By Victor Davis Hanson
Thursday, March 19, 2015
What has gone wrong with the U.S. government in the past
month? Just about everything, from the fundamental to the ridiculous.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the
United States to warn Congress about the dangers of a nuclear Iran. He spoke
without the invitation of an irritated President Obama, who claimed that he did
not even watch the address on television.
Obama declined to even meet with the Israeli prime
minister, announcing that it would have been improper for him to have such a
meeting so close to Netanyahu’s re-election bid.
But if Obama was so concerned about not influencing the
Israeli elections, why, according to some news accounts, is a Senate panel
launching an investigation into whether Obama’s State Department gave grant
money to a nonprofit organization, the OneVoice Movement, that sought to unseat
Netanyahu with the help of several former Obama campaign operatives?
Then, 47 Republican senators signed an unusual letter to
the Iranian theocracy, reminding it that any agreement on Iran’s nuclear
program negotiated with the Obama administration would have to first clear
Congress.
Obama shot back that the senators’ letter was undue
interference that aided the Iranians. Former secretary of state Hillary Clinton
agreed that the senators were either empowering Iranian hardliners or
sabotaging the diplomatic efforts of their own president. Secretary of State
John Kerry concurred.
Nonetheless, the Senate may well pass new sanctions
against Iran, if it feels Obama has been too lax in its negotiations or usurped
senatorial oversight of treaties.
Senator Robert Menendez (D., N.J.) bucked the Obama
administration and expressed doubt about administration concessions to the
Iranians. Other Democrats could join him.
But almost immediately after weighing in on Iran,
Menendez found himself the target of a federal investigation into purported
corruption. And as far as the claim of improper interference in foreign affairs
goes, the Obama administration and British prime minister David Cameron jointly
lobbied U.S. senators not to pass tougher sanctions on Iran.
Meanwhile, the aforementioned Hillary Clinton is bogged
down in another trademark Clinton scandal. Clinton never used a standard
government e-mail account while secretary. And rather than submitting her
actual e-mails to the State Department back in December, Clinton submitted
55,000 printed pages of e-mails — making it much harder for those e-mails to be
searched.
Apparently, Clinton also wished to decide which of her
private-server communications to release to the government — but only when
demanded by congressional investigators and watchdog groups well after her
tenure ended.
Clinton’s implausible press conference last week only
made things worse. She proved unable to explain her unusual behavior and seemed
ignorant about how government e-mail works and is secured.
Abroad, Syria, Iran, and the Islamic State are battling
for what is left of the Syrian-Iraqi borderlands after the United States
abruptly pulled out all its peacekeepers from Iraq. All are enemies of the U.S.
But as they fight each other, the Obama administration is negotiating with Iran
over its efforts against the Islamic State. The administration has also
expressed a willingness to meet with Syrian president Bashar Assad, after not
long ago declaring Assad an illegitimate leader who should step down. Obama had
issued red-line threats to Assad over the gassing of his own people.
Back home, two apparently inebriated Secret Service
agents crashed their government car into a security barrier near the White
House — in the midst of an active bomb investigation. Indeed, the reckless
agents may have crashed right through the crime scene. This is after the Department
of Homeland Security launched an investigation into the culture of the Secret
Service following a 2012 scandal in which a dozen agents hired prostitutes
during an alcohol-fueled night in Colombia.
Meanwhile, in the midst of nightly demonstrations at
Ferguson, Mo., a young demonstrator on parole allegedly shot two police
officers. “Whoever fired those shots shouldn’t detract from the issue,” the
president editorialized.
But trying to gun down a policeman should amount to
something more than a “detraction.”
Obama’s own Department of Justice recently issued a
report indicating that the Ferguson Police Department routinely violates the
rights of black citizens. But the DOJ also found Officer Darren Wilson’s
shooting of a charging Michael Brown justifiable. That shooting was the
incident that began the Ferguson “issue” in the first place.
Was Obama worried about the wounded policemen
“detracting” from the protestors’ “hands up, don’t shoot” allegations, which
Attorney General Eric Holder’s investigators, along with a grand jury, had
already debunked?
All this chaos has taken amid ongoing IRS and VA
investigations, the Supreme Court’s impending decision on the constitutionality
of Obamacare, and Saudi Arabia arranging to buy from South Korea nuclear expertise
to counter Iran.
The common thread in all this chaos?
More than the usual partisanship at home and barbarism
abroad.
No one seems to be in charge at the White House. And that
has terrified America’s supporters and emboldened its enemies — with another
two years to go.
No comments:
Post a Comment