Echoes of Jimmy Carter

By Jim Thompson
HCP columnist

Despite the best efforts of the Obama administration and a large swath of the U.S. population to ignore the rest of the world, the recent events in Libya and Egypt remind us it is not our choice whether or not we ignore the rest of the world.

The election cycle is becoming strangely like the one in 1980, when the Carter administration held an economy in shambles and the Iranian administration held Americans hostage. Only the stakes are higher now – a U.S. ambassador has been killed.

Jimmy Carter's reaction was to put on a sweater and be held hostage in the White House. Sweaters aren't cool for this administration, and they will not be held hostage in the White House.

That leaves them only one choice, a bland, weak, feckless response, and a condescending schooling of us ignoramuses in the flyover states to be patient and understanding of the Muslim religion.

What are they going to do next month when Israel strikes Iran?

Benjamin Netanyahu is coming to New York for the United Nations General Assembly meeting. He has asked for a meeting with President Obama. The president said he was too busy to meet with him next week in New York (although he does have time to make an appearance on David Letterman).

Netanyahu said he would be happy to come to Washington. Obama says he is too busy to see him there, either.

Snubbing Israel should leave every Jew and every American citizen who considers themselves a friend of Israel, such as your humble writer, wondering what has happened to our decades-long policy of supporting Israel.

If, even in a misguided way, Israel has been abandoned (and all indications are it has), what have we traded our long-term loyalty for? A dead ambassador?

Israel has no choice but to strike Iran before the U.S. election as I see it. That will make the election even more interesting.

It was about the economy and worries about who gets what out of the cookie jar. This will make it more complex. An outside threat always re-focuses any group of people who have been fussing among themselves – as we have.

As I see it, the electorate will fall into two camps, now. Those interested in the U.S. economy only and those interested in the economy and foreign policy. Foreign policy has been largely ignored in this election to date.

There is only one way to ignore foreign policy and it is impossible today – isolationism. If you want to see how that is working out, check out North Korea, the only truly isolationist government on the planet.

President Obama has been successful in deflecting criticism of his record by marching out a parade of disenfranchised "victims" which he claims he will protect and the mean old Republicans will let fall by the wayside (Sandra Fluke comes to mind).

Suddenly, he has to talk about foreign policy, whether he wants to or not. And he has to talk about it in now, real, concrete terms, not as some far off theory.

The Obama administration has been pointing out that foreign powers want the current administration to stay in power. Personally, I have not considered that to be a ringing endorsement in the best interests of the American people.

But I received an even bigger surprise while writing this column. I was chatting with a young engineer who works in a paper mill in Pakistan. He and I have been talking about paper mill issues, primarily. However, in the chat going on simultaneously while writing this column, I asked him who he would vote for if he could vote in the U.S. election.

His answer: "Anyone but Obama."

Perhaps the folks in the trenches around the world have the same opinion as many of us in the flyover states.

So, where are we? The election just became even more interesting, sadly, due to the loss of life. And it portends to become even more so – October will bring the debates, and almost inevitably, an Israeli-Iranian war.

Time to put your seat in the full upright and locked position, and double check your lap belt – it is going to be a rocky ride.

Jim Thompson, formerly of Marshall, is a graduate of Hillsboro High School and the University of Cincinnati. He resides in Duluth, Ga., following decades of wandering the world, and is a columnist for The Highland County Press.