Recall 2009 and shudder with horror at the hope of our domestic left (and the left around the world) that the new President Obama would change course and responsibly end the "Bush wars," bringing about an age of global harmony as the new president stopped provoking the world into violence.
Heck, the president reached out to the Islamic world with a lovely outreach speech in 2009 and looked the other way as Iran crushed a revolt that year to curry favor with the mullahs. How could it fail to work?
But where are we now, nearly 8 years later?
With renewed American involvement in Iraq beginning in 2014, we have Iraq War 2.0.
We had Libya War 1.0 in 2011.
With renewed American involvement in Libya this year, we have Libya War 2.0.
With renewed American involvement in the defense of NATO against Russian belligerence since 2014, we have Cold War 2.0.
With reinvigorated American involvement in Afghanistan this year (more air support to fight the Taliban), we have Afghan War 1.0 bis.
We have the expanded Iran Expansion project that is running into our Arab allies in the region, which requires our regional involvement with military forces and arms sales to reassure our allies.
We have the brand new Syrian War 1.0.
And we still have Yemen War 1.0 (but messier and regionalized now), Pakistan Border War 1.0 (against jihadis inside Pakistan), and Somalia War 1.0.
And those are just the major operations. United States AFRICOM has been ramping up American military help to many countries fighting a surge of jihadis or similar whackjobs (the Lord's Resistance Army in Uganda).
And so we find that when we try to pull back and avoid resisting evil forces, instead of peace we get more war with evil forces emboldened by our efforts to retreat from global responsibilities.
Therefore, President Obama will be the first president in our history to be at war throughout two terms of office.
So we got the change--if not the hope.
UPDATE: Hmm:
US Secretary of State John Kerry is expected to visit Turkey later this month, Turkey’s foreign minister announced Friday.
The title asks "Could John Kerry’s post-coup trip to Turkey soothe ties?"
Good Lord, I'll count it a roaring success if that buffoon doesn't drive Turkey to declare war on us.
