A Simple Game of Chess

As we approach the one hundred day mark of the Obama presidency, there will be no shortage of media critics, writing the comprehensive report card on issues they hardly understand, but whose singular ability to place a letter grade next to the President’s actions identifies them as an expert. And there exists no shortage of events and actions to grade. The beginning of this administration has been simply amazing in the amount it has done, whether good or bad, in response to an unfortunate number of issues. However, in looking back on all he has done, some of the more important and consequential decisions the President has made may involve actions he chose not to take.

On most international events, the world in general looks for the American response first, and then forms their own. This is to be expected considering our role as a world power. But the biggest change from this administration to the previous one, and many others, is the addition of a new option in responding to the actions of other sovereign nations.

Do nothing.

North Korea decided to send a rocket over Japan and into the ocean. They were warned not to by a variety of national organizations, yet ignored it. They were threatened with a variety of potential repercussions, to no avail. News corporations covered the event in great detail prior to, playing the “will they or wont they” guessing game, and exploded after the launch, it being one of the first of those 3 A.M. phone calls this president has been forced to field.

The only reason we are not still bombarded with front page headlines featuring North Korea is because Obama took a chess-like approach to the issue rather than a checkers one. Instead of looking at a simple proportional response, he looked 4-5 moves down the road, and realized no real good would come of an initial reaction. Despite the world waiting for a reaction, he realized that both china and Russia took a wait and see stance, and that any action, at least initially, would be going it alone. With the great strides made in our foreign relations, this would be greatly counter-productive, and would undo a substantial amount of the new goodwill he had received.

North Korea threatened, we warned them, they flipped us the bird. The previous administration would have declared war. President Obama, in looking at the big picture, wisely chose to do little. The ability to look multiple moves down the road is clearly what separates the new administration from the reactionary ones in the past. A slow reversal of our self-proclaimed role as world police will show substantial gains in our overseas relationships and how other nations view the united States, not to mention increase our national security, save American lives and much needed capital.

As we sit back to judge the arbitrary hundred days mark, remember that often the best actions are the ones left on the cutting room floor. Sometimes the road less traveled is better off not traveled at all.