THE VERDICT – AT 8:21 A.M. ET:   Increasingly, even journalists for liberal papers are pronouncing negative verdicts on Obama's foreign policy.  Fred Hiatt, at WaPo, notes that Obama's administration was at first divided between two schools of thought on foreign policy – the engagers, represented by Hillary Clinton, and the minimalists, represented by Joe Biden.   Ultimately, the minimalists won, and Obama started taking minimal action in foreign situation.

Now Iraq is disintegrating. Of course, as many commentators write, Iraq’s politicians are to blame. But if the United States had maintained a presence, it might have steered Iraqi politics in a more constructive direction.

If Libya, Syria and Iraq were only human rights catastrophes — as each assuredly is — the Minimalists might hold firm. Terrible things happen in many places, they would say, and Americans can’t set them all right.

But the unraveling threatens the United States, too. A ruthless medieval dictatorship controlling territory from Syria into Iraq is luring and training Islamist extremists, including from America and Europe, who “could end up being a significant threat to our homeland,” Obama acknowledged Thursday. So he has had to turn back to Iraq, facing nothing but unpalatable options.

If Minimalism doesn’t work, what would? The answer will be different in each case. It won’t generally be to send in the Marines. It will, though, rest on lessons that the country learned, for a time, after 2001: Stateless, ungoverned territories can be dangerous to the United States. Ignoring dangers doesn’t make them go away. If we want countries to help us, including by combating terrorists, we have to help them, too, with training and aid that improves people’s lives.

It’s true that helping states build their capacity to govern is difficult and time-consuming and doesn’t always work. But over the years, the United States has helped more countries, and in more ways, than many Americans realize — including, with Obama’s commitment, Afghanistan. Engagement is hard, but over time it can succeed. Which is more than the other team can say.

COMMENT:  Well said.  Read the whole column.  Obama's policies have failed, and we are in greater danger as a result.  Compare please to Ronald Reagan, called a "warmonger" by the usual suspects, but whose legacy was an honorable peace.

June 16, 2014