Reset: Jimmy Carter redux

As Glenn Reynolds has repeatedly suggested, the best-case scenario for President Obama's foreign policy now appears to be a repeat of the Jimmy Carter era.

Seth Leibsohn, at NR's The Corner, lays out the current evidence.

Not pretty.

The "community organizer's" naivete' is showing. As Leibsohn summarizes:

This is not only sad, it is dangerous. A weak and disrespected America is bad for America, sends the wrong message to enemies (including terrorists), hurts dissident movements abroad, and — as a political matter, again — reminds us nothing so much as it does of the years of Jimmy Carter, which it took even more years to overcome.

Not a very good first year for America, or the world, under a new leadership that promised a new respect, a new start, and a new way of doing business. It's new alright — it just isn't any good.

So much for "smart diplomacy."

Medicalizing mass murder

Charles Krauthammer: "Medicalizing mass murder not only exonerates. It turns the murderer into a victim, indeed a sympathetic one. After all, secondary PTSD, for those who believe in it (you won't find it in DSM-IV-TR, psychiatry's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual), is known as "compassion fatigue." The poor man -- pushed over the edge by an excess of sensitivity.

"Have we totally lost our moral bearings? Nidal Hasan (allegedly) cold-bloodedly killed 13 innocent people. His business card had his name, his profession, his medical degrees and his occupational identity. U.S. Army? No. 'SoA' -- Soldier of Allah. In such cases, political correctness is not just an abomination. It's a danger, clear and present."

Read the whole thing.

Dithering is strength

Candidate Obama argued Afghanistan was the "right war" (although, remarkably, the by-conventional-wisdom-inept-and-incompetent-president Bush was apparently able to win the "wrong" war -- in Iraq; proof-positive is it's no longer in the news).

But the process of making a decision on his commanding general's 30 August 09 recommendation has, according to an AP story, "stiffened Obama’s resolve to seek information and options beyond military planning, officials said, though a substantial troop increase is still likely."

Hmm. Stiffened his resolve -- to dither.

Read Jules Crittenden's whole piece, "Advance to the rear".

As Glenn Reynolds says, "WAR IS PEACE, FREEDOM IS SLAVERY, DITHERING IS STRENGTH."

Please also read "The failure to plan is the plan."

Hasan's treason

Austin Bay: "One word aptly describes Ft. Hood mass murderer Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan: traitor.

"Traitor is a tough word. It doesn't smudge and squish. 'Traitor' draws a hard line, one that sharply divides essential life-determining values and marks a defining personal choice between the profound and the profane."

Read the whole thing.

Political correctness to blame in Ft Hood terrorist attack

On Veteran's Day, it's a sad state of affairs in the modern U.S. Army.

Here's what Army Chief of Staff, Gen. George Casey, Jr., said on ABC Sunday about the Ft Hood terrorist attack by Maj Nadal Malik Hasan:

"This terrible event would be an even greater tragedy if our diversity becomes a casualty."

Wow. "Diversity" trumps 13 fatalities and 30 wounded?!

That settles it.

The great tragedy is that political correctness at the highest levels of the Army is apparently responsible for creating the environment for this terrorist act in the first place.

Multiple eyewitnesses said Hasan shouted "Allahu Akbar" before opening fire. He reportedly fired 100 rounds. This was a premeditated terrorist act.

And the warning signs had been there for all to see.

How ironic that the top leaders of our own Army so misunderstand the mortal enemy the Army has been directly engaging for the past 8 years.

It has been said that truth is the first casualty of war. In the current fog of political correctness, many seem unwilling or incapable of facing the awful, obvious truth.

See WSJ opinion piece by Dorothy Rabinowitz: "Dr Phil and the Fort Hood Killer: His terrorist motive is obvious to everyone but the press and the Army brass."

UPDATE: "Investigators would have been 'crucified' over First Amendment rights if they had launched a full-scale probe into e-mails Fort Hood massacre suspect Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan allegedly sent to a radical imam, a government investigator told Fox News." Interesting choice of words. Read the whole thing here.

"Angry Muslim" stereotype has another poster child

Muslim.

Name: Nidal Malik Hasan.

Shouted "Allahu Akhbar!" ("God is great!")

Then murdered 13 and wounded 30 at Fort Hood yesterday.

Familiar pattern.

Nagging question: Why?

UPDATE: More here and here.