Is Fisher an Anagram For Foolish?

Ever hear of Max Fisher?  He has written for the NY Times, The Washington Post and Vox.  He's someone that is in the inner circle of the mainstream media.  His topic is normally international relations.  And yet here is a tweet he sent today

 

Every pres has this arc:

1. Let’s get tough on China!

2. Oh, we need help on DPRK [North Korea]

3. Oh, they cant fix it either

4. Let’s manage status quo!

 

It's amazing!  Here's a reporter who supposedly knows what is going on saying something this idiotic.

 

Let's start with his first point, getting tough on China.  Do you remember when president Obama got tough on China?  It never happened.  There is nothing that Obama did that China would have even noticed and interpreted as "getting tough".  And how about George W. Bush?  Did he get tough on China?  Nope.  In fact, who is the last president to get tough on China?

 

Then there's point 2, needing help from China to deal with North Korea.  Every president from Clinton forward has certainly sought China's help in this regard.  On this point, Fisher is correct.

 

How about point 3, China can't fix things with North Korea.  That's completely unknown.  When Clinton, Bush and Obama sought Chinese help, they got none.  It's not that China expressly said no, but rather that the Chinese did nothing.  This time, with President Trump, however, the Chinese are taking action.  They cut off the coal exports from North Korea to China, thereby eliminating about half of all North Korean exports.  They also threatened to stop oil deliveries to the North Korean, something that would likely topple the government of Kim Jung Un.  On top of this, the Chinese have moved close to 200,000 troops to the area near their border with North Korea.  The Chinese are making clear to the NKs that if there is chaos in that country, China will not accept refugees over the border into China.

 

Point 4, managing the status quo is also not something that Obama did.  He chose to ignore the truth and just kick the can down the road.  Obviously for Trump, it is too soon to know how things will turn out.

 

So here we have a mainstream media journalist who writes about foreign affairs but who has no idea what has actually happened on a very important issue in that area for the last twenty years.  Sad!