The Age of Obama: Anno Domini 2 Charles Krauthammer
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No. 1143 Delivered January 19, 2010 February 2, 2010 The Age of Obama: Anno Domini 2 Charles Krauthammer Abstract: In the real world, as opposed to what French President Nicolas Sarkozy calls President Barack Obama’s “virtual world,” America faces the reality of Iran’s intransi- Talking Points gence and aggressiveness; China’s headlong pursuit of its own national, regional, and global interests; Russia’s deter- • President Obama’s foreign policy agenda is one of gradual retreat. When allies see the mination to regain its Near Abroad; the Arab states’ refus- American umbrella being withdrawn, they al to accept any kind of a reasonable settlement of the kind will have to accommodate themselves to that Israel has already offered under several governments; those from whom we were protecting them. Syria’s designs on Lebanon; and Hugo Chávez’s designs on • Such a policy cannot deal effectively with the weaker countries in Latin America. President Obama’s Iran’s intransigence and aggressiveness; foreign policy agenda of gradual American retreat will China’s headlong pursuit of its own national, have inexorable consequences: When erstwhile allies see regional, and global interests; Russia’s deter- the American umbrella being withdrawn, they will have to mination to regain its Near Abroad; the Arab accommodate themselves to those from whom we were pro- states’ refusal to accept any reasonable set- tecting them. If Obama proves impervious to empirical evi- tlement of the kind that Israel has offered dence and experience, all these accommodations, the under several governments; Syria’s designs weakening of alliances, the strengthening of centers of on Lebanon; and Hugo Chávez’s designs on adversarial power in Moscow, Beijing, Tehran, Caracas, the weaker countries in Latin America. and elsewhere will continue until we are awakened by • If President Obama proves impervious to some cataclysm. empirical evidence and experience, all these accommodations, the weakening of alliances, the strengthening of centers of adversarial power in Moscow, Beijing, Tehran, Caracas, Perhaps I should have subtitled my address “How and elsewhere will continue until some cata- do you celebrate the first anniversary of the Second clysm wakes us up. Coming?”—a conundrum that has confounded theo- logians for centuries. Six months ago, when I was thinking of my subject This paper, in its entirety, can be found at: www.heritage.org/Research/NationalSecurity/hl1143.cfm for this address, President Obama was halfway on his The Margaret Thatcher Freedom Lectures trajectory—downward trajectory—from divinity to Produced by the Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom mortality. But now that we’ve arrived at the last day of Published by The Heritage Foundation his first year at precisely the point where the magic has 214 Massachusetts Avenue, NE Washington, DC 20002–4999 (202) 546-4400 • heritage.org Nothing written here is to be construed as necessarily reflect- ing the views of The Heritage Foundation or as an attempt to aid or hinder the passage of any bill before Congress. No. 1143 Delivered January 19, 2010 worn off and the charisma grown cold, where Mas- And yes, Obama did offer a defense of war. But sachusetts—bluest of blue—is even thinking of he had just announced a 30,000-troop deployment electing an obscure Republican to the U.S. Senate in Afghanistan—a war that was a legacy obligation seat traditionally reserved for the Kennedy family he had inherited and himself declared a “vital and its functionaries, where Obama’s approval rat- national interest”—and nonetheless he so agonized ing is down to 46 percent, and where his disapprov- about providing his generals with an adequate troop al rating is the highest ever a year after a President’s level that it took three months of very public wres- election, there’s no real need for me to trace and tling with both his conscience and his Vice Presi- explain this remarkable fall. dent before he came to that decision. So instead of talking about where Obama’s What else can the leader of any serious nation do domestic agenda has brought him, I propose to but defend the necessity of war? How can a man speak about where his foreign policy agenda has who ran for commander in chief do otherwise? brought us. What leader of a serious nation even raises pacifism _________________________________________ as a serious foreign policy issue? When a President’s recognition of evil or rejec- Indeed, when a President’s recognition of evil or tion of pacifism jumps out at us as something rejection of pacifism jumps out at us as something startling and novel, that tells us much—none startling and novel, that tells us much—none of it of it good—about the woolly internationalism good—about the baseline from which he is operat- Obama has been operating under. ing: the woolly internationalism Obama has been ____________________________________________ operating under during his first year in office. And remember: After this brief foray into the After a year of fairly steady criticism from the obvious—defending the necessity of war, affirming right, the Obama foreign policy received a second America’s role in protecting the world order— look—and a wave of rather favorable consider- Obama felt compelled to spend the second half of ation—after his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance his Nobel speech returning to the liberal interna- speech in Oslo, in which he acknowledged the tionalist themes that had garnered him that fatuous existence of evil, the importance of America in sus- prize from that overdressed, underemployed jury in taining peace, and the occasional necessity to wage the first place. war. This led to some enthusiastic talk about a new Obama Doctrine variously described as a kind of A Fancied Entity Christian realism, Niebuhrian tragic-mindedness, And what is that baseline? What is the essence of or a fusion of realism and idealism. Obama’s foreign policy? I hate to rain on this parade, but I find it hard to There are many places where it can be found— join the general swooning over this newfound for- the Cairo speech, the other legs of the apology eign policy sophistication. It’s good that we have a tour—but the essence was succinctly expressed in President who says publicly that Gandhi would not his centerpiece address to the U.N. General Assem- have done very well against Hitler, but is this really bly in which he laid out his understanding of what a great philosophical advance? For a President of the animates the international system: “In an era when United States? It’s the kind of issue that you dispose our destiny is shared, power is no longer a zero-sum of in your first bull session in the freshman dorm. game. No one nation can or should try to dominate Pacifism is a serious subject for sweet adoles- another nation. No world order that elevates one cence, or a way of life for certain eccentric sects nation or group of people over another will suc- who, it must be noted, survive because they live ceed.” And “alignments of nations rooted in the among non-eccentric people who reject pacifism cleavages of a long-gone Cold War” “make no sense and fight to keep those little sects alive and free. in an interconnected world.” page 2 No. 1143 Delivered January 19, 2010 Where does one begin? Power is no longer a decades strove to maintain it—that is, those who zero-sum game? Tell that to the demonstrators in put it up in the first place. The wall came down not the streets of Tehran. Tell that to the Tamil Tigers or because of any kumbaya coming together of people, to the newly liberated Baltic states. but because the United States, acting often unilater- _________________________________________ ally, but certainly with only a few allies, at very high cost in two hot wars (Korea and Vietnam) and one At the heart of Obama’s internationalist fantasy Cold War that carried the constant threat of nuclear is the notion that a “community of nations” with annihilation, persisted in fighting relentlessly to its common norms is ultimately determinative of contain and bring down the Soviet empire. the course of history. ____________________________________________ Only someone who could actually think that the Cold War was won by some common exertion of No nation should try to dominate another? Per- common humanity in the service of common uni- haps, but that’s merely adolescent utopianism. The versal norms could actually believe that those fic- world is a Hobbesian state of nature in which the tional forces hold the key to security and peace in struggle for domination is the very essence of inter- the world today. But Obama does. At the heart of national life. this internationalist fantasy is the very notion that a No nation can dominate another? This is simple “community of nations” with its common norms is nonsense. How can a man of such intelligence— ultimately determinative of the course of history. and a president of the United States—even allow Common norms? The Taliban and we have very himself to utter these words? different visions of the good. So do, for example, the But most disturbing is the notion that what he Arabs of northern Sudan and the Christian and ani- called “the cleavages of a long-gone Cold War” are mist Sudanese of the South who have been in near- obsolete and senseless. These cleavages were actual- perpetual civil war for decades. To say nothing of ly the dividing line between free and unfree, North and South in this country in the 1860s. between democratic and Communist, between the And even if people share the same aspirations, West and an Evil Empire that had stamped out the harmony does not necessarily follow: Resources, face of freedom in half of Europe and in an archipel- riches, land, and power are not infinite; peoples ago of far-flung colonies from Vietnam to Cuba to strive to gain what others have.