This White House fable won’t keep Americans safe

Obama’s fabulist national security strategy
By Jed Babbin

To believe and accept any part of President Obama’s new national security strategy requires the willing suspension of disbelief. It’s a statement of bold leadership, in almost Churchillian terms, but it bears no relationship to the president’s actions or the current state of the world.

The “strategy” blueprint, released by the White House on Friday and outlined by national security adviser Susan Rice during a speech at the Brookings Institution, promises we will “lead with strength,” “lead by example,” and “lead with capable partners.” That sort of leadership is nowhere in evidence, and has not been in Mr. Obama’s entire presidency. Allies such as Saudi Arabia have renounced American foreign policy and have gone their own way. Ukraine, which the strategy promises to defend not with arms shipments but with more sanctions, is being gradually conquered by Russian “little green men,” soldiers disguised as insurgents and supported by identified Russian troops.

Apparently stung by criticism of his weak leadership, Mr. Obama establishes a theme promising to “lead with purpose” to secure the United States, our allies and partners. He says the strategy will establish “strong, innovative and growing U.S. economy,” “respect for universal values and “a rules-based international order advanced by U.S. leadership.” There are so many mentions of leadership — praise for it in the present and promises for the future — in contexts where it isn’t exercised — that it’s apparent that the White House has spun a fable around it to avoid the concept.

When you read, “Our military will remain ready to deter and defeat threats to the homeland, including against missile, cyber and terrorist attacks,” you need to recall that last March Army Lt. Gen. Keith Alexander, head of United States Cyber Command, told Congress, “We are finding that we do not have the capacity to do everything we need to accomplish.” When you read that in response to Russian aggression, “we have led an international effort to support the Ukrainian people as they choose their own future,” you need to recall the renewed fighting there. And owing to Mr. Obama’s lack of action to support Ukraine, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande have, in desperation, undertaken their own peace initiative with Russian President Vladimir Putin. They will fail because Mr. Putin knows he can conquer Ukraine regardless of Mr. Obama’s sanctions.

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