2009: The Year of Living Fecklessly

[toomuchtime_]

On Tuesday, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad did not just reject President Obama's latest feckless floating nuclear deadline. He spat on it, declaring that Iran "will continue resisting" until the U.S. has gotten rid of its 8,000 nuclear warheads.

So ends 2009, the year of "engagement," of the extended hand, of the gratuitous apology -- and of spinning centrifuges, two-stage rockets and a secret enrichment facility that brought Iran materially closer to becoming a nuclear power.

We lost a year. But it was not just any year. It was a year of spectacularly squandered opportunity. In Iran, it was a year of revolution, beginning with a contested election and culminating this week in huge demonstrations mourning the death of the dissident Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri -- and demanding no longer a recount of the stolen election but the overthrow of the clerical dictatorship.

Obama responded by distancing himself from this new birth of freedom. First, scandalous silence. Then, a few grudging words. Then relentless engagement with the murderous regime. With offer after offer, gesture after gesture -- to not Iran, but the "Islamic Republic of Iran," as Obama ever so respectfully called these clerical fascists -- the U.S. conferred legitimacy on a regime desperate to regain it.

Why is this so important? Because revolutions succeed at that singular moment, that imperceptible historical inflection, when the people, and particularly those in power, realize that the regime has lost the mandate of heaven. With this weakening dictatorship desperate for affirmation, why is the U.S. repeatedly offering just such affirmation?

Apart from ostracizing and delegitimizing these gangsters, we should be encouraging and reinforcing the demonstrators. This is no trivial matter. When pursued, beaten, arrested and imprisoned, dissidents can easily succumb to feelings of despair and isolation. Natan Sharansky testifies to the electric effect Ronald Reagan's Evil Empire speech had on lifting spirits in the Gulag. The news was spread cell to cell in code tapped on the walls. They knew they weren't alone, that America was committed to their cause.

Yet so aloof has Obama been that on Hate America Day (Nov. 4, the anniversary of the seizure of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran), pro-American counter-demonstrators chanted "Obama, Obama, you are either with us or with them," i.e., their oppressors.

Such cool indifference is more than a betrayal of our values. It's a strategic blunder of the first order.

RealClearPolitics - 2009: The Year of Living Fecklessly

 

[rightwinger]

Feckless??

 

[nodoginnafight]

Just another case of Krauthammer trying to pretend he's intelligent by using words he doesn't understand. What a complete idiot.

William F. Buckley just rolled over in his grave

 

[rightwinger]

When is the last time you feckled?

 

[Lumpy 1]

When is the last time you feckled?

I believe feckless is a Democrat thing, like most things they do, they they don't understand it. Now with Obama their rather heck less and reckless which results in feckless.

 

[LibocalypseNow]

The "Blame America First" Leftists are always wrong on these sorts of issues. They approach these issues from that warped "Blame America First" perspective so they can't possibly ever get these things right. Bowing and groveling simply isn't enough in the end. In fact that approach can be quite tragic. One thing i've learned from the "Blame America First" Leftists over the years is that every thing is all America's fault when a Republican is President and it's only slightly less America's fault when one of their own is in the White House. So right now we're in their "It's still all America's fault but just not as much now that one of our own is President" phase. How can you make any correct decisions when you approach these issues from such a bizarre perspective? The answer is that they don't make the correct decisions. Thanks for your great post toomuchtime.