HopeChange Chronicles: "Both Cynical and Naive": Responding to the Arab Uprisings

Here is a bit of the lambasting:

The Obama administration also behaves as if the weight of the United States in world affairs is approximately the same as that of Switzerland. We await developments. We urge caution, even restraint. We hope for the formation of an international consensus. And, just as there is something despicable about the way in which Swiss bankers change horses, so there is something contemptible about the way in which Washington has been affecting—and perhaps helping to bring about—American impotence. Except that, whereas at least the Swiss have the excuse of cynicism, American policy manages to be both cynical and naive.

Well, OK, but one thing that seems clear enough is that the Middle Eastern tumults are by, for, and about local conditions and local people.  They're about locals in Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Yemen, Bahrain, etc. being unhappy with their leaders. They're not about Israel (contrary to decades of wonky foreign policy belief) , and they're not about the US and the West either, not really.  On the other hand, perhaps Hitchens is being a little unfair in criticizing the administration's foreign policy when it seems to me that the problem is that it's flailing around because IT DOESN'T REALLY HAVE ONE. (Oh, snap!)