International Relations By The Unskilled*

*Photo courtesy of AP Images.

America matters--culturally as the zenith of Western Tradition with all its democratic ideals, spiritually as a bastion of religious experience and sentiment, and even physically as a bulwark of freedom against what is ostensibly a very dark and dangerous world beyond our borders.

All of which make President Obama's recent foreign relations gaffes so troubling. Why does he scrape the dirt for King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia? Why does he so graciously accept a vitriolic book of raunchy victimization porn from Hugo Chavez after coolly slapping hands at the Summit of the Americas? And why does he allow our posture of strength to get overrun by the likes of another rancid old communist in a track suit--Cuba's Fidel Castro--as the same plays keep-away with our foreign policy? The inferred answers are not encouraging.

Some--notably Joseph Shattan over at "The American Spectator"--argue that we have entered the age of The Obama Doctrine--a dismal mix of cosmopolitanism, soft power, appeasement, and global meliorism. If correct, frightening years are indeed ahead.

And here it should be said that wherever Obama decides to lead, he must remember that America should ultimately remain in control to ensure the freedom of her citizens. And this should also be the case to safeguard our very lives.

Given this, the most pressing issue in this arena after terrorism--homegrown with foreign ideas of fratricidal slaughter or foreign-born under the current illusion of power through victimization--is of course illegal immigration. 

Immigrants have always been an important part of this country, if only for the individual freedoms they take up for themselves and their own small part in growing this American experiment. More often than not, these individuals also foster positive sentiments for our democracy in those relatives left behind. In other words, Obama's legacy on foreign relations will likely come down to how he handles the pesky problem of illegal immigration, as glaring as his other meet and greets have been with foreign officials of various import.

To be clear, how Obama chooses to acknowledge and even prize the contributions of legal entrants into this country will have a tremendous impact on how we stay unified as a country, and not just on which minority groups choose to vote for him come 2012. And what is more, how he turns a blind eye to less than friendly and illegal foreign influences will also have a tremendous impact on whether or not we hold to traditional Western values; whether or not our enemies view us with paralyzing fear or with open derision; and whether or not we go the way of a malaise-ridden Europe or continue towards the bright dawn of uninterrupted freedom.

That's a heavy bill to pay for any leader. But the President will have to pay and do so willingly in order to show naysayers that America still matters--and that in all the history of the world, it matters the most.