Does Obama Have any Vision for Foreign Affairs Other Than to Blame Bush for Everything?

Victor Davis Hanson zeros in on Barack Obama's foreign policy - or lack thereof - in a lucid and damning piece entitled "'Bush Did It' is Not a Foreign Policy." Here are some of the key passages:

Ronald Reagan came into office with the idea of rolling back the Soviet Union. Reagan hoped that such an evil empire might collapse from its inability to match a newly confident United States.

George H. W. Bush sought to oversee a peaceful dissolution of the Soviet empire, the reunification of Germany, and a new Western-led world order that thugs such as Manuel Noriega or Saddam Hussein could not disrupt.

Bill Clinton pushed Western-inspired liberal globalization to lift the Third World out of poverty.

After 9/11, George W. Bush sought to keep America safe from another round of Islamic terrorism while promoting Middle East constitutional government as a way of weakening Islamic terrorism.

But what exactly does Barack Obama wish to accomplish abroad?

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 than wanting people to like America is only a means to an end, not a policy in itself — and an especially dubious means, given the character of many nations in the world today.

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.

Hanson is correct, in my estimation, to suggest that the problem lies in Obama's non-Christian view of human nature as essentially good and the problems of the world as originating from a lack of communication. This is a view of the world held by many liberals, but it is a dangerously false view. Obama's worldview is bumping up against a reality he cannot wish away.

Suddenly, democratic allies such as 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.

In the Middle East, Israel is being tested as never before by Hamas, Hezbollah, Syria, and now Turkey — under the cloud of a soon-to-be-nuclear Iran. Apparently, they all think that suddenly the U.S. is no longer Israel’s protector, and the opportunity for upping the ante should not be missed. . . .

Along with Brazil and Russia, Turkey is seeking to water down American efforts to stop Iranian nuclear proliferation. Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez now insults an obsequious Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as much as he once did a tough-talking George W. Bush. In fact, the more we reached out in 2009 to Iran, Russia, Syria, Turkey, and Venezuela, the more they all now seem hostile — suggesting magnanimity is often seen by such governments as appeasement that in turn encourages aggression.

Read it all here.

Obama does not understand the world because he does not understand human nature. And he appears to have no vision because no one takes his fluffy, rainbows and unicorns, prizes for everyone, only good intentions matter approach to international affairs seriously.

Do people really think that Hilary Clinton will just sit back and let Obama run again in 2012? Will the movers and shakers of the Democratic Party allow him to run again after he presides over the loss of Congress this Fall? Rasumssen Polls has Obama at a new all time low of 43% approval rating among likely voters and he is a minus 20% when you measure the strongly disapprove to the strongly approve categories. He likely won't be invited to campaign in many parts of the country by Democrats running this Fall. My prediction that he will be a one term president is looking pretty good. But four years is a long time to wait for competence at the top. Many nations wouldn't survive it, but the US will - no thanks to the whiner-in-chief.

And you can bet that when Obama is rejected by his own party and the country as a whole it will George Bush's fault, the fault of the American people for being racist, and everybody's fault but Barack H. Obama's. He probably will write a third autobiography, have a movie made about his life, go on the speaker's tour and make millions, and champion Islamic terrorist groups and their causes. Or maybe he will end up in the UN leading the charge against US policy. At least he would have experience for that job.