Friday, November 20, 2015

Hard Men and Brittle Men

"Apparently, they're scared of widows and orphans coming into the United States of America."
That was how Obama, in Manila, rebuked Republicans on Tuesday for expressing concern about ISIS terrorists slipping into America amid the 10,000 Syrian refugees he wants to bring here. He may be lukewarm about ISIS but he is flat out furious at Rube-publicans.
I have not heard a single idea from the Rube-publicans that would solve the terrorist problem but there are some concerns that simply cannot be ignored. Even if one accepts the nihilistic notion that terrorism, like the flu, is inevitable and will cause its mortalities, if the state has any value, one would expect it to accept some responsibility for prevention and contagion.
Obama's response here is simply inadequate. And, as his peculiarities mount, I think insincere. He is besieged by events, by malignant men, by rivals on a stage that gradually is dwarfing him. Putin is rising, an almost comic foil for Obama, placing him in an increasingly ludicrous position.
My bet is that in the future his grand presentation of himself amidst the Greek columns will be the universal example of bathos.
Thoughtful men hate to become silly but not every uncertain man is Hamlet.

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