I can’t remember any other time, when our country was so confused about the direction of our economy, and the dangers to our nation’s security. We certainly understand that every president needs to take vacations, play golf, and campaign. What the majority of the people are desperately seeking is a sense of leadership, clear goals, and a strategy to achieve them. Unfortunately, not only this is not happening, but the messages given to us are confused, at times incoherent, and often contradictory.
What is our foreign policy? Much has been said about the past administration and the errors committed on the Iraq war. This criticism is warranted, but at least we knew that they were pursuing the neoconservative ideology of implanting Democracy, by force if necessary, in these nations. Currently, in Egypt we were for Mubarak, before we were against him, for the Muslim Brotherhood until we were for the demonstrations, and against the military coup, until we ignored them. The result was an armed intervention in Libya by Egypt without our knowledge, a clear sign of the lack of respect that they have for our leadership. Libya is being taken over by Islamic extremists that pose a bigger danger to us that Gaddafi did. Vladimir Putin continues his aggressive stance against Ukraine, ignoring Obama’s touted sanctions against Russia. In Iraq, where he failed to complete the status of forces agreement strongly recommended by our military leaders, he boasted his desire not to leave troops when in 2012 he debated Romney, and the facts were that he tried to leave 10,000 troops, and would have settled for a few thousand, but failed to force Al Maliki to comply. Recently when asked about that failure he said it was not his decision and a few days ago boasted about doing just that. Whether US troops could have deterred the advances of the terrorist group ISIL, is open to question, but the majority of experts think so. Regardless, it would have been preferable than what our President did, ignore the threat, and even ridicule it calling the group “a JV team”.
At present we are baffled about the extent of the dangers posed, because of confusing and contradictory statements from our Secretary of Defense, Chuck Hagel, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Martin Dempsey, and subsequent declarations from the White House and the Pentagon. The latest rumors are that Obama is thinking of a decision towards some type of action and the formation of a multination coalition. While we the people, the Congress, and the international community waits, the terrorists keep murdering the innocent in the Middle East and Africa, Putin continues his aggression, China harasses our military planes, and allies like the U.A.E. and Egypt disrespect us, our President travels to Rhode Island to campaign. Laurel and Hardy were comedians, but presently nobody is laughing.
