Do we want someone NOT asserting American interests and values?

Obama the rationalist
By: John F. Harris and Eamon Javers
April 7, 2009 05:11 PM EST     http://tinyurl.com/dl4kfx

As Barack Obama returns...: He is Obama the rationalist....He has shined a vivid light on his philosophical outlook on the world — and how ...he differs...on basic beliefs about power, diplomacy and even human nature...***He believes in arms control at a time when N.Korea, Iran and probably Arab countries are trying to proliferate nukes. Timely or very naive? ****
... defense budgets, Obama believes in scrapping weapons that were first dreamed up a generation ago —***including cuttingback on anti-missile defense the same day the N.Koreans showed 3-stage/2000 miles capability.**** When it comes to Cuba, Obama believes in opening the windows by allowing family travel and financial interaction ...***dispiriting any opposition to Castro tyranny in Cuba.****All these ideas represent mainstream thinking within Democratic foreign policy circles. ...But the steps are cumulatively striking ...showing Obama’s willingness to quickly walk across onetime political red lines....a sharply different philosophy now guides Washington......Conservatives are calling Obama naïve, arguing that his belief in rationalism and community is hardly realistic in a world driven by murderous hatreds and all manner of nations angling remorselessly for military and economic advantage. . may be the sharpest philosophical turn in foreign policy since the Carter administration gave way to the Reagan administration 28 years ago... ****It is more like the start of the Carter administration which gave us stagflation; the misery index; "malaise" as national morale; gratuitous blurting of stealth technology; "the moral equivalent of war" which went nowhere;the overthrow of our best friend in the Muslim Middle East and the establishment of our now worst-enemy in the world, the fanatical mullahs of Iran; the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan but the boycott of the 1980 Olympics; and grain embargo that created competitors for American agriculture. ****...even when Bush and Obama shared objectives — such as blocking Iran’s pursuit of nuclear bombs — they are pursuing them with a different style that flows from a different worldview. An administration that believed in the primacy of force has been replaced by one that believes in the primacy of dialogue. A president who believed his main job in the world was to robustly assert American interests and values, even if it offended allies, has been succeeded by one who believes his main job is to gently coax and nourish communities of interest in which other nations will regard the United States as a friend. ****A President who does NOT assert American interests and values"? Great!****...Zbigniew Brzezinski, Jimmy Carter’s national security advisers, hailed Obama for following a “policy of constructive realism.”****Zbig practically created the backlash from the Mujahadeen and Osama bin Laden, a great role model. ****..."Obama is knocking the sharp edges off anti-Americanism around the world.” ****Replacing it with contempt. ****Sandy Berger... praised Obama...***Not a reassuring endorsement, from Sandy who evaded a lie detector test as to why he stole documents in his pants. ****In fact, the dividing line between Bush and Obama may be less ideology than human nature — whether people, and countries, are more likely moved by force or by persuasion...***Ah, the golden word. Some prefer another Democrat's view: "When you get them by the balls, their hearts and minds will follow after." *** ... Dick Cheney warned about ...Obama’s naïve approach to the threat of terrorism...Protecting the country’s security is “a tough, mean, dirty, nasty business,” ...needs to be not so much loved as it needs to be respected.... Newt Gingrich ridiculed Obama's "fantasy foreign policy,”... Russia and other potential participants can’t be trusted. ***What?Someone can't be trusted?  Russians?Muslims? Chinese? Absurd! ***The skepticism hasn’t been entirely partisan. Washington Post...also gave a harsh review of the opening swing of Obama’s trip, ...“Obama, Going Along to Get Along.” Diehl concluded with...“Is the new president shrewd and pragmatic about using his power at home and abroad — or too passive, even weak?” None of that dissuades Obama... faith in the power of openness and good will....“When you have a chance to meet people from other cultures...it turns out that you care about your family,...hope that you can raise a family of your own, and that your children will be healthy and have a good education — that all those things that human beings all around the world share are more important than the things that are different.” ****Right! What about Islamist mothers who raise their kids to be jihadi suicide killers? *****...“This is pretty consistent with what Bill Clinton was trying to do,” said former Clinton Secretary of Defense Bill Cohen. “He’s saying, ‘Let’s look at the world as it is.’”...“Internationally, Obama has unprecedented, incredible support,” said Cohen. “I’ve never seen anything like it. He’s seizing on that moment.”****Does he actually have support or merely rock-stardom?We see the latter; where's the former? ****