By
Editorial Board, Published: March 3
The Washington Post
FOR FIVE
YEARS, President Obama has led a foreign policy based more on how he thinks the
world should operate than on reality. It was a world in which “the tide of war
is receding” and the United
States could, without much risk, radically
reduce the size of its armed forces. Other leaders, in this vision, would
behave rationally and in the interest of their people and the world. Invasions,
brute force, great-power games and shifting alliances — these were things of
the past. Secretary of State John F. Kerry displayed this mindset on ABC’s
“This Week” Sunday when he said, of Russia ’s
invasion of neighboring Ukraine ,
“It’s a 19th century act in the 21st century.”