The Road to Obama Runs Through Libya

Whatever his critics may say, Obama does know how to lead. He understands exactly where he is taking us. What strikes many as policy confusion or timidity is really just the tension between Obama's pragmatist cover and his deeply ideological long-term goals. Oddly, Obama's apparently quirky and confused Libya policy may now be the most effective example of how his seemingly reluctant leadership-style dovetails with his long-term transformative aspirations, foreign and domestic. ... up to now, Obama's policies in Iraq and Afghanistan have been pragmatic concessions to political reality. They also show how Obama's sometimes conventional-sounding foreign policy pronouncements mask goals that are far more "novel and grand," the displacement of national interest as the core guide to American foreign policy and its replacement with an effort to bring about equality among nations.