The New American Isolationism

Fouad Ajami, in a column on the Wall Street Journal opinion page for Dec. 30, 2009, entitled "A Cold-Blooded Foreign Policy," presents a withering critique of the Obama Administration's approach to world affairs, and how it adversely affects the aspirations for freedom in nations ruled by despotic regimes or threatened by despotic neighbors. Here are some excerpts to whet the readers's appetite:

"With year one drawing to a close, the truth of the Obama presidency is laid bare: retrenchment abroad, and redistribution and the intrusive regulatory state at home. This is the genuine calling of Barack Obama, and of the "progressives" holding him to account. The false dichotomy has taken hold—either we care for our own, or we go abroad in search of monsters to destroy or of broken nations to build. The decision to withdraw missile defense for Poland and the Czech Republic was of a piece with that retreat in American power. "

"What a difference three or four years make. The despots have waited out that burst of American power and optimism. No despot fears Mr. Obama, and no blogger in Cairo or Damascus or Tehran, no demonstrator in those cruel Iranian streets, expects Mr. Obama to ride to the rescue."