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October 21. 2012 7:45PM
Blundering abroad Obama’s disastrous diplomacy
President Obama was supposed to have a grand vision that would reset American foreign policy in a way that would make us safer by defusing the animosity that drove so many people to hate, fear or distrust the United States. It has failed because it was, just like Obama’s domestic agenda, not a realistic strategy, but a naive fantasy.
Foreign Policy magazine columnist Rosa Brooks wrote last week that “as president, he has presided over an exceptionally dysfunctional and un-visionary national security architecture — one that appears to drift from crisis to crisis, with little ability to look beyond the next few weeks.”
The truth of that assessment is plainly evident. Consider Libya. We had no real plan for dealing with post-Qaddafi Libya. That country has a barely functioning government, and yet we trusted it to protect our people and property. When U.S. embassy officials there requested additional security, warning that the terror threat was rising, they were denied. Apparently the administration had set Libya, like the rest of the world, on autopilot because the President was more interested in other things.
Our relationship with Israel, our best ally in the Middle East, is in shambles because Obama has no plan for dealing with Israeli-Palestinian issues other than to thwart Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Obama supported the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak, our best North African ally, with no plan whatsoever to deal with the aftermath, and now the Muslim Brotherhood runs Egypt.
The administration is not checking Iran’s progress in nuclear weapon development because, as Joe Biden asserted, even if the country that our own State Department has labeled the “world’s most active state sponsor of terrorism” makes weapons-grade uranium, “there is no weapon that the Iranians have at this point.” Apparently Joe Biden can see through mountains directly into Iran’s nuclear facilities — and into the facilities of all of Iran’s terrorist allies.
Russia and China simply do what they want with no fear of retaliation from the United States.
And, as we saw in Libya, al-Qaida is resurgent. Yes, Obama ordered the raid that killed Osama bin Laden. Then he immediately announced it to the world before we could use the intelligence gathered in the raid to destroy the terror network. That blunder let al-Qaida regroup, and now it is brazenly attacking us again.
The President has mistaken speech-making for strategy. He thinks he can bring other nations under his influence simply by speaking from a stage. He has no long-term vision and no desire or ability to sit down and negotiate deals, and negotiation is the lifeblood of international diplomacy. Under Obama the United States is, as Brooks noted, simply drifting from one international crisis to another while the more savvy world leaders take advantage of our President’s naivete to extend their influence and protect their interests.
Foreign Policy magazine columnist Rosa Brooks wrote last week that “as president, he has presided over an exceptionally dysfunctional and un-visionary national security architecture — one that appears to drift from crisis to crisis, with little ability to look beyond the next few weeks.”
The truth of that assessment is plainly evident. Consider Libya. We had no real plan for dealing with post-Qaddafi Libya. That country has a barely functioning government, and yet we trusted it to protect our people and property. When U.S. embassy officials there requested additional security, warning that the terror threat was rising, they were denied. Apparently the administration had set Libya, like the rest of the world, on autopilot because the President was more interested in other things.
Our relationship with Israel, our best ally in the Middle East, is in shambles because Obama has no plan for dealing with Israeli-Palestinian issues other than to thwart Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Obama supported the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak, our best North African ally, with no plan whatsoever to deal with the aftermath, and now the Muslim Brotherhood runs Egypt.
The administration is not checking Iran’s progress in nuclear weapon development because, as Joe Biden asserted, even if the country that our own State Department has labeled the “world’s most active state sponsor of terrorism” makes weapons-grade uranium, “there is no weapon that the Iranians have at this point.” Apparently Joe Biden can see through mountains directly into Iran’s nuclear facilities — and into the facilities of all of Iran’s terrorist allies.
Russia and China simply do what they want with no fear of retaliation from the United States.
And, as we saw in Libya, al-Qaida is resurgent. Yes, Obama ordered the raid that killed Osama bin Laden. Then he immediately announced it to the world before we could use the intelligence gathered in the raid to destroy the terror network. That blunder let al-Qaida regroup, and now it is brazenly attacking us again.
The President has mistaken speech-making for strategy. He thinks he can bring other nations under his influence simply by speaking from a stage. He has no long-term vision and no desire or ability to sit down and negotiate deals, and negotiation is the lifeblood of international diplomacy. Under Obama the United States is, as Brooks noted, simply drifting from one international crisis to another while the more savvy world leaders take advantage of our President’s naivete to extend their influence and protect their interests.
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For now, no more breakfasts in Manchester's Veterans Park
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