March 25, 2008
"First, be not afraid"
Posted by
Mark Kleiman
What would happen if Democrats thinking about foreign policy and national security didn't start by being afraid of what those mean, nasty old Republicans were going to say about them?
What would happen if the United States took seriously the need of the people who live in countries whose leaders we want to influence for a decent chance to live a dignified life?
Barack Obama's advisers, and the candidate himself, seem to be asking those questions, and Spencer Ackerman is impressed.
Why not demand the destruction of al-Qaeda? Why not pursue the enlightened global leadership promised by liberal internationalism? Why not abandon fear? What is it we have to fear, exactly?
Ackerman quotes Susan Power on Obama's thinking:
He goes back to Roosevelt. Freedom from fear and freedom from want. What if we actually offered that? What if we delivered that in the developing world? That would be a transformative agenda for us.
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