Who’s Foreign Policy Adult?

[Drunken Irishman]

http://www.observer.com/2008/politics/who-s-foreign-policy-adult">Who’s Foreign Policy Adult?

Barack Obama knows which countries border Iraq; he understands the difference between Shia and Sunni; and he is probably aware that Czechoslovakia no longer exists—but as John McCain complains, the young senator has “no military experience whatsoever.” Indeed, like both of the last two presidents, Mr. Obama possesses scant credentials in national security and foreign policy.

Why, then, does he appear increasingly plausible as the next president? Assurance, grace, and mastery of the facts have helped to lift his stature, as did his daring decision to venture abroad, directly challenging his older opponent’s perceived strength. But granting his talent and initiative, the strongest argument for the Democrat is the weak performance of the Republican regime’s vaunted “grown-ups,” including Mr. McCain and his advisers. They have gone far in proving that experience can be overrated.

...

Rarely during the past seven years did Senator McCain, whose own foreign policy skills and knowledge have begun to seem seriously overrated, speak up in dissent from the failed Bush policies. His most significant contribution to the national debate—namely, his insistence that the U.S. commit more troops to Iraq—is overshadowed by his much more consequential mistake of supporting the invasion on false pretenses. More than once he has displayed the same stubborn ignorance about Iraq, Iran and the Gulf region that led to this strategic disaster. They underestimated the division between Shia and Sunni, the influence of Iran on the new leaders of Iraq and the resistance of the Iraqi people to any prolonged American occupation.

...

The net result of the status negotiations is no result, which has made the Iraqi government highly susceptible to pressure from its own people and from its friends in Tehran for an end to the occupation. Attempts by the Bush White House and the McCain campaign to suggest that the Iraqis didn’t mean what they had plainly said only provided a darkly comical coda.

But then the Iraq war has always been a saga of incompetence and ideology, compounded by deception and self-deception. Against that lethal mixture, the experience of the old hands seems to have provided no protection, for them or for the rest of us.

[curious one]

1. There is no comparison. We all know Obama is the adult among bunch of

first graders.

[Mz Pip]

2. Our allies

seem genuinely glad to see him. Are all of these world leaders clueless? I don't think so. They are looking forward to a president they can work with, not just one who tells them what to do.

Obama's support in Europe and the Mid-East reveal the global effects of BushCo. I think this is less about Obama than it is a referendum on BushCo. The rest of the world is as anxious for 1/20/09 to come as we are.