Victor Davis Hanson‘s latest column posted at National Review Online dissects President Obama’s approach to foreign policy.
What explains this paradox of self-described liberal thinkers not appreciating classical liberalism abroad? It is not old-fashioned right-wing realpolitik that calibrates Obama’s foreign policy — at least not on consistent criteria such as shared self-interests, national security, or access to resources, since the status of American alliances, our forward military profile, and a reductive commitment to help friends and punish enemies have never been more problematic.
Instead, American foreign policy is now becoming an extension not of classically liberal values, but of progressive suspicions of constitutional government, capitalism, and the historical role of the United States in particular and the West in general. The bowing to foreign potentates, the sad historical fabrications in the Cairo speech, the self-serving nonsense that arose in the first Al-Arabiya interview, and the so-called “apology tour” were simply superficial manifestations of a deeper ambiguity about America and its past and present values and world role.
