Tuesday, February 3, 2015

The Obama Foreign Policy Explicated

Victor Davis Hanson, Hoover Institution guru and sage of the San Joaquin, explains in National Review the four principles underlying the Obama foreign policy. I think he has them right, and as you would assume, they are entirely wrong-headed.

You should read the entire article but here are the four, in summary:
1. Readjustments in the global order are long overdue. Change is always misinterpreted and mischaracterized by reactionaries whose interests abroad are imperiled by any progress that leads to greater equality and fairness and to the end of unwarranted hierarchy and privilege.

2. All nations and interests act rationally — if given a chance. Ideals, persuasion, feelings, and intent are now the stuff of foreign policy, not archaic and polarizing rules of deterrence, balance of power, military readiness, and alliances.

3. Do abroad as we try to do at home. Contrary to popular opinion, the Obama legacy will not be found at home but abroad, in reordering the global role of the U.S. from an establishment power to a revolutionary force for change.

4. Don’t sweat the details. Prophets are not like us and have no responsibility to articulate details or insist on logical consistency, much less to worry about how others of less talent implement their grand visions.
As we've noted for several years now, an Obama foreign policy is what you get when you elect someone who has U.S. citizenship but an anti-American mindset. Oddly, Obama believes about U.S. foreign policy what Reagan believed about domestic policy - namely, that our government has been the problem, not the solution.