It is time to take a calm, reflective overview of Obama's foreign policy outcomes. Don't listen to the breathless pundits predicting doom on the "wholly owned" corporate media. Get a map of the world, point out these places for yourself and size up where we stand. 102
The neo-con media machine has carefully recruited a certain tribe of folks who refuse to entertain even the possibility that, for example, effective foreign policy can be accomplished by subtleties, nuance and maturity. The prevailing idea of cause and effect for this bunch is, “Do something, then the desired results will immediately follow.” The particular “somethings” they have habitually “done” in their gaseous claim of promoting democracy seemed to always turn out to involve threats, profit opportunities, bombing and lots of vacuous statements designed to inspire fear in their targets abroad and hokey pseudo-nationalism among their hillbilly yucksters over here.
Enter Barrack Obama.
In the last couple of months, the “big picture” of American foreign policy’s “win and lose” record is showing a remarkably positive score. The new President is, once again, able to sit at the same table with his Russian Federation counterpart, having tea and discussing nuclear arms treaties -- all this without even a hint at such a pompous claim of “seeing into his soul...”
The election in Lebanon, predicted to materialize as another Hamas-style calamity, emerged as a positive reaffirmation of, well, “spreading democracy.” And, that happy development reflects a wonderful, although subtly semantic departure from the dark days of the recent autocracy, that is, "democracy is spreading" as opposed to "we are spreading democracy."
The speech in Cairo, repeatedly characterized by neo-cons as a dismal mix between appeasement and a Presidential, Islamic “China Syndrome,” seems to have energized forward thinking Iranians who were previously painted only as bomb chucking mad men.
The elected government of Iraq doesn’t seem to be having very much trouble at all assuming control of that country’s problems. Gosh. It almost seems that “someone” (us) had been conspiring to make sure that American occupation forces remained, well, “needed” to, uh, maintain security, at least until the Iraqi Hydrocarbon Treaty was firmly in hand.
The government of Pakistan has taken a risky, but reassuringly ambitious stand against the troublesome Talaban insurgents, going so far as to partner with the NATO forces in neighboring Afghanistan by blocking the southern border of Helmand Province, closing the escape route from the recent NATO offensive there. A new, highly promising “Special Operations” General has taken command of the armies in Afghanistan.
Is this the “track record” of the inexperienced black man who was so roundly attacked as “too light in foreign policy experience” during the campaign? More likely, when these positive developments are compared with the Cheney-Bush autocracy’s endlessly morbid bumbles, we are watching an astonishing turn of events. Further, those “bumbles” rambled on and on like an endless foreign policy tooth ache for eight years. These positive signs have begun to materialize in a few weeks after “Obama’s first 100 days.”
Don’t miss the “big picture.” Don’t miss the message. Americans are now, officially, facing the hopeful prospects of a future commensurate with our greatness and good intentions.
The neo-con media machine has carefully recruited a certain tribe of folks who refuse to entertain even the possibility that, for example, effective foreign policy can be accomplished by subtleties, nuance and maturity. The prevailing idea of cause and effect for this bunch is, “Do something, then the desired results will immediately follow.” The particular “somethings” they have habitually “done” in their gaseous claim of promoting democracy seemed to always turn out to involve threats, profit opportunities, bombing and lots of vacuous statements designed to inspire fear in their targets abroad and hokey pseudo-nationalism among their hillbilly yucksters over here.
Enter Barrack Obama.
In the last couple of months, the “big picture” of American foreign policy’s “win and lose” record is showing a remarkably positive score. The new President is, once again, able to sit at the same table with his Russian Federation counterpart, having tea and discussing nuclear arms treaties -- all this without even a hint at such a pompous claim of “seeing into his soul...”
The election in Lebanon, predicted to materialize as another Hamas-style calamity, emerged as a positive reaffirmation of, well, “spreading democracy.” And, that happy development reflects a wonderful, although subtly semantic departure from the dark days of the recent autocracy, that is, "democracy is spreading" as opposed to "we are spreading democracy."
The speech in Cairo, repeatedly characterized by neo-cons as a dismal mix between appeasement and a Presidential, Islamic “China Syndrome,” seems to have energized forward thinking Iranians who were previously painted only as bomb chucking mad men.
The elected government of Iraq doesn’t seem to be having very much trouble at all assuming control of that country’s problems. Gosh. It almost seems that “someone” (us) had been conspiring to make sure that American occupation forces remained, well, “needed” to, uh, maintain security, at least until the Iraqi Hydrocarbon Treaty was firmly in hand.
The government of Pakistan has taken a risky, but reassuringly ambitious stand against the troublesome Talaban insurgents, going so far as to partner with the NATO forces in neighboring Afghanistan by blocking the southern border of Helmand Province, closing the escape route from the recent NATO offensive there. A new, highly promising “Special Operations” General has taken command of the armies in Afghanistan.
Is this the “track record” of the inexperienced black man who was so roundly attacked as “too light in foreign policy experience” during the campaign? More likely, when these positive developments are compared with the Cheney-Bush autocracy’s endlessly morbid bumbles, we are watching an astonishing turn of events. Further, those “bumbles” rambled on and on like an endless foreign policy tooth ache for eight years. These positive signs have begun to materialize in a few weeks after “Obama’s first 100 days.”
Don’t miss the “big picture.” Don’t miss the message. Americans are now, officially, facing the hopeful prospects of a future commensurate with our greatness and good intentions.
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