At Least He’s Consistent

We have criticized President Obama because, like several of his predecessors, he has pressured Israel to make concessions to the Palestinians in the forlorn hope that the Palestinians might reciprocate. Give up something for nothing, in other words–a strategy that no statesman concerned with the security of his own country would pursue.
A few minutes ago, Mike Huckabee–not one of my favorites, in general–made a great point on Fox News. President Obama’s ill-advised overture to the Russians, canceling the deployment of anti-missile systems in eastern Europe, was stupid in exactly the same way. Obama gave up something tangible–the ability to deploy weapons systems that Russia doesn’t like–for the hope that Russia might see fit to respond by doing something effective vis-a-vis Iran. But Russia doesn’t want to do anything to inhibit Iran’s nuclear program. It didn’t last week, why should it now? We gave up something for nothing.
It’s a bad idea, but at least one can say, in Obama’s defense, that he is as careless in defense of his own country as he pressures Israel’s leaders to be in defense of theirs. The difference, of course, is that Iran and other hostile powers in the Middle East pose a much more imminent threat to Israel than they do to us.