Obama the Interventionist

"America must 'lead the world in battling immediate evils and promoting the ultimate good.' With those words, Barack Obama put an end to the idea that the alleged overexuberant idealism and America-centric hubris of the past six years is about to give way to a new realism, a more limited and modest view of American interests, capabilities and responsibilities.

"Obama's speech at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs last week was pure John Kennedy, without a trace of John Mearsheimer. It had a deliberate New Frontier feel, including some Kennedy-era references ('we were Berliners') and even the Cold War-era notion that the United States is the 'leader of the free world.' No one speaks of the 'free world' these days, and Obama's insistence that we not 'cede our claim of leadership in world affairs' will sound like an anachronistic conceit to many Europeans, who even in the 1990s complained about the bullying 'hyperpower.' In Moscow and Beijing it will confirm suspicions about America's inherent hegemonism. But Obama believes the world yearns to follow us, if only we restore our worthiness to lead ...

"Obama wants to increase defense spending. He wants to add 65,000 troops to the Army and recruit 27,000 more Marines. Why? To fight terrorism."

Categories: usa, terrorism, military