As I Survey The Wreckage

"As I survey the wreckage of the Obama landscape, I fear that my predictions before the election may sadly come true. Although some dismissed me (even people I thought would give me a fair hearing), I predicted that, if elected, Obama would lose the wars in both Afghanistan and Iraq, and that the US would be hit hard by more terrorist attacks."

Thus begins The Unsafe World of Barack Obama, the latest pseudo-prophetic rant by Mr. Groothuis, a.k.a. The Constructive Curmudgeon. In Groothuis apople-lyptic fantasies President Obama has already "lost" both the war in Iraq and the war in Afghanistan.

Never mind that in July 2008 President Bush negotiated
a timetable for U.S. troop withdrawal with Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.

Never mind that it is the prerogative of the commander-in-chief
to take his generals' various opinions under advisement before deciding whether the goals of the mission are realistic and achievable and whether they warrant sending more and more of our troops into harm's way (a double conundrum that never seems to have crossed the faith-driven minds of Obama's predecessor and his aides). (And if it is so important that we win these wars that the Curmudgeon so strongly believs in, why doesn't he stop blabbering about them and join the army, which is so badly in need of fresh flesh?)

Never mind the fact that it is impossible to begin with to define victory against an enemy that you can never completely defeat, one that you cannot sit down with to negotiate a peace or surrender treaty, precisely the ideal type of enemy for those who, like Bush, Cheney, Wolfowitz, Rumsfeld, etc., desired to produce a state of perennial war to support their political goals.

Never mind the fact that the "war on terror" was, is, and will remain an unwinnable war that threatens to bankrupt our nation, both financially and morally, one that should never have been fought primarily on a law enforcement level, with sparse military support only when strictly necessary.

The Curmudgeon is already surveying "the wreckage of the Obama landscape" without mentioning the fact that it is what is left over from the previous administration, the one the Curmudgeon almost invariably defended for its longsightedness.

The Curmudgeon chastises President Obama for not denouncing the rigged elections in Iran, without mentioning the fact that it was precisely what the enemies of the Ayatollahs had asked him not to do, so not as to give the Iranian government a reason to politicize the political repression and to increase the violence against protesters under the pretense that they were being manipulated by the Americans. He further chastises the president for "chumming" with Chavez (when? where?) and for not condeming terrorism while giving a speech in Egypt to the Muslim world. (I have already written about this unintelligent, uninformed accusation, and you can read what I wrote here.)

And then, in a final flourish of factless commentary, the Curmudgeon directs guilt by association on President Obama, saying that "[i]t is unlikely that the Obama-esque Democrats will vote to renew [the Patriot Act]", in spite of the fact that the Obama Justice Department wants to extend the spy provisions of the act, and that a lot of progressive Democrats are quite disgruntled with the president for perpetuating many Bush-era policies that fly in the face of civil liberties.

Never mind facts, for they hinder Groothuis's agenda, which--based on what he writes--have little to do with making reasonable arguments and much to do with the politics of personal destruction.

One last thought: Groothuis accuses "contemporary Democrats [because they] do not understand the forces of evil in the world or how to confront them." Oh no, Mr. Groothuis, we recognize them, and how. Why, with due proportions, we see right through them, even through you.

As I survey the wreckage of Mr. Groothuis's mind, I fear there is nothing worth salvaging.