David

Karki

Read David's bio and previous columns here

November 24, 2008

Obama Is Introduced to Reality

Campaign: Barack Obama said earlier this year he supported legislation that would have mandated that the CIA and other agencies subscribe to a 2006 Army field manual’s guidelines on interrogation practices, which would have the effect of banning harsh treatment of detainees such as waterboarding.

Now: Although Obama issued a statement during the campaign supporting the idea of applying the Army field manual interrogation standard to all agencies, not just the Pentagon, a senior campaign adviser to Obama left the door open to applying another standard.

The Wall Street Journal, citing a “current government official familiar with the transition,” reported this week that “Obama may decide he wants to keep the road open in certain cases for the CIA to use techniques not approved by the military, but with much greater oversight.”

Campaign: Obama, saying the war was a mistake by President Bush and hopelessly lost, pledges to remove all troops from Iraq as soon as possible.

Now: “The war is over and we won.”  – blogger Michael Yon, 11/14/08. Will Obama violate the security agreement signed by the U.S. in good faith, which keeps forces in Iraq until 2011?

Campaign: Obama promises to repeal the military's “Don't Ask, Don't Tell” policy on gays openly serving in the military.

Now: President-elect Barack Obama will not move for months, and perhaps not until 2010, to ask Congress to end the military's decades-old ban on open homosexuals in the ranks, two people who have advised the Obama transition team on this issue say.

Campaign: Barack Obama repeatedly berates the Bush Administration for large deficits.

Now: Obama says on 60 Minutes that fixing the economy will require running even bigger deficits.

Even the French Army doesn't retreat this much. Everywhere President-elect Obama turns, reality keeps smacking him in the face and giving him wake-up calls. As easy as it is to spew smooth-sounding empty platitudes on the campaign trail when the media is your propaganda organ, delivering on promises that are more faith-based than fact-based is much more difficult. And Obama has begun to find this out the hard way in just the 20 days since he was elected.

Whether you're talking about the hard realities of war, of economics or of science, there is a common truth: The way they work doesn't change simply because arrogant politicians think they can wave a magic wand and make it so. And ignoring how they work, so one can plunge ahead with implementing ill-conceived and unfounded plans, is a recipe for disaster. No amount of good intent can offset it.

If Obama is insistent upon displaying weakness in Iraq, it will create a vacuum that someone (Iran) will try to exploit. If he is insistent upon releasing the terrorists in Guantanamo, they will go back and try to attack our troops or other interests. (A good number of those previously released already have.) If he is insistent on bailing out the fiscally irresponsible, he'll create an incentive for more irresponsibility. And if he's insistent on banning oil, coal and nuclear power in the name of stopping non-existent “global warming,” he'll destroy our civilization and lower the standard of living for us all.

Events do not happen in a vacuum, and people do react to them. So long as there is some measure of freedom, actions will have consequences – intentional and unintentional – and people will react to what government does in their own logical self-interest. Most folks understand this. Liberal politicians of both parties who have massive egos and think they know best how the world should work don't. Or they are so blinded by their lust for power and their belief that they're doing good that they just don't care.

And their predictable response to reality that operates in ways other than what they thought is to remove freedom and seize control in the vain hope of stopping those consequences. Hence tax increases to take our money away so they can decide where it goes, bailouts that are effectively an attempt to end capitalism and radical environmental plans that are barely-disguised totalitarianism.

This is roughly akin to trying to legislate gravity away. And the results are just as lethal to people as tossing someone off a building after the gravity ban is passed, convinced he'll really fly.

To be sure, the Democrats do understand this to some extent, hence their demands that Republicans support their silly plans – like paying back the unions who funded their elections with an auto industry bailout – even though numerically they can pass whatever they want all by themselves come January. They want someone to blame in the event their ideas prove far more catastrophic than they thought, because they're too gutless to take all the responsibility alone.

So perhaps there is a chance – though I personally wouldn't bet on it – that Obama will somehow pull back from the cliff to which Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Sen. Harry Reid are sure to rush as soon and as fast as possible. If nothing else, when you stand alone and aren't two of 535, it's quite a bit harder to get away with having delusions of grandeur.

© 2008 North Star Writers Group. May not be republished without permission.

Click here to talk to our writers and editors about this column and others in our discussion forum.

To e-mail feedback about this column, click here. If you enjoy this writer's work, please contact your local newspapers editors and ask them to carry it.

This is Column # DKK154. Request permission to publish here.