It must be hell to be a foreign ally of the USA with president Obama in the White House. It seems that Obama thinks the world is like Game of Thrones where alliances are struck and abandoned with blinding speed and everyone is duplicitous. Think about it. When Obama took office six plus years ago, the USA had a number of close allies around the world. The ones that come to mind are Canada in North America; the NATO countries (especially the UK) in Europe; Egypt, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Iraq in the Middle East; and Japan, South Korea and Taiwan in East Asia. These were not just treaty partners, they were friends of the USA. Indeed, America had been friends with these countries since at least thirty years ago, and for some, the friendship went back much, much longer. Our close relationship with the UK and France goes back to World War I and before. Our friendship with Canada goes back to the 19th century.
So what has happened in the last few years with Obama in charge? Relations with Canada are at the lowest point since the War of 1812. Just yesterday, the largest newspaper in Toronto published a story about the terrible state of Canadian-American relations. Obama has basically ignored Canada and Canadian interests since taking office. On top of that, Obama continues to hold the Keystone pipeline hostage to domestic political considerations. Remember, there are 60,000 jobs that would be created in the USA to build that pipeline. In Canada, there would be many more jobs than that created produce the oil that the pipeline would carry. To put this in context, it is as if Canada were just delaying and delaying making a decision that would lead to the creation of two and a half million jobs in the USA. We would not be too pleased.
Relations with Europe have also soured. Oh, NATO still works together sometimes, but Obama treats the alliance as an afterthought. Just a few months ago, the head of NATO came to Washington and no one from the White House would even see him. The UK which used to be our greatest friend in the "special relationship" now no longer goes along with us in many instances. The Brits got tired of being taken for granted. The eastern members of NATO like Poland and the Czech Republic were burned by Obama when he pulled out the missile defense systems that we had agreed to install. That was done at the urging of Hillary Clinton supposedly to placate the Russians. Of course, Russia then invaded Crimea and the eastern part of Ukraine.
In the Middle East, Obama presided over the ouster of president Mubarak (our friend) and the installation of Morsi (an Islamic radical). When the Egyptian people threw Morsi out, Obama put the deep freeze on US-Egyptian relations where they remain. Egypt is now getting closer to the Russians and our alliance is all but over. The Saudis and Jordanians are apoplectic about Obama's deal with Iran which leaves them open nuclear blackmail by the mullahs. Iraq has crumbled into chaos because Obama refused to keep any forces in Iraq to secure the victory that was won under Bush. And Israel has been subjected to worse treatment by Obama than most of our enemies.
All these alliances and friendships are in tatters. But Obama's defenders will tell you that we have gained something in return. We now have a relationship with Iran whose leader still leads chants of "death to America". Then there's Russia. The Russians now routinely send long range bombers to test our defenses on the West Coast! Putin mocks Obama as a lightweight fool. The Russians are still in Crimea and eastern Ukraine. They recently even threatened Sweden of all countries with a military response if the Swedes took actions to increase their defensive posture. And let's not forget China. The Chinese have launched an all out cyber attack on America and Obama is so weak that he won't even call them out for it. It's not that we won't retaliate; we won't even say that it is the Chinese doing this.
The latest American ally to go down the drain are the Kurds. They have been our friends and allies for a decade of fighting in Iraq. They fought alongside our military and they continued to fight when ISIS came into Iraq even though we were no longer there. In the last week, Obama has agreed to let Turkey attack Kurdish forces in the Kurdish portions of Syria. It is a disgrace.
The world is a dangerous place, and it keeps getting more dangerous. For the first time in at least a century, the USA has a president with no concept whatsoever of how to manage foreign affairs. Let's hope we can survive until he is out of office.
So what has happened in the last few years with Obama in charge? Relations with Canada are at the lowest point since the War of 1812. Just yesterday, the largest newspaper in Toronto published a story about the terrible state of Canadian-American relations. Obama has basically ignored Canada and Canadian interests since taking office. On top of that, Obama continues to hold the Keystone pipeline hostage to domestic political considerations. Remember, there are 60,000 jobs that would be created in the USA to build that pipeline. In Canada, there would be many more jobs than that created produce the oil that the pipeline would carry. To put this in context, it is as if Canada were just delaying and delaying making a decision that would lead to the creation of two and a half million jobs in the USA. We would not be too pleased.
Relations with Europe have also soured. Oh, NATO still works together sometimes, but Obama treats the alliance as an afterthought. Just a few months ago, the head of NATO came to Washington and no one from the White House would even see him. The UK which used to be our greatest friend in the "special relationship" now no longer goes along with us in many instances. The Brits got tired of being taken for granted. The eastern members of NATO like Poland and the Czech Republic were burned by Obama when he pulled out the missile defense systems that we had agreed to install. That was done at the urging of Hillary Clinton supposedly to placate the Russians. Of course, Russia then invaded Crimea and the eastern part of Ukraine.
In the Middle East, Obama presided over the ouster of president Mubarak (our friend) and the installation of Morsi (an Islamic radical). When the Egyptian people threw Morsi out, Obama put the deep freeze on US-Egyptian relations where they remain. Egypt is now getting closer to the Russians and our alliance is all but over. The Saudis and Jordanians are apoplectic about Obama's deal with Iran which leaves them open nuclear blackmail by the mullahs. Iraq has crumbled into chaos because Obama refused to keep any forces in Iraq to secure the victory that was won under Bush. And Israel has been subjected to worse treatment by Obama than most of our enemies.
All these alliances and friendships are in tatters. But Obama's defenders will tell you that we have gained something in return. We now have a relationship with Iran whose leader still leads chants of "death to America". Then there's Russia. The Russians now routinely send long range bombers to test our defenses on the West Coast! Putin mocks Obama as a lightweight fool. The Russians are still in Crimea and eastern Ukraine. They recently even threatened Sweden of all countries with a military response if the Swedes took actions to increase their defensive posture. And let's not forget China. The Chinese have launched an all out cyber attack on America and Obama is so weak that he won't even call them out for it. It's not that we won't retaliate; we won't even say that it is the Chinese doing this.
The latest American ally to go down the drain are the Kurds. They have been our friends and allies for a decade of fighting in Iraq. They fought alongside our military and they continued to fight when ISIS came into Iraq even though we were no longer there. In the last week, Obama has agreed to let Turkey attack Kurdish forces in the Kurdish portions of Syria. It is a disgrace.
The world is a dangerous place, and it keeps getting more dangerous. For the first time in at least a century, the USA has a president with no concept whatsoever of how to manage foreign affairs. Let's hope we can survive until he is out of office.
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