Joe Biden is in Kiev.  He has again pledged Washington’s support for NATO expansion to include the Ukraine.  Why adding a nation to an already meaningless alliance that will only serve to anger Russia and increase the risk of war is being pursued at all is a mystery to me.  Will the US be forced to go to war to protect the territorial integrity of the Ukraine?  What conceivable American national interest is there?  Nevertheless, merrily we roll along.

Obama has proven that he is the master of high minded rhetoric but he has essentially continued the interventionist policies of his predecessor, some of which go back to Bill Clinton’s Balkan Adventures.  What he needs to do is empower a “red team” that will start at zero and challenge every foreign policy assumption.  There is very little in US foreign and security policy that makes sense any more but there are huge and well-paid constituencies that exist to support the status quo – they must be challenged.  Obama has been conceding the ground to all of those groups without any debate and with seemingly little resistance.  A US security guarantee for a wealthier and more populous Europe is idiotic and the very raison d’etre for the continued existence of the NATO alliance should be questioned.  US presence in Iraq as a police force should also be challenged while AfPak might be the last great imperial war that Washington can but lose.  Al-Qaeda, in all probability, can no longer attack the US and the counter-terrorism policy should be re-examined and tailored to meet the actual threat.  Apart from anything else, as the US economy continues to contract and might eventually implode, retrenchment would seem to be the smart thing to do.