With United Nations-authorized military action underway and the president finally speaking to the nation, the fighting in Libya continues. Coalition partners are debating the politics—and intended outcome—of intervention in London at this very moment. Halfway across the globe, Japan experienced a massive earthquake, a devastating tsunami, and the threat of nuclear fallout. Egypt held a constitutional referendum—the first of many steps in its post-Mubarak transition. Tunisia bumped along its path of political reform. Yemen saw escalated fighting between pro-government forces and protestors. And Saudi Arabia sent troops into Bahrain to help squash pro-reform demonstrations.
As the fires of upheaval spread around the globe, here at home the Tea Party campaign to isolate America from the rest of the world continues. Indeed, by proposing draconian cuts to our international affairs budget and supporting withdrawal from the U.N.—barely a month before the Security Council authorized a military response to Libya—the Tea Party’s efforts to resurrect isolationism, as Walter Russell Mead aptly called it, have shown to be not just bad policy, but also bad business for our national interests.
The above excerpt was originally published in The Hill.
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