Thomas Sowell writes perceptively that President Obama’s actions are easy to understand and explain once you figure out that his real goal is to harm the United States.

He suggests that folks who think that Obama has “no clear vision and no clear strategy for dealing with ISIS…may be mistaken.” In his view, Obama does in fact have a strategy, a strategy which is informed by a clear vision: to do whatever he can to hurt America while appearing to help her and while preserving his own political viability.

He wants to give people the illusion that he is actually providing leadership for the United States while he systematically goes about undermining its values and draining it of its strength.

There is no way to understand whether Obama is succeeding or failing, Sowell says, unless you know what he is trying to accomplish. If his goal is to protect American interests, “he has been a monumental failure.”

Ah, but what if his goal, his mission, his purpose is NOT to “protect the safety and interests of the United States,” but to weaken her and make her more vulnerable? If that is his target, he is a screaming success.

If you start from the assumption that Barack Obama wanted to advance America’s interests, this is truly an unbelievable record of failure. But what is there in Obama’s background that would justify the assumption that America’s best interests are his goal?

He has, from childhood on, been mentored by, or allied with, people hostile to the United States and to American values. His mentors and allies have all been very much like the Reverend Jeremiah Wright, even if they were not as flamboyant.

Barack Obama has succeeded in reducing America’s military strength while our adversaries are increasing theirs, and reducing our credibility and influence with our allies. That is completely consistent with his vision of how the world ought to be, with the West taken down a peg and humbled.

In other words, if Obama’s mission in life is to be the agent of God’s wrath on America, to punish us for our racism, our greed, our colonialism, then he is doing splendidly. He has the reverse Midas touch: everything he handles turns to powder, whether it’s the economy, marriage policy, national security policy, immigration policy, education policy, welfare policy, health care policy, or our standing in the world.

It is impossible to cite one single instance in which the United States is better off having Barack Obama as our president. The litany of harms he has done to this country, on the other hand, is long, tragic and horrifying, and in many cases will require decades to repair.

Sowell’s question is a good one: what if all that isn’t a result of mere ineptitude, but rather a matter of intentional and malevolent design?

In other words, what if his real goal is not to degrade, defeat and destroy ISIS, but to degrade, defeat and destroy the United States of America? May God help us, and may God have mercy on his soul.

(Unless otherwise noted, the opinions expressed are the author’s and do not necessarily reflect the views of the American Family Association or American Family Radio.)