The Strange World of Obama’s Foreign Policy

Right From the Start

It has been a strange couple of weeks for President Barack Obama as his legacy has come home to bite him. On a domestic level we have known for a long time that Mr. Obama is liar – not a world class liar – because like everything else he has done, he is not even very good at lying. So frequent and transparent are his lies that the old saw – How do you know when he is lying? His lips are moving – now has his picture posted next to it.

World leaders have hinted at Mr. Obama’s propensity to embellish the truth but until last week none have actually called him a liar. That honor now lies with Iran’s Ayatollah Khamenei – no slouch at lying himself – as he revealed his view of the recently completed talks between Iran and the United States allegedly leading to preventing Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons. The Weekly Standard reported:

“President Obama has long known that the real decision maker in Iran is Ayatollah Khamenei, the so-called supreme leader. While other Iranian officials have negotiated with Western powers over the mullahs’ nuclear program, Khamenei’s opinion is the only one that really counts. It is for this reason that Obama began writing directly to Khamenei early in his presidency.

“Earlier today, Khamenei broke his silence on the supposed “framework” the Obama administration has been trumpeting as the basis for a nuclear accord. Khamenei’s speech pulled the rug out from underneath the administration.

‘”Khamenei accused the Obama administration of ‘lying’ about the proposed terms, being “deceptive,’ and having ‘devilish’ intentions, according to multiple published accounts of his speech, as well as posts on his official Twitter feed.”

Apparently the Supreme Leader of Iran is not as mesmerized by Mr. Obama as say all of the mainstream media in the United States. And Mr. Obama doesn’t fool our closest neighbor. The Canada Free Press in a less than kind article reported:

“Depending on proximity to the podium at which Barack Obama delivered his victory speech about an alleged “historic” nuclear deal with Iran, at the end of the April 2 speech some of the more formidable bushes in the Rose Garden had not wilted and died from the withering effects of 18 minutes of self-aggrandizement and legacy weaving by The One.

“Surviving Rose bushes notwithstanding, Obama’s vaunted deal all but vanished into thin air as Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, pummeled Obama with words so harsh that one must reluctantly concede that the Ayatollah, although a congenital liar and despicable tyrant himself, has unwittingly unearthed the truth about America’s number one problem: The presidency of Barack Hussein Obama.

“As reported:

‘Earlier today, Khamenei broke his silence on the supposed “framework” the Obama administration has been trumpeting as the basis for a nuclear accord. Khamenei’s speech pulled the rug out from underneath the administration.

‘Khamenei accused the Obama administration of “lying” about the proposed terms, being “deceptive,” and having “devilish” intentions, according to multiple published accounts of his speech, as well as posts on his official Twitter feed.’“Our beloved Community Organizer guilty of lying, being deceptive, and devilish?”

Iran represents the latest in a long and unbroken line of foreign policy failures by Mr. Obama and his principal foreign policy advisors – former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and current Secretary of State John Kerry (and somewhere in the background lurks Valerie Jarrett). Ms. Clinton wants to be President and Mr. Kerry wants a Nobel Peace Prize – neither is deserving based upon their performances.

Let’s review. Mr. Obama has failed in Iraq and now the country is overrun with the Islamic State (ISIS) – the single most vicious band of terrorists since Adolph Hitler and his band of Brownshirts. Mr. Obama failed in Syria and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad used chemical weapons with impunity against his own people. Mr. Obama failed again in Syria by promising and then reneging on the delivery of weapons to the Syrian Free Army trying to overthrow Mr. Assad and now Syria, like neighboring Iraq is overrun by ISIS.

Mr. Obama with the assistance of Ms. Clinton engineered the overthrow of Libyan strongman Muammar Gaddafi which plunged Libya in a civil war pitting one terrorist supported group against another and for which there is still no solution. The rise of the terrorists in Libya led to the attack on our virtually unprotected embassy in Benghazi and the death of our ambassador and three other Americans. (To this day neither Mr. Obama nor Ms. Clinton have told the American people where they were and why they failed to respond while the attack was under way. Instead they jointly participated in the canard that a two-bit video critical of Islam was the source of the attack.)

Mr. Obama embraced the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt despite their designation as a “terrorist group” by our State Department. He and Ms. Clinton remained silent as the Muslim Brotherhood first imprisoned their political opponents and then embarked on Gestapo like tactics to silence critics. When finally this repressive regime was overthrown Mr. Obama routinely criticized the new regime – a pro-Western regime – for its imprisonment and trial of the terrorist Muslim Brotherhood group. So complete was Mr. Obama’s disdain that he cut off needed military aid to the new regime that he had generously granted to the rogue Muslim Brotherhood regime. The new regime in Egypt has become a regional leader and stabilizing power with growing influence in the reformation of the Islamic religion and the battle against Islamic extremists – so much so that Mr. Obama has now been forced to lift the ban on military aid in recognition that the Egyptian government can do what Mr. Obama has failed to do in confronting Islamic extremism.

Mr. Obama failed in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and his backstabbing of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu emboldened Hamas to increase its daily incursions into Israeli settlements – so much so that Israel was forced to attack the terrorists along its Gaza border. So dubious was the assistance of Mr. Obama and Mr. Kerry that Israel and Egypt denied the United States information on and participation in talks that led to the cessation of hostilities by Hamas.

Mr. Obama failed in Yemen – a country he held up as a model of his success in the Middle East – and now Yemen has plunged into a civil war pitting an Iran-supported group of rebels against former government forces. The Yemeni leader has been forced to flee the country and is now protected by Saudi Arabia. The duty to protect a neighbor and friendly government has fallen to Saudi Arabia because of the lack of resolve by Mr. Obama and Mr. Kerry – each afraid to confront Iran over its presence in Yemen for fear of upsetting the bogus nuclear talks with Iran. And even as Saudi Arabia steps forward, Mr. Obama and Mr. Kerry have undermined their efforts and are trying to force Saudi Arabia and the legitimate government of Yemen to accept a stalemate in lieu of a victory. The Wall Street Journal reported Monday:

“Saudi officials have said that they aim to degrade the military capabilities of the Houthi rebel [backed by Iran] who have overrun much of Yemen and to restore President Abed Mansour Hadi to power after militants forced him to flee the country.

“The Obama administration is skeptical the airstrikes will reverse the Houthi gains. Worried by the risk of more direct intervention by Iran, U.. officials say the are urging the Saudis to set their sight more narrowly on halting rebel advances and reaching what amounts to a battlefield stalemate that leads all sides to the negotiating table.”

That strategy employed by Mr. Obama elsewhere has worked so well – not.

And Mr. Obama and Ms. Clinton have failed in dealing with Russia. The much ballyhooed “reset” by Ms. Clinton emboldened Russian President Vladmir Putin to the point that he felt comfortable with invading the neighboring Crimea portion of the Ukraine without fear of retaliation – even by the United States which had guaranteed the Ukraine’s safety in exchange for them giving up their nuclear arsenal. Even today Russia continues its aggression in the Ukraine lobbing off great sections of its eastern border. And now Russia in response to Mr. Obama’s bogus nuclear weapons talks with Iran has lifted the ban on missal defense systems for Iran.

The recounting of failures by Mr. Obama, Ms. Clinton and Mr. Kerry could go on for pages. It is actually easier to recount their successes – there are none.

All of this is a long way to lead into the latest “strange” statement on foreign policy by Mr. Obama. Last week, in response to criticism of Mr. Obama’s “deal” with Iran by Wisconsin Governor and potential presidential candidate Scott Walker (R-WI) Mr. Obama sniffed that Mr. Walker should “bone up” on international relations before criticizing The Great One.

US News suggested a different take:

“It’s an idea that seems close to the heart of our current president who, both often and insufferably, seeks to remind everyone how smart he is and how most everyone else needs to get to work catching up. It’s an unattractive quality, something beyond the smugness one might more readily find among members of the Yale University faculty or attendees at a Hollywood dinner party. As a character trait for the leader of the free world, it is positively appalling.

It’s also very much on display as President Barack Obama attempts to win support for whatever is coming out of the protracted negotiations between the P5 +1 (the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council and Germany) and Iran on the subject of the latter’s attempts to join the global nuclear club.

“With much fanfare and at the 11th hour, the White House announced an agreement had been reached. This was perhaps overstating the case. What has apparently been agreed upon is some kind of framework for a deal, the details of which will be worked out later which, as most everyone knows, is where the devil lies.

Obama has been defending what the mainstream media persist in calling a deal and has been quick to give a rhetorical slap of the hand to anyone who challenges him on it. Particularly crude was his suggestion, made in an interview with government-funded NPR, that Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker – a critic of both the framework deal and the process that has produced it – needed to “bone up on foreign policy” a little bit before opening his mouth.

The suggestion reflects a naked arrogance on the president’s part. Recall that he knew little himself about foreign policy in 2008 when he threw his hat in the presidential ring. It was enough that if George W. Bush or John McCain were for it than he was against it. If Bush said “up,” Obama said “down.” If McCain said “right,” Obama, depending on the context, either said “left” or “wrong,” while his supporters, especially those who appeared on nightly television, cheered their agreement.”

As reported by CNN, Vice President Joe Biden famously stated shortly before the inauguration of Mr. Obama to his first term:

“Remember I said it standing here, if you don’t remember anything else I said,” Biden continued. “Watch, we’re going to have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy.

“I promise you it will occur. As a student of history and having served with seven presidents, I guarantee you it’s going happen. I can give you at least four or five scenarios from where it might originate.”

The Delaware senator spoke at two Seattle fundraises Sunday night, expected to bring in $1 million for the campaign. Biden told the supporters that when Obama will need them to stand with the administration on the difficult calls – not financially, but by using their influence within their communities to convince others that the right decisions are being made.

“I promise you, you all are going to be sitting here a year from now going, ‘Oh my God, why are they there in the polls, why is the polling so down, why is this thing so tough?’ We’re going have to make some incredibly tough decisions in the first two years,” said Biden. “I’m asking you now, be prepared to stick with us. Remember the faith you had at this point because you’re going to have to reinforce us.”

Telling the crowd to “gird their loins” for a bumpy beginning to the next presidential term, Biden said it wouldn’t be initially apparent that the correct decisions are being made because “they’re not likely to be as popular as they are sound. Because if they’re popular, they’re probably not sound.”

Mr. Biden, we are still waiting.