November 23, 2010
A CAPTIVE OF THE BUREAUCRACY:
On foreign policy, Obama is stuck in the '80s (Jackson Diehl, 11/22/10, Union Leader)
The Obama administration is devoting a big share of its diplomatic time and capital to curbing Israeli settlement construction in the West Bank — most recently, offering Israel’s right-wing government $3 billion in warplanes in exchange for a 90-day moratorium. Meanwhile, it has committed much of its dwindling domestic political capital to pushing a new nuclear arms control treaty with Russia through a reluctant Senate.So has nothing changed in the past quarter-century? In fact, almost everything has — especially when it comes to nuclear arms control and Israel’s national objectives. What hasn’t changed, it seems, is Barack Obama — who has led his administration into a foreign policy time warp that is sapping its strength abroad and at home.
Start with the New START treaty that Obama has made a priority for the lame-duck Senate, at a time when Americans don’t yet know what income tax rate they will pay on Jan. 1. The treaty resembles the landmark U.S.-Soviet arms control treaties that were negotiated in the years after Obama wrote his article — and it would perpetuate their important verification measures.
The difference is that no one stages marches today about U.S. and Soviet — now Russian — strategic weapons, and with good reason. The danger of a war between the two states is minuscule; and treaty or no, Russia’s arsenal is very likely to dwindle in the coming years.
He's just doing what the State Department tells him to do.
