Everyone’s spilling ink over President Barack Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, so I might as well get in on the act.<\/p>\n
Most of the conventional wisdom is, I think rarely, pretty spot on. The prize was awarded too early for too little, but given that fact Mr. Obama made the best of an awkward situation.<\/p>\n
I think it’s also true that the Nobel committee awarded the prize, in large measure, because Mr. Obama is not George W. Bush. <\/p>\n
Mr. Bush was deeply reviled in much of the world, especially Western Europe and Scandinavia. It’s a churlish reason to award a Nobel.<\/p>\n
But here’s where I think much of the group-think goes awry.<\/p>\n
There’s a meme out there that Mr. Obama is moving rapidly toward a Bushian world-view, that his inexperience and naievete are rapidly being replaced by a more hard-nosed foreign policy.<\/p>\n
As evidence, people cite the Afghanistan escalation, and this Nobel acceptance speech:<\/p>\n
Yet the world must remember that it was not simply international institutions – not just treaties and declarations – that brought stability to a post-World War II world.<\/p>\n
Whatever mistakes we have made, the plain fact is this: the United States of America has helped underwrite global security for more than six decades with the blood of our citizens and the strength of our arms.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Many conservatives (and some irked liberals) see the spirit of Dick Cheney lurking behind such rhetoric.<\/p>\n
Nonsense.<\/p>\n
The truth, largely obscured by decades of conservative speechifying, is that Democrats have always espoused a muscular foreign policy.<\/p>\n
For better or worse, Democratic presidents have deployed military forces as frequently as Republican ones.<\/p>\n
Ronald Reagan did not, in fact, win the cold war single-handedly. <\/p>\n
Harry Truman was arguably the chief architect of America’s anti-Soviet policy.<\/p>\n
During the Cuban Missile Crisis, John Kennedy stared down the barrel of a world-ending apocalypse without blinking. <\/p>\n
Bill Clinton deployed US military forces to the Balkans in what has come to be seen as a remarkably successful exercise of force; and he did so over the objections of Republicans.<\/p>\n
Mr. Obama’s foreign policy is still evolving — there is, as yet, no “Obama Doctrine” — but he shows no sign of falling far from the tree of other Democratic presidents.<\/p>\n
One final note.<\/p>\n
Some conservatives have suggested that Mr. Obama’s surge in Afghanistan and tougher rhetoric vindicate Mr. Bush and his foreign policy. <\/p>\n
The notion is absurd. Foreign policy is about more than ideology or vision. It’s also about execution and judgment. <\/p>\n
Whatever value the post-9\/11 Bush Doctrine might have had, his legacy is wrecked beyond salvaging.<\/p>\n
First by the reckless prosecution of the war in Afghanistan, which was neglected disastrously by the White House. And then by the disastrous decision to invade Iraq.<\/p>\n
It’s fair to analyze and criticize — even harshly — Mr. Obama’s performance in the Oval Office. <\/p>\n
But it’s time for Republicans to let Mr. Bush go once and for all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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