FOD 2015.06.01

We've survived six years of that SCoaMF in the Oval Office. Thank God for small favors.

However, it looks like the next two will be the most dangerous yet. On the home front, his domestic initiatives consist of using the regulatory and administrative powers of the presidency to make end-runs around the Constitution. Examples abound, from his action on immigration to his DOJ's war on local police to the EPA's draconian rules on coal plants, ground water, and ethanol mandates.

All that is bad enough. But to make matters worse, barry's foreign policy is a shambles rife with potentially deadly consequences. In fact, one might say he has gone from bad to wuss.

As the days of the Obama presidency dwindle down, bad actors everywhere are in a rush to grab what they can. After all, they are not likely ever again to get such a weak president as Barack Obama, and they know it.

The latest aggression comes from China, with reports that Beijing has authorized its military to project air and sea power farther afield and to use it for offense as well as defense. A Communist Party newspaper warned that “a US-China war is inevitable in the South China Sea” if America contests China’s expansion.

The move fits a worldwide pattern. From the Islamic State to Russia to Iran, America’s adversaries are making a calculated decision. They know Obama will, at most, talk a tough game but in the end won’t do much else.

They also realize that time is running out on their chance to act without consequences. With the raft of foreign-policy failures of the last six years a major issue in the presidential campaign, Obama’s successor is almost certain to be a more forceful leader on the international stage.

But even then, territorial gains locked in now are not likely to be challenged under a new administration. No new president wants to waste political capital and time refighting inherited battles, especially if they are seen as lost causes.

That reality alarms many analysts and military intelligence officials. Maps are being redrawn and borders erased or moved in Europe, the Mideast and Africa. Lethal weaponry is spreading, ethnic and religious cleansing is happening in numerous places, and waves of immigrants are washing ashore in places that can’t handle the volume.

More:

In 2014, he (obama) committed American power to the defense of the Senkaku Islands, a chain administered by Japan but challenged by China. In a tour of Eastern Europe last year, he assured Estonians that NATO's commitment to their small country's security was "unbreakable," "unwavering" and "eternal."  The U.S.-Israel bond? Also unbreakable.

But with Obama, sometimes the rhetoric doesn't match the reality. For example, after withdrawing all U.S. combat troops from Iraq, he insisted many times that he was committed Iraq's security. Yet it was not until the Islamic State had taken over Iraq's second-largest city, Mosul, that Obama began his air war against the terrorists.

To compound matters, it's not really much of an air war (an average of 14 strikes per day - really?). Super-restrictive rules of engagement and micromanagement has led to minimal damage to the enemy and frustrated U.S. pilots.

“I Had Groups of ISIS Fighters in My Sights, but Couldn’t Get Clearance to Engage.”

This isn’t really news. It’s just a reminder that the air strikes on ISIS are being run in the same disastrous fashion as those in Afghanistan. And it didn’t begin with Obama. Lest we forget, on the day before 9/11, Bill Clinton was boasting that he had let Osama bin Laden go to avoid collateral damage.

Obama Inc. talks about how the Iraqis don’t want to fight. It neglects to mention that it isn’t letting the military fight.

Back to the list of barry's failures:

In Syria, after the dictator Bashar al-Assad was confirmed to have used chemical weapons -- crossing Obama's "red line" -- the White House backed down, settling for a Russian-backed deal to remove Syria's stockpiles.

When Russia destabilized Ukraine in 2014 with its badly disguised special-operation forces in Crimea, Obama did not seek to enforce the 1994 Budapest Memorandum. That agreement had committed Russia, the U.K. and the U.S. to safeguard Ukraine's territorial integrity...

And of course, he's sitting back twiddling his thumbs while Iran proceeds unchecked towards nuclear weapons.

That would be the deadliest consequence of them all...