American foreign policy is broken. It has been broken by people who supported the Iraq War, opposed talking to our adversaries, failed to finish the job with al Qaeda, and alienated the world with our belligerence. ~Samantha Power

Remember that this statement comes in the wake of an Obama speech in which the candidate managed to outrage and, well, alienate a major U.S. allied government by making fairly belligerent noises about “taking the fight” to Pakistani territory. 

Of course, American foreign policy is broken, but it has actually been broken by people who think in very much the same way as the person who said:

In today’s globalized world, the security of the American people is inextricably linked to the security of all people. When narco-trafficking and corruption threaten democracy in Latin America, it’s America’s problem too. When poor villagers in Indonesia have no choice but to send chickens to market infected with avian flu, it cannot be seen as a distant concern. When religious schools in Pakistan teach hatred to young children, our children are threatened as well.

The Iraq war is the result of thinking of other people’s problems as our own.  The war is the result of mistaking distant, potential threats for approaching, gathering dangers that require immediate action.  It is the result of making foreign policy based on hopes and fantasies, rather than on solid knowledge of the world.  It is the result of audacity.  We do not need any more of this.