American Foreign Policy -- Successes and Failures

Over three years ago, president Obama took office after a campaign in which he criticized essentially every aspect of American foreign policy during the Bush administration. It seems appropriate to see how well Obama has done since taking office. Let's look at the record:

Items that were a success for Obama:
1) Osama bin Laden is dead! Of course, the information used to find bin Laden was developed as a result of the enhanced interrogation used at Guantanamo, so if Obama had gotten his way, bin Laden would still be out there.
2) American troop are out of Iraq. In fairness, this victory is the result of the Bush policy on the surge which Obama strongly opposed. Indeed, by removing all troops from Iraq, Obama has left the US unable to assist the Iraqis in any meaningful way now that there is an upsurge in bombings within Iraq.
3) A number of high level al Qaeda leaders have been killed using drones based in Afghanistan.


Failures for Obama include these items:
1) The strength of American long-term alliances has been reduced. The special relationship with the British is no longer so special. There have been many rocky moments with our ally Israel. The American alliances with Turkey and Egypt are either dead or dying. Even the relationship with Canada took a hit with regard to the Keystone Pipeline.
2) The war in Afghanistan was changed by Obama from a small scale involvement into a large scale assault. Casualties have skyrocketed. Our relationship with the Afghan people has not improved, however. Indeed, judging from the current rioting about burning the Koran, American relations with Afghanistan are at their lowest point in years.
3) The price of oil has more than doubled.
4) The Iranians are close to having nuclear weapons and no actions taken by Obama have made any difference.
5) American relations with Latin America are at a low ebb. A number of countries actively oppose the USA.
6) American debt to foreign entities has skyrocketed.
7) Obama has not accomplished any of his goals regarding global warming. While I think this is a good thing, it does show that Obama is inept.
8) During the arab spring, Obama has quickly supported the overthrow of American allies but remained curiously detached when the uprisings were against American enemies.
9) The ability of the United States to project its power around the globe is less than when Obama took office and it is scheduled to be greatly reduced.
10) No progress has been made in dealings with North Korea.

The list of failures could go on, while I cannot think of another success. The truth is that when it comes to foreign policy, Obama has been a truly crappy president.