Sullivan Gets It

Andrew Sullivan once again demonstrates why The Daily Dish is part of my daily political read with a perceptive analysis of President Obama's foreign policy philosophy and the reality-challenged nature of his neoconservative critics. He correctly points out that Obama's policies spring from confidence in our economic and military strength while his critics only see weakness.

Notice the neocon right's view of the rest of the fricking world: "assembled thugs, dictators, and hypocrites." Against this, we have blameless America, always right, never wrong, and blameless Israel, always the victim, never the aggressor. And when you realize that this was the worldview of the last president, you understand why he got so little of any substance from any foreign country, except Britain, whose prime minister's career was destroyed by the decision.

Obama's promise was and is a re-branding of America (which was the primary reason I supported him). Of course, if you are a neocon, you see no need to rebrand after Gitmo, Iraq, Bagram and Abu Ghraib. Torture and pre-emptive wars waged on false pretenses are things to be proud of. But if you are capable of absorbing complicated reality, you realize that such a re-branding was essential if the US were to dig itself out of the Bush-Cheney ditch and to advance its interests by defter means than raw violence and occupation.

What I'm seeing in American foreign policy, in other words, is less fear and more confidence. Confidence is not the same thing as weakness. It is better understood, I think, as a rational attempt to seek self-interest through international cooperation, to see the US less as the hegemon than as the facilitator. If it works, it will be a breakthrough. If it works. But isn't it worth trying?

The neocon right sees foreign policy as a zero-sum game, a constant struggle for dominance. If you aren't dominating your foes then you invite domination. Obama clearly subscribes to a different model in which the US uses its power to facilitate alliances with other countries united in protecting and promoting liberal democracy. If Bush-Cheney foreign policy demonstrated anything, it was the limits of the zero-sum approach even for a country that outspends the rest of the world combined on its military force.

--Ballard Burgher