Cal Thomas: “There was a reason the Ayatollah Khomeini ordered the release of American hostages on Inauguration Day 1981. He seemed to believe Reagan might attack if Iran kept Americans as prisoners. While Obama plays numerous rounds of golf and the military fiddles with issues like women in combat and whether taxpayers should pay for convicted intelligence leaker Bradley (now Chelsea) Manning’s gender transition, Putin acts. The Middle East is in flames – diplomatically and literally – because this administration has no discernible foreign policy other than criticizing Israel. … ‘Freedom’ may mean one thing to us, but it means something quite different in other parts of the world. … If the president fails to articulate who we are to fellow Americans and the world – and there is little evidence he knows how, or even wants to – the United States will lose its leadership role. The hostile forces willing to take its place … will bring with them consequences we will not like and threats to our national security we may not be able to repel.”