Wednesday, January 23, 2013

The New World Disorder

President Obama with Chuck Hagel and John Brennan, January 7, 2013

The New World Disorder -- Victor Davis Hanson, NRO

With a diminished team at State, Defense, and the CIA, Obama can be Obama.

John Brennan, Chuck Hagel, and John Kerry will be confirmed. The three will provide a force-multiplying effect on the Obama foreign policy of disengagement. The chameleon Brennan will be very different from David Petraeus at the CIA; Hagel is no circumspect Leon Panetta; and there was a reason why the appointment of Hillary Clinton as secretary of state was greeted with praise in a way John Kerry’s will not be. The trio is less competent than their predecessors, but also perhaps more representative of a country on its way to a $20 trillion national debt and a “lead from behind” foreign policy of managed decline.

Let us take stock of the world since 2008. Reset with Russia was an abject failure; and relations with Vladimir Putin have never been frostier — and pettier, as even the U.S. adoption of Russian orphans has now ended. Nothing is more counterproductive than to lecture a proud rival nation from a position of looming financial and military weakness.

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My Comment:
Victor Davis Hanson is one of my favorite pundits .... and he excels in this post. Read it all.

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