Infinite MonkeysSen. Barack Obama advocates a change from the traditional American foreign policy:
Obama said Clinton and other candidates appeared experienced because they were just saying what is traditionally expected of a candidate."There is, not just with Senator Clinton, but with a lot of my opponents, a premium on reciting the conventional wisdom in Washington and that's what passes for experience -- how well you do that," Obama told reporters during a five-day tour of Iowa.
"My argument in this race is, it's that kind of rote approach to foreign policy that led a lot of people who should have known better to get into Iraq," he said. "It is an approach that we have to change in a much more far-reaching fashion."
Put aside Obama's pathetic attempt to remove his foot from his mouth with such bluster and a lame attack at Hillary from her left. And maybe Obama is making a very sly anti-Israel statement -- or at least it can be interpreted that way after an intense parsing. But what has the Bush administration been if not a departure from the "rote approach" of American foreign policy?
While inconsistent at times in its application, Bush, after 9/11, announced a departure from the coddling of Muslim "good guys" who nonetheless managed to cultivate and harbor anti-Western extremists that was the "conventional wisdom" with at Foggy Bottom for decades. And I have little faith that a President Obama would scuttle the toadies at the State Department and really change America's foreign policy in a helpful way.
Posted by Dr. Zaius at August 17, 2007 12:19 AM | TrackBackThe constant, "traditional" American foreign policy for the middle east (and most of the rest of the world) has been to meddle where we have no business meddling. We've consistantly and foolishly aligned ourself with Israel when we should have stayed out of that no-win territorial conflict, and simultaneously (and again foolishly) aligned ourselves with Muslim interests in both the Middle East and Europe. We pitted dictators against one another, funded both sides of the Iran/Iraq war, clumsily used the Pakistani ISS to fund extremists in Afghanistan (many of whom would eventually become our enemies) and gotten ourselves sucked into at least three major unwinnable wars. And that's just in the Eastern hemisphere.
A REAL change from traditional US foreign policy would be for us to mind our own friggin' business. Unfortunately, I highly doubt that President Obama is talking about that kind of change.
Posted by: Monkey RobbL at August 17, 2007 10:48 AM