More mush from the Huck
Mike Huckabee has written an article about foreign policy for the magazine Foreign Affairs. Much of the piece is what one would expect from a presidential candidate’s foreign policy ruminations – a little bit of this, a little bit of that, not too hot, not too cold. But the opening two paragraphs reveal once again how Carteresque Huckabee’s foreign policy instincts are.
Here’s how Huckabee begins:
The United States, as the world's only superpower, is less vulnerable to military defeat. But it is more vulnerable to the animosity of other countries. Much like a top high school student, if it is modest about its abilities and achievements, if it is generous in helping others, it is loved. But if it attempts to dominate others, it is despised.American foreign policy needs to change its tone and attitude, open up, and reach out. The Bush administration's arrogant bunker mentality has been counterproductive at home and abroad. My administration will recognize that the United States' main fight today does not pit us against the world but pits the world against the terrorists. At the same time, my administration will never surrender any of our sovereignty, which is why I was the first presidential candidate to oppose ratification of the Law of the Sea Treaty, which would endanger both our national security and our economic interests.
Note how Huckabee again anthropomorphizes foreign policy. Previously, enemies like Iran have starred in the Huckabee foreign policy narrative as misguided family members to whom we have petulantly refused to speak. Now the U.S. is portrayed as an immodest high school student who may be to blame for his own unpopularity. Put aside Huckabee's flirtation with "blame American first" thinking; the superficiality with which he approaches world affairs is stunning.
Huckabee’s analogy of the U.S. to the arrogant school boy is not just sophomoric, it’s inapt. Huckabee provides no evidence that the Bush administration has an “arrogant bunker mentality,” and his invocation of this phrase suggests that his foreign policy views have been formed more by watching CNN in airports, than by watching the Bush administration in action.
During his second term, President Bush has deferred to the Saudis and other Arab nations in formulating his policy towards Israel. He has deferred to the Europeans throughout both administrations with respect to the Iranian nuclear threat. Similarly, he has deferred throughout to China and other Asian powers when it comes to North Korea.
There are, of course, a few issues on which the U.S. did not defer. But the occasional desire to hold out for our own policies, based on our own perception of interests, does not amount to “a bunker mentality.” If the U.S. were to defer on every issue, we would effectively forfeit our sovereignty, something Huckabee says he doesn’t favor.
The main instance in which the Bush administration did not defer to world opinion was when it invaded Iraq early in 2003. Previously, it had rejected the Kyoto protocol. If Huckabee has a problem with either of these decisions, or some other policy, he should say so and present his arguments on the merits.
But debating the merits of foreign policy doesn’t seem to be Huckabee’s thing. He prefers homey analogies, often snatched (or so it seems) from Democratic talking points. The world is too dangerous a place for such soft thinking.
JOHN adds: Isn't "arrogant bunker mentality" self-contradictory? A "bunker mentality" is when one is under siege, on the defensive and hunkering down. Arrogance is when you think there is something so special about your personality that if you talk to foreign powers, they will abandon their perceptions of their own self-interest and cooperate with the U.S.
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