Obama’s weakening of the nation is deliberate

By Monica Crowley

It amazes me that more than 5 years into Barack Obama’s presidency, otherwise-intelligent people are still wondering who he is, what he believes and why he’s doing what he’s doing. It’s not a mystery. It’s never been a mystery. Although he made a somewhat half-hearted attempt to dress up his leftist extremism when he first ran for president in 2008, his radicalism was apparent to anyone paying the slightest attention.

When Mr. Obama spoke in 2008 of seeking the “fundamental transformation” of the nation, few made the connection between his far-left activist record and what he actually intended to do as president. We now have over 5 years of evidence as to what he meant by that “fundamental transformation.” The chaos and catastrophe are the plan.

Take American foreign policy. A big part of Mr. Obama’s mission is to take America down a notch or two (or 10) internationally: to destroy our superpower status, to turn us into nothing special, just another nation on the United Nations roster. One of the cores of leftist ideology is that America is the root of all evil in the world: the source of grave injustices, genocide, war crimes, theft. Therefore, we should pay a penance. That penance should come in the form of retrenchment abroad and apologies all around. America is sorry for how she acted in the past, and as a result, will not act in the future. Mr. Obama is fundamentally uncomfortable with the use of U.S. military force, certainly with exercising it unilaterally, and has both gutted its budget and made clear that he will not use it barring an exceptional national security emergency.

Our allies got the message and realized early on that they were on their own. Our enemies figured out that they could play this administration to great effect. They’re always getting rewarded with some sort of “negotiation” or “peace process” or simple nonresponse from the United States after committing gross acts of aggression or violence.

The results have been terribly predictable. Israel faces fresh Hamas terrorist aggression. Iran works 24/7 toward acquiring a nuclear weapon. Syrian President Bashar Assad gets sworn in for another seven years as his regime continues to slaughter hundreds of thousands of people. A massive jihadi army claims a new caliphate in parts of Syria and Iraq, wiping out years of American sacrifice in a matter of weeks. Egypt is a chaotic mess. Russia moves to nail the former Soviet Union — or at least Mother Russia — back together while working hand-in-glove with Iran in Iraq, North Korea and Latin America. Poland has its promised missile-defense system yanked away. Ukraine confronts the Russian bear on its border. Crimea gets annexed by Moscow. South Korea bears the brunt of ever more provocative action from North Korea, as North Korean ships probe our western seaboard. Japan seeks greater latitude in expanding its military. Islamists control Libya, where in the aftermath of the U.S.-led overthrow of Moammar Gadhafi, they planned, coordinated and carried out a brutally efficient attack that killed our ambassador and three other brave Americans. China owns ever more of our debt and is becoming more aggressive in the Pacific. Our southern border is overrun by illegal immigrants, drug cartels and possibly terrorist cells, while Mexico continues to detain a U.S. Marine.

Not exactly the “tranquility of the global community” about which White House press secretary Josh Earnest waxed rhapsodic earlier this week. As if there is a “global community.” That only exists in the perverse and delusional minds of the extreme left.

This is all a direct result of an American commander in chief who not only will not act in the face of direct threats to our and our allies’ security, but deliberately orchestrates or ignores the chaos in order to fulfill the broader leftist agenda of slashing our power and our position in the world.

The last time we faced such a dire international situation was when President Carter drove our power and prestige into the ground. It took Ronald Reagan years to restore them. It’s going to take equally strong, unapologetic leadership to bring us back once again. This time, however, it will be an even more difficult job, because unlike Mr. Carter, Mr. Obama has wrecked the U.S. superpower on purpose. And he has two terms to finish the job.

Monica Crowley is online opinion editor at The Washington Times.