Will we return to normalcy?

Many in America and especially liberals have been deplored at the foreign policy of the present administration. They have ridiculed our policies as unilateral, dangerous and even immoral. I have heard often that George W. Bush hijacked our foreign policy. If this were true the foreign policy of George W. Bush would have to be an anomaly in our history, it is however far from it. Liberals tend to have this idealistic notion that America has a long history of a cautious non-interventionist foreign policy and Bush is the antithesis to that history. The reality is that the idealism of Bush's foreign policy is an extension on the policies America has had since before it's inception in 1776. America started out as 13 small colonies along the Atlantic coast in the 17th century and has expanded into a nation stretching the length of North American continent with military bases on all 7 continents on Earth with operations by the U.S. military in 170 countries, it didn't do this with the foreign policy liberals advocate. The U.S. military has for better or worse has been in involved in by my approximate count 280 military actions (265 before Bush took office) in its history, the vast majority of which were unilateral and aggressive. The United States was defending it's interests abroad and fighting to expand its influence around the world long before Bush ever took office. Obama and the Democrats however promise to open a era of cooperation with other nations unlike Bush who has been attacked for being unilateral in his liberation of Iraq, besides that fact that 39 nations have contributed forces to Operation Iraqi Freedom. I don't know what the magic number of nations is when a unilateral action becomes lateral but apparently 39 isn't enough. This notion of the necessity of multilateral action is quite new in American history and isn't even pragmatic since the more nations in a military action the harder it is to coordinate. The U.S. has conducted countless unilateral actions with great success over the years. The Democrats also have attacked Bush for not getting U.N. approval for action in Iraq, even though Clinton didn't get U.N. approval for U.S. actions in Kosovo in 1999, but this isn't surprising since Democrats are the kings of selective outrage. This notion of the necessity of U.N. approval is the also new, a post Cold War and post-modern construct simply meant for smaller weaker nations to tie the hands of larger more powerful nations and usher in a period of cooperation and understanding among nations, I wouldn't hold your breath waiting for that pipe dream. Another complaint lodged at Bush is he has violated the Westphalian notions of sovereignty of the nation-state, but since the Treaty of Westpahlia in 1648 the sovereignty of the nation-state has been violated so many times by so many different nations that it is hard to take those notions seriously. America's foreign policy will continue to dominate the world and be involved the in the affairs of other nations regardless of whether or not McCain or Obama takes the White House in November. Obama will not suddenly overturn 400 years of American policy and even though he says he will be different his ideas are ambiguous on purpose. Obama isn't stupid, he knows that our foreign policy is crucial to keep the world stable and although he might say some punch lines to make some Liberals feel all warm & fuzzy inside he isn't going to change a thing, thankfully....