The election of Barack Obama was accompanied by great hope that the damage wrought by the Bush administration's foreign policy could be mended. Obama's campaign team emphasized the fresh approach that would follow an Obama victory. Much has been made of the apparent failure of his efforts so far: coming face to face with the difficult realities of American foreign policy, the Obama administration has faltered. The Arab-Israeli peace process remains deadlocked. After the early promise of the Cairo speech, in which the president indicated that pressure would be put on the Israeli government to halt settlement construction, his administration has fallen back on the easy answer that the Arabs must do more to ease Israeli worries. Thousands of miles away, one can hear Netanyahu's relieved sigh. Despite a new strategy in Afghanistan, there has been little progress. On Saturday, the coalition's highly-anticipated Operation Moshtarak, intended to signal U.S. General Stanley McChrystal's empha ...