| O, the cruel and unforgiving world in which we live. | | | | that live in the neighborhood -- whether they are |
| Almost a year into his presidency, Barack Obama, a | | | | Arabs, Israelis, Afghans, or Pakistanis -- must own up |
| newly minted Nobel laureate -- only the third sitting | | | | to their share of responsibility. |
| U.S. president to receive the prize -- finds himself | | | | Larry Summers, with whom I worked when I was at |
| bumping up against the harsh realities of international | | | | the State Department in the 1990s, used to say that |
| conflict and diplomacy. | | | | in the history of the world, no one ever washed a |
| The awarding of the Nobel, which the president didn't | | | | rental car. Because quite simply, you care only about |
| seek, reflects a real gap between expectations and | | | | what you own. |
| delivery -- a gap widened considerably by the | | | | Sometimes when I hear the president speak on |
| president himself. | | | | these matters, I get the distinct feeling that he |
| Even a sympathetic observer might conclude that a | | | | seems to own these conflicts and their solutions |
| good bit of the president's foreign policies, particularly | | | | more than the locals themselves. |
| in the Middle East reflects the triumph of hope over | | | | The pressure to improve America's image in the |
| experience and rhetoric over reality. | | | | world after eight years of George W. Bush's foreign |
| Whatever else the president takes away from his | | | | policy and the need to really enhance U.S. credibility |
| first year, it's critical that America's foreign policy | | | | and achieve success after eight years of Bill Clinton's |
| reflect the world the way it is, not just the way the | | | | are both understandable. |
| president wants it to be. | | | | But a year into this administration, the results of |
| I'm sure that Nobel committee members thought | | | | engagement are telling. |
| they were doing the president a favor in giving him | | | | The Iranians continue to play us as the centrifuges |
| the prize. If there ever was an example of no good | | | | spin toward the development of a nuclear weapon, |
| deed going unpunished, at least for the president, this | | | | and the one year deadline is looming with no clear |
| is surely it. | | | | sense of how diplomacy or sanctions can stop them. |
| The prize was intended no doubt as a down | | | | The Israelis, the Arabs and the Palestinians have each |
| payment for what the Europeans wanted from | | | | respectively delivered a big "no" to the president: No |
| America's foreign policy as well as a not-so-subtle | | | | to a comprehensive settlement freeze, including |
| message: Hello, Barack Obama nice to see you. | | | | natural growth; no to normalization with Israel; and no |
| Goodbye, George W. Bush, we're glad you're gone. | | | | to a return to negotiations without a freeze. |
| Part of the president's conundrum is that he can't fix | | | | And in Afghanistan, we see the price of rhetoric -- |
| problems such as Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Arab-Israeli | | | | "war of necessity" -- and the difficulties of matching |
| peace, but he can't walk away from them either. For | | | | means to ends. |
| someone who sees himself as a potentially | | | | It's arguable whether stopping al Qaeda from |
| transformative leader, an agent of big change both | | | | returning to its bases there, which was the key goal |
| at home and abroad, this is particularly difficult. | | | | laid out in the president's West Point speech, is even |
| Yet he's trapped, really, in a transactional world not | | | | possible. And arguable whether it's worth the cost of |
| of clear black and white choices, but grays -- the | | | | an additional 30,000 American troops and the likely |
| color of intrigue, deception, non-state actors, | | | | expenditure in both lives and treasure. |
| dysfunctional regimes, and corrupt and extractive | | | | After all, it wasn't a bunch of guys training on AK47s |
| powers determined to get what they can from | | | | or running obstacle courses in the Afghan mountains |
| America. | | | | that hurt America on 9/11: Terrorists training in flight |
| The Middle East, to be sure, is less a land of | | | | schools in the United States and planning in Hamburg, |
| diplomatic opportunity than a landscape dotted by | | | | Germany, did far more damage. |
| minefields, traps, intractable problems and headaches. | | | | Too harsh on the president? Other administrations |
| And lofty rhetoric, speechmaking and engagement | | | | have run off the highway in their first year, |
| without strategy don't help matters. | | | | particularly off the Middle Eastern highway, and |
| President Obama isn't a diplomatic Hercules; he's really | | | | they've adjusted and learned. Maybe President |
| more a Gulliver, tied up by tiny tribes, whose | | | | Obama will too. |
| interests may not be America's. When he's not being | | | | But the key in the end isn't caring, commitment, |
| tied up by them, he's trapped by his own rhetoric | | | | rhetoric, engagement or apologies for previous |
| and the endearing illusion of many American | | | | American transgressions. Instead, it's a brutally honest |
| presidents that they have the power and | | | | assessment of what can be accomplished on any of |
| responsibility to somehow fix all of this. | | | | these excruciatingly difficult problems and the |
| After all, what could possibly be wrong with | | | | leverage, power and strategy to go with it. |
| engagement, diplomacy, and talking? Nothing really, if | | | | And that, as the president surely knows, is worth a |
| you have a clearly thought-out strategy and the | | | | lot more to America than a Nobel or two. |
| leverage to make it work. What's more, the locals | | | | |