Three short excerpts and links to posts on the topic of foreign policy — the first is from former Ambassador John Bolton:
On the eve of his annual State of the Union address, Barack Obama’s five years as president have brought innumerable national security failures.
However, beyond the long, growing list of ideologically driven errors, missed opportunities and generally inattentive stewardship of foreign and defense issues is a larger problem.
National security is simply not a top Obama administration priority.
It is no excuse to say that recovering from the 2008 economic crisis has been the main goal, because that is manifestly not true.
Instead, Mr. Obama’s priority is his campaign pledge to “fundamentally transform” America, expressed first in Obamacare and currently in his obsession with economic inequality. Moreover, all presidents consider America’s economic well-being as a top objective, whether the economy is rising or falling at any given moment.
Second, from Sally Zelikovsky at American Thinker — get this opening stat — wanna bet few Americans are aware of it (emphasis added)?
An Honest Look at the ‘Right’ War
As our presence in Afghanistan dwindles, Lone Survivor, the movie, couldn’t have premiered at a better time.
It’s been a little too easy to retreat from the “right” war for a commander-in-chief who is responsible for 74% of the 2153 American fatalities in Afghanistan.
And finally, this is former Defense Secretary William Gates from an exchange with Piers Morgan on CNN:
GATES: I think that we succeeded in the mission in 2008 and 2009 of being able to turn over to the Iraqis a fragile but real democratic government, a democratically elected government, as well as security and stability in the country. We basically handed them their future on a silver platter. My own view is that you can’t freeze history in place. I think we accomplished our mission and we withdrew in the way that was not strategic defeat with global consequences for us.
[…]
But as far we’re concerned I believe we accomplished our mission in stabilizing the country and handing over a fragile democracy. What they do with it is really up to them in the long run.
[…]
I think that most – for most Iraqis life is in fact significantly better than it was under Saddam Hussein. Both in terms of – in economic terms but also in terms of their own personal safety and security, despite of the violence that’s been going on.
