Obama's Foreign Policy is an Utter Failure

[Kiber]

Color me just a tad bit confused. But from the Op, there’s this:

@Sam_Stone

In all of these cases, ‘winning’ involves building coalitions with other countries. As the article details, Canada was able to build bigger coalitions than the Americans, allowing Canada to control the agenda.

So - Canada won by building coalitions and working with others, right? Got it.

But then, the Op turns towards the US and makes this observation:

@Sam_Stone

To me, none of this is a real surprise. It’s Jimmy Carter 2.0. The world is a tough, dangerous place, and realistic foreign policy starts from a position of strength. Obama started by going on a worldwide apologize-for-America tour, and has been feckless in response to provocations around the world. His theory was that a kinder, gentler America would usher in a new area of cooperation. This flies in the face of history. The reality is that a kinder, gentler America is generally met with opportunism and emboldened aggression from competitors and enemies.

So, um, well - what exactly is the Ops position? Is it that building coalitions and working with others is the way to “win”? This is what Canada apparently did and the Op holds them up as a success story. Yet later on - the Op describes the same efforts by the US as utter failure, since apparently the world is a big scary place, and only the bad-asses of the world survive.

I guess just a little clarification - is building a coalition the best strategy for Canada and Canada only? By contrast, the US should just be take-no-prisoner, bad-ass, big-kid-on-the-block? Is that about right?

[Sage_Rat]

@Kiber

I guess just a little clarification - is building a coalition the best strategy for Canada and Canada only? By contrast, the US should just be take-no-prisoner, bad-ass, big-kid-on-the-block? Is that about right?

He’s saying the US would build more coalitions by bullying them into it.

[ElvisL1ves]

@Kiber

I guess just a little clarification - is building a coalition the best strategy for Canada and Canada only? By contrast, the US should just be take-no-prisoner, bad-ass, big-kid-on-the-block? Is that about right?

Yes, the best strategy for Canada is to build a coalition with the bad-ass big kid on the block. It’s far better to be able to tell your big brother to go kick somebody else’s ass while you cheer him on than to have him always picking on you, right?