The health care reform bill has passed, but domestic issues continue to loom large in the discourse in the U.S. As Sarah Palin rallies Tea Partiers on Boston Common, a new Supreme Court nomination fight looms. Unemployment remains very high, Main Street still hates Wall Street, and everybody hates Congress.
But meanwhile, with relatively little fanfare, President Obama has been racking up foreign policy successes on an almost daily basis. A new nuclear treaty with Russia is hammered out; warming of relations with China lead to talk of cooperation on Iran and hints of currency flexibility; an unprecedented nuclear nonproliferation summit results in a significant agreement by world leaders on protecting nuclear stockpiles.
Obama has not made similar progress in the Middle East. He hasn't been able to convince the Israeli people of a thorough commitment to peace and prosperity for the Jewish state, as his predecessor was. It's worth noting in this context that Obama is president of a country a sizable portion of whose citizens seem willing to entertain the possibility that he is "the Antichrist." It certainly shouldn't shock anyone that a man who spent some formative years in a Muslim country and bears the middle name "Hussein" should have his work cut out for him in the Holy Land. The President and his advisors need to work harder to gain the trust of the Israelis, through both word and deed.
Nevertheless, Obama's recent string of foreign policy successes bodes well for the world in the next few years. The drawdown of forces in Iraq is running more or less on schedule. Afghanistan remains a bed of quicksand beyond the capacity of anyone to escape (or pave over) in the short term, but the President, his Secretary of Defense, and the indefatigable US armed forces keep trying. And Obama has come through well over a year in office without having starting any new wars.
If nothing else, Obama's practice of realpolitik is a breath of fresh air after the previous administration's unfunded wars and pie-in-the-sky talk of exporting democracy...and after months of near-gridlock on health care making us all sick.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Victor Lana
Great article, Jon. It's without question that Obama is walking the walk when it comes to nukes. If we protest about places like Iran acquiring them, we must set the tone by getting rid of (at least some of) them ourselves.
2 - Ruvy
Jon,
I really suggest you stick to Culture and theatre reviews. The things you miss in this article are so voluminous as to require a whole book to correct. The article itself sounds as if you have been drinking the Obama Koolaid, and have visions of Obama wearing a top hat, twirling a cane, and singing The Candy Man. It was a work, like Obama's foreign policy, of Pure Imagination.
But I'll give you one thing. Your article is short sweet and concise - even if it is all wrong.
3 - Ruvy
This song, as sung by Gene Wilder, is remarkably prescient of the Obama propaganda you swallow with the joy of a child gobbling up a Willie Wonka candy bar.
4 - Jon Sobel
Ruvy, as usual, you are so cynical you don't see even the glimmers of hope and positivity that exist in the world. I am not swallowing propaganda. I am merely observing what is actually happening in diplomatic circles. You mention propaganda - I wonder how many readers actually know the definition of propaganda? It comes from "propagate" - to spread a message. Another word for spreading a message is one Christians would recognize: Gospel.
5 - Ruvy
Jon,
You mistake "glimmers of hope and positivity" for a successful record. There is a huge difference between the two. I've also written about glimmers of hope and positivity - but I am careful not to call it more than that.
The big problem with your article can be summed up in four letters - I-R-A-N. That can be read in two ways: "I RAN from the issues I had to cover here so fast that the scenery blurred around me" - a good characterization of this article; or "IRAN - Farsi for 'Aryan', the name the Empire of Persia adopted in its admiration of Adolf Hitler."
Either way, IRAN is the 8,000 pound gorilla in the room. And your beknighted leader has seen fit to offer the leaders of Iran bananas, which have been promptly slapped away with Persian contempt.
That is not "Obama on a Foreign Policy Roll" - unless he rolling you all down to a nuclear hell. I hope you know a nice Jewish air conditioner salesman when you get there, Jon.
6 - Mark
Geeze, that's one big gorilla!
7 - Jon Sobel
So because Iran continues to be a problem, nothing that happens with the hundreds of other countries in the world means anything? That's the benighted attitude, not mine.
8 - Ruvy
My apologies, Jon. The song listed above was not sung by Gene Wilder, and I've been having trouble finding the singer. The most accurate guess I can up with is Anthony Newley, listed on a CD of the original soundtrack of the movie (or was it the musical?).
As for my criticisms of your article, however, I stand by my assertions. Iran is not the only problem - but it is a major problem that your president dances around the way Chamberlain danced around Hitler. As you may recall, Hitler proved Chamberlain quite the liar and quite the coward, and given the chance the mullahs in Teheran will do the same to the fool in the Oval Office.
The Persian bomb may be an existential threat to us in Israel, so naturally we would be very concerned. But it is a threat to you as well, as well as the Europeans who will be within range of the Shahab 3 missiles now in Iran's possession. As I said in my first comment, the things you have missed in your article are so voluminous as to require an entire book to answer. I don't have that kind of time.
9 - Ruvy
I can, however, recommend to you to my second comment at Dock Ellis's article, Afghanistan Lost. You and other Americans really do need to view the world through lenses other than the cracked rose-colored ones of the Obama propaganda/gospel machine.
10 - Scott Deitche
With Obama, you will never make conservatives happy, much the same as Bush never did anything right in liberals' eyes.
We are all becoming perpetual whiners.
11 - zingzing
jesus christ, ruvy. he mentions iran once, and you dismiss every other word as "all wrong?" explain that. how can you possibly think that you've fairly assessed this article?
let me guess. you just hate obama. nothing new. nothing unexpected. just pure, ridiculous, blinding hate, as usual.
12 - Dave Nalle
A foreign policy roll in which he is embarrassing himself and the nation and which has caused French President Sarkozy to call him a "lunatic" - way to roll!
Dave
13 - zingzing
apparently, dave, the "lunatic" comment came from a discussion on how to deal with "islamic extremism," which the french have dealt with by banning burqas. draw your own conclusions.
and how exactly has he embarrassed himself and the nation? want to elaborate?
14 - handyguy
Dave repeats the fake tabloid assertion about Sarkozy* and offers no further evidence of the alleged embarrassment Obama is causing us. Hey, I'm not embarrassed. Are you embarrassed?
This knee-jerk compulsion to say sweeping derogatory things about all of the president's policies serves no purpose. Just propagandistic vitriol that says a lot about the person posting.
*The unverified source: one article by one wack job on one European web site [based on 'secret' documents 'leaked by the Kremlin'], amplified through people like Nalle who just can't resist passing it along. Trying to ascertain whether something is actually true is just so...old school, eh?
15 - zingzing
"Trying to ascertain whether something is actually true is just so... ANTI-AMERICAN."
there, i fixed it, you commie.
16 - roger nowosielski
"and how exactly has he embarrassed himself and the nation? want to elaborate?"
Hey, Sistah Sarah thinks so, so it must be true!
17 - Lumpy
I saw the sarkozy quote in that fake tabloid called the Washington Post.
18 - handyguy
The piece was published in something called The EU Times ["the eeww times?"] and every mention of it in a Google search goes back to that "article." [I use the term loosely.] I just searched the Post site, no such animal. [If Lumpy can provide a link, we’d all love to see it.]
It's basically a pseudonymous blog post, author name “Europe.”
Here’s the beginning of this masterpiece of journalism:
”A new report circulating in the Kremlin today authored by France’s Directorate-General for External Security (DGSE) and recently “obtained” by the FSB shockingly quotes French President Nicolas Sarkozy as stating that President Barack Obama is “a dangerous[ly] aliéné”...
And here's a later sentence that tells me just what kind of "journalist" we're dealing with.
Most unfortunately for those Americans living under the Obama regime is that their attempts to stop the radical socialism he has pushed upon them from destroying their once great Nation has failed…
And here are the last two sentences:
"To everyone else in America we can only advise you to begin stocking up for the End of the World….you won’t be alone.
Donate and help us spread the truth further."
Then a convenient "Donate" button. They take MasterCard and Visa. Lumpy, Dave, care to send them something?
19 - zingzing
where did they quote it from?
20 - Baritone
First: One must totally ignore Ruvy. He left earth decades ago and hasn't touched terra firma in years.
Second: One must realize that Nalle is easily embarrassed. His puffy little cheeks turn red at almost anything. And, one should realize that Nalle and most of the righty tighties still look at things through Cold War era glasses. They believe adamantly that the ONLY way to deal with the world at large is to assume our superiority, be condescending, and of course, be a bully. It is in their view our god given right to stick our unabashed red, white and blue thumbs in everyone's eye.
It is reported by most who have witnessed Obama's recent international successes as having opened up many new channels of communication which had been summarily cut off by Bush/Cheney - that the international diplomatic community looks again at the US as a vigorous and positive player in world politics.
But, of course, the right isn't happy unless this country is prowling about the world like opportunisitic junk yard dogs itching for a fight.
B
21 - Baritone
And another thing: Why would ANY wing nut worth his or her salt give a whit about what some Frenchy had to say about anything?
B
22 - Jon Sobel
Thank you, Baronius. It's nice to see some common sense in the BC commentosphere.
23 - Baritone
Wilder may have sung "The Candy Man" in some film or other, but the song became a moderate hit as sung by Sammy Davis, Jr.
B
24 - roger nowosielski
"Why would ANY wing nut worth his or her salt give a whit about what some Frenchy had to say about anything?"
When it's convenient to advance his or her bogus argument.
25 - Glenn Contrarian
Jon #22 -
I assume you meant "Baritone" instead of "Baronius" since the normally almost-rabid-right-wing Baronius hasn't commented on this topic yet.
Don't worry, though - I've mixed the two of them up before, too.