We DO have a foreign policy, and it is coherent if you see it in the eyes of the Left

[4est_4est_Gump]

by

Victor Davis Hanson, Classicist, NRO

The Wise People of American foreign policy — Madeleine Albright, General Jack Keane, Henry Kissinger, General James Mattis, George Shultz, and others — recently testified before Congress. Their candid and insightful collective message dovetailed with the worries of many former Obama-administration officials, such as one-time defense secretaries Robert Gates and Leon Panetta, as well as a former director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, Lieutenant General Michael Flynn. Their consensus is that the U.S. is drifting, and with it the world at large: The Obama administration has not formulated a consistent strategy to cope with the advance of second-generation Islamic terrorism. It is confused by the state upheavals in the Middle East. It is surprised by the aggression of Putin’s Russia and the ascendance of an autocratic China. Our allies in Europe, much of democratic Asia, and Israel all worry that the U.S. is rudderless, as it slashes its military budget and withdraws from prior commitments.

While I think the symptomology of an ailing, herky-jerky United States is correct, the cause of such malaise is left unspoken. The Obama team — with its foreign policy formulated by President Obama himself, National Security Advisor Susan Rice, Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes, White House consigliere Valerie Jarrett, Vice President Joe Biden, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and present Secretary of State John Kerry — is not in fact befuddled by the existing world. Instead, it is intent on changing it into something quite different from what it is.

So far from being chaotic, current U.S. foreign policy is consistent, logical, and based on four pillars of belief.

1. Readjustments in the global order are long overdue.
...
2. All nations and interests act rationally — if given a chance.
...
3. Do abroad as we try to do at home.
...
4. Don’t sweat the details.
...

* * *

Keep these themes in mind, and the last six years will make better sense. The Middle East is not a mess, but a place in a needed stage of transition as it frees itself from Western domination and a new order slowly emerges. To the degree that we need a large military, it is preferable to envision it as an executive agency for enacting social change without the clumsy impediment of Congress, especially in terms of race, women’s issues, and gender preferences. It can do the best work for stability abroad by shrinking itself. Terrorism is in the eye of the beholder and always a relative concept that Westerners pathologically insist is absolute. As far as the world abroad goes, China is a more authentic enterprise than Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan, which are the products of U.S. Cold War nation-building in our own image, not of indigenous revolutionary self-creation. U.S. Cold War culpability — in Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Africa, South America, Cuba — is a burden that must be addressed through various means. The rules of nuclear proliferation are a Western construct. Israel is an abnormality, a Western outpost of capitalism and privilege where it has never really belonged, an irritant that should be treated like any other country as much as politically possible. Latin American grass-roots socialism is not Stalinism, but rather an extension of what Obama is trying to do at home.

I think the world now seems a chaotic place only if you assume that the Obama administration wished to be like its predecessors.

http://www.nationalreview.com/node/397720/print

 

[Wat_Tyler]

Yeah, our policy is to have no policy.


Except some vacuous verbiage and perhaps some well-placed hand-wringing.

 

[4est_4est_Gump]

Drones...



... of course Moore and Rogan won't call that cowardice.

 

[Ishmael]

The policy can be summed up in one sentence;

"Let shit happen."

Much to the delight of our enemies and the chagrin of our allies.

Ishmael

 

[4est_4est_Gump]

Do we have allies?


Or do we only have enemies who keep us close?

 

[Wat_Tyler]

Well, maybe our next president will have some New Ideas.


Like Gary Hart.


Experience under sniper fire in Bosnia causes clarity of conceptualization, doncha know???

 

[4est_4est_Gump]

Our next President will wither continue the same policies or become the enemy of the Fourth Estate, the college campus, and the crowd who worships the stars and gets their news from Entertainment Tonight.

 

[Wat_Tyler]

I, for one, need more platitudes and hipster-speak.


Like 80s MTV . . . back when they actually played music.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

The question I always ask myself is: WHAT HAS TO BE TRUE FOR THE MYSTERY TO MAKE SENSE? And the truth is Saudi Arabia et al payoff Americans to keep Iran away from the oil. And Iran pays al Qaeda et al to fuck with the West. Its always been about the oil. Obamullah, Hillary, Chelsea, Boner, and the Bush HEDGEMONEY (a word I invented for the Bush dynasty), all collect millions and use American lives and treasure to keep the money coming. Its THAT or theyre all Muslims.

 

[4est_4est_Gump]

The question I always ask myself is: WHAT HAS TO BE TRUE FOR THE MYSTERY TO MAKE SENSE? And the truth is Saudi Arabia et al payoff Americans to keep Iran away from the oil. And Iran pays al Qaeda et al to fuck with the West. Its always been about the oil. Obamullah, Hillary, Chelsea, Boner, and the Bush HEDGEMONEY (a word I invented for the Bush dynasty), all collect millions and use American lives and treasure to keep the money coming. Its THAT or theyre all Muslims.

And the violence is kept alive by the frustration of seeing all that wealth flow to the leading families of the tribes and stop there instead of working to develop some sort of economy; they prefer to go pirating across the sands and the deserts (the old European word for forest) of the rest of the world.

 

[Wat_Tyler]

They all worship at the altar of the Almighty Dollar.


Dirt worship by any other name . . . .


It's all dirt in the end.

 

[4est_4est_Gump]

Dust in the wind...

 

[RobDownSouth]

The whackadoodle right longs for a return to "Bumper Sticker Foreign Policy", i.e. "Your oil is our oil" and "Kill 'em all!"

 

[Wat_Tyler]

Or "Hope and Chinge"

 

[4est_4est_Gump]

Transmogrified chinge...






Do you hear any balalaikas ringing out? Any concern from the Obmalytes?

Are they simply okay with Russian expansion the way they were with German expansion?

 

[Wat_Tyler]

As long as they let models out . . . .

http://dcupnaturals.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/jana2.jpg

 

[Busybody]

I read an interesting piece

The thrust was

Not

Why are they so inept?

But rather

What if the policies are working as intended?

You all may recall. ...in 2008...when Obama won. ...i said. ...he will make us a turd world country. ...its his DNA

Was

I

Wrong?

 

[4est_4est_Gump]

Remember how vociferous the opposition was to the idea that he was just another Lefttard professorial type?



His middle name should have been Neville...

 

[Wat_Tyler]

Jimmy Neville.


How adorable.

 

[4est_4est_Gump]

Mullah Jimmy...

 

[Wat_Tyler]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=janA04h5SCc

 

[4est_4est_Gump]

*chuckle*



How dare you offend Dear Leader, the anti-Semite...

 

[Wat_Tyler]

Because I'm "like" that?


Offensive.


Mean, nasty and tired . . .


and anti-Semitic.

 

[Wrong Element]

Transmogrified chinge...






Do you hear any balalaikas ringing out? Any concern from the Obmalytes?

Are they simply okay with Russian expansion the way they were with German expansion?

German expansion?

Also, is Hanson aware that Obama's budget calls for an increase in military spending? I'm not saying this because I think it's a good idea, because it probably isn't. But it's a fact.

That last paragraph of his is particularly incoherent, which is pretty funny for a piece that promises "coherence."

 

[4est_4est_Gump]

We need to transform the flag to suit the needs of the administration.

Remove the red stripes and blue field...