Barack Obama and the arrogance of arrogance

Powerline:

Meanwhile, Clegg has added credibility to his claim as an outsider and independent thinker by attacking the notion that the U.S. and Britain have a "special relationship." In a speech advocating a shakeup in relations, he called it "embarrassing the way Conservative and Labor politicians talk in this kind of slavish way about the special relationship." Clegg argued that, in fact, there are "profound differences" between the two nations. Noting that the Obama administration has already written off the idea that Britain is a special ally, Clegg concluded that "if they are moving on, why on earth don't we?"

As the Post's editors acknowledge, President Obama's behavior supports Clegg's assessment. And if Clegg's assessment is correct, so too is his conclusion. Unless there is something special about the relationship, Britain should not pay any particular heed to the interests and desires of the U.S. when it formulates policy and decides whether to support various U.S. projects, including military actions. I understand that Clegg, in fact, favors early withdrawal of British troops from Afghanistan.

The same principle applies to the rest of our allies. Israel is something of a special case because it is more dependent on the U.S. in certain key respects than countries like Britain. Still, it's inevitable that the Israeli government will soon realize (and, most likely, has realized already) that it cannot count on the U.S. as a partner, and that therefore the time has come to pay as little heed as possible to our prescriptions and demands.

Obama, meanwhile, seems too arrogant to recognize the blowback his arrogant, and indeed hostile, approach to our traditional allies is bound to produce. This is not surprising. Obama's policies towards our traditional allies are the product of attitude, not of calculation. He may well be temperamentally unable to calculate their costs.