Blundering Along--The Obama Method Of International Follow-ship

A This weekend, the Obama White House celebrated Memorial Day by sending the Commander-in-Chief on a round-the-world photo op in Afghanistan. And true to form, it couldn't even pull off a simple meet and greet with the troops without committing an error worthy of slapstick farce. You see, the name of the CIA's "Chief of Station" was included in a media release for journalists on the White House "press pool" list. Typically, the identity of the Chief of Station is a highly guarded secret, and this mistake put the official and his family in serious danger. Sadly, this Memorial Day error is just the latest example of the Laurel and Hardy-style foreign policy that we've endured over the last five and a half embarrassing years. A Comedy of Errors, But No One's Laughing It seems like the pattern keeps repeating: The Obama team makes an unforced error, and then it spends weeks trying to cover the tracks. Remember the "secret" letter that Obama penned to Dmitry Medvedev? The one in which our president considered leaving Poland and the Czech Republic without missile defenses if Russia would help us stop Iran from getting nukes? The secret letter was seen online about as many times as Kim Kardashian's derriere, and as a result, our friends know we'd sell them out in a minute for even a dubious advantage. And let's not forget about Obama's management of the Mideast peace process. From day one, Obama has been committed to what is known as the two-state solution, which includes the creation of an Arab Palestinian state in Judea and Samaria, better known as the West Bank. In a secretive talk he gave to the Trilateral Commission, John Kerry went so far as to say that Israel risks becoming "an apartheid state" in the absence of a peace deal. The transcript was then leaked to The Daily Beast, and two days later, Kerry was releasing statements like this one: "If I could rewind the tape, I would have chosen a different word to describe my firm belief that the only way in the long term to have a Jewish state, and two nations, and two peoples living side by side in peace and security is through a two-state solution." Besides Israel, the Obama team's foreign policy mistakes have isolated us from nearly every ally we had in the region. Take Saudi Arabia, which wanted our help stopping the wanton slaughter of innocents in Syria. We huffed and we puffed, and then... at the last minute, we turned away. Today the slaughter continues. The refugee crisis continues, death and destruction have become a way of life in Syria, and Obama has moved on, generally ignoring the humanitarian crisis entirely. In Libya, we became more involved. The Obama regime launched a congressionally unapproved bombing campaign to terminate the regime of Muammar Gaddafi. But once Gaddafi was killed, Obama lost interest. And when Ambassador Chris Stevens was tortured and killed, along with three other Americans, on September 11, 2012, the benign neglect of Libya turned into an outright cover-up. To this day, the administration denies the serious security mistakes that lead to the deaths of four Americans in Benghazi. Meanwhile, the fighting in Ukraine continues. Kiev is trying to recapture territory taken by pro-Russian rebels in the eastern half of the country, and all Obama can do is talk tough. All he does is talk! He never backs his words with action. I could go on and list many more errors, but the conclusion is the same: America's reputation has been destroyed by Obama. America's defenses are in ruins. Our allies don't trust us. Our enemies never trusted us. We're more isolated internationally than at any time since the end of the Vietnam War. I'd laugh about the comedy of errors if it didn't affect our collective safety. Sadly, if there is a joke, it's on us. Your eyes on the Hill, Floyd Brown