You can often tell a lot about a man by looking at those who approve of him. This was shown last week during Obama’s whirlwind tour of Russia, Italy, and Ghana. He practically gave away the whole house when he was in Moscow, agreeing to limit America’s nuclear arsenal, while also putting an effective halt to the missile defense program that would protect our erstwhile allies in Europe from Russian extortion – so we can be pretty sure the Russians like him now. In Italy, we were treated to the spectacle of Old Europe’s socialist leaders (and remember, even “right-wingers” like Italy’s Berlesconi and Germany’s Merkel would be moderately-left Democrats here in America) praising Obama for “doing everything right so far” with respect to his foreign policy. Then, in Ghana, we see him acclaimed as the Messiah while he gives a tear-jerker of a speech about the slavery his ancestors never endured, while at an historic slaver’s fort through which his ancestors were never processed.
Yes, even as his approval ratings continue to slump among the people whose country he is in the process of weakening overseas and impoverishing at home, it would seem that our President continues to maintain his popularity in the Old World.
We shouldn’t be surprised by this, especially as it relates to the conduct of his foreign policy to date. Obama’s approach, while making no sense whatsoever to Americans who operate from a starting point of common sense, is the fulfillment of all the hopes and dreams entertained by the radical Left on both sides of the Atlantic. In their world, support for Israel – the only country with a truly open, free, and democratic society in the Middle East that doesn’t have to be constantly maintained by the threat of intervention from its own military (thus ruling out Turkey) – is absolutely indefensible. On the other hand, support for the Palestinians – whose whole existence is predicated on the need to commit genocide against the Jews – is noble and righteous. Among the Leftists, strengthening ties with free and capitalistic nations in Latin America is bad, but pandering to Marxist thugs like Chavez and Ortega is good. Pursuing a policy of building relationships and defense ties with Eastern European nations that escaped the yoke of Soviet Russian domination is “imperialism”, but tossing these nations like sacrificial lambs to Russian neo-imperialists is simply good form. As in every other area, Obama is a solid Leftist in his approach to foreign policy.
What this means is that, regardless of what might be said about his Kenyan origins and birth certificate, or lack thereof, Obama is America’s first European President.
Obama’s foreign policy approach seems to operate from fundamentally European assumptions. Even the “Right” in Old Europe holds to these, just as much as the Left. These assumptions are often diametrically opposed to American approaches – not just from the perspective of realpolitik and the pursuit of disparate national interests, but also from the very basic and foundational presuppositions under which each side operates.
Here in America, we understand that diplomacy needs to be backed by something distinctly non-diplomatic. “Walk softly, and carry a big stick,” and all that. Reagan knew this – which is why he would deal with the Soviets diplomatically, but at the same time was strengthening our military preparedness that the feckless Carter had allowed to languish. This is why the Soviet’s felt not the least bit inhibited in trying to advance world Communism militarily in Afghanistan in 1979. Carter, unlike his successor, was a weak leader who lacked the will to back up American interests with the threat of military action.
The Europeans, on the other hand, existed for so long under America’s military umbrella that they forgot what it means to operate an independent foreign policy that can’t afford to rely on “soft power” alone. Western Europeans grew complacent, softening and feminizing their societies through the building of expensive cradle-to-grave welfare states that didn’t allow any room for substantial military power to be built. As they moved Left en masse, they accepted the suppositions implanted by democratic socialism (as well as Soviet agents in the West) that there is nothing worth fighting for, that every problem can be solved by sitting down in a committee and talking it over until a mutually agreeable compromise is achieved. While this may work well when one soft, complacent society negotiates with another, it doesn’t work so well when one of the “partners” is an Iran or a North Korea who couldn’t care less about civilized sensibilities. Unfortunately, this seems to be exactly what Obama, like Old Europe, doesn’t understand – if you aren’t willing to use “hard power”, then “soft power” is “no power.”
Also, Obama’s foreign policy appears to fundamentally assume that advancing American national interests, as opposed to “world” interests, is wrong. In his mind, like that of “progressive” Europeans, nationalism is bad, while globalism is good. He seems to think that it is more important for the rest of the world to be happy with us, than it is for America to be safe, strong, and prosperous. Much of it is his typically socialist predilection for working through the UN and other globalist agencies, as opposed to the traditional and constitutional reliance upon home-grown American policy-making. Part of it may also be Obama’s own personal narcissism – being President allows him to “big up” his own popularity not just in Illinois, but the world over. Unfortunately, because most of the rest of the world (including Old Europe) has a fundamental interest in strengthening their own positions at the expense of the United States, the way in which Obama can accrue this popularity from the rest of the world is largely by selling out traditional American interests and cutting the legs out from under our nation’s moral and military leadership.
This is why Obama has largely spent his overseas travel time to date apologizing to anyone and everyone who will listen for the “sins” of America. The world is his father confessor, so to speak. Instead of focusing on what America has done right, he has sought expiation for what we’ve done wrong – both real and imagined. And to make it up to the world, he’s going to reverse the course that his predecessors followed that kept America and her allies strong and safe. Missile defense in Poland and the Czech Republic to protect our friends from Russian domination? Sure, Vlad, we’ll scrap that. Supporting our staunch ally Israel? We’ll scale that back, and vastly expand the money we send to the Palestinians. He goes to Africa and apologizes for America’s part in slavery. Yet, he fails to point out that the slave trade was started by Muslims from North Africa long before any European had set foot on the Slave Coast.
Obama also seems to hold to the European doctrine of multipolarity. To the European policy-makers, having a quasi-unipolar system in which peace is maintained by the military and economic power of a hyperpower is bad (especially when Europe isn’t the hyperpower). To the socialist mind, the fact that the hyperpower is (or at least was) based upon a relatively capitalistic and free-market system is abominable. Combine these in the thinking of Leftists like Obama and the Old Europeans, and you have the present drive to create a multipolar world in which American influence and power is reduced at the expense of advancing rivals to American “hegemony”, the more antagonistic these rivals, the better. The problem is, the reason these rivals are especially antagonistic to America is because they embody political and philosophical systems that are diametrically opposed to our – they are totalitarians, dictatorships, theocracies, imperialists, and so forth. It even goes so far as looking the other way while regimes like Iran develop nuclear weapons capabilities, and turning a weak knee to North Korea when it fires missiles over our allies in Japan. The Left in Europe and its emulators in America end up having to lie in bed with a whole lot of nasty characters in their push to bring America down to size.
In summation, we see that President Obama is taking our nation on a course that will reduce American moral authority, American power, and American influence generally. He does so because he operates from a mindset not unlike that held by socialists in Old Europe – countries like France and Germany where inordinate governmental power is held by an array of Communists, Greens, and other far Left groups. Unfortunately, the real world results from this will be neither happy nor prosperous for our planet, as we can expect North Korean dictators and Iranian theocrats to grow bolder and bolder. The post-Obama world will be much more nasty, brutish, and Hobbesian than it would have been otherwise.
