Are You Safer Now Than You Were Four Years Ago?

“Perhaps the president and his aides are declinists, who think of the United States as too weak to act; perhaps they are indifferent; perhaps they are merely incompetent. In any event, this president will leave his successor a country that is considerably less secure than it was when he took the oath of office.” – Eliot Cohen

Are You Safer Now Than You Were Four Years Ago? (Excerpts)

Washington Post
Eliot Cohen
Op-Ed
September 14, 2012

http://www.washingtonpost.com

Has President Obama been a competent steward of U.S. national security?
Set aside the opening follies of this administration, such as the cringe-inducing “reset” button given to Russia’s foreign minister that yielded no cooperation but managed to produce anti-American venom from Vladimir Putin and the harassment of our ambassador to Moscow by thugs in Putin’s youth movement. . . .

Disregard all this, and the answer remains no.
Yes, Obama ordered the killing of Osama bin Laden. So would any president who had him in American gun sights — imagine the furor if any commander in chief were to refrain from giving that order. But has Obama ended our war with Islamist extremists? . . .

The Obama administration claims to have ended the war in Iraq. But victory over al-Qaeda in Iraq and diverse Shiite terrorist groups there was effectively achieved by the end of 2008. What Obama did was convince the Iraqi government that he wanted nothing to do with that country, which is why he could not conclude a security agreement with it. Iraq’s government is less tractable, and the country more violent, than it was on Jan. 19, 2009. . . .

Do we have more robust sanctions in place on Iran than we did when Obama became president? Yes, thanks largely to congressional pressure. But here are the hard facts: In January 2009, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency’s report last month, the Iranians had approximately 1,000 kilograms of uranium enriched to 5 percent; today, they have more than 7,000 kilograms. In January 2009 they had none enriched to 20 percent, a critical threshold for a nuclear weapon. Today, they have almost 200 kilograms. And they have thousands more centrifuges spinning, with new facilities nearly complete and evidence of nuclear weapons design work.
Do the Iranians fear Obama? Why should they when, apparently, they can attempt to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the United States in our nation’s capital and suffer no penalty? Why should anyone — other than terrorists targeted easily by drones or commandos — fear us? . . .

Why is this the Obama administration’s record? Perhaps the president and his aides are declinists, who think of the United States as too weak to act; perhaps they are indifferent; perhaps they are merely incompetent. In any event, this president will leave his successor a country that is considerably less secure than it was when he took the oath of office.

**In compliance with copyright laws, this version of the editorial is excerpted**