HE'S A CLASSIC AVATAR OF ISOLATION...:

Obama the Isolationist?: America’s global influence is visibly and voluntarily shrinking because of Obama’s foreign policy. (Tony Blankley, 6/23/10, National Review)

Is it possible for an American president to accidentally carry out an isolationist foreign policy? That odd question crossed my mind last week as I talked with various foreign-policy experts about the Middle East, Russia, and Afghanistan. Judging by his words and his travels, there can be no doubt that President Obama intends to be anything but an isolationist president. He proudly called himself a citizen of the world while in Berlin during the campaign. He has gone out of his way to travel the world, speak to the world, and reach out for the favorable judgment of all the peoples of the world.

And yet, wherever one looks, one sees American influence visibly and voluntarily shrinking. Consider three world hot spots: the Middle East, Russia and its near abroad, and Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Whether you talk to Jew or Arab, Turk or Kurd, Sunni or Shiite, the de-Americanization of Middle East policy is the emerging factor to be reckoned with. The uncertainty of the American trumpet, the indecisiveness of the American hand, and the modesty of the American goals are freeing the strong and forcing the weak to prepare to fend for themselves. American ineffectiveness (under both George W. Bush and Mr. Obama) in the face of Iran’s nuclear quest drives nuclear-acquisition plans throughout that unstable zone.

...of the variety that fears we will be contaminated by contact with the outside world.

Posted by Orrin Judd at June 23, 2010 5:33 AM