New Democrats’ Near-Sighted Gaze

From the NRO:
...One can tell more about a man by what he chooses not to say. The senator didn’t bother to mention the failure of the Doha Round, which keeps poor countries in Africa and Latin America from selling their agricultural products to first world markets. The senator did not address the urgent issue of Russia’s recrudescent nationalism and the vagrant tactics of Vladimir Putin, or the threat that faces the countries of Central Europe. He may have forgotten that many voters in the Middle West have cousins who still live in Putin’s zone of ambition. He offers no strategy to counter Iran’s nuclear program, including the threat that it poses to Europe, the Middle East and the state of Israel. Not even the Europeans believe any longer that “tough, direct diplomacy” will suffice to thwart the nuclear ambitions of Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. And quite noticeably, he made no reference at all to the dangers of Islamic fundamentalism — even while it finds continuing expression in such recent tragedies as the bombing in Algeria.He did not mention the long-term need to keep watch on China as it modernizes its military and gains the capacity to shoot down satellites and impose area-denial on the Seventh Fleet in northeast Asia. He did not call upon our European allies to increase their budgetary commitment to defense, whether to help in peacekeeping in Sudan, or to counter the rising powers of Moscow and Teheran. ... (more)