Getting the Band Back Together

The editors of the Washington Post are enthusiastic about the foreign policy and security team Joe Biden is assemblng:

PRESIDENT-ELECT Joe Biden’s choices for his national security team will please those who hope, as we do, that he will quickly replace President Trump’s chauvinist and self-defeating “America First” policies with a return to liberal internationalism, with its focus on building and leading alliances and promoting democratic values. But the nominations also ought to encourage anyone who values experience, expertise, integrity and fundamental competence in U.S. government leaders.

and

The nominations could be portrayed as the return of a foreign policy establishment that led the United States to failure in the Middle East and elsewhere. But Mr. Biden’s team has reflected deeply on the shortcomings of the Obama administration and the ways in which the world has changed in the past four years. In an essay published last year, Mr. Sullivan said the United States must reassert its global role, but in new ways: It must fashion “a different kind of leadership, giving others a greater voice along with greater accountability.”

I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt, a chance.

I’ll be impressed if they start no new wars or deepen our commitment in present wars, if they can counter the challenges posed by China without doing very much what the Trump Administration has, and if they can rebuild alliances rather than just crafting venues for our notional allies to act as free riders. If they have a plan for increasing wages for U. S. workers and revitalizing the U. S. economy, without tariffs and without controlling our southern border, they should articulate it as quickly as possible.