Positives And Negatives In President Obama’s Foreign Policy:

Photo: Pete Souza, White House

Obama's "I'm Not George W. Bush" Foreign Policy -- Robert Kaplan, Real Clear World/Stratfor

On the face of it, President Barack Obama's foreign policy is not at all terrible. He ended U.S. military involvement in Iraq. He is severely reducing U.S. involvement in Afghanistan. He kept U.S. involvement in Libya to a reasonable minimum, and has not gotten drawn into the infernally complex civil war in Syria. Meanwhile, his secretary of state, John Kerry, is engaged in the first serious attempt at achieving Israeli-Palestinian peace in 13 years, even while Obama has kept his trigger-finger calm on Iran, thus positioning the United States for some sort of rapprochement with Tehran in the event that the new Iranian president, Hassan Rouhani, is serious about improving relations. Moreover, given the humanitarian impulses of his new national security adviser and U.N. ambassador, Obama can now more easily talk like an idealist while practicing realism: the combination that usually works in foreign affairs.

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My Comment: President Obama's foreign policy has been .... by design .... unremarkable. I am happy that he did not change the treaty with Iraq on U.S. withdrawal, and I am happy that he is finally withdrawing troops from Afghanistan. And while American counter terrorism policy has now involved U.S. military and intelligence forces in numerous countries (Yemen, Niger, etc.) .... their footprint has been low-key and unremarkable with the exception of a few hiccups (Benghazi). And while much of the Middle East is unraveling .... Iraq on the precipice of civil war .... Afghanistan is still a failed state .... Al Qaeda rising .... the Russian reset is dead .... and China is escalating the bullying of it's neighbors .... the fact is that the U.S. public wants a disengaged U.S. foreign policy ... and voted for the prefect candidate to pursue this policy. After all .... President Obama never really ran on a foreign policy platform .... in fact .... his focus has been unchanged since running for President in 2008 .... and that platform has always been to transform this country.

So yup .... George W. Bush he (President Obama) ain't.