Obama, Dummy Laureate, Gives Bizarre, Empty Commencement Speech to West Point

First, some lowlights:

President Barack Obama on Wednesday outlined a foreign policy vision of "might doing right"....

Our military has always had that mission. It is incredible -- and insulting -- to suggest it would constitute a new vision of the military as might in the service of right.

...arguing that modern pragmatism requires both a strong military and the diplomatic tools of alliances and sanctions to exert influence and provide global leadership.

Literally no one has ever suggested anything different in the history of the world, and I mean literally no one. Attila the Hun would also agree that diplomacy, alliances, and punishments are an important part of the Hun Doctrine.

He told graduating cadets at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point that after the nation's "long season of war and divisions about how to move forward," they now would represent America with the duty "not only to protect our country, but to do what is right and just."

Again, this is insulting. Did Obama imagine they had different standing orders before he showed up?

Under fire from the political right for what critics call diminishing U.S. global influence, Obama offered a robust defense of his foreign policy as the pragmatic and most effective expression of America's leadership role in the world.

This is a joke, I'm pretty sure. He couldn't possibly mean this seriously.

"I believe in American exceptionalism with every fiber of my being," he said, referring to a tenet of conservative ideology.

See, I told you. He must be doing a bit.

"But what makes us exceptional is not flouting international norms and the rule of law; it's our willingness to affirm them through our actions," Obama said in arguing that true leadership involves not only having the world's most powerful military, but in doing the right thing.

This from the man who said he might bomb Syria without Congressional authority, and who invaded Libya without Congressional authorization or any kind of normative pretext.

By the way, Obama is apparently still under the delusion that it's 2007. This is his standard 2008 campaign pap.

Children love their woobies.

"America must always lead on the world stage," Obama said, and the military "always will be the backbone of that leadership," but U.S. military action "cannot be the only -- or even primary -- component of our leadership in every instance."

A strawman, of course, as many point out. Only one man in America can be charged as believing that military action is our "only" or "primary" method of exerting force -- John McCain.

And even John McCain doesn't believe in such an extremist, absolutist doctrine.

But Obama, the Beta Loser, can only beat imaginary opponents, so as usual he conjures up imaginary opponents that he can heroically trounce.

In a direct jab at his detractors, the President said those "who suggest that America is in decline, or has seen its global leadership slip away, are either misreading history or engaged in partisan politics."

Or who read the foreign press.

Or who read, period.

...

To George Mitchell, the former Senate leader who served as Obama's Middle East peace envoy, the President "made a persuasive case to the reality that we cannot intervene militarily everywhere."

Headline: Greatest Orator Since Cicero Successfully Refutes That Which Was Never Contended

Another great success for the Emperor Without Any Clue.

Various right-leaning writers attacked Obama's Agent Orange Campaign Against Straw Men on Twitter.

Some of these are seriously funny.

More at the Twitchy link, including various parodies of Obama's favorite formulation ("We must resist the crazy people who say we must do this crazy thing, and also the insane people who say we must do this other insane thing").

The entire speech -- 6,000 words with no thoughts whatsoever -- is here.

Curiously, Obama notes that when a Ukraine city is occupied, the Ukraine looks to America for help and leadership.

And how's that working out for the Ukrainians?

Did anyone read this speech after they wrote it?

posted by Ace at 04:21 PM

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