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Missing in the partisan squabble in Washington is the troubling aspect of U.S. credibility abroad and with it the unanswered question; is American foreign policy collapsing?

This is not a partisan critique of the president, but one has to understand the president under the constitution alone formulates U.S. foreign policy and is the nation’s chief diplomat.

This issue came to a boiling point this week with a sharp exchange between Senator John McCain and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, with McCain accusing Kerry of presiding of over a “trifecta” of foreign policy disasters.

McCain declared, “Geneva II [a Syrian peace meeting] was a total collapse, as I predicted to you that it would be. … The Israeli-Palestinian talks, even though you may drag them out for a while, are finished,” McCain said. “And I predict to you that, even though we gave the Iranians the right to enrich, which is unbelievable, that those talks will collapse too.”

Kerry shot back, “It’s interesting that you declare it dead, but the Israelis and the Palestinians don’t declare it dead,” Kerry said of the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.

Now if you take the theatrics and partisanship out of the exchange and just judge on the merits of how the administration is conducting U.S. foreign policy you will find that this failure is playing out on the world stage.

Republicans tend to be critical of his handling of the despotic North Korea regime, but this region has befuddle previous administrations; both Republicans and Democrats

If you look at what candidate Obama stated how he would differentiate himself from the Bush administration conduct of foreign policy and how he has conducted foreign policy, you will observe glaring deficiencies.

Just in the past year the president has made blatant missteps in the way he has handled the various foreign policy crisis’s he has had to deal with.

Issues from the president’s first term have not gone away, the “Arab Spring” continues unabated, no matter how the U.S. views it.

Back in 2011, President Obama stated that Syrian President Bashar Hafez al-Assad, must go, but Assad is still firmly in control three years later.  This manifested into a global crisis last September when the president stated he would act militarily if the Syrians used chemical weapons.

When chemical weapons were used, the president found every excuse not to act and validated that is word and the credibility of the U.S. meant nothing.

His handling of the Syrian crisis has been confusing and has left U.S. allies scratching their heads on the commitment of the U.S. in the region.

In the last few months this has manifested itself in the collapse of the Geneva II talks in Switzerland, which dealt with the crisis in Syria.   The Israeli-Palestinian talks are stalled and are on the verge of collapse, no matter what Secretary of State Kerry states.

The crisis in the Ukraine, had been brewing for months, but the administration had been caught flat footed and was always reacting to events instead of being ahead of events.  Russian President Vladimir Putin in the world’s eyes has been playing the president.

The Iranian negotiations which have allowed the easing of sanctions and gave the Iranians the right to continue enriching uranium, are on the pace to collapse with the U.S. gaining nothing.

Many would argue the president is not utilizing the military as readily as the Bush administration did.  However, President Obama continually articulates it’s either a military option or we are not getting involved.

The U.S. has other elements of its national power but the president and his administration have a naïve view of the world and fail to understand the complex global politics they need to operate in.  

Throughout the world the president and his administration look like amateurs, and the sad aspect of this the administration does not see it.

 

 

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