The Right thinks if we don’t continue the neocon’s programs in dealing with the rest of the world, we’ll be losing the edge in foreign policy. But is this true? Is the “we’d rather bomb you than talk to you” approach the best chance we have for world order? Or is President Obama, our Community-Organizer-in-Chief leading us in the right direction?
Being the schoolyard bully certainly has its perks. Nobody dares take anything that belongs to you, no one would even consider standing up to you, or refusing you your favorite seat in the cafeteria. The downside is, nobody will stand up with you, or share anything with you unless you take it from them.
In other words, bullies have no real friends they can rely on!
Sure they get their way most of the time, because everyone is afraid of them. They also get a lot of space, because no one will go near them. The tough guy life is a lonely life indeed!
And this is exactly what we’ve seen throughout the Bush years. The United States pretty much had to go it alone with just a handful of nations, possessing little power of their own, tagging along. It was very costly for the nation both monetarily and in casualties. The Bush concept of “coerced democracy” left us with a wide berth in the schoolyard, and alienated itself from the rest of the world.
Now we have the “we’re all in this together if its going to work” mentality through President Obama, and the Right Wing thinks we’re a lot less safe. Yet the President is mending alliances throughout the world, including with Russia, and the world is beginning to stand together on some important issues. Sounds a lot safer this way, don’t you think?
I don’t know about you, but I’ve seen many a bully get what’s coming to him when the other kids finally had enough of him. Yet I never did see any kid, with the ability to come up with inclusive ideas for the whole schoolyard, get a beating.
It’s all a very simple equation really, the World is a community (whether anyone likes it or not), and all it needed was a “community organizer” to begin the process of setting things right. So if you ask me if we’re losing the edge in foreign policy with Obama at the helm, I’d have give a resounding “No!”
