The wrong shades of FDR

Although both incidents this past week—Iran’s comments about the “9/11 lie” and North Korea’s demand that regular, annual war games with the U.S. and South Korea be cancelled—can be seen as lame within their own constructs, they must begin to gain increased resonance in context of Iran’s nuclear pursuits and North Korea’s 2009 missile launches. With a distracted America that is stretched by domestic upheaval and two controversial wars already, it is a lot easier for malicious and ambitious global leaders to take advantage of the changing and turbulent economic climate until they approach a point where they decide to turbulently change the geo-political balance of power—just as Hitler and the Axis powers did some decades ago. In the midst of the Axis’ ascent to power in the 1930s, Americans routinely considered the mounting concerns overseas as a distraction when compared to the domestic issues stemming from the Great Depression.

Those that do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it—this time, possibly with the involvement of 21^st century nuclear weaponry.

Health care reform is greatly needed and highly important. However, it has already become the Great Distraction that has altered the focus of leadership in Washington since 2009, including since the State of the Union Address when President Obama declared that jobs would be “priority No. 1” in 2010—only to see the health care reform debate continue to dominate the headlines and the attention in Washington. With the ambitions and perceptions for geo-political power-broking growing within Iranian and North Korean leadership, American leadership must find both bipartisan balance and resolution soon on these domestic matters before, like FDR, Obama is forced to tragically switch from being a president riding a crest of domestic change to a commander-in-chief guiding us through the perils of war with international madmen.

Lenny McAllister is a syndicated political commentator, podcast co-host, and the author of the book, “Diary of a Mad Black PYC (Proud Young Conservative,)” purchased online at www.tinyurl.com/lennysdiary and www.amazon.com. Follow him at www.twitter.com/lennyhhr and on Facebook at www.tinyurl.com/lennyfacebook .