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Saturday, October 15, 2011

What is Obama's Foreign Policy?

Here is a quiz about American foreign policy under president Obama:

1) There is a foreign country with which the USA has no alliance or other treaty of friendship. Some of the people of that country rise up and protest against the ruling government in a non-violent way. The government takes action against the those in the protests that results in the killing of hundreds or thousands of them. Does America
a) Do nothing;
b) Speak out against the government action but otherwise do nothing;
c) Join with allies to impose meaningful sanctions on the government;
d) Bomb the armed forces of the government; or
e) Put American troops into the country to help in the fight.

2) There is another foreign country with which the USA has no alliance or other treaty of friendship. Some of the people of that country rise up and protest against the ruling government in a non-violent way. The government takes action against the those in the protests that results in the killing of hundreds or thousands of them. Does America
a) Do nothing;
b) Speak out against the government action but otherwise do nothing;
c) Join with allies to impose meaningful sanctions on the government;
d) Bomb the armed forces of the government; or
e) Put American troops into the country to help in the fight.

3) There is a third foreign country with which the USA has no alliance or other treaty of friendship. Some of the people of that country rise up and protest against the ruling government in a non-violent way. The government takes action against the those in the protests that results in the killing of hundreds or thousands of them. Does America
a) Do nothing;
b) Speak out against the government action but otherwise do nothing;
c) Join with allies to impose meaningful sanctions on the government;
d) Bomb the armed forces of the government; or
e) Put American troops into the country to help in the fight.


The correct answers to these questions according to president Obama are 1) a; 2)d; and 3 b. The countries involved are, of course, Iran, Libya and Syria. Now here is yet another question:

4) There is a fourth foreign country with which the USA has no alliance or other treaty of friendship. Some of the people of that country rise up and protest against the ruling government. The government takes action against the those in the protests that results in a civil war and the killing of thousands of them. Does America
a) Do nothing;
b) Speak out against the government action but otherwise do nothing;
c) Join with allies to impose meaningful sanctions on the government;
d) Bomb the armed forces of the government; or
e) Put American troops into the country to help in the fight.

We learned yesterday that Obama's answer to this question was e; US troops are now on their way to Uganda to fight as advisers in the civil war there.

I would like Obama to explain why it is that the two countries with the most strategic importance to US interests (Iran and Syria) are also the two countries where the US does nothing. Why also is it that the country with the least strategic importance is the one that gets US ground troops deployed?

Don't misunderstand me. I am not saying that I support or oppose any of these actions. I am just saying that someone with a logical mind could not hope to understand what Obama has been doing here.

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