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Michael Barone: In Obama’s Time Warp, U.S. Still the Bad Guy
In the early 1980s, while planning a vacation in Latin America, I went to bookstores to look for histories of the region. All I could find were Marxist tracts arguing that “the people” were exploited by greedy corporations and military dictators, all propped up by the United States.
Available literature on Latin America today includes much more sensible accounts. But some people, including President Barack Obama, whose college thesis written in those years has never been made public, seem stuck in a time warp in which the United States is the bad guy.
That, at least, seems to explain Obama’s latest foreign policy moves, starting with Honduras, where the president was ousted by the country’s supreme court for violating a constitutional provision that forbids any moves to seek a second term. (Other Latin countries, notably Mexico, have similar constitutional prohibitions.)
The White House immediately interpreted it as a military coup and decided that, this time, the United States would come out on the side of “the people.” In fact, we find ourselves siding with a friend of the Iranian mullahs, Hugo Chavez, who swept aside similar constitutional limits in Venezuela, and opposing the elected congress, courts and civil society of Honduras.
Honduras is not the only or, sad to say, most important example of where this administration has come out on the side of our enemies and against our friends. Israel has been told that it must stop all settlement construction, even the adding of spare rooms for newly arrived infants, while nothing is asked of the Palestinians.
In Eastern Europe, Obama acknowledged last spring the importance of placing missile defense installations in our NATO allies Poland and the Czech Republic, then reversed himself this month and canceled the program.
The president of Poland, which has sent brave and effective troops to Iraq and Afghanistan, was given an after-midnight phone call, which he declined to take. The president of Russia, which has refused to aid our efforts to stop the Iranian nuclear weapons programs, expressed his delight — and pointedly made no concessions in return.
Neither has Russia made concessions in return for Obama’s announced plans to cut back sharply on our nuclear stockpiles. The idea behind this is either that others will make similar cutbacks out of gratitude for our example or, more worryingly, that the possession of so many nukes by the United States is somehow a bad thing.
Then there is Afghanistan. In March, Obama said we must persevere in the struggle there to protect ourselves against terrorists and installed a new general, ahead of schedule, to come up with a counterinsurgency strategy. That general delivered a report on Aug. 30 strongly implying that we must increase troops commitments. But as of Sept. 21, Obama has held only one meeting on the subject, according to The Washington Post’s Bob Woodward.
On the Sunday talk shows a day before Woodward’s story appeared, Obama said he had not yet decided on a strategy in Afghanistan. “I’m certainly not one who believes in indefinite occupations of other countries,” he said on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” as if the United States were occupying a country against the wishes of most of its inhabitants to the detriment of “the people.” Shades of those early 1980s Marxist Latin America tracts.
The reaction to the most recent moves has been harsh, and from unexpected quarters. Leslie Gelb, former head of the Council on Foreign Relations, and the editorial writers of The Washington Post have expressed astonishment at Obama’s apparent switch on Afghanistan. Edward Lucas, former Eastern European correspondent for The Economist, wrote in the Telegraph of London: “The picture emerging from the White House is a disturbing one, of timidity, clumsiness and short-term calculation. Some say he is the weakest president since Jimmy Carter.”
Influential blogger Mickey Kaus argues that “anti-Obama anger” is caused not by his race, but “because he’s a relative newcomer, as presidents go — an unknown quantity, an enigma, with a short track record and patches of that record left fuzzy.”
But on foreign policy as his record emerges — as he reverses himself on missile defense and perhaps on Afghanistan — his motivating principle seems rooted in an analysis, common in his formative university years, that America has too often been on the side of the bad guys. The response has been to disrespect those who have been our friends and to bow to our enemies.
— Michael Barone is a senior writer for U.S. News & World Report and principal coauthor of The Almanac of American Politics. Click here to contact him.
Comments
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» on 09.24.09 @ 07:06 AM
Barone=Malkin=limbaugh=beck=palin=hannity=disaster
Why is it that everytime any one of the above talks or has an opinion it is absolutely predictable. If the far right conservatives do not change their tune to be more constructive they will disappear for a very long time. Barone does not seem to realize that the most important and most productive negotiations are with countries we disagree with and are the most challenging. Unlike the previous W administration where is was with me or against me and the evildoers we now have a very logical international policy that understands we must rally the world to accomplish goals such as curtailing nuclear proliferation, climate change, world economics, conflicts, energy, trade etc. Barone makes statements in fact that he really knows nothing regarding any details such as our negotitions with Russia.
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» on 09.24.09 @ 11:02 AM
Just like all the Bush Bashing became absolutely predictable. This seems to me like a case of you can give it but you can’t take it.
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» on 09.24.09 @ 02:51 PM
Why is it that anyone who disagrees with “the great one” is automatically compared to Malkin,limbaugh,beck,palin,hannity without even considering or debating what they have to say? This is absolutely predictable.
Good luck “rallying the world” who sees us for the fools we are. Go ahead, screw yourselves is what they are thinking.
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» on 09.24.09 @ 04:29 PM
Ok you are on. Obama has done a great job the past 8 months and a heck of alot more positives than the entire past 8 years.
Here is just a few of his accomplishments:
-Expanded Healthcare to More Low Income legal resident children SCHIP
-Expanded healthcare and funding for the Veterans Admin
-Started the process of closing Gitmo
-Took torture off the table
-Made major investments in alternative energy
-Eliminated no bid contracts for military purchases
-Made funding of stem cells research and access more available
-Made significant proposals and introduced a bill to better regulate wall street, add visiblity and greater oversite which includes consumer protection
-Was able to get both Russia and China to agree to further nuclear non-proliferation legislation
-Implemented the exit strategy for Iraq and refocused our efforts in Afghanistan where Al Queda and Osama are located.
-Held legitimate peace negotiations in the Middle East that have started to bring Palestine and Israel to the table
-Expanded PELL grants and public funding availability so more individuals could afford to go to college
-Raised the gas mileage standards on vehicles
-Put Healthcare Reform front and center with the goals of expanding access and affordability
-Set a cooperative international tone which includes acknowledging global climate change and introducing bills to reduce carbon emissions
-Provided a tax cut for between 90 and 95% of the population while raising taxes on cigarettes
Well that is a few items and I am sure there are more great accomplishments. It is going to take several years to bring this country back from the past 8 disasterous years.
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» on 09.30.09 @ 03:03 PM
Good grief Local, you get an opportunity to present your own thought s and arguments and what do you do? You copy the moveon/daily kos manifesto of loopy liberal lefty politics. So let’s look at what you call accomplishments, shall we?
-Expanded Healthcare to More Low Income legal resident children SCHIP
Ok sounds good, but we’re broke so I don’t know where the money is coming from, China maybe?
-Expanded healthcare and funding for the Veterans Admin
This is good too!
-Started the process of closing Gitmo
Turns out this is one stupid idea just to get America haters on your side.
-Took torture off the table
Not quite my friend, when he shuts up all you whiners and crybabies then torture is “off the table”. Funny how water boarding is torture but beer bongs are fun.
-Made major investments in alternative energy
Really? What was that, wind mills and solar panels? Another bone for those who won’t be happy until the world is starving to death.
-Eliminated no bid contracts for military purchases
Sounds really good on the surface but what do you really know about this practice, besides what your friends at move on told you?
-Made funding of stem cells research and access more available
Another bone for the left and totally unnecessary.
-Made significant proposals and introduced a bill to better regulate wall street, add visiblity and greater oversite which includes consumer protection
Which means he really didn’t do anything.
-Was able to get both Russia and China to agree to further nuclear non-proliferation legislation
Right after he sold out Israel and eastern Eorope to these monsters!
-Implemented the exit strategy for Iraq and refocused our efforts in Afghanistan where Al Queda and Osama are located.
He implemented what the former admin had already gotten underway, nice try.
-Held legitimate peace negotiations in the Middle East that have started to bring Palestine and Israel to the table
Again, after selling out the one democracy in the middle east to the thugs in the street.
-Expanded PELL grants and public funding availability so more individuals could afford to go to college
Of course, but where is the money coming from, oh right, the printing press!
-Raised the gas mileage standards on vehicles
Yep he did and Toyota loves him for it. The auto companies are doing just fine putting themselves out of business, they don’t need the governments help, thank you.
-Put Healthcare Reform front and center with the goals of expanding access and affordability
Right and this one thing will most likely end his political career if the country survives the debacle.
-Set a cooperative international tone which includes acknowledging global climate change and introducing bills to reduce carbon emissions
Which means he didn’t have the balls to tell the IPCC to take a hike and spread their religion somewhere else, like China. “Cooperative tone” is liberal code for being a tyrant appeasing coward, BTW.
-Provided a tax cut for between 90 and 95% of the population while raising taxes on cigarettes
Right, most of the tax cuts were in the form of unemployment. Rob Peter to pay Paul, ain’t exactly a great way to MAKE wealth is it?
Bottom line here, Local, sarcasm aside, is this guy really has not done much but throw very expensive bones to the left in this country while travelling the world apologizing for America not being like Europe. His administration is crumbling and the polls tell the story. He got elected on a change message only it wasn’t the change most Americans were looking for. He might appeal mightily to the 20% of you lefties but many democrats and independents are suffering a big fat case of buyer’s remorse.
Now I don’t hate the man or disparage him or the office he holds. I believe he is doing what he believes is right. It’s just that he’s not right and most of us know that now. The question is when will you and your lefty loony liberals figure that out?
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