mmer is the best foreign affairs commentator in the U.S. today and the recent picture of the leaders of Brazil and Turkey holding lifted hands with Iran's Ahmadinejad over a uranium exchange deal has made him apoplectic. His analysis of what lies behind the photo gives the big picture of current American foreign policy:"This is not just an America in decline. This is an America in retreat -- accepting, ratifying and declaring its decline, and inviting rising powers to fill the vacuum.
Nor is this retreat by inadvertence. This is retreat by design and, indeed, on principle. It's the perfect fulfillment of Obama's adopted Third World narrative of American misdeeds, disrespect and domination from which he has come to redeem us and the world. Hence his foundational declaration at the U.N. General Assembly last September that "No one nation can or should try to dominate another nation" (guess who's been the dominant nation for the last two decades?) and his dismissal of any "world order that elevates one nation or group of people over another." (NATO? The West?)
Given Obama's policies and principles, Turkey and Brazil are acting rationally. Why not give cover to Ahmadinejad and his nuclear ambitions? As the U.S. retreats in the face of Iran, China, Russia and Venezuela, why not hedge your bets? There's nothing to fear from Obama, and everything to gain by ingratiating yourself with America's rising adversaries. After all, they actually believe in helping one's friends and punishing one's enemies."
Krauthammer is right. Power always moves to fill a vacuum; the Age of Aquarius will not be breaking out as a result of this fatally-flawed foreign policy. Instead, tomorrow's forecast calls for instability, unrest and scattered acts of serious violence including a possible afternoon nuclear detonation.
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