That's the diagnosis of the neocon right when reviewing Obama's first eight months of foreign policy. They long for the days of Cheney. Any other approach is a form of surrender in their view. But is it? I demur:
Let's review the evidence, shall we? In Iraq, Obama postponed any rapid withdrawal, keeping troops there as long as the Bush administration pledged. While ending torture, Obama has retained key provisions for extraordinary rendition, and has recently scored real successes in the terror war. Last week revealed the exposure of what looks like the first real al Qaeda plot within America, busted by the FBI and unaccompanied by any Obama grandstanding or fear-mongering. Several key Qaeda leaders have been taken out by drones in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Obama has sent additional troops to Afghanistan and ordered up a wholesale review of strategy from one of Cheney's favorite generals, Stanley McChrystal. For the first time in two decades, Israel does not have carte blanche from the White House to do whatever it wants on the West Bank.
And on the critical test of Iran, we see the Obama method in clarifying perspective.
First off, Obama makes it absolutely clear that America is ready to talk if Iran is ready to deal. The Bush era polarization is defused, revealing to global opinion that it is Tehran, and not Washington, that is the problem here. The Bush-style warnings are instead given by Gordon Brown and Nicolas Sarkozy, further underlining the fact that this is a global problem, not just America's. Obama then goes to Cairo to deliver a speech re-branding the US with the Muslim world, and seizing the p.r. advantage always implicit in the Obama presidency. The following month, the Green Revolution breaks out on the streets of Iran, and despite brutal suppression, the spell of theocracy is for ever smashed. Ahmadinejad and Khamenei are opposed now not only by the massive majority of Iranians, but by part of their own elite as well.
Then, Obama scraps the missile defense in Eastern Europe, pleasing Russia, and moves the focus of defense to the Mediterranean, pleasing Israel. Medvedev expresses the view - never uttered by a Russian leader before - that sanctions against Iran may be inevitable. Obama follows up by being the first president of the US to preside over a resolution to reiterate the importance of nuclear non-proliferation. The vote is unanimous. Again, he wields American power through the prism of international cooperation - and receives a rapturous welcome at the UN from many developing countries who would previously have stayed aloof. Again, he lets Brown and especially Sarkozy make the more focused comments on Iran.
And then on Friday, he reveals the existence of a second nuclear testing site - near the religious center of Qom - and proves that Tehran is a dishonest negotiator. And this time, the story line is not America-vs-Iran, but the world versus a deceptive dictator, clinging to power via a coup.
Is this weakness? Or is it a different avenue to strength?
Continued here.
(Photo: Olivier Douliery-Pool/Getty Images).