Obama’s Foreign Policy debt to George W Bush
An interesting take by Robert Kaplan at The Atlantic on how Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton will take the credit for some re-positioning of American foreign policy undertaken by the much derided George W Bush.
Consider this extract:-
But the real reason that Obama and Clinton might enjoy success is something that goes barely mentioned in the media. Obama and Clinton are buying into a bottomed-out market vis-à-vis America’s position in the world. It is as if they will be buying stock after the market has crashed, and just at the point when a number of factors are already set in motion for a recovery. For President George W. Bush did not just damage America’s position in the world, he has also, over the past two years, quietly repositioned himself as a realist in foreign policy, and that, coupled with a bold new strategy in Iraq, known as the “surge,” has poised America for a diplomatic rebound, which the next administration will get the credit for carrying out.
I think giving credit to George Bush for anything he’s done in his presidency during the last eight years is really reaching. Kaplan says Bush has “quietly repositioned himself” in the last two years as a foreign policy realist which begs the question, “where is the evidence for this?” He must have been REALLY quiet about it! I didn’t hear any specifics about what Bush has done in regards to massaging foreign leaders to come together in united cause, but rather Kaplan mentions the effect of oil-prices (Bush intended for the price of oil to go down but for totally different reasons, you’ll recall) and how this affects other countries and the likelihood for cooperation where antagonism and outright war might have existed before. Again you have to ask, if for some Godforsaken reason Bush and Co. were allowed another eight years in order to take advantage of this great opportunity you say Obama and Clinton are waltzing into, would he get even half the results?
I’d say he not only wouldn’t get the same results but would fail to capitalize on the opportunities Kaplan mentions. These are very short-sighted people with only greed as their goal. The only realism I see is due to his lame-duck status, otherwise I’m sure you’d see the same saber-rattling and drumbeat to engage in concurrent wars while extending our occupation beyond even McCain’s wildest dreams.
It’s hard to see how corporatist hate-mongers would want to put in place strategies for a diplomatic rebound when they in fact thrive (make their money) off of the imbalance and chaos they have caused.
This is my opinion
Carl Johnson