Steyn on American Credibility

Mark Steyn, as usual, is must-read material.  His last two columns have been about the Obama administration’s flailing around and getting played by Putin on Syria.

“An Accidental War: Perfunctory and ineffectual war-making in Syria is worse than nothing.” (or at Orange County Register)

In the unimprovable formulation of an unnamed official speaking to The Los Angeles Times, the White House is carefully calibrating a military action “just muscular enough not to get mocked.”

That would make a great caption for a Vanity Fair photo shoot of Obama gamboling in the surf at Martha’s Vineyard, but as a military strategy it’s not exactly Alexander the Great or the Duke of Wellington. And it’s trickier than it sounds ….

“American Ineffectualism: Every American ally is cringing with embarrassment at the amateurishness of the last month.” (or at Orange County Register)

With this op-ed, Tsar Vlad is telling Obama: The world knows you haven’t a clue how to play the Great Game or even what it is, but the only parochial solipsistic dweeby game you do know how to play I can kick your butt all over town on, too.

. . . America is in danger of being the first great power to be laughed off the world stage.

I’m tempted to say I wish we had Steyn as president and Obama as the guy who can only comment on the job the other guy is doing, but then, as William F. Buckley almost said, I’d rather have any guy picked at random out of the phone book than the current occupant of the White House.

Not sure whether the old Putin “birthday card” is more or less funny in light of recent events.

Update (September 18th, 2013):  Via Mark Steyn, Ace of Spades points out that Time Magazine prints different covers for its different regional editions around the world, and this week’s covers show an embarrassing discrepancy.  Steyn:

The cover story of the Europe/Africa edition, the Asia edition, and the Pacific edition reflect what actually happened this week; the cover story of the U.S. edition is some heartwarming fluff about nothing. The palace guard in the America media are doing a straddle Pravda and Comical Ali never had to attempt — telling the truth to the world while keeping their domestic readership in the dark.

Steyn also adds an illustrative detail about Afghanistan.

Imagine what Karzai must think of the guys who’ve kept him alive for twelve years even to attempt this shakedown.

We’ve wasted much of the last month bleating about how some pointless strike on Syria is necessary to maintain America’s credibility. But the biggest blow to that global credibility is the superpower’s inability to win wars.

The American way of war doesn’t work; around the world everybody knows it; and we on the right need to address it.