Obama Is No Friend of Democracies

President Obama has been attentive to America's enemies.  He has made the policy of "engagement" an end in itself.  For the leaders of Iran, North Korea, Venezuela, Syria, and the Sudan, Obama has been the consummate diplomat.  For his troubles, he has been treated with a mixture of scorn and defiance. 

Iran steals elections in broad daylight, and continues to pursue its ballistic and nuclear ambitions.  So, too, North Korea.  Venezuela tightens its grip around what few free institutions still exist and happily annexes more of the private sector.  Syria aids Hamas and Hezbollah and works closely with Iran.  Sudan persists in its genocidal efforts against black African Muslims in Darfur. 

When it comes to democratic allies, however, we discover another side of Obama. 

For England, the "special" relationship based on shared history, language, culture, and political systems, is all but out the window. 

There were slights to Prime Minister Gordon Brown, the return of the Churchill bust from the Oval Office, siding with Argentina over the Falklands, and the denial that a "special" relationship even exists between our two nations by State Department officials. 

He blindsided NATO allies and fellow democracies, Poland and Czechoslovakia, by unilaterally reneging on plans to place missile defense systems so as to placate Russia.

He supported Chavez wannabe, Manuel Zelaya, in his efforts to illegally extend his term as President of Honduras, pitting the US against the Honduran Congress, Supreme Court, and Constitution.

He recently visited China and Indonesia but passed over the world's largest democracy and rising Asian power, India, a natural ally with a common language and a bulwark against Chinese hegemony in the region.

As a card carrying liberal, and defender of human rights and democracy, he earlier refused to meet the Dalai Lama in deference to the Chinese Communist regime or comment on the jailing of Chinese human rights and democracy activist Liu Xiaobo, perhaps not wanting to offend the financiers of his massive debts; he also failed to provide moral support of any kind for pro-democracy demonstrators in Iran.

Obama as candidate spoke movingly of the tragedy of Darfur; in office, however, Obama casts a blind eye toward Sudanese dictator Omar al-Bashir, an indicted war criminal responsible for the murder, rape, and displacement of millions.

Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa, yet another Latin American Chavez knock-off, has also been busily closing down newspapers, taking over TV stations, and bullying, jailing, or filing lawsuits against journalists.  But Obama seems unable to resist the charms of left wing tyrants.  He has not ruled out a meeting with the dictator in the near future and has had little to say about his goonish behavior.

President Obama did not bother to attend the 20th anniversary of the collapse of the Berlin wall and its reunification in November last year, spurning German Chancellor Angela Merkel's invitation.  He was too busy to celebrate one of the high water marks in the battle of freedom over tyranny led, of course, by his own country. 

For a citizen of the world like Obama, our first "post American President," who is uncomfortable with references to American "exceptionalism," he would prefer, perhaps, not to call attention to the role his country played in that epic event in the Cold War.

He saw fit to lecture Afghan President Hamid Karzai on his shortcomings, the only winner of which, of course, was the Taliban.  Does it make sense for the One who would restore America's standing in the world to continue publically humiliating our allies while playing into the hands of our enemies?

And, then, there has been his treatment of democratic Israel. 

Following the announcement by an Interior Ministry official that Israel was planning to construct 1600 housing units for its citizens in Jerusalem during Vice President Joe Biden’s visit to Israel last March (a diplomatic miscue but unintended), Obama saw fit to scold visiting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu like an errant school child.

After failing to coerce Netanyahu to extend the building freeze in the West Bank, to end all construction in East Jerusalem, and to withdraw Israeli forces from the West Bank to positions held before the second intifada in September 2000, Obama walked out of the meeting with the Prime Minister to dine with his family, leaving an unfed Netanyahu to stew, consult with advisers, and to "let me know if there is anything new." 

Netanyahu returned to Israel in the darkness of a media blackout.  No photo-ops, joint meetings with the press, or official statements. 

Mr. Obama has no problem bowing before Saudi royalty, meeting with Holocaust Denier Mahmoud Ahmajinedad without preconditions, or praising Islam in Cairo, yet seems content to embarrass and degrade our key ally in the Middle East.

And what was Obama asking of Israel?  Only that it relinquish Jerusalem, return to the indefensible borders of the 1949 armistice, and give up any claims to the West Bank – all for the privilege of participating in US-held negotiations with a corrupt Palestinian government that supports terror, denies Israel's right to exist, and seeks its destruction. 

Obama has alienated many of our Democratic allies.  He might consider treating them with the same fawning deference he shows dictators and terrorists. 

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