Claire’s post this morning reminds us just what an unbelievable mess our foreign policy has become under this administration. While President Obama bears an enormous amount of blame for that situation, I’d like to channel Jay Nordlinger by pointing that a majority of the American people elected Obama on a platform of withdrawal from Iraq. The president’s blunders and missteps have clearly made the situation even worse than it might have been under a more competent commander-in-chief, but responsibility primarily lies with the electorate for selecting him and, implicitly, the policies he promised. This wasn’t primarily a matter of competence, but of vision.

Indeed, the American people seem to have no clear idea about the kind of relationship we want with a post-Cold War world, and we seem to change our strategic vision at least as often as we change presidents. The Bush-Obama transition is the sharpest to date, but it may well be eclipsed by the difference between what we have now and the policy of whomever is sworn in next January. These sorts of national mood swings are not only unbecoming of a great nation, but also extremely dangerous; tactical flexibility is good, but strategic incoherence is always, always bad news.

There are — as there have been for a very long time — a variety of options for us to chose among, ranging from building a moat around Fortress America, to being the World’s Policeman, to becoming an occasional dragon slayer, to liberal imperialism, to multinational dithering. All of these have their smarter and stupider manifestations, as well as their moderate and extreme versions, and I’ve got my own highly-opinionated judgments about each (more on that another time), including a rather low opinion of our current preferences. But oscillating from one to the other and back again is a very bad idea. We need to pick a policy, soon, and stick with it.

No policy should ever be permanent, and any smart strategist regularly reevaluates and adjusts as circumstances change. But some degree of consistency that extends beyond predictable eight-year cycles will not only be greatly to our advantage, but the world’s.

Good leadership from on top should help, but the real answer will have to come from within the hearts and minds of 300 million citizens.