Post by Origanalist on Jul 12, 2014 11:56:06 GMT -8
SATURDAY, JULY 12, 2014
William S. Lind observes that the Obama administration's foreign policy is not so much ill-advised as precisely backward:
After meeting with Ukraine’s newly elected president, Petro O. Poroshenko, President Obama added, “The United States is absolutely committed to standing behind the Ukrainian people and their aspirations, not just in the coming days and weeks but in the coming years.” Unaccountably, Ruritania and Graustark were forgotten.
This is an animal shelter foreign policy. Based entirely on sentiment, we are taking in any and every little country that somehow feels threatened by a state that actually counts. We equally “stand with” Vietnam and the Philippines against China, in an area long known as the South China Sea. Just what “standing with” means is left vague. Does it mean that if they get knocked down, we’re in a fight with whomever threw the punch? If so, the Obama administration is making one of the worst foreign policy errors a country can make, casually and thoughtlessly offering commitments that can lead to war.
Even apart from that risk, we are making a fundamental mistake. These little countries can do nothing for us. A commitment to them benefits them, but does absolutely nothing for us. It is to such a “giveaway” foreign policy that sentiment invariably leads.
continued at...http://voxday.blogspot.com/2014/07/foreign-policy-as-humane-society.html
William S. Lind observes that the Obama administration's foreign policy is not so much ill-advised as precisely backward:
After meeting with Ukraine’s newly elected president, Petro O. Poroshenko, President Obama added, “The United States is absolutely committed to standing behind the Ukrainian people and their aspirations, not just in the coming days and weeks but in the coming years.” Unaccountably, Ruritania and Graustark were forgotten.
This is an animal shelter foreign policy. Based entirely on sentiment, we are taking in any and every little country that somehow feels threatened by a state that actually counts. We equally “stand with” Vietnam and the Philippines against China, in an area long known as the South China Sea. Just what “standing with” means is left vague. Does it mean that if they get knocked down, we’re in a fight with whomever threw the punch? If so, the Obama administration is making one of the worst foreign policy errors a country can make, casually and thoughtlessly offering commitments that can lead to war.
Even apart from that risk, we are making a fundamental mistake. These little countries can do nothing for us. A commitment to them benefits them, but does absolutely nothing for us. It is to such a “giveaway” foreign policy that sentiment invariably leads.
continued at...http://voxday.blogspot.com/2014/07/foreign-policy-as-humane-society.html