Below are commentaries on Barack Obama’s foreign policy legacy, laid out first in pictures, (credit Speaker Ryan’s office for the collection and complaints but not for doing much about them). Below the picture series we offer a collection of links to articles in a variety of publications evaluating aspects of Obama’s foreign policy legacy. Not all would be considered conservative or even “neo-con.” Some even extol Obama’s grand success in other areas.
1) Obama and Castro, Cuba’s Communist dictator. 2016. THE LIMP WRIST SAYS IT ALL.
2) Kerry and Zarif, Iran’s Foreign Minister. 2015.
3) Clinton and Lavrov, Russia’s Foreign Minister. 2009.
4) Obama and Gaddafi, Libya’s former dictator. 2009.
5) Kerry and Assad, Syria’s dictator. 2009.
6) Obama and Chavez, Venezuela’s former dictator. 2009.
Max Boot writing at Foreign Affairs Where It All Went Wrong (excerpts)
. . . But it’s hard to judge his presidency as a tremendous success when voters chose to succeed him not his former secretary of state, pledged to continue his policies, but rather a candidate who has lambasted him and his administration in the harshest terms imaginable. . . .
One wonders if the Nobel Prize committee would still award him the Peace Prize that he received in the first year of his presidency. It seems doubtful. There has been precious little peace on Obama’s watch. His promise to end America’s war in Iraq resulted in an ill-advised pullout in 2011 that was far from inevitable. Within less than three years, American troops were back on Iraqi soil, but under far less advantageous circumstances. It is possible that the rise of ISIS may have been avoided altogether if only Obama had maintained a troop presence in Iraq and done more to stop the Syrian civil war.
Wary of repeating what he perceived to be Bush’s mistake of over-interventionism, Obama instead veered toward extreme non-interventionism, with the exception of Libya and Afghanistan, where he imposed such severe limitations on American action that it made success impossible to achieve. . . .
Ed Rogers writing at the Washington Post: Democrats will run from Obama’s awful foreign policy legacy (excerpt)
President Obama’s tenure has weakened America, wounded our alliances and bolstered our enemies. The president may have inherited some difficult circumstances, but he consistently misplayed his hand and made matters worse — everywhere.
Joseph V. Micallef writing at The Huffington Post: A Legacy of Failure: Obama’s Mideast Foreign Policy (excerpt)
Today, the credibility of America’s Middle East policy has been severely damaged by a White House whose Mideast strategy can best be described as unclear, inconsistent, and lacking follow-through.
New York Daily News – Obama’s world: The President’s not-very-smart foreign policy legacy (excerpt)
. . . Obama’s mark on the globe, guided by the not-especially coherent mantra “Don’t do stupid s–t,” left a trail of not-very-smart you-know-what nearly everywhere he seemed to go.
The Conversation: Obama’s legacy will be forever tarnished by his inaction in Syria (excerpt)
The president, who infamously reduced his philosophy of global American power to “don’t do stupid shit”, apparently never grasped that the consequences of inaction could be far worse than stupid.
Nikolas K. Gvosdev writing at The National Interest: Obama’s Real Legacy: Putting Foreign Policy Where It Doesn’t Belong (excerpt)
Decision making has moved away from the cabinet and toward a staff of loyalists in the White House.
Our V’pac summary of this article — Kerry was a bigger tool than even we thought, and tools being tools, he still doesn’t realize it.
Jim Geraghty at National Review: The America Obama Leaves Behind (excerpt)
In 2008, Obama campaigned on a pledge to end the Iraq War, and his most trusted adviser, Valerie Jarrett, still lists “ended two wars” as one of his accomplishments. Sadly, ISIS, al-Qaeda and other Islamist groups haven’t ended their wars against America. Obama leaves his successor a civil war in Syria that has killed about a half-million people and flooded Europe with refugees. In Afghanistan, after 15 years of American combat, the Taliban, according to the New York Times, continues to “control or heavily influence about a half of the country.” ISIS controls large portions of Libya; the U.S. is conducting airstrikes with helicopters, and most of the public remains oblivious.
R Mall
