After a flurry of early activity, the Obama doctrine is taking shape

[babylonsister]

After a flurry of early activity, the Obama doctrine is taking shape

We're only 50 days in, but it's not too soon to discern a refreshing thread of logic in the president's foreign policy


If ever the world would have forgiven a man for not being able to walk and chew gum at the same time, it would have been now. No one would blame Barack Obama if he focused exclusively on the economic crisis, pushing the foreign policy in-tray to the back of his desk. After all, there's only so much even a Messiah can handle.

But last September, when a panicked John McCain suspended his campaign to return to Washington and deal with the financial turmoil, Obama refused to follow, explaining that "Presidents are going to have to deal with more than one thing at a time". In that spirit, he has advanced a programme of Rooseveltian ambition at home - while not forgetting that his job description also demands he be the lead actor abroad.

It's not been easy: there are reports of flashes of irritation, as well as streaks of grey on the presidential head. By all accounts the president often looks like he needs a cigarette. Badly.

For all that, he has crammed a slew of foreign policy moves into his first six weeks, any one of which would have made big news in normal times. Instead, in the age of global economic meltdown, they have had to fight for more than fleeting media attention.

Most visible have been the big declarations, whether announcing the beginning of the end of the Iraq war, avowing that the United States of America "does not torture", or ordering that Guantánamo be closed. In just the last week, we've had secretary of state Hillary Clinton dispatching officials to Syria as well as inviting Iran to talks on the future of Afghanistan - extending a hand to two states previously consigned to outer darkness. The start of the month brought the revelation that Obama had written a secret letter to his Russian counterpart, Dmitri Medvedev, hinting at a deal in which Moscow would lean on Iran, urging it to abandon its quest for nuclear weapons, in return for the US scrapping its planned installation of a missile defence system in Russia's eastern European backyard. A gesture to cap it all: the Obama administration has moved to ease trade and travel restrictions with Cuba.

more...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/mar/11/barack-obama-doctrine-us-foreign-policy

[Clio the Leo]

1. lol, Except for the fact that he DOES NOT NEED A CIGGIE...

... nor does he LOOK like he needs one .... excellent article. Thank you.

[Cha]

2. Yeah, right..enough manufactured

drama. I never once saw a pic of Obama looking like he needed a cancer stick.

But, yeah, people with brains working on Foreign Policy is brilliant.