In the first three years of President Obama’s administration, there were scandals that amounted to little more than hiccups and fodder to fill cable news programming. The American people took little notice.

President Obama’s first critical scandal occurred on Sept. 11 2012 when Islamic militants attacked two American compounds in Benghazi, Libya, and killed the U.S. Ambassador and three other Americans. Security preparations prior and the first response after from Washington were muddled.

Was it a spontaneous demonstration caused by a movie or a planned attack? President Obama spoke in front of the United Nations weeks later that a movie might be responsible.

Administration obfuscation worked. President Obama was reelected six weeks later. Months later, after increasing evidence pointed to a planned attack, Hillary Clinton asked, “What difference does it make?” The only effect of the scandal, which continues to this day, was to widen the rift between Republicans and Democrats.

In late 2013, however, the rollout of the Obamacare web site was a disaster. Even Democrats acknowledged that but promised that the defects would be corrected and that Americans would like it more in the future. Website defects were corrected eventually, but Americans wondered how Obama’s biggest domestic policy issue could be so badly implemented. The popularity of Obamacare has not increased since and most Americans still don’t like it.

Finally Americans on both sides of the political spectrum began to wonder whether President Obama knew what he was doing.

In 2014, the foreign policy of the United States has suffered one defeat after another. In January, President Obama foolishly spoke about “red lines” in Syria and did nothing when Bashar al-Assad crossed those “red lines” by using chemical weapons. Then Russia occupied Crimea. He could have provided Ukraine with weapons and training. He could have begun talks with Ukraine about joining NATO. The President took no action beyond promising military rations. I’ll bet Vladimir Putin was impressed by that!

Then the murderous ISIS routed the Iraqi army and pushed to the suburbs of Baghdad. Like all the other crises, Obama was surprised by this development. Now we know that the intelligence agencies were warning the president about ISIS since at least last year.

Meanwhile, Obama and John Kerry stumbled through the Gaza fighting between Israel and Hamas. Now we have alienated all sides, and our policy is essentially irrelevant.

The United States worked to get an extension to nuclear negotiations for Iran. All this time, Iran is working to develop an atomic bomb and delivery system. It appears certain that we will wake up one day soon to a nuclear Iran.

In Syria, ISIS chopped the heads off of two Americans and President Obama says we don’t have a strategy and we shouldn’t get the cart before the horse. Is he serious, or did his teleprompter break down and he just “winged it?” Ten minutes after speaking somberly about one of the gruesome executions on TV, he resumed his golf game. Now even prominent Democrats like Senator Diane Feinstein question Obama’s conduct of foreign policy.

This spring and summer, Americans are shaking their heads about Barack Obama. Does he know what he’s doing? Is he even interested in protecting America? What issues animate him? He seems more interested in Martha’s Vineyard and golf than events in the Middle East. One explanation is that he possesses the skills and experience of a community organizer and that’s what really interests him.

 

Michael Waldron is a retired lieutenant colonel, U.S. Army, who was born and raised in Niles. He previously served on the Niles Community School Board of Education. He can be reached at ml.waldron@sbcglobal.net.