Q. How do you know that Barack Obama's feckless foreign policy poses a serious threat to the security of the free world? A. When a leading foreign policy voice of the Washington Post agrees with a leading foreign policy voice of the Wall Street Journal that such is the case.
It happened on today's Morning Joe, when WaPo's highly-respected David Ignatius agreed with a WSJ op-ed by Daniel Henninger, "While Obama Fiddles," that darkly concludes: "past some point, the world's wildfires are going to consume the Obama legacy. And leave his successor a nightmare." Said Ignatius: "those are harsh words from the Wall Street Journal, but I think there's a lot of truth to them." View the video after the jump.
President Obama surely wants to shift the focus away from ObamaCare's failures. But this is certainly not what he had in mind to accomplish the trick.
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: I have a quick one here for David Ignatius. This is from the Wall Street Journal,"While Obama Fiddles":
"The fall of Mosul, Iraq, to al Qaeda terrorists this week is as big in its implications as Russia's annexation of Crimea. But from the Obama presidency, barely a peep.
"Barack Obama is fiddling while the world burns. Iraq, Pakistan, Ukraine, Russia, Nigeria, Kenya, Syria. These foreign wildfires, with more surely to come, will burn unabated for two years until the United States has a new president. The one we've got can barely notice or doesn't care . . .
"Fatigue with the world if not his leadership frees him to create a progressive domestic legacy. This Friday Mr. Obama is giving a speech to the Sioux Indians in Cannon Ball, N.D., about 'jobs and education.'
"Meanwhile, Iraq may be transforming into (a) a second Syria or (b) a restored caliphate. Past some point, the world's wildfires are going to consume the Obama legacy. And leave his successor a nightmare."
David Ignatius, your thoughts.
DAVID IGNATIUS: Mika, those are harsh words from Dan Henninger at the Wall Street Journal, but I think there's a lot of truth to them. I found myself this week re-rereading the last foreign policy debate of the 2012 campaign in which President Obama assured the country that core al Qaeda, this menace really had been in his words decimated. Romney was sputtering that there was still a problem there, getting franchises, they're still a danger in Iraq. And that wasn't what the country wanted to hear. Certainly wasn't what the president was saying.Now, 18 months later, we have a serious problem. These countries are just ripping apart. And I think the administration is going to have to step up and have a coherent counter-terrorism policy or it's only going to get worse. So we'll just have to watch carefully. But the idea you can go off and give speeches about Native American rights while this is happening and pretend that it's not dangerous, not going to work.
