Obama Foreign Policy Being Challenged

Challenging Obama

 In a public forum Senator Lindsay Graham has warned all GOP candidates they need to challenge President Obama on his foreign policy.

Yep you read that right.

Even after Obama has seen some favorable opinions about killing Osama Bin Ladin, and supporting the overthrow of Libya's Muammar Qaddafi, Graham thinks the president has failed by allowing Tehran to get a leg up in Iraq and get that much closer to nuclear weapons.

In addition Graham thinks Obama has thrown Israel "under the bus,"; he has blown his policy on the Guantanamo Bay detention facility and has made a decision to remove U.S. troops from Afghanistan by the end of the year, pandering to his electorate before the 2012 elections.

Obama's decisions are being "run out of Chicago, not Washington," Graham said.

As a show of failure Graham points to the comments made recently by Afghan President Hamid Karzai.  Karzai has said if the United States and Pakistan ever went to war, his country would back Islamabad.

Wow, the country that owes their freedom and liberty to us now is suggesting we might go to war with Pakistan and by the way they wont back us?  Hum, makes you wonder why we just didn't leave any sooner.  I mean whats the difference.  Leave their country in a heap of rubble and they'll hate us the same as now after we spend more on their rebuilding then on our own poverty stricken areas here at home.

In any case, Afghanistan and Iraq may now be seen as failures, and in no small part to the way things are being handled since Bush left office.  I doubt Karzi would have had the guts to make those comments with W. in charge.  He would have been summoned to the Oval Office.

Graham also mentions that President Obama has been leading from behind allowing foreign forces to  take control of what is essentially a U.S. lead mission like Libya.  (NATO without the U.S. is nothing more than a few soldiers, some missiles, and a couple of planes without fuel.  Plus maybe a baguette and wine from France.)

So is President Obama vulnerable on foreign policy?

Possibly.  We saw a bump in the polls (approval rating) right after Osama Bin Ladens death.  That's understandable and I also applauded the move. (I wish I could see the pictures as evidence.  I could have picked a better burial ritual as well, something along the lines of vultures and rats picking at the body and maybe ending with a monster truck parade over his head, then dump him in the East River outside of NY, right under the sewer plant exit pipe.)  Nevertheless that bump in poll favorability was rather short lived.  Plus the accumulation of these other issues overshadows any good points (the few that there are).

Senator Grahams Comments can be heard here ...

Links

Karzai Backs Pakistan over U.S.
CBS News Polls on Obama