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. To be sure, it was in the past understood that we can't bear all burdens abroad, or come to the defense of everyone braving tyranny. But there was always that American assertion that when things are in the balance we would always be on freedom's side.
We shall see how our enemies exploit our new foreign policy "realism" in the new year.
And we shall see the fate of those abroad who once thought sharing our ideals of liberty and democracy counted for something in Washington, DC.
