In the manner of a doctor, let us review the symptoms of our present foreign policy and then offer a diagnosis:
Autocratic and dictatorial Russia has become a veritable friend. America will say very little about the Russian government’s involvement in the chronic assassination of journalists and dissidents. We don’t mind passing along nuclear-weapon information about our British allies to Russia if it furthers better relations with Moscow and results in a treaty. We apparently are more worried about offending Vladimir Putin than about offending our Polish and Czech allies. We eagerly sign an arms treaty that most people believe favors Russia more than ourselves, and we shrug when Russia does not, as promised, help thwart Iranian nuclear proliferation.
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In the last three budget years, we have borrowed $4 trillion, some of it from China, mostly to expand our existing entitlements, almost all of which China does not extend to its own people. We cannot quite assure Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, or the Philippines of past levels of support, since we are worried that our old high military profile would now only provoke Chinese sensibilities. And yet we are depressed when our creditor China in turn seems to resent even the barest mention of its deplorable human-rights violations or its treatment of Tibet.
America vows not to “meddle” on behalf of Iranian dissidents, reaches out to Syria, and was initially silent in the face of Libyan atrocities — in a landscape in which we earlier declared Hosni Mubarak a dictator, and not a dictator, who should depart kinda yesterday, if he did not stay on for a transition to a military dictatorship, which might in turn oversee elections some day that might include the Muslim Brotherhood, which is sorta nonviolent and kinda secular.
In the last two years scarcely a week has gone by in which we did not in some way criticize democratic and once allied Israel. Perhaps if the Israeli government had stoned some homosexuals, or assassinated a leading Lebanese reform figure, or bombed its own cities, we might either have kept silent or publicly promised not to meddle in Israeli affairs. Or we might have apologized for something we purportedly did decades ago that offended Israeli sensibilities.
The Guantanamo Bay detention center is al-Qaeda’s chief recruiting tool, and that is precisely why we closed it — at least virtually. Military tribunals, renditions, preventive detention, and Predator drone attacks during the Bush administration raised “serious” constitutional questions, and that is why we, also virtually, stopped all such problematic protocols. An architect of 9/11, Khalid Sheik Mohammed, is currently facing a virtual civilian trial in Manhattan. Iraq is both our worst disaster and our greatest achievement. As proof that we are withdrawing according to set deadlines from Afghanistan, we are sending thousands more troops there.
Terrorism of the home-grown kind is now a “grave” concern, and that is why we do not use the offensive terms “Islamist” or “jihad,” and have evolved to nomenclature like “overseas contingency operations” for “war on terror” and “man-caused disasters” for “terrorism” — although one may doubt that any serious American security official has ever phoned his European counterpart to discuss joint “overseas contingency operations” against “man-caused disasters.” When jihadists strike, they do so “allegedly” until formally convicted, and the resulting American uproar and threats to diversity programs can be as serious a concern as the actual terrorist operation. Formerly one-dimensional agencies like NASA now have new expanded missions, namely, reaching out to the Muslim world.
In the theoretical sphere, we are unsure that America is any more “exceptional” than, say, Greece, since such perceptions are always relative and merely rest in the eye of the beholder. Britain certainly does not really hold a “special relationship” with the United States in the past Churchillian or Thatcherian sense. And there is a greater need to fly abroad to lobby for a Chicago Olympics than there is to visit Germany to commemorate the downfall of Communism. France, hitherto not known for having greater idealism than the United States, from time to time reminds us that centrifuges are still “spinning” in Iran.
A simpler diagnosis than VDH's is that our current regime is dedicated to weakening America and to ensuring the end of American preeminence in the world. It is a sad thing to be torn between diagnosing incompetence and malice in the White House.
Can someone please tell me in which of these items, so eloquently enumerated by Mr. Hanson, is Mr. Obama fulfilling his oath office, namely to defend and protect the Constitution of the United States of America?
Even sadder is that this administration's domestic policy is, arguably, even worse. I have come around to the view that the President and his felow Democrats are both incompetent AND acting with malice. One does not necessarily preclude the other.
Very well written. The last sentence is the most accurate: “ … We simply have no clue what the United States is or should be doing, and we more or less make things up as we go — day by day.”
Obama came into office with the naïve worldview that if the United States showed “humilty” then the world would stop clenching its fist at us. Of course the result of such foolishness is well articulated in this article. The result? Obama’s world view has been proven to be wrong; his policy is now shaken to the core. He now does not know what to believe. Confusion abounds, and he flails around with no rhyme or reason.
Tom, yours is too generous an assessment. If this were mere confusion and flailing around, one would expect some of the President's actions to resound to America's credit and safety. Instead, every action he takes weakens or is seen to weaken us. Deliberate anti-Americanism is the simplest conclusion.
I will be curious to see if Obama pulls a "Jimmy Carter" and swings his foreign policy pendulum equally to the other side of insanity. Newton's Third Law of Motion -For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.
Don't disagree with earlier comments. Just want to note that this is what happens when an unqualified left-wing community organizer becomes POTUS. Most would say, it's amateur hour at the White House, but then that would give amateurs a bad rap.
Saying "we" as in we are doing these crazy things doesn't really fit, because many of these policies disagree with what the American people desire, as attested by various polls, surveys, etc. "We" should be replaced with "They" to get a clearer picture.
It is hard to fathom how so many of our fellow citizens witness the random, amateurish, bizarre actions of this administration on the world stage and not be embarrassed, outraged, or ashamed. OK, George Bush gave Angela Merkel a shoulder massage at a G-20 summit. Ooooh, bad cowboy. But we rescue our diplomats with a ferry that can't depart Libya for, what, 36 hours, due to choppy water? Hell, even France is more authoritative than we are. And talk about dissing our allies. That's SOP for these clowns. And for what? To appease brutal regimes and terrorists? I just don't know what to do with my anger anymore.
It would all be amusing if it were some other country we were talking about. But since we’re not, it’s just plain pathetic. Of course, ideology has a seat front and center here, but I tend to think that sheer incompetence is the star of the show.
Our Secretary of State is the wife of a former president.
That is the qualification for the job she holds.
Our President is a (I don't know what he did) I think it has to do with stirring folks up or something.
That is the qualification for the job he holds.
More stupid than Obama et al. are the American voters who fell for his Hope and Change smoke and mirrors and elected him as President of the United States.
Here, here, Victor! Bravo!, young man..... And may I add just one additional observation that comes to mind after reading your article: Elections. They do, indeed, have consequences!
Anyone who gave this guy the benefit of the doubt in 2008 (including, sadly, some commentators on NRO) were either naive, insane or Liberal (but I repeat myself).
As Ann Coulter said, we treated a presidential election like a fashion statement: I'll take the cool black guy, with plugs on the side.
It's like an "Our Gang Comedy," someone yells, "Let's put-on a show!" All rush out to the barn and up go all the accouterments associated with a play. There's the presentation, okay when you consider they're just kids, but this is a movie short and there are adults behind the scenes and with everything considered, it is mildly amusing...
Obama yells, "Let's put on the charade, schlock and all," but there's not an adult to be seen, or any behind the scenes!!!
"I have come around to the view that the President and his fellow Democrats are both incompetent AND acting with malice."
"Deliberate anti-Americanism is the simplest conclusion."
Excellent and enlightening article and comments...Bravo and thanks to all!
I believe in "Dreams of My Father," his father's dreams were about bringing down our system, about believing that we are oppressors, and Obama's associations include like-minded former unrepentant terrorists in our own country. There is definite malice in Obama's actions and deep seeded anti-Americanism. Incompetence, too, but malice, definitely.
What amazes me is how many Americans are still "drinking the Koolade"! I am tempted to join Geoph on that ledge!
The sad part is that the damage to our alliances won't get undone - no matter whom we elect in 2012 and for the forseeable future, the lesson they'll take away is that our electorate can't be trusted - we could send the whole thing crashing down again on a whim at any time (whether it's a disgruntled private sending classified info Wikileaks or POTUS releasing others' secrets). They won't be so willing to divulge their secrets to us, trust us to have their back (a la Iranian dissidents, or even Cuban political prisoners), etc. They'll regard as at best as well intentioned but fickle.
The damage I fear is long term. I'm so disappointed in... us.
What our historic first Islamic apostate president has set out to accomplish in foreign affairs—discredit the Western way of life—he does by repeating history, backwards.
The animus is payback, the dialectic, the haves and have-nots, the policy, redistribution of power and wealth.
Here in America, he mimics the atavistic demons of the left that animated psychotic behavior in the Old World during the 19th and 20th centuries, and now imports their ruinous dystopia into the New World in the 21st century.
There is a spectre haunting America, and that spectre is collectivization, where government unions use the privately earned assets of the middle class for their host, where rationing replaces markets, and where your neighbors turn into Stasi informers.
