MAIL ONLINE: Every time I come to Washington, I pay a ritual visit to the White House, to stand among the tourists gawping through the railings, fantasising about about what great affairs its tenant might be engaged upon.On a brisk, grey, early spring morning last week, the wedding-cake residence of the most powerful man on earth looked pretty much the way it did in December 1941 when Roosevelt welcomed Churchill to create the Grand Alliance; in 1962 when Kennedy faced the Cuban missile confrontation; in 1972 when Nixon launched détente with China.
But amid today’s historic upheavals in the Middle East, the occupant of the White House has taken the amazingly insouciant decision that he will watch this global crisis from the bench.
The world reels before the spectacle of the Arab oil nations in turmoil. There seems a danger that Libya’s civil war could merely be the first of a succession in the region. Yet the leader of the Western world has almost nothing to say about it all.
Last Thursday, President Barack Obama’s spokesman made it plain that the United States is content to let other countries lead the pack in forging a Western position.
Obama’s foreign policy is characterised by caution: towards Iran, China and now Libya. Most Europeans find this a welcome change from the adventurism of George W. Bush.
Few sensible people on either side of the Atlantic are clamouring for military intervention - the British Government’s fumbles and lunges have seemed cringe-making.
But, even if this is no time for Western troop engagement, it seems bizarre that Obama, the great speechmaker, is also so parsimonious with words.
America’s allies are bemused by the almost Trappist silence of this U.S. President, his reluctance to engage with many of the huge things that are happening both to his own country and to the world. >>> Max Hastings | Monday, March 14, 2011
