Weak Leadership leads to confusion

Among the conversations I had recently in Washington, the most prominent was the discussion related to the foreign policy failures of the Obama Administration. Talking with my friends who work on Capitol Hill in Washington, they all used the same words: “convoluted,” “crazy,” “incompetent,” “delusional,” “feckless” were among a few of the words I can share. Before jumping too quickly to the wrong conclusion, please understand that all these people with whom I spoke are not registered Republicans. The general thinking among many on Capitol Hill is that “confused” is the best word to use when talking about the foreign policy being demonstrated to this point from the Obama Administration. As I sat in my hotel room watching the President’s speech last Tuesday night, “confused” is the word that came to my mind. There seemed to be a moment in the speech when the President wanted the world to know he had determined he was going to make the decision to release the military for an attack on Syria because of his moral concerns in the use of nerve gas on the innocent children of Syria. Almost in the same breath, however, he seemed to back off the idea that dropping bombs on Syria would be the moral response to what he saw as an immoral decision. I admit to being more confused than ever after listening to the speech. The events continuing to unfold since last Tuesday night’s speech have further muddied the issue. One of my friends had opined earlier on Tuesday afternoon that if Russia and her leaders could embarrass the US they would and if they could develop concepts that would make them look like winners and the US losers they would come forward with something that would confuse the issue even more. The prediction came to light quickly when the New York Times ran the Op-ed column written by Russian leader, Putin. In the New York Times column, Putin lectured our country and called out our President for his lack of leadership and confusion in his foreign policy. Putin, by offering the idea of working out a solution that would force the Syrian government to turn over the nerve gas to the international community with oversight by the United Nations was immediately seen as a winning solution to the issue. There has been much written in the various media sources since Putin’s letter appeared in the New York Times. Some have suggested that by offering the solution that will be agreed to by all governments in the region, including the US, that Putin has further established his regime as the power player on these international issues. Time will tell if that conclusion is true. Historians always track the events of a second term in office for a President of the United States as the time to set the legacy of the administration in power. That being true, we are seeing developed before our eyes the legacy of the Obama administration to be one of failure in foreign and international policy. This failed legacy did not just suddenly appear. It began in the first moments of the first term President Obama was in office. Quickly after taking office in the first term, President Obama took off on a world tour to apologize to all the other countries of the world for the success we have in our nation. That tour set the tone for and set in motion the failed policies of this administration regarding how other nations view us and how we no longer have a position of power in the world. We must come to understand that the conflict in the Middle East goes back for centuries. Finding a lasting solution to those deep seated issues has proven to be almost impossible. There are many who believe only the end of time will signal an end to those lasting conflicts. We must also understand that there are nations that will never like America. We can apologize for former leaders and decisions that have been made, but doing so will not make those who hate us like us. Instead of changing their minds to move them to like us (in those nations that hate us) they only see us as weak and unable to deal with the issues when we always go around saying we are “sorry.” The way this issue in Syria is being dealt with supports the idea that our leadership is weak. Ray Newman This column first published in The Barrow County News, Winder, GA.

All Respect is gone

It would seem the best way to have your name mentioned in all the entertainment media sources these days is to have a major malfunction of clothing to occur while entertaining on a stage in front of viewers or to simulate a sex act. Few people are left who have not heard about the scandalous behavior of Miley Cyrus while performing for the video music awards sponsored by MTV. The lack of decency in young Cyrus’ behavior was topped by a routine including twerking. This newly discovered act of twisting a body while performing as if one is simulating the actions of sexual intercourse has become a popular way to have the performer’s name remembered. The video of the event has been shown to millions of people who supposedly fain disgust once the video is viewed. I admit, I did not see the original performance and only saw parts of the video when it was played on a news show the next morning. Though several people have insisted I need to watch the entire video, I have not and have no plans to watch it. Just the small part of what I saw of the performance was enough for me to assure that I would not be watching all of it. Several people have come forward to try and determine how this behavior has become such a sensation. Some people are looking to find fault or blame for the behavior and determine what could have gone wrong in a culture lusting after public display of the human body. We could blame parents. We could blame the culture. We could blame youth and inexperience making wrong choices and decisions. We could blame the entertainment culture currently sweeping the nation. We could write long and boring statements regarding how such actions could cause as much discussion as this one has brought out. The simple matter is that we are living in a culture that has lost respect. There is total loss of respect for oneself when a person will display their body in such a way as Miley Cyrus. There is evidence of the fullness of the cultural shift that has occurred when we see women and their body parts held up as objects to be lusted after rather than seeing a person that is due respect and is to be treated correctly. There is something about the rebellious nature of a generation drawn to belittling the female body that is put on display or is placed on exhibition such as took place in the performance by young Miss Cyrus. The excuse of only trying to reach an audience with shocking behavior does not fully explain why any person would feel they should perform in such a way as was seen on the stage of the video music awards. The question that arises is: “What can be done to reclaim respect in a culture that seems to have lost respect?” There is no easy answer to that question. There is no simple way to turn the tide of cultural misbehavior without taking on the entire issue of what is considered to be correct behavior. When a nation has turned, as this nation has, away from generally agreed to rules of personal conduct, one must come to understand this change did not happen overnight, and the correction to the path we are on will not happen quickly. To restore respect for right behavior and to elevate, once again, personal respect and value will take another cultural shift. The way of thinking that has found us in this condition did not happen quickly. To turn the culture back to restoring personal respect and seeing people for their real value and worth will take more than a generation. The change back to having respect for other people must begin with personal respect. When a person is respected they learn to respect others and to reward correct behavior rather than to indulge and reward misbehavior. When misbehavior is held up as the action to indulge and to allow, then the result will always be the type of scandalous behavior that was seen being carried out by Miley Cyrus. When misbehavior is the goal and the action that is rewarded, then we can expect that the misbehavior becomes the norm. We might have reached a point of no return to where we find that the new normal in behavior is to demonstrate total lack of personal and corporate respect. Ray Newman This column appeared first in The Barrow County News, Winder GA September 4, 2013