Obama's Foreign Policy Mentor
CONTINETTI, MATTHEW
Obama’s Foreign Policy Mentor Where John McCain goes, Barack eventually follows. BY MATTHEW CONTINETTI He has 300 foreign policy advisers and the chairman of the Senate Foreign...
...He became a vocal supporter of the deal (which must be approved by Congress once more before taking effect...
...And it was Russia, not the defeated Georgians, which needed—and still needs—to show “restraint...
...During the Democratic primaries, I wrote that, if elected, Obama would stick to his artificial timeline for withdrawal from Iraq no matter what (“They Really Do Plan to Surrender” in the April 21, 2008, WEEKLY STANDARD...
...Obama’s chief foreign policy adviser—the secretary general of the 300—actually suggested McCain had made the situation worse by condemning it...
...They both support a cap-and-trade scheme to limit carbon emissions...
...And he was unafraid to express solidarity with a fellow democracy, saying, “We are all Georgians...
...In a later statement, Obama said there was no justifi cation for Russia’s actions...
...On issue after issue, Obama’s small army of wonks has not been able to keep him from stumbling...
...McCain’s response could not have been more different from Obama’s...
...Except Obama has not said how large his “rapid reaction force” will be or where it will be deployed...
...In Iraq...
...A talented writer, he is keenly aware of subtle distinctions in word choice and emphasis, and the shifts in position are sometimes diffi - cult to detect...
...But that was so last year...
...Thousands of troops...
...And so often Obama follows in the footsteps of his true foreign policy mentor: John McCain...
...Timbuktu...
...Yet Obama voted for a series of so-called “killer” amendments that would have made the agreement dead on arrival...
...The surge...
...Toward a substantial American engagement with the world and the maintenance of American primacy...
...For this he was called a reckless warmonger by many on both the left and the right...
...And soon only one difference remained...
...As time passed, he began to sound more like . . . McCain...
...Obama completely changed his tune...
...Russia was responsible...
...Another word for “careful” is “slow...
...A conditions-based withdrawal is exactly what General Petraeus and McCain support...
...He did not equivocate...
...And once those amendments had been defeated, something curious happened...
...They both oppose torture and want to shut down the terrorist prison at Guant?namo Bay...
...They both support expanding the Army and Marine Corps...
...Tens of thousands...
...In July, Obama told Newsweek his withdrawal would be “entirely conditions based,” meaning the redeployments could slow down, or end, if violence in Iraq took a turn for the worse...
...McCain had been there fi rst...
...Matthew Continetti is the associate editor of THE WEEKLY STANDARD...
...His side lost...
...But they are there nonetheless...
...A bipartisan group of senators, including Biden and McCain, were able to defeat the amendments Obama supported...
...BY MATTHEW CONTINETTI He has 300 foreign policy advisers and the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations committee is his vice presidential nominee...
...When Russia invaded Georgia last month, Obama released a statement condemning the “outbreak of violence” and urging both sides to show “restraint...
...In 2007 Obama pledged to meet with Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his friends “without precondition...
...Faced with the prospect of governing, he has shunted aside the rhetoric and policies that so titillated the left during the Democratic primary...
...In December 2006 the Senate debated a civilian nuclear United States and India...
...But Obama still took, and continues to take, foreign policy cues from McCain...
...And both say unilateral military action is always an option...
...Then there is Iraq...
...Terrorist surveillance...
...Neither man forswears the use of force to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons...
...Didn’t happen, of course...
...An “outbreak” suggests there was no agency behind the war...
...These days Obama’s goal—withdrawing combat troops from Iraq within 16 months of taking offi ce—seems more a hope than a plan...
...Not so...
...But what did Obama do...
...His instinct, of course, is to stake out positions on the left...
...Both repeatedly say that America is an exceptional country...
...Toward McCain...
...Meanwhile, Obama says the United States needs to be as “careful” leaving Iraq as we were “careless” going in...
...He supported economic aid to Georgia to help reconstruct that battered country...
...He says “preparations” will take place before any summits, and that those summits will occur only if he thinks they will further American national security interests...
...That it simply sprung into being...
...And now the other day Obama said the surge has succeeded beyond “our wildest expectations...
...But his overall course is steadily toward the center...
...Both promise to reach the quixotic goal of “energy independence...
...Where there is divergence, it doesn’t last long...
...These days, Obama hedges...
...It forces Obama to adjust...
...That agreement— the product of long, intense negotiations between the Bush administration and the Indian government— will cement a new strategic alliance between our two countries...
...Negotiations with rogue dictators...
...Obama was against this year’s revision to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, until he voted for it...
...As the story goes, shortly after coming to Washington, Obama sought out McCain to tell him that he was a role model...
...He still may occasionally feint in that direction...
...And Obama calls for a “rapid reaction force” that would be used to control violence and “prevent the confl ict in Iraq from becoming a wider war...
...And yet Barack Obama’s foreign policy is still all twists and turns, forever adapting to every change in the political circumstances...
...He called on Russia to end the violence immediately...
...Whatever the case, it looks like Obama now intends for there to be a substantial American troop presence in Iraq for some time to come...
...On many issues there is little difference between the two candidates...
...A sorry response...
...Toward an internationalist foreign policy well within the tradition of recent presidents...
...Obama was a vocal opponent...
...Every so often he would emerge from his vacation digs in Hawaii and ratchet up the rhetoric...
...Russia invaded...
...He called Russia what it is—the aggressor in an unjustifi ed war...
...On Georgia, the differences between the two candidates grew smaller and smaller...
...His expectations, certainly...
...Kuwait...
...But reality intrudes...
...I’m not so sure anymore...
...The two were friends until a dispute over an ethics bill soured the relationship...
...He predicted that sending reinforcements to Iraq and changing strategy would not just fail but indeed make things worse...
...Both want to send more troops to Afghanistan, recognize the sovereignty of Kosovo, and support NATO expansion...
Vol. 14 • September 2008 • No. 2
