Any involvement in the Middle East is a terrible thing, but I suspect all current Republican presidential candidates if they were in the White House would be much less reluctant to commit massive amounts of US troops on the ground in Syria and Iraq.
Bottom line: Obama is not good on foreign policy, but I suspect that by the end of 2017, we are going to wish we had Obama foreign policy as opposed to what we will be getting at such time.
Obam was correct when he said in his speech:
We should not be drawn once more into a long and costly ground war in Iraq or Syria. That is what groups like ISIL want. They cannot defeat us on the battlefield. ISIL fighters were part of the insurgency that we faced in Iraq, but they also know that if we occupy foreign lands they can kill thousands of our troops and drain our resources and use our presence to draw new recruits.Of course, drone strikes, air bombardment and sending the "special advisers" to the region also allows ISIS to draw new recruits, so it is not clear why Obama doesn't complete the circle, though the next president will likely ignore this argument completely.
-RW
UPDATE:
Trump Responds
Is that all there is? We need a new President - FAST!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 7, 2015
With some of the scary contenders running for the position of POTUS, I honestly wouldn't mind another term of Obama. From this speech, it looks like he's imbibed about 50% of what Ron Paul has been teaching.
ReplyDeleteHe does seem like a dove compared to the leading candidates.
ReplyDeleteI bet Hillary would send troops to show she is tough.
ReplyDelete