Muddle

Victor Davis Hanson notes that

Mr. Netanyahu received a standing ovation for stating the obvious. Iran is currently the greatest global sponsor of terrorism. Tehran now has de facto control over four Middle East nations: Iraq, Lebanon, Syria and Yemen. Iran has serially ignored all past U.S. deadlines to stop nuclear enrichment. It habitually misled United Nations inspectors. It threatens to spark a nuclear arms race in the Middle East.

...Amid such moral confusion, who is the American enemy and who is the ally? Mr. Netanyahu has received more administration invective than has Iran — as if a Western democratic nation, not the specter of a nuclear Iran, was the source of growing tensions.

The common theme in all these examples is that somehow 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 gross domestic product, as the Army, Navy and Air Force shrink to near-record 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 Mr. 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.

Rerad more here.