Victory Davis Hanson issues the prediction:
Will Obama and company, through inspired diplomacy, solve any lingering tension from the Bush administration over missile defense in Europe, the soon-to-be Iranian bomb and missiles, or the European so-so role in Afghanistan? Will they find a novel, kinder, and gentler way to thwart possible al-Qaeda Mumbai-copycat killers here at home, to defang North Korea, to talk sense to the Russians to stay in their confining borders, and to persuade Hamas to act more like Fatah?
I seriously doubt it. Instead, this serial apologizing, promising a new age of listening and togetherness, and trashing the Bush administration will have two consequences: Enemies will begin to think there is a tad less likelihood now that the U.S. will respond forcefully to a terrorist attack (since “Bush did it” in the past) without first consulting allies, trying to find a diplomatic solution, or going to the U.N.; and, second, friends will slacken a bit, knowing that our prime interest is in the means of multilateralism rather than any objective ends: one now “dialogues” over troops in Afghanistan, and “discusses” whether to follow through on missile defense, and “listens” to “all the parties” like Syria and Iran for “constructive” suggestions about Middle East peace. In short, a bad idea to trash the past when much of it was good, and point happily to the future when it may well be far worse.
We are setting ourselves up for a repeat of Jimmy Carter’s “Our kindness and intellect will save the world,” but this second time as farce.
It is just back to September 10th…back to the days of trying to do the impossible: convince wicked people that they should stop being wicked and trying to convince well-meaning cowards that bravery is preferable. The wicked, though, will view our willingness to “dialogue” as a sign of infirmity of purpose, while the cowards will be off the hook because we give them what appears to be an honorable exit from bravery. Such moral changes as Obama proposes as our foreign policy is not the province of hack politicians, but of religious saints…Obama’s foreign policy is actually the proper business of the Vatican, and the Vatican is already working on it and slowly having some success, but as it takes a change of heart – person by person – it is a long process, and won’t stop another major terrorist attack on the United States, nor Iran obtaining nuclear weapons, nor Russia from trying to rebuild its empire.
Rather than trash an American President and issue apologies for imaginary wrongs done by the United States, President Obama needs to realize that in a world of cowards and wicked men, the duty of the United States is to be the steely bulwark of liberty and human decency…and this means confronting the coward to cajole him into being brave, and sternly warning the wicked that evildoing will result in destruction, swift and sure. Right now, Obama is storing up a legacy of woe for the United States, and death for innocents who are counting on Obama to protect them.
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