August 5, 2007
Obama: An Agent of "Change" in Foreign Policy
A memo from Samantha Power, one of Senator Barak Obama's foreign policy advisor claims that the Illinois Senator is a true agent of change for American foreign policy and that "conventional wisdom" on the part of the Washington establishment is at fault for many of our overseas problems:
Over the last few weeks, Barack Obama has once again taken positions that challenge Washington’s conventional wisdom on foreign policy. And once again, pundits and politicians have leveled charges that are now bankrupt of credibility and devoid of the new ideas that the American people desperately want. On each point in the last few weeks, Barack Obama has called for a break from a broken way of doing things. On each point, he has brought fresh strategic thinking and common sense that break with the very conventional wisdom that has led us into Iraq.The Senator's remarks about talking with America's enemies without preconditions, attacking al-Qaeda in Pakistan without that government's approval, and his pledge not to use nuclear weapons has been widely seen as horrible gaffes by his campaign. Not so, says Power:
American foreign policy is broken. It has been broken by people who supported the Iraq War, opposed talking to our adversaries, failed to finish the job with al Qaeda, and alienated the world with our belligerence. Yet conventional wisdom holds that people whose experience includes taking these positions are held up as examples of what America needs in times of trouble.Heavy duty spin won't change the fact that when compared to the more conventional foreign policy positions of Hillary Clinton, Obama comes off as both weak and reckless. A hard combination of policy proposals to carry off but the Illinois Senator has done it.
Barack Obama says we have to turn the page. We cannot afford any more of this kind of bankrupt conventional wisdom. He has laid out a foreign policy that is bold, clear, principled, and tailored for the 21st century. End a war we should never have fought, concentrate our resources against terrorists who threaten America. End the counter-productive policy of lumping together our adversaries and avoiding talking to our foes. End the era of politics that is all sound-bites and no substance, and offer the American people the change that they need.
Barack Obama’s judgment is right. It is conventional wisdom that has to change.
HT: Ed Lasky