Israel Matzav

America: The weak horse by choice

Paul Mirengoff does a great job of summarizing why America today is viewed with contempt by its enemies and pity by its friends. It's because under Obama, the US has chosen to be a weak horse.

Since his emergence as a national figure, Obama has fretted about America's lack of popularity in the world. It does not seem to have occurred to him that, though being disliked may be unpleasant, the most serious trouble begins when a nation is viewed with contempt by its enemies and with pity by its friends.

Or perhaps Obama cannot conceive that a nation he's in charge of might be viewed with contempt or pity. But if he were able to reflect, free from the constraints of his ego, his education, and his ideology, on events in Afghanistan, Iran, Turkey, and Russia, the perception would strike him as far less implausible. How else can one perceive a nation that elects to be the weak horse?

Read it all.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 8:19 AM