HANSON NAILS OBAMA'S FOREIGN POLICY – AT 10:57 A.M. ET:  Victor Davis Hanson suggests that Mr. Obama's foreign policy needs some body work, and some engine overhauling as well:

Not being George W. Bush while apologizing for America's purported sins is not a foreign policy.

No it's not, and Americans are understanding.

In interviews and speeches, Obama emphasizes his nontraditional background and his father's Islamic heritage. Apparently, he hopes that by reminding the world that he is not George W. Bush, America will be better liked.

But without a strategic vision, "Bush did it” leads nowhere — given that most of the world's problems predated and transcend Bush. Obama doesn't seem to understand that wanting people to like America is only a means to an end, not a policy in itself.

Nor does Obama comprehend that global tensions often reflect fundamentally different views of the human condition, rather than simple miscommunication or clumsy diplomacy — and so can't be solved by serial apologies.

Wonderfully stated.

Only Obama's America offers atonement, as if apologies will singularly achieve our new goal of being liked above all else. Yet when there is no upside for a country being democratic or pro-American, and not much downside for being dictatorial and anti-American, global confusion follows over the proper path that civilization should follow.

So after 16 months of the Obama presidency, we are starting to see the sort of chaos that results from America's lack of strategic vision or advocacy of its own values.

Suddenly, allies such as democratic Colombia, Israel and India cannot count on our support in their rivalries with aggressive neighbors, while overt enemies such as Iran, Hamas and North Korea wonder whether a brief window has opened for aggrandizement without repercussions.

Finally...

In all these crises, trashing George W. Bush, reaching out to enemies and taking friends for granted is not proving to be a coherent foreign policy. Instead, it is a prescription for a disaster not seen since 1979, when another messianic American president thought he could charm the world by making our enemies like us.

And we all know how that ended.

COMMENT:  Yes we do.  And Obama is increasingly being compared to Jimmah Carter, good buddy to Yasir Arafat and worthies like that. 

Further, Obama is surrounded by ideologues like Samantha Power.  Even if his party loses control of Congress in November, the president will still have essentially absolute sway in foreign policy.  That is the danger for us. 

Obama has a dream.  And that dream doesn't put America at the top of the heap.

June 19, 2010