American Leadership -- Obama Style

This morning, president Obama told the graduating class of the Air Force Academy in Colorado that "there's a new confindence in our [American] leadership around the world." That set me to wondering where those newly confident people are. Are they in Afghanistan where Obama has set a withdrawal schedule slow enough to guarantee hundreds, if not thousands, of additional American dead and wounded, while at the same time making that schedule quick enough to also guarantee that we will not accomplish the goal of destroying the Taliban? Maybe the newly confident folks are in Syria where nearly 15,000 have died at the hands of the Assad regime while American "leadership" has consisted of a few statements here and there, a few sanctions which do not really affect the Syrians all that much, and not much else. Possibly the newly confident folks are the citizens of the Falkland Islands who have voted by a margin greater than 95% to remain part of Britain only to watch Obama recognize the potential validity of the claim of Argentina to these islands hundreds of miles off the Argentine coast. The newly confident folks might also be in South Korea who saw Obama reach agreement with the North Korean regime to stop nuclear and missile testing only to then see North Korea do a missile test within 6 weeks of that agreement. In diplomatic terms, the actions of North Korea were the equivalent of their peeing on Obama's leg. Maybe the newly confident people are our close allies in Canada who offered their enormous oil reserves for shipment to American refineries via a secure pipeline called the Keystone XL pipeline. That offer would result in the oil being priced at the US rate rather than the higher world price, but our friends in Canada made the offer nevertheless. Of course, president Obama stretched the process out for three years only to ultimately reject the offer due to political considerations. Maybe the newly confident folks are out friends in Israel who watched Obama insist on keeping certain areas of the Holy Land free of all Jews, in a move that seemed more like it happened in the 1930's than in the 21st century.

I am not going to list all the possibilities of those who have this new confidence in American leadership under Obama. I would suggest, however, that Obama probably meant that people around the world think that American diplomacy is actually a confidence game, or as it is usually called a con game. Sadly, the only one who seems to be fooled by it all is Obama himself.