Malice or Incompetence?

I still don't know. [Link]

Traditional allies are snubbed and ignored, while the President makes nice with countries that have been historically opposed to us. The former is a cynical move designed to undermine and sabotage alliances, while the latter is an equally cynical move to provide weight to the claim that America doesn’t need a globe spanning military because we don’t need to face down the bad guys anymore.

In private conversations I have had about this, many people have pointed out that Pres. Obama has a personal mad on when it comes to Old Blighty. It seems that, in one of the two books he penned, he mentions how his grandfather was beaten by British troops in colonial Kenya. It is all family history and private prejudices.

And yet, there is nothing in his memoirs about how anyone from Israel beat up someone related to the President.

This might seem like a non sequitur, but please note how the current administration is following the same strategy with the tiny state of Israel that it has chosen to follow concerning Great Britain. Those regimes which are opposed to both the US and our traditional allies are pursued with ardor, while the countries and people which have proven to be our greatest friends are subjected to contempt and disdain.

It could very well be that I am misreading the situation. Perhaps our current President simply has little knowledge and less interest of how our strategic and diplomatic relationships have served the US in the past. It could be that what I discussed above is simply hubris and miscalculation, and not the opening moves to align our foreign policy towards isolationism. But I don’t think so.

A deliberate manipulation of world wide opinion, or simply a stunning naivete of foreign affairs? I’m not sure which one would be worse.