You can’t have an orderly world without a world order, and a world order can’t exist unless somebody is willing to do what it takes to defend it. President Obama’s Jeffersonian decision to let the Middle East burn without launching any American response is the direct cause of the flare-up in nativism, Islamophobia, and anti-refugee sentiment in both Europe and the United States.
Going in to this administration, the theory was that America makes things worse. If only we'd step aside, people would work out their differences without our malign influence.
Drama? No Obama.
Yeah, that theory isn't working out very well. America isn't the problem, as 7 years of pulling back from the world have shown us.
UPDATE: Yet our president will use his last year in office to see how much more of our policies have to be upended in the theory that we are the problem:
President Obama's final stretch in office -- filled, as he promised, with "interesting stuff" -- has become an extravaganza of "historic" foreign-policy deals, most of them distinguished for making common cause with despotic regimes that are less than friendly toward the United States[.]
What I really fear is that foes who can't get us to give away the store with a nice executive agreement will decide to just take what they want in the belief that we'll just look the other way.
It's going to be a long 13 months.
