Obama's Mush Emanates, Ultimately, from Disdain for Liberty

The Powerline guys (here and here), among others, take apart Obama's speech at the UN as the embarassing/depressing spectacle that it was.  I can't do better than they do, but I would like to emphasize one point that they hone in on.

Obama then channeled Hassan Rouhani; indeed, he recycled the Iranian presiden’t own words. Obama stated: “As we pursue a settlement [in Syria], let us remember that this is not a zero-sum endeavor. We are no longer in a Cold War. There’s no Great Game to be won.”

So again, America is not playing to win. If only Assad, al Qaeda, Iran, Russia, et. al. were equally modest in ambition.

Awful.  The truth is that, among nations, there is always a "Great Game" being playing.  Just because some people choose not to play, does not alter this reality.  Obama's view is typical of dime-store faculty lounge leftists, that there either 1) is no constant strategic jockeying between nations or that 2) enlightened nations do not engage in such jockeying.  It's pathetic and Mirengoff has it exactly right, Obama is not playing to win.  It is actually worse than that, Obama is tanking the game.  Oh well, not much can be done, we voted for this, we'll just have to pick up the pieces at some future date.

Finally, I have argued that playing the "Great Game" is essential for believers in things like individual liberty and representative government.  The reason that leftists, like Obama, ultimately dismiss the notion of engaging in a global strategic contest is that they don't actually believe, deep down, in individual liberty and representative government - they believe in government by people like themselves, and they don't want your liberty to interfere with their plans.