Obama likely to opt for strategic retraction

Meanwhile, the U.S. has soured its relations with Russia by expanding NATO eastward and deploying its missile defense system right outside Russia's front door. The cross-Atlantic alliance has been weakened by cracks as a result of the war on Iraq. And the Israel-Palestine peace process has made no progress.

Today the US government is up to its nose in debt, which will put Obama's domestic and foreign policies in a suffocating bind. How else can he free the US from all this except undergoing strategic adjustments?

As Obama said in his campaign speeches and published articles as well as the Democratic Party's guiding principles, his administration will probably make the following strategic adjustments:

Return to multilateralism. Unilateralism is a fundamental characteristic of the "Bush doctrine", which believes in launching preemptive strikes against what it calls "axis of evil" states and make regime change there, with the war on Iraq as a test of this singular obsession.

But, the neo-conservatives had lost their charm and been marginalized by the time Bush entered the second term of his presidency. The Obama administration will bring multilateralism back and handle various regional as well as global issues by relying on the United Nations, international mechanisms and cooperation with the international community.

Pull the U.S. military out of Iraq and focus on counter-terrorist actions in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Obama promised time and again during the election campaign that he would get all US combat troops out of Iraq within 16 months once he takes office as the next US president.

Given the country's current economic condition, the Iraq War-related spending should be the first to lose weight in order to achieve budgetary balance. That's why Obama is expected to honor this particular promise and he will, though he is also obligated to ensure Iraq's security after the U.S. military leaves no matter how challenging that will be.