This Is What a Lack of American Leadership Looks Like

There's been a few times over the last half century that America has failed in her role of leadership. Every time it happened it was with a Democrat. Think of the leadership they once believed in; FDR defeating Naziism and imperial Japan, Truman dropping the bomb to save the lives of a million and JFK going eyeball to eyeball with Kruschev over Cuba. but then we were, unfortunately stuck with Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.

Carter meant well but was way out of his league. He was an old school Democrat but lacked the steely spine of Truman or FDR. He wasn't the liberals we see today but a paleo-liberal who fully believed in the cause. He was the first American president to not believe America was a force for good in the world and believed we should make amends for all the perceived wrongs we had perpetrated. The Russians sensed weakness and they made huge gains during his (thankfully) only term. The Mideast also sensed his weakness as was made extremely evident when they took Americans hostage in Tehran. His response was feckless in a part of the world where the only thing understood was power. We paid for it in his ineffective and damaging leadership of the military that resulted in death, destruction and embarrassment in the Iranian desert. then we got Reagan and the end of the Soviet Union...

Along came Bill Clinton who faced a different enemy but one in which Carter would understand; militant Islam. They attacked the USS Cole and the embassies in Tanzania and Kenya and we did nothing. Osama bin-Laden said he was at war with America and we sent a couple missiles into an empty tent. We had him dead to rights and he and Sandy Burger wavered. They got bolder with every single attack and it resulted in 9-11.

And now we have Obama. He's a liberal of a completely different ilk. His upbringing was anti-American, anti-war propaganda and he wants nothing less than a complete obliteration of America as it was. He pulled the troops from Iraq without even a thought of the consequences--no soldiers remained to train, execute missions in the best interest of the fledgling democracy and more importantly no deterrent to what group rose out of the ashes. Worse than that, he became completely disinterested in what his actions led to. He ran around touting the fact that bin-Laden was dead and al-Qaeda was on the run. But he didn't listen when his intel folks said that something even worse than al-Qaeda split off from the mother organization. What he labeled the JV team was actually growing into the worst terror organization in the world in the void he left. He threatened Assad but had zero plans on acting if the lines were crossed and emboldened ISIS to not only move into Iraq but take territory numerous Americans died to win.

Obama tried to act tough by ordering an air war that took no risks. He used drones to take out leadership that were quickly replaced but allowed him to say he was "doing something". He left a leadership opening that was essentially an invitation to Russia to join the fight and prop up the guy we pledged to take out. Amazingly, while ISIS was beheading journalists, selling children into sexual slavery and murdering homosexuals and Christians Obama opted to sit on the sidelines and do nothing. Putin knew as soon as Obama didn't act against Assad the first, second and eighth time he crossed the red line, he didn't have the heart to act at all. So he moved in and now is not only protecting the man we threatened but taking out his opposition.

Which leads us to today. Putin has been entering sovereign airspace throughout the world and testing our resolve. From Sweden and Norway to England and the US, he's probed and pricked at us and we did nothing. He started doing it into Turkey and was warned by the Turks but not by us. And now, we have a Russian jet shot down and the pilots shot while parachuting to land. The helo sent to rescue them was then shot down by insurgent groups. Putting myself in Mad Vlad's shoes, I'd be pissed. Not only would I be pissed but I'd be pissed at Turkey--a NATO ally of the US and one we are required by treaty to defend. And as an American, an ally who has been anything but. They would not allow us to attack Iraq from the north during the invasion of Iraq in 1993 and have been flying sorties that are aimed at their enemies not NATO's enemies. Their endgame is to take out the Kurds who are their enemy eternal and our ally.

So now they've attacked Russia in what may or not be a Russian provocation. The Russians can't not respond and we are in the middle. So now we have the Russians fighting the Free Syrian Army, al-Qaeda (Nusra), ISIS, the Chechens, and the myriad other enemies of Assad, whom they are protecting. We have the US fighting ISIS and the Syrian Army whom are loyal to Assad. The Turks are fighting the Russians and the Kurds while pledging they are helping against ISIS and finally we have ISIS fighting the US, Russia, Turks, Iraqi's, Assad and now al-Qaeda while establishing an enormous base of operations.

And all of this is because the US ceded our role as leaders. Did we have to continue fighting in Iraq? No, but we did have to continue to make those in Iraq believe that we would. When we allowed Assad to use chemical weapons and give us the finger while not responding, we opened up the door to what we have today.

The damage done by Obama will take decades to fix.