Roger Cohen taking Obama to task for his shocking performance at a press conference last Monday in Turkey, which even Democrats have criticized.
Obama was patronizing, dismissive and arrogant. He was more impassioned about taking in refugees to the US than about the Paris massacres.
There is much that the US could do other than simply staying the course, as Obama insists. No-fly zones, arming Kurds, leading a coalition to retake territory from ISIS.
And that's just little me, sitting here in my comfy house in Hong Kong.
Obama says his military and national security advisers tell him that he's got the right strategy. But that's simply untrue when one sees what some of them have said in the media. Most of the American public want him to get back on the front foot
In the press conference, he really does come across as clueless. He's clueless that he's clueless because he's arrogant. He has it right, noone else has.
Obama's body language: have a look at the way Obama enters the room in Ankara to face the press. Just ambling. As Cohen says, "words and body language aren't everything. Still, they count."
Cohen concludes:
"The West has lost its spine, a spine called America."
As Paul Keating might have said, Obama is looking for a spine to shiver up.
Obama was patronizing, dismissive and arrogant. He was more impassioned about taking in refugees to the US than about the Paris massacres.
There is much that the US could do other than simply staying the course, as Obama insists. No-fly zones, arming Kurds, leading a coalition to retake territory from ISIS.
And that's just little me, sitting here in my comfy house in Hong Kong.
Obama says his military and national security advisers tell him that he's got the right strategy. But that's simply untrue when one sees what some of them have said in the media. Most of the American public want him to get back on the front foot
In the press conference, he really does come across as clueless. He's clueless that he's clueless because he's arrogant. He has it right, noone else has.
Obama's body language: have a look at the way Obama enters the room in Ankara to face the press. Just ambling. As Cohen says, "words and body language aren't everything. Still, they count."
Cohen concludes:
"The West has lost its spine, a spine called America."
As Paul Keating might have said, Obama is looking for a spine to shiver up.
