Obama’s Foreign Policy Misstep

Tuesday night, President Obama addressed Congress and the Nation in his State of the Union address. Touting Middle Class economics and the success of our foreign policy while calling for more taxes and more spending. With six veto threats and a go it alone approach on policy, Obama made it clear he had little desire to work alongside the new Congress to get things done. This is nothing new, but Obama’s commentary on America’s foreign policy was questionable at best.

When discussing America’s foreign policy in his State of the Union address, President Obama outlined a world he wished we were all living in but it is not a reality.

Obama’s recollection on America’s foreign policy efforts and dealing with situations abroad is like the mind of a hungover frat guy on a Sunday morning, hazy. The Obama administration governs by crisis versus leadership. However, Obama believes differently, “American leadership is stopping ISIL’s advance.” Military officials say differently, Currently ISIL is taking new territory and the United States is killing 1,000 ISIS fighters in Iraq and Syria each month, but ISIL is replacing those with new recruits, 1,500 fighters.

In an effort to further showcase his leadership, President Obama said, “instead of getting dragged into another ground war in the Middle East, we are leading a broad coalition to destroy ISIL.” Conveniently President Obama forgot to mention this was the year 2000 troops were sent back into Iraq, because we are being drug back into the war in Iraq.

This was not the only false step in Obama’s foreign policy remarks. In the State of the Union, President Obama discussed building and supporting a moderate Syrian opposition, but that isn’t happening. Currently, there isn’t any real support for the moderate Syrian opposition and some military officials are referring to it as the Unicorn because they are unable to find it.

The bottom line is, Obama’s approach to foreign policy has been disengagement and has hinged on the practice of being reactive rather than proactive. As a result, America’s power on the world’s stage has waned, and if we continue this path into 2015 the process will only accelerate.