Another thing I keep hearing is that Obama is "weak" on fighting terror. I don't see that. Sure, he's talking about drawing down troops in Iraq and is trying terrorists (oddly I admit) in civilian courts as opposed to military ones in a time of war. And perhaps, America's enemies do perceive him as weak. This all being stated, he did escalate the war in Afghanistan and remains focused in Iraq. A war that was improving by the time he took office; not that he'd mention this. So yes, part of Obama's successes, ironically, are thanks to Bush's policies since he followed them; with adjustments in some cases.
From where I sit (and trust me, you all know I'm not fond of the hype around the President) Obama had a decent first year on foreign policy. He set the course for his administration. Year two, of course, will be a big one.
Brookings take on his first year. Read the rest here.
First-year presidents do not tend to perform well on the foreign policy front. Some did have good years, of course. George H. W. Bush may be the best example, with progress towards German reunification, major developments in ending of the Cold War, and the successful invasion of Panama to show for 1989. Ronald Reagan accelerated the post-Vietnam U.S. defense buildup dramatically in his first year in office. Eisenhower helped end the Korean War. George W. Bush responded reasonably successfully to 9/11, though his disdain for ongoing negotiations with the likes of North Korea as well as Palestinian and Israeli interlocutors tainted the year's accomplishments, and of course bin Laden got away in the mountains of Tora Bora at the end of 2001.Now. If he can just avoid a terrorist attack on U.S. soil. We all know that can derail even the best laid plans.
Most Democratic presidents had big problems. Kennedy dealt with the Bay of Pigs. Johnson starting falling down the slippery slopes of Southeast Asia in a way that set the stage for full-scale American combat involvement in Vietnam in 1965. Carter struggled with his effort to balance human rights and national security interests in 1977; Clinton struggled with Somalia and Haiti and Bosnia in 1993. And of course Republicans had their issues too; it would be hard to call 1969 a particularly impressive year for Richard Nixon, in light of the escalations Nixon set in motion in Vietnam.
This article by CNN is worth reading. I'm not a huge fan of Rep. Paul, but I think his comments about VP Cheney's harsh words for the Obama administration are very appropriate.
ReplyDeletehttp://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2010/01/05/paul-takes-aim-at-cheney/
So far, President Obama has done a few things in foreign policy that I like and a few things that are probably not going to be effective, but that is hardly a surprise on any foreign policy program. The only advice I would give the guy (like he would listen to me!) is to focus on fashioning his foreign policy and forget about trying to undo the Bush policies. He will be more effective this way.