THE world has rabies and our swooning media deliver headlines about the new Obama family dog. Yeah, the puppy's cute. But must journalists be lapdogs?
The week kicked off with gushing media declarations that President Obama had "passed his first test" in a foreign "crisis." Three pirates held an American hostage far too long. It was an embarrassment, not a crisis.
Our president was reluctant to authorize deadly force. Against pirates, for God's sake. Then, 24 hours after the Obama White House declared "Mission Accomplished," Somali pirates attacked another US-flagged ship.
This time, the pirates used rocket-propelled grenades and heavy machine guns -- serious firepower.
Our response? The White House didn't send our Navy after the pirates. We're content that the attack was unsuccessful, with just some combat damage to our ship. Live and let live, folks.
Then, on Wednesday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced her solution to piracy: Send your tax dollars to Somalia in foreign aid.
That's rewarding criminality. It's tribute money. We're not asking for trouble. We're on our knees begging for it.
Since the new administration took office, our enemies have surged to challenge us, from northern Mexico through the Middle East to Asia. They sense weakness. And their instincts may be right.
Oh, we're huffing and puffing on North Korea -- which really isn't an immediate problem for the United States. (If China wants a nutty neighbor with nukes, hey, let's give General Tso's chickens a chance to come home to roost.) But we won't do anything hard.
The grave problems are elsewhere:
Mexico: Our southern border blazes with a narco-insurgency that's made major Mexican cities ungovernable. The response of our refocused Department of Homeland Security? A warning about the terrorist menace from our military veterans (the thanks of a grateful nation . . .). And more talk, in Mexico this time.
Iraq: Obama's crowd still can't accept the fact that Iraq matters deeply, while Afghanistan -- O's campaign darling -- doesn't. Inspired by the weakness our president projects, al Qaeda's local branch -- which had been crushed -- hopes to make a comeback.
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