Monday, August 22, 2011

The art of wearing egg on one's face

Back in April, conservative know-it-all Charles Krauthammer derisively labeled Obama's Libya stratagem as naive in extremis. Without so much as a by your leave, he promptly dismissed it with a rhetorical wave of the hand: "To be precise, leading from behind is a style, not a doctrine. ... And it surely is an accurate description, from President Obama’s shocking passivity during Iran’s 2009 Green Revolution to his dithering on Libya, acting at the very last moment, then handing off to a bickering coalition, yielding the current bloody stalemate. It’s been a foreign policy of hesitation, delay and indecision, marked by plaintive appeals to the (fictional) 'international community' to do what only America can. ... Obama is deliberately diminishing American presence, standing and leadership in the world ... Obama thinks anti-Americanism is a verdict on America’s fitness for leadership. I would suggest that 'leading from behind' is a verdict on Obama’s fitness for leadership." I would suggest that you're right, Chuck. The verdict is in. Guess what? Obama walks. And his plan is working. (See current Libyan regime collapse.) Stick that in your ruffled ascot, sir.

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