The World Hates America Again

As a candidate, Barack Obama gave a well-received speech in Germany in 2008. As president, he gave another in Egypt the following year. And yet today, those two very different nations have something in common—anti-American sentiment is soaring, writes Russell Berman at Real Clear Politics. This is worrisome because these aren't the usual hotbeds of anti-US rancor, but "countries with strong histories of cooperation with the US and in which America has deep investments."

It's a sign of a bigger problem, writes Berman: He argues that Obama's promise to restore America's image has failed because of a muddled foreign policy. The president bet that "a consistent pull-back and a programmatic reduction in the projection of American power abroad" would pay dividends. He bet wrong. Look at how Russia and Iran deal with us, for instance. "Instead of healing the rifts of the past, the administration’s foreign policy of weakness has bequeathed a legacy that has emerged vividly in the past months: The return of anti-Americanism." Click for Berman's full column. (More Egypt stories.)