Tyler Durden of Zero Hedge and others are misinterpreting Steve Kroft’s interview with President Obama. They see weakness and confusion in Obama’s responses and conclude that Kroft shredded Obama.
However, Obama is too strong for him. I read the interview as Obama saying that the neocon program has turned out not to be in America’s national interest. At the end of the Syria section of the interview, Obama says: “If in fact the only measure [of US strength] is for us to send another 100,000 or 200,000 troops into Syria or back into Iraq or perhaps into Libya, or perhaps into Yemen, and our goal somehow is that we are now going to be, not just the police, but the governors of this region, that would be a bad strategy. If we make that mistake again, then shame on us.”
The interview shows me Obama’s strength in recognizing and stating the failure of the neocon program to which his administration was hitched by policymakers in the government. There is hope in this demonstration of strength that in his final year as President he will pull back from the crazed, insane neoconservative agenda of US world hegemony.
To prevent the neocon policymakers and the neocon press from squashing this hope, we must do what we can to support Obama. It is the neocon policy that has failed. In recognizing this failure, Obama is trying to take America off the neocon road to failure and more war. This is a very lonely and dangerous position for Obama to take in Washington.
The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official position of Sputnik.
