Morning Bell: Hot Dog Engagement

Ted Bromund / June 29, 2009

If one word can sum up the Obama Administration’s foreign policy, it’s “engagement.” From Cuba to Iran and the Middle East to Russia, engagement is the White House’s magic word, an incantation that it uses to justify everything it does. Engagement’s the improved, touchy-feely way of announcing that you plan to rely on diplomacy, and it’s all the more attractive to liberals as a result.

Diplomacy is really just a means, not an end, but to liberals it can sound suspiciously like old-fashioned, state-to-state stuff. Engagement has a cheerier tone, because it implies that you’re going to get along, not just stubbornly defend your interests and values. It’s all about feeling the other guy’s pain.

Regrettably, as a policy, engagement’s a failure. It’s also an embarrassment. Sometimes, even the White House is compelled to realize this. Last week, the Obama Administration confirmed that, in spite of the massive protests and state-led brutality around the fraudulent Iranian elections, it would not rescind the invitations it had issued to Iranian diplomats to attend 4th of July parties at U.S. embassies around the world. (more…)