Obama Is No Jean-Luc Picard

Remember when on Star Trek Jean-Luc Picard would say, "Make it so" and the very competent 'Number One' would do just that?  I find myself wondering why our President couldn't do more to align himself with Picard. Well, for one thing he doesn't have competent 'Number Ones' and he doesn't hold anyone, including himself, responsible.  He just blames others.

As such, he gives the order and no one makes it so.  Especially with Obamacare as more and more faults are being found.  The lesson, of course, is read the legislation before passing it.

It goes further, however, and that takes us back to foreign policy.  Nothing in ours is concrete. If we even have something that is called policy.  Take the promise of having our troops out of Afghanistan by the end of 2014 being negotiated into a broken promise.

We have the National Security Advisor, Susan Rice, at odds with Secretary of State John Kerry as to whether we back Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood or the Military who is on track to having elections and a new constitution rather than an entrenched Islamic regime.  Side with Kerry on this one.  One wonders where the President is.  Probably with Rice.  The wrong side as usual.

Then there is Syria. By partnering with Assad and Russia over the supposed destruction of WMDs, if anyone will take them, we have left the Syrian people exposed to systematic slaughter.  The cause, of course, is Assad who is practically guaranteed to stay in power and continues to be a strong ally of Iran, an even bigger nemesis. Plus, if they need WMDs again, North Korea stands ready to help them out from their ample supply.

Stay tuned to Syria.  The al Qaeda rebels have brought in their own mercenary to run the show, a well known Chechan terrorist who was looking for a new gig.  We fear him.  The Russians fear him.  Assad fears him.  And the time when we could have intervened to help the 'good' rebels has long since passed.  Nothing good can come of this.  Now everybody's lives will be at stake! What lengths will Assad go to in order to remain in power?

Back to Iran.  Some have been suggesting that sanctions should not be tightened while negotiations are pending. Every minute of every day the Iranians continue their march toward weapons grade enrichment.  There is nothing in their past history with us nor the rest of the world that suggests they will stop that march or dismantle or destroy anything already at hand.

No one trusts them.  Why are we so willing? I don't believe one phone call between historically adversarial leaders should carry that much weight.  What can I say other than Vive la France!

Come to think of it Jean-Luc Picard was French!