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"You're still a superpower,"
h/t Instapundit
a top diplomat from one of America's most dependable Middle Eastern allies said to me in July of this year, "but you no longer know how to act like one."

He was reflecting on America's position in the world almost halfway into President Barack Obama's second term. Fresh in his mind was the extraordinary string of errors (schizophrenic Egypt policy, bipolar Syria policy), missteps (zero Libya post-intervention strategy, alienation of allies in the Middle East and elsewhere), scandals (spying on Americans, spying on friends), halfway measures (pinprick sanctions against Russia, lecture series to Central Americans on the border crisis), unfulfilled promises (Cairo speech, pivot to Asia), and outright policy failures (the double-down then get-out approach in Afghanistan, the shortsighted Iraq exit strategy).
Mr. Rothkopf writes,

"The problem is that in seeking to sidestep the pitfalls that plagued Bush, Obama has inadvertently created his own."

This is how you know Mr. Rothkopf is a true believer: Obama's problems were "inadvertent". I guess "unexpectedly" was already taken.

Mr. Rothkopf also writes,

"And, to be sure, Obama inherited many of his greatest challenges, some of the biggest beyond his control."

So it was always Bush's fault, but today it is beyond Obama's control...

Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2014-09-12
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=399797