List of Obama Admin Foreign Policy Issues (90 days in)

90 days into his Administration, let’s take a look at President Obama’s accomplishments and challenges.

Iraq
-President Obama has vowed to remove “about” 100,000 troops within 19 months, leave 50,000 there indefinitely without a date for their withdrawal, and also in keeping with President Bush’s policy, he’ll adhere to the Status of Forces Agreement. However, General Odierno in Iraq says that there’s a good chance that timeline ain’t gonna happen.

Iran
-President Obama campaigned on the promise to “talk” to Iran, and made the world expect that simply talking to the Iranians would make the world’s largest sponsor of terrorism (which is actively attacking Americans in Iraq and Afghanistan as you read this) stop making their nuclear bomb factories. He tried backdoor communications. He tried writing a letter. He sent a video to the Iranian people. He tried UN communications. He’s even trying direct communications in the UN negotiations. None of this has worked one bit. Iran now boasts it has 7000 centrifuges up and running, and the Israelis are saying that if Obama doesn’t get some sort of result soon….they’ll attack Iran on their own. Such an attack would no doubt bring a retaliation from Iran, and US forces are literally, physically under caught in the crossfire of ballistic missiles, airstrikes, and commando operations. Talk might work, but it’s time to start talking fast.

Afghanistan
-President Obama has sent a few more troops there, but only half as many as were originally going to go. Sec Defense Gates says that making Afghanistan a secure & stable ally in the war on terror is an objective the US cannot meet. SO, Obama has sent more diplomats instead. He also went to Europe (as promised during his campaign) to get NATO to send more troops, but he failed.

Pakistan
-Obama’s stepped up covert operations inside Pakistan, killed hundreds of civilians with Predator drone missile attacks, and put the nuclear armed nation of 170million people on the verge of collapse.

Thailand
-President Obama has done nothing to stave off the collapse of that Southeast Asian nation, and it is in the midst of collapsing.

Somalia
-Somalia effectively collapsed years and years ago. Since then piracy has become its biggest source of GDP. Recently, the long-ignored problem of Somali piracy hit home when an American-flagged cargo ship was seized. The crew-not confident that they’d be saved by the US Navy, Obama Admin diplomatic talks, or the UN forces in the area-rescued themselves. The Captain was taken hostage, and President Obama chose to vote PRESENT rather than give an order to rescue the hostage from the 4 teenage tribesman/pirates. Instead, his vague order was to take action only if the hostage was in imminent danger (this after the Captain had tried to escape and been shot at, but apparently being shot at isn’t imminent danger). Thankfully, 4 US Navy SEAL Team snipers fired in unison and made truly remarkable shots. The issues was closed, and now the dazed and confused Obama Admin policy regarding Somali pirates has shifted to chest-thumping bragging, credit stealing, and impotent threats to attack pirate bases on shore.

North Korea
-North Korea was kind enough to give a full 6 weeks of daily warnings that it was going to launch an ICBM in direct violation of multiple UN resolutions. President Obama said that words have to mean something. He said that a rogue regime cannot be allowed to flaunt, dismiss, and ignore the will of the United Nations. Sadly, his words meant nothing to the North Koreans, so they launched their missile while the Obama Admin in effect did nothing and failed to stop or even dissuade the illegal act.

Mexico
-Like Pakistan, Afghanistan, Thailand, and other emerging crisis’, Mexico is also on the verge of collapse. Again, the Obama Administration has in effect done nothing to curb this. However, there was talk of immigration reform in the United States which would allow Mexican refugees from a collapse to come here to the United States where jobs are plentiful, and the economy can support the influx of millions of poverty stricken, jobless, homeless people.