By Crystal Wright

While images of Rodin’s famous Thinker sculpture come to mind, Obama seems more like the tragically flawed Hamlet hopelessly brooding over whether to avenge his father’s death and reclaim Denmark. Hamlet chooses not to act and things go very badly.

Hamlet:  Thus conscience does make cowards of us all,

And thus the native hue of resolution

Is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought,

And enterprises of great pitch and moment,

With this regard their currents turn awry,

And lose the name of action.

These words could just as well be uttered by Obama. As stability unraveled in Egypt and citizens fought for democracy and the end of a 30 year dictator, Obama for weeks never condemned President Hosni Mubarak’s behavior or ordered him to step down. Instead he and his administration, uttered muted calls for “free, fair and credible elections.”

“I just spoke to him after his speech,” Obama said, “and told him he has a responsibility to give meaning to those words, to take concrete steps and actions that deliver on that promise. Violence will not address the grievances of the Egyptian people. Suppressing ideas never succeeds in making them go away.”

Blah, blah, blah, Mubarak laughed at these calls for peace and dug in even more, refusing to step down. Meanwhile Israel and the rest of the world heard these comments and thought “are you kidding me, what weak response from the US.”

In the end, it was the Egyptian military refusing to turn on the protestors and the protestors’ persistence which forced Mubarak to abandon power and flee Egypt. While the president is so caught up in being politically correct and afraid of offending some Arab countries, dictators are surfeiting on the spoils of his inaction.

This brings us to the tragic tale of Libya. Weeks ago, Libyans caught the same democracy fever and led by rebels tried to oust Moammar Gadhafi from his 41 years of tyrannical reign. Once again mums was the word from the Obama administration. The president, his UN Ambassador Susan Rice and Secretary of State Hilary Clinton had this wait and see approach. At first the rebels made gains against Gadhafi but in a bloody reversal of fortune that quickly slipped away. More than two weeks ago, Britain and France were seeking support for enforcing a no-fly zone over Libya while the Obama administration publicly debated the merit of a no-fly zone.

Finally, after dithering around for weeks and doing nothing, Obama was shamed into voting for the UN resolution to enforce a no-fly zone over Libya. More than 100 Tomahawk cruise missiles have been launched from  American and British ships and submarines and the president finally found words of condemnation for Gadhafi he should have summoned weeks ago: “ We cannot stand idly by when a tyrant tells his people there will be no mercy.”

Yet, sadly America stood by idly as Libyan rebels fought for freedom. But the most embarrassing part of this tragedy is the “UN Security Council resolution was introduced by the mighty power of Lebanon, pushed above by the French, and embraced by the Arab League.” As the Wall Street Journal pointed about Obama, leader of the free world, was shamed into finally acting after ever other country under the sun urged action against Gadhafi. But if the United States, under the helm of Obama, had moved from contemplation to action sooner Libyan rebels would have held on to their advantage and the US and its UN allies wouldn’t be facing such quagmire.

Right now I bet lots of Americans are thinking President George W. Bush isn’t looking so bad. Meanwhile Bahrain appears to be disintegrating into chaos, as government forces try to kill the democracy movement taking root there and even called in the Saudi military for assistance. Once again we see strong rebukes from the Obama administration to Bahrain or Saudi Arabia. As Yemen meltdown over calls for democracy, Obama has been more readily “condemning the violence” there, which is somewhat in encouraging.

The United States certainly can’t afford to get involved militarily in every nation in the Middle East experiencing unrest because its people have been denied basic freedoms for centuries. But the US can and should support peoples fight for democracy and condemn atrocities with strong words from the start instead of waiting on the sidelines to see how bad things get.

Right now President Obama looks more like a leader in waiting than the leader of the free world. What has become of America? Now is not the time “to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,” but rather “to take arms against a sea of troubles, and by opposing end them.” The world is watching to see which path the president will choose.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Crystal Wright is a black conservative woman living in Washington, DC. Some would say she is a triple minority: woman, black and a Republican living in a Democrat dominated city. She’s contemplating moving back to her home state of Virginia, where her vote would count for something. By day, Crystal is a communications consultant and editor and publisher of the new website www.conservativeblackchick.com. Crystal earned a Bachelor of Arts in English from Georgetown University and holds a Masters of Fine Arts in Theatre from Virginia Commonwealth University