Former Obama Advisor: Our Foreign Policy is a Mess — Especially in the Middle East

It isn't just Romney and Republicans saying Obama's foreign policy is a travesty.

Instead, former Obama administration Defense undersecretary and State Department adviser Rosa Brooks writes at Foreign Policy that her former boss’ team on foreign policy desperately needs an intervention, and that Obama needs to finally get involved by doing more than giving a few speeches:

Despite some successes large and small, Obama’s foreign policy has disappointed many who initially supported him. The Middle East initiatives heralded in his 2009 Cairo speech fizzled or never got started at all, and the Middle East today is more volatile than ever. The administration’s response to the escalating violence in Syria has consisted mostly of anxious thumb-twiddling. The Israelis and the Palestinians are both furious at us. In Afghanistan, Obama lost faith in his own strategy: he never fought to fully resource it, and now we’re searching for a way to leave without condemning the Afghans to endless civil war. In Pakistan, years of throwing money in the military’s direction have bought little cooperation and less love. The Russians want to reset the reset, neither the Chinese nor anyone else can figure out what, if anything, the “pivot to Asia” really means, and Latin America and Africa continue to be mostly ignored, along with global issues such as climate change. Meanwhile, the administration’s expanding drone campaign suggests a counter terrorism strategy that has completely lost its bearings – we no longer seem very clear on who we need to kill or why.

This is pretty damning stuff from one of Obama's own.

Source:
hotair.com...

reply to post by IAMTAT


Yea, I just read about this, posted it somewhere as well, anyone who has been following the events in the middle-east has got to admit it is a mess, and yes Obama helped create this problem.

A "former anything" commenting on "anything" loses some credibility in my book because it's easy to criticize the guy you lost your job to. However, I do think Obama's foreign policy has been pretty weak and leaderless.

I'm sure Obama's answer to questions on his foreign policy in the middle east would be something like "Look, the Arab Spring happened, and there is nothing I can do about it." Yes, yes mr president... let the blame flow through you.

Originally posted by Stormdancer777
reply to post by IAMTAT

 

Yea, I just read about this, posted it somewhere as well, anyone who has been following the events in the middle-east has got to admit it is a mess, and yes Obama helped create this problem.

It was a mess before he got in.... BUSH made sure of that.

You've got to stop meddling in other countries business, America is not enough a democracy that it gets to call the shots for the rest of the world. From a European anti imperialistic point of view that former employee can stick her opinions up her #ing ass and choke on em afterwards.

G e t t h e f u c k out of the middle east.

reply to post by IAMTAT


After four years, this Admin is still at the amatuer stage.

It's like they insist upon doubling down on stupid.

You can only bang your head into a wall before something breaks...and it's usually your head.

reply to post by IAMTAT


It's been a mess for many, many years.

Obama shouldn't be held to account for it all.

Originally posted by kyred
reply to post by IAMTAT

 

It's been a mess for many, many years.

Obama shouldn't be held to account for it all.

He said 'the buck stops with him!...oh, right, that was Hillary Clinton.
Should we hold her to account for a dead ambassador and three other Americans in Libya...or president Obama?

Originally posted by Stormdancer777
reply to post by IAMTAT

 

Yea, I just read about this, posted it somewhere as well, anyone who has been following the events in the middle-east has got to admit it is a mess, and yes Obama helped create this problem.

open a history book...the middle east has been a mess for decades...now, Obama created this problem...right...sure he did.....everything in the world that goes wrong, Obama helped create

Originally posted by IAMTAT

Originally posted by kyred
reply to post by IAMTAT

 

It's been a mess for many, many years.

Obama shouldn't be held to account for it all.

He said 'the buck stops with him!...oh, right, that was Hillary Clinton.
Should we hold her to account for a dead ambassador and three other Americans in Libya...or president Obama?

bush got re-elected with over 3,000 killed on his watch.....hey, i got top secet information only for you....there will be other americans killed in the middle east in the future.....sssshhh....don't tell anybody

If you want to fix the mess in foreign policy, elect Romney. Honestly, he will alienate every single nation on Earth within the first month of his reign and you will have every single weapon in the world locked on US targets. Go ahead and see if I'm wrong. I would LOVE to be wrong about this.

Too bad. I'm right. But take a chance and vote for good ol' Romney.

It can get a lot worse than it is, my friends. Wanna find out?

I guess I shouldn't be surprised that everyone wants to attack the OP, Bush, Romney...et al...for the words that ACTUALLY came from a former Obama foreign policy adviser.
Apparently, that means nothing. Go figure.

reply to post by IAMTAT


New documents released

On September 11 – the day Stevens and three other Americans were killed – the ambassador signed a three-page cable, labeled “sensitive,” in which he noted “growing problems with security” in Benghazi and “growing frustration” on the part of local residents with Libyan police and security forces. These forces the ambassador characterized as “too weak to keep the country secure.”

“Islamist extremists are able to attack the Red Cross with relative impunity,”

“Benghazi has moved from trepidation to euphoria and back as a series of violent incidents has dominated the political landscape…The individual incidents have been organized,” he added, a function of “the security vacuum that a diverse group of independent actors are exploiting for their own purposes.”

After the U.S. consulate in Benghazi had been damaged by an improvised explosive device, earlier that month, Stevens had reported to his superiors that an Islamist group had claimed credit for the attack, and in so doing, had “described the attack as ‘targeting the Christians supervising the management of the consulate.”
“Multiple warnings about security threats were contained in Ambassador Stevens’ own words in multiple cables sent to Washington, D.C., and were manifested by two prior bombings of the Benghazi compound and an assassination attempt on the British ambassador,” the congressmen wrote. “For this administration to assume that terrorists were not involved in the 9/11 anniversary attack would have required a willing suspension of disbelief.”

Read more: www.foxnews.com... lrwS6O4

reply to post by Stormdancer777

On September 11 – the day Stevens and three other Americans were killed – the ambassador signed a three-page cable, labeled “sensitive,” in which he noted “growing problems with security” in Benghazi and “growing frustration” on the part of local residents with Libyan police and security forces. These forces the ambassador characterized as “too weak to keep the country secure.” Read more: www.foxnews.com... ltcCF4S

So we're STILL supposed to believe that the president never saw this cable or was told about it.

Who died and made that EX- adminstrative officer GOD???

So what he says is the truth, nothing but the truth, without even any trial on those whom he accuses??

Have humans, or in this case americans, gone stupid, enough to believe whatever some clown says, without consideration and intelligent analysis???

Originally posted by IAMTAT
reply to post by Stormdancer777

 

On September 11 – the day Stevens and three other Americans were killed – the ambassador signed a three-page cable, labeled “sensitive,” in which he noted “growing problems with security” in Benghazi and “growing frustration” on the part of local residents with Libyan police and security forces. These forces the ambassador characterized as “too weak to keep the country secure.” Read more: www.foxnews.com... ltcCF4S

So we're STILL supposed to believe that the president never saw this cable or was told about it.

It would be a great stretch of the imagination that he did not know, unless he didn't care, or he really isn't the one making the decisions, I believe we don't have a president,
here are the documents,

Take a look at the documents
www.scribd.com...

The unraveling of the Obama Doctrine/Responsibility to Protect is a reality that Obama does not want to face. I just hope Romney and Obama are permitted to go head to head on foreign policy in Monday's debate. No life saving from the moderator. Let's see Obama defend his failed policy. The same policy responsible for countless drone strikes and Spec Ops insertions in multiple countries in Africa. That is never talked about.... The proxy wars...

Obama is a UN puppet that must go

The organization that framed Obama's policy
www.responsibilitytoprotect.org...

www.crisisgroup.org...

All working together....to frame an Open Society

www.opensocietyfoundations.org...

Read the text from all three organizations and compare it to the Obama Doctrine and Obama's actions

www.foreignpolicy.com...

reply to post by jibeho


Do you know who the moderator is?

Hope we get an honest one this time.

Sadly I have had to turn off the debate the cussing to myself is worrying my husband.

Sad really.

reply to post by Stormdancer777


I start every debate with a double dirty martini!! Much more enjoyable and entertaining that way Funny, my mouth tends to wander as well... Glad the kids are already in bed by then.....

Originally posted by jibeho
reply to post by Stormdancer777

 

I start every debate with a double dirty martini!! Much more enjoyable and entertaining that way

Funny, my mouth tends to wander as well... Glad the kids are already in bed by then.....

I can't drink, but yea it might help.

reply to post by IAMTAT


Why would this surprise anyone? Obama was never qualified to be POTUS. He had little experience in National poilitics. (After he was elected Senator, he spent most of his time running for President.) He had NO experience in International politics. He had NO executive experience, NO military experience, NO business experience.

Obama may not be Muslim, but half his family is. And he has the typical Liberal attitude that always blames the USA first.

I think Sarkozy sized up Obama accurately as "naive and arrogant."

“If Kelly's sources are solid, then President Sarkozy views our president in much the same way as many of his opponents, naive and arrogant. That's of course the worst sort of a combination for any leader.”

theeprovocateur.blogspot.com...


“During a lunch with a group of French legislators Wednesday, Sarkozy reportedly described Obama as inexperienced, ill-prepared by advisers, and thus far ‘not always up to standard on decision-making and efficiency. ‘ "

www.time.com...

The world does NOT respect weakness, especially the Islamic world.