Victor Davis Hanson devotes his latest National Review Online column to a new twist on the president’s theme of the “audacity of hope.”
… [S]omehow the United States (or its allies) is portrayed as being culpable for current problems — not the autocratic, theocratic thugs who invade their neighbors, threaten to obliterate democracies, and see terror as a legitimate tool of state policy.
The Obama administration’s paralysis is not just rhetorical. For the first time since 2001, defense spending will dip below 4 percent of GDP, as the Army, Navy, and Air Force shrink to near–record-low postwar levels.
The astronomical $18 trillion in national debt was not the only cause of military cutbacks. America’s enemies understood that even massive defense cuts — and tax hikes — still did not offset vast increases in social spending, resulting in annual deficits that still run over $500 billion.
The withdrawal from the world stage is associated not just with a massive borrowing and spending spree at home, but also with administration penance for supposed past self-righteousness and sins abroad — as Obama cites the gamut from the Crusades, the Inquisition, slavery, and Jim Crow to the more recent Afghanistan and Iraq wars, Guantanamo Bay, and the War on Terror.
Unfortunately, throughout history, leaders who have appeared weary and sounded apologetic have invited chaos. And chaos encourages war — all the more so when weakness appears so audacious.
