(Military Times) Op-Ed: Failure to Launch

[unhappycamper]

Failure to Launch
(By convicted felon) Oliver North | February 12, 2009

From the day that Barack Obama wrested the presidential nomination from Hillary Rodham Clinton, his campaign became, according to those who were running it, "inevitable." Even before winning the election, he began assembling a much-vaunted "Team of Rivals" to guide U.S. foreign and domestic policy. Though his running mate, then-Senator Joe Biden predicted that "It will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama," and warned that it would be "an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy," we were assured that the Obama administration would be ready on "Day One." Apparently, that's not the case.

In the days since the most expensive Inaugural in history, the "Rivals" have delivered a performance more akin to that of venal, self-serving, steroid-popping Major League Baseball players. Their promise to "Focus Like a Laser" on the economy has produced "Stimulus legislation" that even Senator Charles Schumer describes as "Porky." The "bank bailout" briefing proffered this week by tax-dodging Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner was so confusing and short on details that the stock market tanked – again. That's only what the so-called mainstream media deemed worthy of coverage or comment.

Few of the potentates of the press have even bothered to report on the national security set-backs and missed opportunities that the "Ready On Day One" crowd has already delivered. Unfortunately for the new administration, few of these reversals can be blamed on their predecessors.

Since becoming president, Mr. Obama has repeatedly pledged a "new era of cooperation" with the rest of the world. Presumably this means that the U.S. isn't going to play the part of "superpower" any more. It now appears that there are those who aim to test his sincerity – and do so in ways that are not at all in our national interests.

Last week, Pakistan – which Mr. Obama offered to bomb during his campaign – responded to the new "kinder and gentler" overtures from Washington by releasing from detention, the world's most notorious nuclear proliferator, Dr. A.Q. Khan. After masterminding Islamabad's nuclear weapons program, Dr. Khan used his "network" to help Libya, North Korea and Iran acquire nuclear weapons technology and components. He's been under "house arrest" since 2004 when Bush administration WMD sleuths and quiet diplomacy convinced Muammar Ghadaffi to reveal his supplier. That was then and this is now. Just to make sure we – and the U.N.'s toothless International Atomic Energy Agency – got the message, the Pakistanis made it clear that Dr. Khan is now "free to travel" and resume his "research."


Rest of article at: http://www.military.com/opinion/0,15202,184924,00.html?wh=news