Obama Administration Foreign Policy

For John, BLUF:  Could they revote the Nobel over Ukraine?  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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"President Obama’s foreign policy is based on fantasy"

That isn't my headline.  That is a 2 March 2014 headline from The Washington Post.  It is from the Editorial Board.  In fact, I am a little more positive about the foreign policy of this Administration.  However, their Lordships the Editors have their thoughts and here are the first two paragraphs:

FOR FIVE YEARS, President Obama has led a foreign policy based more on how he thinks the world should operate than on reality.  It was a world in which “the tide of war is receding” and the United States could, without much risk, radically reduce the size of its armed forces.  Other leaders, in this vision, would behave rationally and in the interest of their people and the world.  Invasions, brute force, great-power games and shifting alliances — these were things of the past.  Secretary of State John F. Kerry displayed this mindset on ABC’s “This Week” Sunday when he said, of Russia’s invasion of neighboring Ukraine, “It’s a 19th century act in the 21st century.” That’s a nice thought, and we all know what he means.  A country’s standing is no longer measured in throw-weight or battalions.  The world is too interconnected to break into blocs.  A small country that plugs into cyberspace can deliver more prosperity to its people (think Singapore or Estonia) than a giant with natural resources and standing armies.

Then this paragraph:

Unfortunately, Russian President Vladimir Putin has not received the memo on 21st-century behavior. Neither has China’s president, Xi Jinping, who is engaging in gunboat diplomacy against Japan and the weaker nations of Southeast Asia.  Syrian president Bashar al-Assad is waging a very 20th-century war against his own people, sending helicopters to drop exploding barrels full of screws, nails and other shrapnel onto apartment buildings where families cower in basements.  These men will not be deterred by the disapproval of their peers, the weight of world opinion or even disinvestment by Silicon Valley companies.  They are concerned primarily with maintaining their holds on power.

Read the whole thing, at the link above.

The gloves have come off.  Both with parts of the Main Stream Media and with some foreign leaders.  If President Putin stops with the Crimea he will survive to take another bite, some time in the future.  If that is the Putin Path then President Obama will appear statesman like and deserving of his Nobel Prize.  However, if President Putin, bless his little heart, tries to gobble up most or all of Ukraine he will upset the apple cart and we will get to judge how President Obama does when the phone rings at three AM.

I'm an American.  I sure hope my President does well.

Regards  —  Cliff