American Foreign Policy is brain dead

[pscot]

Here’s one obvious lesson of the Tunisian Revolution of 2011: paranoia about Muslim fundamentalist movements and terrorism is causing Washington to make bad choices that will ultimately harm American interests and standing abroad. State Department cable traffic from capitals throughout the Greater Middle East, made public thanks to WikiLeaks, shows that U.S. policy-makers have a detailed and profound picture of the depths of corruption and nepotism that prevail among some “allies” in the region.

....since Barack Obama entered the Oval Office in January 2009, U.S. foreign policy has essentially been in late-second-term-Bush mode and largely on autopilot, led by a holdover Secretary of Defense and a Secretary of State who might well have been chosen by John McCain, had he won the presidency. Look at Clinton’s address again and, beyond a reasonably accurate description of some regional problems (and that frustration), only the vaguest of bromides are on offer.

The problem: Washington’s foreign-policy planners seem to be out of ideas, literally brain-dead, just as the world is visibly in flux. In their reactions, even in their rhetoric, there is remarkably little new under the sun, though from Tunisia to India, China to Brazil, our world is changing before our eyes.


http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175346/tomgram%3A_juan_cole%2C_american_policy_on_the_brink

[KansDem]

1. Doesn't help when foreign policy is subjected to input by Lockheed-Martin...

Heard this author interviewed on DemocracyNow! recently...



Enthralling and explosive, Prophets of War is an exposé of America’s largest military contractor, Lockheed Martin. When President Dwight D. Eisenhower gave his famous warning about the dangers of the military industrial complex, he never would have dreamed that a company could accumulate the kind of power and influence now wielded by this behemoth company.

As a full-service weapons maker, Lockheed Martin receives over $25 billion per year in Pentagon contracts. From aircraft and munitions, to the abysmal Star Wars missile defense program, to the spy satellites that the NSA has used to monitor Americans’ phone calls without their knowledge, Lockheed Martin’s reaches into all areas of US defense and American life. William Hartung’s meticulously researched history follows the company’s meteoric growth and explains how this arms industry giant has shaped US foreign policy for decades.

http://www.newamerica.net/publications/books/prophets_of_war

Need some geld? Get the US involved in a war. After all, there's no profit in peace...

[Demeter]

2. So Is Economic and Social Policy

so what else is new?

[pscot]

4. You think there's a pattern emerging?

So do I.

[bemildred]

3. Todays "No shit, Sherlock!" award.

Trillions pissed away, with largely negative results.

[JuniperLea]

6. Hogwash...

The stock market is flirting with 12k instead of 3400; TARP has made a profit; the American automakers have turned a profit and are paying back. Doesn't Obama deserve some modicum of credit for that?

One trillion of the budget is the war spending Bush kept off the books, and Obama put back. Remember how we were lied to? We were told these evil wars would pay for themselves. That was the justification Bush used to put the costs on their own balance sheet.

Edited to say, check out the front page at dKos...

"For those of you keeping score at home, the Dow closed at 7,949 on Bush's last day in office. That means it's gone up 50% since President Obama's inauguration."

[bemildred]

7. "Still, a man hears what he wants to hear, and disregards the rest ..."

The Boxer -- Paul Simon

I'm not out to bash Obama, have a nice day.

[JuniperLea]

10. "I'm not out to bash Obama"

It just turned out that way... clearly.

That you can't bring yourself to comment on the actual issues speaks volumes. Thanks.

[bemildred]

11. Tsk, you sound annoyed.

I said nothing about Obama, the subject was US foreign policy, YOU made it about Obama.

Have a nice day,
:-)

[damntexdem]

5. Really? I didn't realize that brains, alive or dead, were involved at all.

;-)

[provis99]

8. well, the voters are getting what they want.

Blame the average American idiot, not the politicians who manifest their desires.

[wisteria]

9. I don't agree with this at all. Our President has reached out and has been trying to mend our

relationships around the world. To say he has just extended Bush's ideas and policies is really off base. We are leaving Iraq and even though Afghanistan is troubling, it is important that we remain there right now.