Obama has revealed himself to be the lead recruiter for killers like FARC and Al Qaeda.

By schmoozing up the despots, Obama revealed that his chief desire is to talk (and talk, and talk). Interesting that this is exactly what the Iranians and North Koreans want.

By showing his weakness, Obama has encouraged a new generation of terrorists to join up. What better motivator for joining a terror cell is there than a weak and naive adversary?

Let's see if Obama's willing to take any heat from the Democrats and the unions in order to get results for Colombia. I'm not holding my breath.

This to me is an example of one of the most genuinely disappointing traits of Obama's presidency thus far: since taking office the administration has made several sound decisions which happen to run contrary to what President Obama campaigned on. Keeping more troops longer in Iraq, sending more troops to Afghanistan (although this was not contrary to what he campaigned on it does upset a decent amount of his base), maintaining a prison in Bagram Airbase Afghanistan which is the same as the one in Gitmo (ie unlawful enemy combatants with no where to go are kept there during our ongoing war), now this promising free trade developement with Columbia. What really makes me sad, though, is that while he is doing these things he is incessantly hammering Bush for his past policies. He keeps talking about how much work it will take to undo the damage done by the Bush administration, but procedes to confirm by action that most of the Bush administration's policies were the prudent thing to do. Now this rhetoric about "torture" and the acknowledgement by his own intelligence chief that waterboarding has accounted for half of everything know about al-Qaida. President Obama is acting so cynical as to induce sadness rather than anger.

Isn't it possible that the only way Obama can "confirm by action" those policies of the previous administration that are essential to national security and still keep his base happy is by prosecuting (or persecuting) former Bush admin. officials? Clearly, that is a cynical political policy, to attack and, as the WSJ put it, poison our political debate to give himself political cover with his left-wing base. However, the Left in America demands conformity to their politics, which are unreasonable and dangerous to the US.

Therefore, for example, Obama cannot turn his back on Chavez and Ortega, as they are heroes to the Left. (For all I know, he may not want to, but if he does want to, because he finds they are as obnoxious as I suspect they are, he cannot.) On practical foreign policy grounds, he cannot possibly be rude to Uribe. However, to make up for that, he will have to make sweet gestures to what's his name, to placate his party. What's his name has no use for Uribe and has been supporting enemies of stability in Columbia for years. Poor Mr. Obama has to balance the Leftist expectations with sensible foreign policy. That poor man.

Another example, in the US, if he is slow to slam the CIA over interrogation techniques, which he cannot do because he needs them, the next best thing is slamming the Bush administration lawyers and officials, because he does not need them. Maybe this comes down to the idea that he will look strong in stupid things in order to counter his weakness (I hope not fatal weakness) in matters that his political friends demand are right.

I hope we survive this.