Barack Obama's disastrous choice in advisers

A couple of months ago PrairiePundit caught this snippet in The New York Sun.

A foreign policy adviser to Senator Obama is scheduled to arrive in Syria today as the leader of a RAND Corp. delegation.

Zbigniew Brzezinski will travel to Damascus for meetings as part of a trip Syria's official Cham News agency described as an "important sign that the end of official dialogue between Washington and Damascus has not prevented dialogue with important American intellectuals and politicians."

It's also a sign that Barack Obama is following in Jimmy Carter's footsteps. Brzezinski, of course, was Carter's National Security Adviser.

Mr. Peabody, set the wayback machine to 1979.

The shallow machiavellanism of Brzezinski led him to the notion that Islam was not to be worried about because it was a "bulwark against Communism" and Muslims could help destroy the Soviet Union...

Brzezinski was not slightly wrong about Islam and about Iran -- he was totally, completely wrong.

And so, under his watch, the rise of Ayatollah Khomeini -- a man who Carter called a "man of God" -- began. Iran's radicalized government became the central breeding ground and exporter of a virulent, extremist brand of terrorism. Iran funded, trained and equipped Hezbollah, Hamas, Fatah and Ansar al-Islam, to name but a few.

Does Brzezinski have any regrets about his disastrous strategic choices?

Asked if he has regrets about [US policy to support radical Islamists to undermine Russia], he responds, “Regret what?

...What is most important to the history of the world? The Taliban or the collapse of the Soviet empire? Some stirred-up Muslims or the liberation of Central Europe and the end of the Cold War?” The interviewer then says, “Islamic fundamentalism represents a world menace today.” But Brzezinski responds, “Nonsense! It is said that the West had a global policy in regard to Islam. That is stupid. There isn’t a global Islam….

Even after 9/11, Brzezinski maintains that the Carter administration's strategy was sound.

Now he wants to extend his losing streak to an Obama administration facing a nuclear Iran. Perhaps that explains why the hairs on my neck are standing up.


Related: Set the Wayback Machine to 9/10/2001, Mr. Peabody! Hat tip: Larwyn