranians had been hiding near Qom. The French and the British were urging him to use this most dramatic of settings to stun the world with the revelation and to call for immediate action.
Obama refused. Not only did he say nothing about it, but, reports Le Monde, Sarkozy was forced to scrap the Qom section of his speech. Obama held the news until a day later — in Pittsburgh. I’ve got nothing against Pittsburgh (site of the G-20 summit), but a stacked-with-world-leaders Security Council chamber, it is not.
Obama knew about the second Iranian nuclear plant and held that information until he could reveal it in Pittsburgh because he didn't want to dilute his message of disarmament. As Krauthammer says, "Sarkozy could hardly contain himself." Sarkozy has been rather outspoken about it all this week, reminding Obama that we live in the real world, not a "virtual" one.
There has always been this fatal flaw of hubris in Obama; he somehow believes he knows better than anyone else without having the experience or credentials to back this up. Confidence is a good thing, but any examination of history will show you that pride goes before the fall.
I just hope he doesn't take the rest of us with him when he falls.
