A less than enamored Sarkozy, acknowledged that Obama has a “subtle mind” and is “very intelligent, very charismatic.” That may explain the reason he gets away with repeatedly denigrating America under the guise of “self criticism” and Bush “bashing” when similar sentiments discredited his less subtle mentor, Jeremiah Wright. For Obama, like Rev. Wright (though without religious justification), his individual interpretation of global (if not cosmic) “fairness” first and the country second. According to his notion of “fairness,” the US has been “unfairly” rich and powerful and he has been elected to “change” her by clipping her wings. Pretending that he is only ameliorating the excesses of the “Bush administration” enables him to America strategically and economically weaker and meeker with less damage to his popularity than could have been expected.
Note the relative equanimity with which his America bashing foreign trips, his economic kowtowing to China (despite record decline of US manufacturing caused in part by the dollar strength) or his undermining the intelligence agencies in charge of protecting the homeland from foreign terrorists are received. Even pundits, like Peggy Noonan who could be expected to be more critical is ready to go along. She confines her subject to the American life style, but I believe the sentiment expressed encompasses America’s position in the world. She writes:
A friend, noting what has and will continue to happen with car sales, said America will look like Havana—old cars and faded grandeur. It won’t. It will look like 1970, only without the bell-bottoms and excessive hirsuteness. More families will have to live together. More people will drink more regularly. Secret smoking will make a comeback as part of a return to simple pleasures. People will slow down. Mainstream religion will come back. Walker Percy again: Bland affluence breeds fundamentalism. Bland affluence is over.
Noonan seems to hope that a weaker, meeker America will not only pose less of a target to her enemies, but be a more virtuous America. I doubt it. Still,it seems that Americans may just be browbeaten enough to opt for another bout of strategic isolationism and economic decline. An Obama led America is a shrugging Atlas. For make no mistake, constant references to the international community are nothing more than excuses for inaction. The current rogue states of Iran, North Korea or Sudan have nothing more to fear from the UN than Italy and Germany had to fear from the League of Nations and they know it.
The growing American weakness is getting more tempting with every “anti-Bush” action taken by the Obama administration and Chindia is not yet ready to take over it’s role as the global policeman. In other words, God save us, we are in for a period of global anarchy. Those who wished for a more circumspect America, may just rue the day they got their wish especially if matters get out of hands before the natural American “can do” spirit reasserts itself.
