World Misses America’s Leadership

There was a thought-provoking article on the International pages of The New York Times Nov. 7, summing up President Obama’s tenure in the White House, and what America’s role in the world is and should be. Our foreign policy under President George W. Bush was perceived by many as heavy-handed. When Obama took office, he set out from the get-go to make a decided course correction…and he did so.
His attempt at light-handed leadership from behind was also not well received. “The president of the United States should never be a spectator; the world needs leadership,” according to the former British defense secretary and NATO secretary-general, George Robertson. “Obama brought a welcome sense of calm and stability to the relationship with Europe after the turbulence of the Bush era (but he) could have worked harder on Russia because keeping (Russian President) Putin in the fold was important.” Instead, he “allowed Putin to jump back on the world stage and test the resolve of the West…which has been a disaster, and the legacy of that will last.”
Robertson said that Obama’s failure to follow through on his “red line” over Syrian use of chemical weapons and take promised military action had badly hurt his credibility and that of the United States.
Norbert Roettgen, the chairman of the foreign policy committee of the German parliament, said that for Europeans, Obama’s legacy would be largely positive, because of what he accomplished with Iran, Cuba and Obamacare. “In the eyes of Europeans and Germans, he is a reminder that there is still an America we can admire and still wish will play a leading role in the world.”
A number of European analysts have a more negative viewpoint. They bemoan the loss of American credibility in the world, as China and Russia exercise more influence while rejecting America’s interests and demands with sometimes open contempt.
On the other hand, Xenia Wickett of Chatham House, a research institute in London, points out that “Obama finally did what the United States has been saying for two decades, that given economics and the nature of global challenges it can no longer be the world’s policeman.“
So there we have it: we are damned if we do and damned if we don’t – damned if we take an activist role in the world, and damned if we fail to do so. It is costly to be the world’s policeman, costly in the blood of our young people, and costly in our resources.
What is in everyone’s best interest? World order must be restored, or, as we are currently seeing, everyone suffers. However, America should not bear this burden alone. It would have been preferable if we had diminished our role gradually while encouraging our allies to step up; as President-elect Trump has stated, we never should have had to bear that burden alone. Our allies now understand the price they have to pay for their undue dependence upon us.  If anything will prod them into sharing the load, it will be the pain inflicted upon them by the current world unrest. They are now being inundated by refugees and are now facing a bellicose Russia on their eastern flank.
We should pray that world order is restored, with the price for that order being borne by the entire civilized world.
Art Hall
From the Bible — Let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No.’ For whatever is more than these is from the evil one.  Matthew 5:37