The Obama foreign policy is now fully here. It has truly made many changes in America's actions around the world. Right now, it seems that the USA is forming a new alliance. Let's call it the Triple Alliance 2 after a similarly named alliance that led, in part, to World War I. Its member states are the USA and our allies, Cuba and Iran.
Before you reject this concept, consider what has happened over the Age of Obama. In 2009, when Obama took office, America's closest allies in the Middle East were Israel, Egypt and Jordan. The USA also was in full control of Iraq and had defeated the al Qaeda led uprising with the help of our local Sunni allies. We had friendly relationships with the Saudis and the Kuwaitis. Turkey was our ally in NATO and we used Turkey as a gateway into Iraq. The threat to American interests in the region came from Sunni fundamentalist Islamic terrorists like al Qaeda, Hamas and the Moslem Brotherhood. They also came from Shiite fundamentalist Islamic terrorists like Hezbollah, the Shia militias in Iraq and, of course, Iran. Indeed, of all these threats, Iran was the one that had the blood of thousands of Americans on its hands. A big percentage of the US forces killed or wounded in Iraq were injured by weapons built by Iran and supplied to our adversaries.
Now consider where we are today. Our friendship with Egypt has pretty much ended. When our enemy the terrorist Moslem Brotherhood took control in Egypt, Obama supported them. When the Egyptian people rose up and ousted the Moslem Brotherhood, Obama rejected the ouster and relations have declined since then. Right now, Egypt is being courted by the Russians and there is no move by Washington to try to keep the friendship with the biggest of all the Arab countries. Our relationship with Jordan has also been shot to hell. We are still "friends", but Obama has done next to nothing to help King Abdullah and his government deal with nearly two million Syrian refugees who have poured into the kingdom to escape the civil war. As for Israel, Obama has gone out of his way to insult the Israeli government, he has taken a series of actions which have prevented any forward motion in peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians, he threatened sanctions against Israel for doing nothing more than defending itself, and he has attempted to manipulate the Israeli elections in order to install a new government. As a result, polls of the Israeli public show that less than ten percent now think that Obama is a friend (and that was before the new Iran deal.) The Saudis and the Gulf Arabs also no longer look at the USA as a close friend. All one needs to know is that things have gotten so bad that when Obama called for a "summit" meeting of heads of state, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states ignored the invitation. And Turkey? It refuses to let American planes use American air bases in Turkey for missions against ISIS. It also won't help deal with ISIS in any way. The president of Turkey denounces American influence in the region. But hey, we have an agreement with Iran, don't we? The Iranians who still chant "death to America" have told us that they won't develop nuclear weapons and, in exchange, they get hundreds of billions of dollars, new markets, access to weapons, access to ballistic missile technology and, best of all, the continuation of their nuclear program. Obama may think that makes Iran our ally. On the other hand, just imagine what Iran thinks that makes America.
Obama cannot leave office soon enough.
Before you reject this concept, consider what has happened over the Age of Obama. In 2009, when Obama took office, America's closest allies in the Middle East were Israel, Egypt and Jordan. The USA also was in full control of Iraq and had defeated the al Qaeda led uprising with the help of our local Sunni allies. We had friendly relationships with the Saudis and the Kuwaitis. Turkey was our ally in NATO and we used Turkey as a gateway into Iraq. The threat to American interests in the region came from Sunni fundamentalist Islamic terrorists like al Qaeda, Hamas and the Moslem Brotherhood. They also came from Shiite fundamentalist Islamic terrorists like Hezbollah, the Shia militias in Iraq and, of course, Iran. Indeed, of all these threats, Iran was the one that had the blood of thousands of Americans on its hands. A big percentage of the US forces killed or wounded in Iraq were injured by weapons built by Iran and supplied to our adversaries.
Now consider where we are today. Our friendship with Egypt has pretty much ended. When our enemy the terrorist Moslem Brotherhood took control in Egypt, Obama supported them. When the Egyptian people rose up and ousted the Moslem Brotherhood, Obama rejected the ouster and relations have declined since then. Right now, Egypt is being courted by the Russians and there is no move by Washington to try to keep the friendship with the biggest of all the Arab countries. Our relationship with Jordan has also been shot to hell. We are still "friends", but Obama has done next to nothing to help King Abdullah and his government deal with nearly two million Syrian refugees who have poured into the kingdom to escape the civil war. As for Israel, Obama has gone out of his way to insult the Israeli government, he has taken a series of actions which have prevented any forward motion in peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians, he threatened sanctions against Israel for doing nothing more than defending itself, and he has attempted to manipulate the Israeli elections in order to install a new government. As a result, polls of the Israeli public show that less than ten percent now think that Obama is a friend (and that was before the new Iran deal.) The Saudis and the Gulf Arabs also no longer look at the USA as a close friend. All one needs to know is that things have gotten so bad that when Obama called for a "summit" meeting of heads of state, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states ignored the invitation. And Turkey? It refuses to let American planes use American air bases in Turkey for missions against ISIS. It also won't help deal with ISIS in any way. The president of Turkey denounces American influence in the region. But hey, we have an agreement with Iran, don't we? The Iranians who still chant "death to America" have told us that they won't develop nuclear weapons and, in exchange, they get hundreds of billions of dollars, new markets, access to weapons, access to ballistic missile technology and, best of all, the continuation of their nuclear program. Obama may think that makes Iran our ally. On the other hand, just imagine what Iran thinks that makes America.
Obama cannot leave office soon enough.
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