Not On My Watch

In recent weeks, Barack Obama has tipped his hand regarding his goals in negotiating with Iran.  For years, he asserted, with categorical finality, that Iran would never get a nuclear bomb.  But those days are gone forever.

Now the objective is merely to postpone the acquisition of a weapon that could destroy Israel and ravage our homeland.  With stopping the mullahs from constructing intercontinental ballistic missiles also off the table, an avowed American enemy will likewise possess the means to deliver these warheads.

The way our president broached his change of heart was to assure an interviewer that Iran would not obtain this deadly capability “on my watch.”  Uttered with complete insouciance, the implications of this assertion almost went unrecognized.

What Obama was essentially saying was that Iran would obtain atomic weapons—only after he left office.  He would not be responsible for the ensuing perils because he would no longer be the person in charge.

That Obama’s deal with Iran paves the way for this denouement was waved off as irrelevant.  That he also acknowledged they, in little over a decade, would have ample fissile materials need not trouble a reasonable observer.

Our president has demonstrated the identical attitude any number of times.  The economists tell us that unless something is changed the national debt will rise so high that nearly ever tax dollar will go to paying the interest.  But hey, we need not worry: that day is not this.

Simple arithmetic also tells us that Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, not to mention ObamaCare, will, within decades, run out of money to pay their bills.  But why should we care; this will not happen until our children and grandchildren need medical care.  Its their problem, not ours.

Obama is well practiced in kicking the can down the road.  He has basically been voting “present” ever since he was in the Illinois legislature.  Unwilling to get his fingerprints on any policy that might go awry, he always finds a way to justify his inaction.

Our president leads everything from behind.  He does only what circumstances force him to do—everything, that is, except spending money or violating the constitution.  Determined, as he is, to break the back of our democratic institutions, his aim, whether foreign or domestic, is to bring us to the brink of disaster.

So how does he get away with this?  Our president’s one noteworthy skill is an ability to deploy language to obscure his deeds.  He is a man of false promises—remember, “you can keep you doctor”—and soothing reassurances.  Like any good snake oil salesman, he always finds the words to keep the rubes happy.

Recall what he did to get his trillion-dollar stimulus passed.  The money was to kick start the economy by getting dollars into the hands of taxpayers who would then spend them.  This would inspire employers to manufacture more products and hire more workers.  In the end, we would all benefit from a rebirth of wealth.

Only, as the critics pointed out, the stimulus money would first have to get into the hands of the consumers.  This required that the government funds immediately be spent.  But not to worry, these were “shovel ready” projects.  They were set to go.

When a year and a half later most had still not been built, Obama acknowledged that shovel-ready might not really have been shovel ready.  And then he laughed.

Now we are being assured that if the Iranians cheat on their agreement, the sanctions we lift today will “snap- back” tomorrow.  No damage will have been done because we can always return to a punitive regime.

So what will Barack Obama say when this does not happen?  Will he laugh about this as well?  And how about the American people?  Will they laugh when bombs begin going off in Tel Aviv?  Or New York?  Will they agree with their former president that this was a slight miscalculation?

Melvyn L. Fein, Ph.D.

Professor of Sociology

Kennesaw State University