Obama's Strange Foreign Policy

               President Obama’s foreign policy must receive greater scrutiny.  Overall, his decisions have been puzzling, and directly in conflict with the course this nation has followed under every prior president.

              Starting closest to home, Obama sided against the pro-American legislature of Honduras and supported the deposed former president of that nation, a Marxist who sought to violate its democratic constitution.  That trend continued with the President’s kid-gloves treatment of the stridently anti-U.S. leader of Venezuela, who has signed military treaties with Iran.  He has also moved to enhance America’s relations with Cuba.

            In Europe, Obama has devalued our relations with America’s closest ally, The United Kingdom. No explanation has ever been given for his diplomatic slights of London.  He also betrayed Poland, a government which has consistently been pro-US since its liberation from the Soviet Union, in his eagerness to sign a START treaty with Russia that critics call far too favorable to Moscow. 

            In Asia, he has turned a blind eye towards the unprecedented buildup of China’s vast armed forces, and that nation’s persistent drive to knock the dollar off of its pedestal as the world’s reserve currency.

            It is, however, in the Middle East where the President has focused most of his attention.  Despite over America’s half-century of common interest and common cause, Obama has been the most severe critic Israel has ever faced in the White House. 

The warning signs of the President’s tilt towards Muslim states and leaders that are anti-US came early, when, inexplicably, he toured the Middle East “apologizing” for America—for offenses few outside his White House can even imagine.  America’s history towards Muslims and the Arab world has been one of good will.  In the 1950’s, Washington sided with Egypt against the British-French attempt to control the Suez Canal.  In the 1980’s, Reagan aided Afghan freedom fighters in their battle against the invading USSR.  In the 1990’s, Clinton moved to defend Muslims in Eastern Europe. Despite the cost in lives and treasure to defend Kuwait against Saddam, not one drop of oil was taken as repayment from that nation.

The President has not, however, befriended all sectors of the Middle East; his favor seems to rest on those, like the Venezuelans and Cubans, who are most anti-American.  He has sided with the Palestinians against pro-US Israel.  He turned a blind eye towards freedom-seeking Iranian dissidents against their vehemently anti-American government, but sided with protestors in Egypt against the admittedly dictatorial but relatively pro-American Mubarak. He has ignored Iranian meddling in Lebanon, but endorsed military action in Libya, which has been relatively quiet on the anti-US bandwagon of late.  And he has been silent on the heroic men and women in Syria who seek to reform their viciously anti-U.S. government.