Leading behind the scenes

THERE IS OFTEN a penalty for being too clever by half. The phrase "leading from behind," coined by an over eager Obama adviser, is but the latest example. The aide meant that pursuing US interests and spreading its ideals "requires stealth and modesty as well as military strength," as Ryan Lizza noted. But for Republicans, the LFB remark is a gift that keeps on giving. "The phrase ricocheted from one Murdoch-owned editorial page and television studio to the next; Obama was daily pilloried as a timorous pretender who, out of a misbegotten sense of liberal guilt, unearned self-regard, and downright unpatriotic acceptance of fading national glory, had handed over the steering wheel of global leadership to the Élysée Palace," writes David Remnick. The more accurate description of Obama's Libya policy, Remnick says, would have been “leading from behind the scenes.” Continuing, he writes: "There are no sure outcomes in foreign policy, only a calculation of consequences, guided by an appraisal of national interests and values. The trouble with so much of the conservative critique of Obama’s foreign policy is that it cares less about outcomes than about the assertion of America’s power and the affirmation of its glory. In the case of Libya, Obama led from a place of no glory, and, in the eyes of his critics, no results could ever vindicate such a strategy. Yet a calculated modesty can augment a nation’s true influence. Obama would not be the first statesman to realize that it can be easier to win if you don’t need to trumpet your victory." Amen. Now if only the Republicans could be as mature or as wise as the leader they mock.