President Obama gave his State of the Union address all of two days ago, which means that it has already been thoroughly sliced, diced, chewed, digested, and largely forgotten by most Americans who follow politics.
But allow this one belated observation. To judge by the amount of attention it received in his speech, national security qualifies as something of an afterthought for this administration"”or perhaps more accurately, the president and his chief lieutenants appear to have little of substance to say.
That the president should have devoted so much attention to the distressed state of the economy is both understandable and inappropriate. Ten percent unemployment is simply unsatisfactory. (Whether or not this problem lies within the realm of things the federal government can fix is an altogether different question.)
Yet ample evidence exists to suggest that the U.S. national security policy is hardly in better shape. Events have dashed expectations that Obama's charisma would somehow provide the key to solving hitherto insoluble problems"”with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict (unmentioned by the president) as Exhibit A.
(Research question: When was the last time that a president delivered a State of the Union address without mentioning America's commitment to a) ensuring the safety and security of Israel; and b) ending the Arab-Israeli conflict?)
With regard to the conflict formerly known as the Global War on Terror, the president bragged about his body count"”"And in the last year, hundreds of al-Qaeda's fighters and affiliates, including many senior leaders, have been captured or killed"”far more than in 2008."� But he offered no real explanation as to how his administration intends to deal with the threat posed by violent anti-Western jihadism. He made clear his intention to withdraw U.S. forces from Iraq and Afghanistan; he did not bother to comment on the significance and implications of U.S. military activities in Pakistan and Yemen. The fact of the matter is that the Pentagon and the CIA are busily opening up two new fronts in the war on terror. What exactly is the strategic concept informing this escalation? What's the Big Picture? If there is one, the president's not saying.
The fact of the matter is that the global distribution of power is shifting. A new order is emerging. For evidence, look at China's bank account. Now look at ours.
Yet the Obama administration"”in public at least"”seems determined to sustain the illusions that flourished back in the 1990s: The United States as benign hegemon, hyperpower, Big Enchilada, guiding the world to the green pastures of American-style liberal democracy.
For reasons that are difficult to fathom, this kind of talk still plays well in Washington. Woe betide the politician who will acknowledge in public that American power has limits and that ill-advised national security policies are helping to bankrupt the country. (The recently leaked cables from Karl Eikenberry, U.S. ambassador in Kabul and a retired army general, no less, said as much"”the United States can't afford an endless war in Afghanistan"”but to no avail.)
So even as the president promises to rein in federal spending, he exempts the Pentagon. How much is enough? Apparently $700 billion per year"”equal to the military outlays of the rest of the planet"”isn't.
The point is not that the president or his advisers should be able to divine with precision what the looming changes in the global order portend. What the country needs and what Washington needs is education. But this becomes impossible so long as the recitation of tired clichés about "American global leadership"� obstructs candor.
The American Century is over. Only by acknowledging that reality can we begin to discern what comes next. The State of the Union address offered President Obama a made-to-order chance to begin this process of education. He muffed it.
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