Wimpy Foreign Policy Never Saved Anyone's Day

Barack Obama seems anxious to follow in the footsteps of the last century's most well-known appeasers, Chamberlain and Carter. And if our president were even half as smart as his billing has claimed, then he would know — merely judging from these two — that appeasers never win and their wimpy foreign policy never saved anyone's day. Quite the opposite, in fact.

Remembering that Barack Obama is the guy who sent tingles up the leg of Chris Matthews and whose aura beckoned George Clooney to follow him anywhere is of no comfort when the men our president must impress aren't GQ celebrities, but real men with evil intentions, armies and lots of high-tech weaponry.

Bringing a plate-of-wet-noodles foreign policy to the international bargaining table, when the world is in the sort of dire straights not seen since the 1930s, does not amuse sane people. Several incubating disasters await strong leadership, while our hot-to-trot celebrity president jets over to Copenhagen to flash his pearly whites at the International Olympic Committee on behalf of his chum, Mayor Daley. Any real man would be hard at work in the trenches at the White House.

Back in March, when President Obama first broached the topic of the planned missile-defense shield for Poland and the Czech Republic in a letter to the Russians, they practically laughed in his face. Obama had suggested that he might be willing to scrap the shields if Russia would help deter the Iranians from fulfilling their nuclear ambitions. Medvedev told the press that while he welcomed such "positive signs" coming from the White House, there would be no "haggling" as this would not be "productive." Our wimpy president scrapped the plans anyway, got nothing in return, and even Democrats decried the tomfoolery of it.

I hate to say it but if I were the mother of an active-duty military guy or gal and knew this president was my child's commander in chief, I'd be having nightmares every time I lay my head upon the pillow. It's one scary thing seeing the Hitler-act-alike in Iran test long-range missiles capable of hitting not only Israel, but also our own bases in the Middle East, especially since our defenses are in the hands of a guy so high on his own reflection in a mirror that he can't see past his own nose.

Add to this the knowledge that the president has hammed it up more times on late-night TV in the past year than he has spoken to our general in Afghanistan, and you have one heap of dangerous foreboding.

Meanwhile, we've seen the deadliest year of the Afghan war, and a desperate request for a troop surge lies more than a month untended on the president's desk. Obama dithered; Americans died.

Barack Obama is supposedly the leader of the free world at the moment. As president of the United States, he shoulders the burden of not only the safety of more than 300 million Americans, but also bears the responsibility of leading as the lone superpower on the globe today. Yet he made such a disgraceful, preening, wimpy speech at the United Nations last week that even the French president, Sarkozy, told confidants that Obama is "weak."

Honey, when the president of France — a country known more than a century for the world's wimpiest foreign policy — calls you "weak," then you ought to know it's more than high time to man up a bit.

And when the prime minister of a tiny, underdog nation like Israel, utterly rubs your face in it, then it's really time to take a few fortitude lessons. Now, Benjamin Netanyahu is a man that leaves his enemies cold and comforts the rest of us. This man is a leader in the mold of Churchill, Reagan and Thatcher.

In fact, I must honestly admit that when I heard Netanyahu's speech at the United Nations last week, I truly wished to claim him as my own president. Speaking in the simple language of the stalwart, true-and-bold intellectual, Netanyahu called the proverbial spades for what they were and challenged a corrupt, contemptible, cowardly bunch of reprobates out of the shadows and into the light of truth. He puts our own president to shame. And I just thank the good Lord Almighty that there are a few real men like him left.

Now, President Obama has got himself a whole plateful of disasters brewing — Afghanistan, Iran and North Korea, just for starters. If he doesn't grow a spine pdq, we are all up the creek without our paddles.

My advice to the president is to stop looking in the mirror, giving speeches and going on TV. He should put his teleprompter-blankie in storage. He mustn't give namby-pamby movie stars the time of day. And if he should get an offer of desperately needed cowboy lessons from his predecessor, we taxpayers will gladly foot the bill.

To find out more about Kyle-Anne Shiver and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.

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