The New York Times ran a story Feb. 21 describing the Obama administration’s retreat from “”democracy-building,”” and quoted a bunch of foreign-policy wonks who declared themselves “”troubled”” over the new president’s reluctance to tread into the kind of ambitious foreign policy that his predecessor took at a gallop. Indeed, Obama’s public pronouncements – as well as those of Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton – have been notably modest, staying away from grandiose promises of “”ending tyranny”” and spreading freedom to the four corners of the earth. But that’s to be applauded. Those are the self-same reckless promises that have dragged America into one needless, disastrous war after another. The United States should seek to spread democracy through example, not through force. Obama should ignore his critics. Whatever his domestic missteps thus far, he seems to understand what they do not: that the American people are primarily concerned with the health of their own democracy, not those of others.

– Justyn Dillingham is the opinions editor of the Daily Wildcat.