Quote:
Originally Posted by NC_Skins
You mean the same foreign policy they've had for about 50-60 years now?
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Well, no. Our policy in the 50's 60's and early 70's was a continuation of the Truman Doctrine formed in the bipolar power world with global containment of the Soviet Union's hegemony while expanding our own through the creation of client state governments friendly to us even if they were undemocratic (such as Chile and Iraq) and confronting Soviet client states through our own(S. Korea, Vietnam, Israel) being the primary goal.
In the late 70's Carter repudiated the Real Politik of Kennedy/Johnson/Nixon and made human rights primary in our foreign policy actions.
In the 80's and 90's, the Reagan/Bush Doctrine returned to a policy of containment but with an element of economic confrontation and escalation not previously used in the 50/60/70's era. The confrontation toppled the Soviet Union because it simply could not compete on the economic battlefield.
Clinton. Welcome to the role of the world's policeman. The Balkans, Haiti, the Middle East. Is there a conflict - we'll referee.
Bush II and post 9/11: Bang, bang, shoot, shoot. FU world if you don't like it. We have the biggest stick and we will use it to impose our world view on you!
Obama: <in my best Bill Lumberg voice> Umm, yeah ... we're just gonna, gonna hug it out. Okay? good. Umm, you're going to have to move your tanks out of the Ukraine, Okay? ummmm. Oh, and we're going send some drones all over the place. Okay? ummmm. yeah.
Our foreign policy has changed and morphed over the last 50 years considerably. Quite frankly, it is time to morph again and to recognize the new realities created by the multi-power world we now live in.