Part One: The Paper Tiger Surrenders in Pieces

Intimations of Destiny Part One: The Paper Tiger Surrenders in Pieces

I had the pleasure of visiting with a member of the newest generation last weekend, not with teenagers who, whether they like it or not, are really part of the present generation, but with my 2 year old grandson.

With all the upheaval going on in Washington where Obama is so obsessed with radical change for its own sake and throughout the planet where revolutionary and terrorist forces are in play to complement Obama’s radicalism in their own land and in their own ways, his future isn’t promising.

Other movements are also disquieting for him and his generation.

In a number of quarters we are witnessing efforts to unseat the formerly almighty dollar as the world’s preeminent currency of exchange. If successful as they very well may be, those efforts may not alter Americans’ day-to-day life at first but would be a clear signal that the “American Era,” our dominance over world affairs, is over.

The long-term effects of what lay ahead, perhaps the China Era, as many believe, may be conjectural but in no way suggest good tidings for the United States and its approximately 305 million citizens, or for my kids and grandkids.

More imminent than Sino supremacy over the planet and its peoples and the resultant effects on our country is the matter of wars we are about to lose, lose for the same reasons we lost the last two–the lack of a resolve to win.

One of those current wars, the most consequential by far, is the War on Terror which has unilterally been suspended by the Obama administration due to a lack of interest in favor of his naive hands across the seas policies.

As with any war, if the opponent concurred in the suspension of hostilities, we would be in a state of truce. If not, as is the case with Islamic terrorists, we would be, and are, in a seriously disadvantaged and dangerous position.

Our president is so enamored of himself that he seems to believe that if he extends his, America’s, open hand in friendship and conciliation, Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will unclench his smarmy fist. Mahmoud has already and repeatedly shown that Iran’s fist is still very much clenched, save that one middle finger salute in our direction.

I have no idea what Obama really expects from his make-nice policies toward America’s unrepentant enemies. However, you could sooner anticipate the lamb lying down with the lion at night and believing it will be grazing when the sun rises than expect Iran in 2009 to extend an unclenched fist.

It matters not that the American hand has been rebuffed and bitten by the Persian lion. Hope springs eternal for this ass of a president with whom we are burdened and who almost makes one yearn for a return of the most incompetent leader in our history, bumbling Jimmy Carter.

Barack Obama is a man-in-waiting for that mantle of most grossly, naively incompetent commander-in-chief to be conferred on him. Based on his first six months, he is clearly on target.

It won’t be conferred as a result of China’s machinations and its economic boom which will take a while. It will be rightfully awarded when Obama retreats under fire and loses the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, probably within the next two years or less but definitely after the 2010 congressional elections.

Obama will slog through at least until December, 2010 after which he can with relative safety run, hide, and surrender and keep the baying hounds of the Left at bay and stop their sniping at his heels, all the while pretending he wanted to win in the first place.

The irony is that he, we, will lose those wars not because of Obamian initiatives and lack thereof but because he will mindlessly pursue the same initiatives and lack thereof which led to our defeats in Korea and Viet Nam.

One of America’s greatest generals, Douglas MacArthur,

was eerily prescient of America’s decline and fall as a great power half a century ago when spoke the memorable line that was disregarded and forgotten by our leaders the moment it was uttered.

“In war there is no substitute for victory,” said MacArthur, a truism that speaks for itself yet has been ignored since it was spoken.

Removed from command as Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers by President Truman in 1951 for insubordination, MacArthur technically was fired for refusing to heed the president’s orders. In fact he was dismissed for failure to cease and desist in his attempts to achieve victory in Korea.

(For a concise and scholarly account of the Truman-MacArthur Korean conflict, see http://www.crf-usa.org/bill-of-rights-in-action/bria-17-3-b.html.)

Harry Truman was absolutely correct in overruling MacArthur’s impertinence. It was his right and duty as America’s civilian commander to exert his authority under the Constitution. He was absolutely wrong, however, in disregarding MacArthur’s insights and premonitions.

The consequences: . . .

(Read the rest at http://genelalor.com)