Obama seems to have a thing for Islamic dictators and terrorists.

How else could you explain why Obama has been pushing platforms that strengthen and legitimize Hamas, while one of his senior advisors recommends talking to Hezbollah’s political wing, and his notably understated and belated reaction to the fraudulent Iranian elections and subsequent crackdown on innocent civilians (not to mention his later statements recognizing the legitimacy of the Iranian government).

Meanwhile, Turkey saw that Obama was not only mistreating and insulting America’s closest allies (Britain, Israel, etc.), but was simply becoming an unreliable and weak ally for Turkey, which hence left Turkey no choice but to run full speed into Iran’s open arms.

And here we are, once again, Obama has blown it in the international arena.

Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai, not the strongest of political figures, has been seriously wavering ever since Obama took office. Karzai first took over after the Taliban lost control in 2001. His loyalty to the US has always been wavered and depended on the perceived support he’s gotten from US and any particular time (which hasn’t been exactly steady over the years either).

But the US believes there is no one else to replace him with, so they helped keep him in power.

His recent reelection was questionable (to say the least). His ethics are questionable (but no more so than many other US Middle Eastern allies). His loyalty is weak. But he maintained Afghanistan as a US ally for as long as his hands were being gently held, and he felt that the strength of the US was behind him.

But what seems to have pushed Karzai over the edge was Obama’s public rebuke of him in March regarding the elections (something Obama couldn’t be bothered to do with the Iranian elections – after all, Karzai was an ally, Ahmadinjad isn’t).

So Karzai responded to the rebuke by inviting Iranian President Ahmadinjad over to Afghanistan, to give an anti-American speech.

Obama reacted by flying over for a surprise visit and dinner.

Now as readers of JoeSettler already know, the only thing that kept Karzai from going completely over to the other side has been General McChrystal,

With the firing of McChrystal, and perhaps more importantly, with the public reiteration that US troops will be out of Afghanistan by July 2011 by his replacement General Patraeus (and by Obama), Karzai has determined that the US is no longer a reliable ally and certainly won’t be around for the long haul to protect his regime.

So as a result he has made serious overtures to the Taliban. The same Taliban that he replaced in 2001. The same Taliban that the US is fighting and trying to defeat (with one hand tied behind its back - sound familiar?). The same Taliban that had Al Qaeda links.

Karzai has officially offered the Taliban to essentially join his government via a power-sharing arrangement.

And why shouldn’t he?

The Taliban don’t think much of General Patraeus. Obama (see the JoeSettler post mentioned above) doesn’t think much of Patraeus. Biden doesn’t think much of Patraeus. (Despite Patraeus successfully architecting the Iraqi Surge). Under Bush they didn't like him at all.

So apparently Karzai doesn’t think too much of US reliability, nor the message the US is sending him by replacing McChrystal with Patraeus (despite his actually being a very good general)

He sees the one person in the US military who he feels he can trust (and who kept him in line) unceremoniously kicked out. 

And the US has made it clear they are abandoning (exiting) Afghanistan by July 2011.

Perhaps this is just another strong message to Obama by Karzai (as the CIA is wishfully saying), but more likely this is an actual attempt at realignment. After all, without the US, does Karzai actually have any other options?

What this means is that the US is losing another front in the war on terror.

The head of “Im Tirtzu” made an interesting observation. His organization kept fighting against the political/media attacks by an ever increasing number of organizations: Machsom Watch, Yesh Gvul, Gisha, etc. There seemed to be no end to the number of organizations that kept popping up.

After some investigation he discovered that they all received funding and assistance from the New Israel Fund. It appeared that all these little groups were just tentacles of the NIF octopus head. He uncovered some other interesting doodads which I’ll save for another post.

Out in the wider world, Iran is like the NIF octopus head, financing terror around the world.

Obama has a chance to redeem himself and his presidency - if he acts against the octopus head in Iran. But alas, even with moving more ships into the Gulf, it seems his heart isn’t into it, and the only way he may act, is if he is forced to react – just like he was forced to go to dinner with Karzai.

Some have tried to explain the recent waning of American power and influence, not as a result of a weakening America, but resulting from a strengthening of other countries around the world.

But I disagree. We are witnessing the weakening of America as a direct result of the statements, actions and inactions of Obama and his administration.

One question is, how irreparable and irreversible is the damage he is causing to the US?

But before that can be answered, a more worrisome questions is, what country will Obama lose next?