The U.S.: MIA in the Mideast

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Warning, Cheney mouthpiece. Posted because he admits Obama is a standup Commander-in-Chief.

During a Dec. 8 news conference, President Obama rebuked his Republican foreign policy critics: "Ask Osama bin Laden … whether I engage in appeasement," Obama fired back.

The president has a point, of course. The special forces raid to get Bin Laden deep in Pakistan was an extremely gutsy call. So too the extrajudicial death sentence that Obama imposed on U.S. citizen Anwar Awlaki in Yemen. More generally, the president has been a veritable killing machine when it comes to anti-American jihadists, escalating drone attacks tenfold against our most fanatical enemies. And for all the complaints about "leading from behind," the bottom line in Libya was indisputable: Obama said Moammar Kadafi must go, and then put U.S. military power to the task of making it so — swiftly, without quagmire and at minimal cost to the U.S.

On the face of it, then, the president appears to have displayed sufficient steeliness of spine — a readiness to wield force wisely — to insulate himself against the brickbats of his political opponents. Vulnerable as Obama may be on the economy, national polling suggests much greater approval for his stewardship over foreign affairs. For the majority of Americans, doubts about Obama's fitness to serve as commander in chief have largely been laid to rest.

And yet.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-hannah-mideast-20120109,0,4362289.story