Stupid Hippies

I am now passed irked and into ticked off.  EJ Dionne:

Obama's national security choices are already causing grumbling from parts of the antiwar left, even if Obama made clear six years ago that while he was with them on Iraq, he was not one of them.

Ironically, Obama is likely to show more fidelity to George H.W. Bush's approach to foreign affairs than did the former president's own son. That's change, maybe even change we can believe in, but it's not the change so many expected.

If EJ wants to make claims like this, he needs some quotations. Because none of the dirty fucking hippies I know had any doubts about Obama's foreign policy plans.  In fact, Glenn Greenwald has been writing for years about the Democratic establishment in Washington being completely on board with (what I call) the Great American Hegemony Project, that having a seat at a foreign policy table in Washington requires committing to the use of military force, on a routine, unilateral basis. 

There was never any indication, whatsoever, that Obama was not part of this Village Society.  In fact, it was so clear that he was part of the Village that he was never popular with the left wing of the party.  It's true that Obama was forced into voting against a supplemental bill that many of the left believed he supported, in his heart of hearts. And it's true he was forced to distance himself from Samantha Power after she made remarks that cast doubt upon the seriousness of his sixteenth month Iraq  withdrawal plan.  But nobody is surprised that he has just put Power into a position on his transition  team, at least nobody who was paying attention during the campaign.

This narrative--that this is an unexpected direction is taking hold.  It's false, and its effect will be to undermine a Presidency that we very badly need to succeed.