Tuesday, June 17, 2014

Obama's Foreign Policy Of Retreat

George Will wrote an opinion article in the Washington Post with the above title.  I was struck by the inconsistency between the title of the article and the content of the article. For example,  Obama was criticized for promoting regime change in Libya.  That is, his aggressive policies in Libya encouraged rebels to attack the US embassy in Benghazi.  Will also condemned the nation building policies of George Bush in Iraq.  In other words, he is against the regime change thrust of the Obama Administration in Libya, and he opposes the nation building policies of George Bush that eliminated the dictator that held the country together.  The article has little to do with the "foreign policy retreat" of the Obama Administration.  Obama was too aggressive in Libya according to Will,  and he was left with the problem of fixing the problems created by Bush's destruction of the regime that held Iraq together.  Obama chose not to perpetually occupy Iraq in order to hold it together.  This is hardly a foreign policy retreat, but Will selected a title for the opinion article that is consistent with GOP efforts to portray the administration as being weak on foreign policy.  The editors of the Washington Post are not doing their job.  Even worse, they may believe that giving George Will and other propagandists a platform is good for circulation.

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