BILL O'REILLY: Why do you think he does this stuff? He is smart enough to know what the perception is going to be. Guys like you and me, we're going to say what are you playing golf for when you've got a crisis in this area? He knows that. Why does he do it.
CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER: I think it's a kind of arrogance. He thinks he actually has a good foreign policy. I think he is semi-delusional about the results of these five years. There is not a spot in the world -- you can go from Syria to Libya, to Iran to China, to Russia to Ukraine, where the United States is not worse off, less regarded, considered weak than it was five years ago. This is a completely failed foreign policy and he seems radically unaware of that.
O'REILLY: Is it all about power? Because Cheney and Bush were very aggressive in foreign. I mean, don't mess with us. Yet, it didn't really work to our advantage because some would say, and I think there is a point to be made here, they were overly aggressive, particularly in Iraq. Or is there something else that a president has to have to make other people respect this country? See, look, I agree that we're not better off foreign policy wise than we were when president obama took office.
KRAUTHAMMER: We are worse off, we're a lot worse off.
O'REILLY: Okay, and I don't think there is much argument there, I really don't. He tried the kindler gentler, he tried the we are all in it together, it didn't work. Not working. Alright? Not working in Afghanistan and Syria. Not working in North Korea. It's not working. Alright? But, I don't know if you get a bellicose guy like Cheney back whether that's going to make any difference these days.
KRAUTHAMMER: Let me give you one example. The other president who was rather weak in his foreign policy was Jimmy Carter, until the Russians invaded Afghanistan. At which point the scales fell from Jimmy Carter's eyes. You remember what Carter did right away? He imposed a grain embargo on the Soviets, he boycotted the Olympics, and the most important step he did is he sent [Zbigniew] Brzezinski to the Khyber Pass, carrying a rifle and that increased hugely the amount of U.S. aid to the Mujahideen, which within a decade bled Russia dry until they limped out of Afghanistan. The problem today, and what really scares me is given the same kind of shock watching Russia invade another country, Obama's scales remain on his eyes. The stuff he has been saying, this is 19th century behavior in the 21st century, as if a turn of the calendar has changed human nature and the Hobbesian international system is now a gentleman's club is absurd. It's what he said in his first U.N. speech. You could attribute that to being naive, but he's has been around now for five years. He sees the wages of weakness and he does not understand that he is now feeding the bear.
CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER: I think it's a kind of arrogance. He thinks he actually has a good foreign policy. I think he is semi-delusional about the results of these five years. There is not a spot in the world -- you can go from Syria to Libya, to Iran to China, to Russia to Ukraine, where the United States is not worse off, less regarded, considered weak than it was five years ago. This is a completely failed foreign policy and he seems radically unaware of that.
O'REILLY: Is it all about power? Because Cheney and Bush were very aggressive in foreign. I mean, don't mess with us. Yet, it didn't really work to our advantage because some would say, and I think there is a point to be made here, they were overly aggressive, particularly in Iraq. Or is there something else that a president has to have to make other people respect this country? See, look, I agree that we're not better off foreign policy wise than we were when president obama took office.
KRAUTHAMMER: We are worse off, we're a lot worse off.
O'REILLY: Okay, and I don't think there is much argument there, I really don't. He tried the kindler gentler, he tried the we are all in it together, it didn't work. Not working. Alright? Not working in Afghanistan and Syria. Not working in North Korea. It's not working. Alright? But, I don't know if you get a bellicose guy like Cheney back whether that's going to make any difference these days.
KRAUTHAMMER: Let me give you one example. The other president who was rather weak in his foreign policy was Jimmy Carter, until the Russians invaded Afghanistan. At which point the scales fell from Jimmy Carter's eyes. You remember what Carter did right away? He imposed a grain embargo on the Soviets, he boycotted the Olympics, and the most important step he did is he sent [Zbigniew] Brzezinski to the Khyber Pass, carrying a rifle and that increased hugely the amount of U.S. aid to the Mujahideen, which within a decade bled Russia dry until they limped out of Afghanistan. The problem today, and what really scares me is given the same kind of shock watching Russia invade another country, Obama's scales remain on his eyes. The stuff he has been saying, this is 19th century behavior in the 21st century, as if a turn of the calendar has changed human nature and the Hobbesian international system is now a gentleman's club is absurd. It's what he said in his first U.N. speech. You could attribute that to being naive, but he's has been around now for five years. He sees the wages of weakness and he does not understand that he is now feeding the bear.
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