Dwight D Eisenhower left the White House in 1961 cautioning against the designs of the military-industrial complex assembled to confront the Soviet Union. Barack Obama sees a real and present danger in a Washington foreign policy establishment inclined to set military intervention as the default option.
Mr Obama likes to recall Eisenhower’s view of war as mankind’s “most tragic and stupid folly”. He has resolutely resisted what his Republican predecessor once called a “recurring temptation to feel that some spectacular and costly action could become the miraculous solution to all current difficulties”.
America got what it voted for in 2008. Mr Obama won because he was not George W Bush. As a state senator in Illinois he had opposed the invasion of Iraq and campaigned to bring the troops home from the Middle East. The aversion to war, the frustration with Arab allies, the diplomatic outreach to Iran, irritation with “freeriding” Europeans and a reluctance to take on Russia’s Vladimir Putin over Ukraine, all fit the temperament of a leader intent on avoiding “stupid shit”. The surprise is that so many were surprised by his refusal to be drawn into a fight with Bashar al-Assad of Syria.