The Washington Delusion

In one sense, of course, John McCain is correct to say:

“The president saying that we didn’t want to be perceived as meddling, is, frankly, not what America’s history is all about.”

And while one may say that, more often than not, the United States has been one of, for want of a less crude way of putting it, the Good Guys even that country’s admirers must acknowledge that this has not always or universally been the case. And that has led to problems. It also, frankly, makes one pretty happy that John McCain ain’t President.

Relatedly, it would be useful if Obama’s advisors ceased this sort of nonsense:

But privately Obama advisers are crediting his Cairo speech for inspiring the protesters, especially the young ones, who are now posing the most direct challenge to the republic’s Islamic authority in its 30-year history.

One senior administration official with experience in the Middle East said, “There clearly is in the region a sense of new possibilities,” adding that “I was struck in the aftermath of the president’s speech that there was a connection.