I voted for Obama in 2008. It seemed like a good idea at the time and although I quickly soured on his domestic policies, I always (up until the whole dust-up over Benghazi) didn't think he was a complete idiot when it came to foreign policy. But the last six months just seem like one blunder after another blunder... in fact, you know what- scratch that: you can divide this administration into two periods- before Benghazi and after Benghazi and after Benghazi, for some reason, our foreign policy has gone to shit in a handbasket and then some.
First there was Syria... my God what a clusterfuck that was. Don't get me wrong: I was less than thrilled at the prospect of another foreign intervention. There's an optimal time to do these things where we could have minimized chaos, death and general warfare and when it comes to Syria it was about two years ago now. Our Syria policy was the furthest thing from competent I can think of. If you're going to declare a 'red line' and then when the bad guys cross that 'red line' you do precisely dick about it, it doesn't send a good message to the rest of the world that we can be taken seriously.
Well, well, what are we supposed to do? (I hear you say.) We can't intervene in a multi-sided, complicated, chaotic Civil War. Of course we can't. And yes, I agree with the rest of you that securing all Assad's chemical weapons is probably a pipe dream. But the guy has an Air Force that's been used to deliver the chemical weapons (not to mention do other cheerful things like drop bombs on playgrounds, rebel held positions, civilian areas, etc, etc) and if we can't 100% guarantee we get all his chemical weapons, we can, at least, make sure he doesn't have an Air Force to use to deliver them. Air strikes could have been limited in aim and scope.
Once the President vacillated and dumped the decision on Congress, knowing full well what they would do (absolutely nothing) then we pretty much got rolled by Putin and Assad. End result: Assad is still in power. People are still dying. No good results.
Then there was Iran... I'm somewhat leery of this, but will concede that some sort of an agreement sure as hell beats air strikes or an invasion of some kind. We could have bargained a lot harder than we did though. To me, it's six of one and a half a dozen of the other on the enrichment issue. If Iran needs a new power plant all that badly, I can't, in good conscious say that a country can't do whatever it damn well pleases to get power to its people. That said... the Iranian regime is not democratic. It has all the institutions of a democracy and I think if the idea of separation of state and mosque catches on there, the Iranian people are going to be just fine and then some. I'm a big believer in democratic peace theory and whether it's American corporate media propaganda or just a general sense of distrust, I'm not sure there's a lot of credibility behind the Iranians. Call me crazy, but the whole funding Hezbollah thing doesn't make me, well, you know, want to trust them and all.
If the agreement works, great. I saw a lot of Conservatives railing against the fact that our policy has shifted from 'ending' the Iranian nuclear program to 'containing' their nuclear program but if it makes the Middle East two bottles of bad tequila away from a disaster instead of their usual half a bottle, I think we could maybe call this a win.
Then there's China and it's new air defense zone. They declared it, we thumbed our noses at it by flying B-52s over it and they sent Vice President Biden over to shake some hands and pose for some photos. This is one aspect of our foreign policy that I've always kind of loved... there's always been an intricate dance between the two great powers and the complexity of our relationship is almost maddening at times. But Vice President Joe Biden is on the case, so there's nothing to worry about right?
Right?
Overall the general bouquet of competence that seemed to hang over the Obama Administration's foreign policy has, for me, totally fallen apart- and that's without even taking into account the continued existence of Gitmo and his policy of drone strikes and listening in to every phone call he can get his hands on.
Sigh. I suppose the fairy tale has to end some time, right?
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