Leading From Behind

President Obama’s foreign policy is in a shambles.  The leading role that the United States has played around the globe for several generations now, is in decline.  There is a power vacuum from the Middle East, to the South China Sea, to Ukraine.  And that vacuum is being filled by bad actors.

Russia’s Vladimir Putin has taken President Obama’s measure.  Putin sees this American President as indecisive, ineffectual, vacillating, and weak.  And Putin is taking advantage of it.

putinVladimir Putin

Unanswered aggression breeds more aggression.  After taking Crimea from Ukraine, without much of a whimper from the U.S. or from our European NATO allies, Putin now has his eye on other eastern sections of Ukraine, and perhaps on all of Ukraine itself.  He has used the ruse of the alleged plight of Ukrainians of Russian descent as a pretext to build up Russian troops on Ukraine’s eastern borders, and to actually go in and take over Ukrainian public buildings.  This has gone on for weeks now, and the American Administration’s response has been – not much.

Look for large parts of Ukraine to become part of Russia in the very near future, just as Crimea did.  And parts of independent nations like Moldova and Latvia are likely on the menu next.  Unanswered aggression breeds more aggression.

Instead of shoring up opposition to Russian aggression, President Obama’s chief agent of our foreign policy, Secretary of State John Kerry, has spent an inordinate amount of time lately on trying to cobble together a pie-in-the-sky Palestinian deal.  It seems like every other nation on earth, including the principals Israel and the Palestinians, knew this was a fool’s errand, and not going anywhere, but the Obama Administration chose to expend considerable time and energy on this futile effort anyway.  I believe that Obama has his eye on his legacy, and if he could just pull off “peace in the Middle East”, the historians might just have something to remember him by, other than the Obamacare failure, phantom shovel-ready jobs, the use of the IRS to suppress political adversaries, lots of golf, and fabulous trips for Michelle and the family.

AssadBashar al-Assad

It would be hard to point to any President who has looked more feckless than Obama has on Syria.  Drawing red lines, then seeing them crossed and doing nothing; promising aid and delivering – not much; calling for military strikes, then backing off, and handing over the keys to none other than, Putin – made us yearn for a steadier hand at the helm, like maybe even Jimmy Carter.

Remember al Qaeda is on the run?  Tell that to the four dead Americans in Benghazi, including an American Ambassador for the first time in 30 years.  And no one has been punished for it.  Except the jailed producer of a small-time, amateurish video, that had nothing to do with the attack in Benghazi in the first place.  And this has resulted in an even more jaded American public, that’s even more distrustful of its own government – and for good reason.

And the country that provides more support for terrorism across the globe than any other, is well down the road to acquiring nuclear weapons.  Just when Iran was finally starting to feel the pain of relatively severe sanctions, the Obama Administration got suckered into easing the sanctions, and talking with the imminently reasonable mullahs.  Oh, and by the way, while we talk, and Israel is restrained from acting, the centrifuges continue to spin, and Iranian nuclear enrichment continues.

Ayatollah Ali KhameneiAyatollah Ali Khamenei

And finally, the country most foreign policy experts predict will be our chief rival over the next century, the People’s Republic of China, is getting more assertive, and more aggressive, in East Asia.  While the Obama Administration announces deeper cuts in our military strength, China continues to get stronger.  They’ve expanded their military expenditures by double digits every year, for the last 25 years – as the Obama Administration continues to hollow out ours.  China declares an illegal air defense identification zone, and we respond half-heartedly.  Even our allies in the region, Japan and South Korea in particular, act with more resolve than the United States.

The bottom line is, whereas the Obama Administration’s domestic policy has been ineffective and counter-productive (the Stimulus, Obamacare, Dodd-Frank, Common Core), its foreign policy has been not only ineffective, but downright dangerous.  The world is a much less stable place, because the United States under this Administration, has abandoned its traditional leadership role, and left the field open to bullies and aggressors.

Like this post? Share with your friends:

You Might Also Be Interested In

Join the Campaign

Thank you for your support