Saturday Political Soap Box 13

The soapbox is back! A little tough to do on Saturday mornings with my son playing morning soccer games. And this topic may not have the "heat" of the others as it's about .........Foreign Policy!!!




This has been an eventful week, as the Libyans moved towards a dramatic resolution with the capture and killing of Ghaddafi, and with the confirmation that we will be removing all troops from Iraq by the end of the year. Also over the course of the last few months there has been the execution and/ or capture of many al Queda leaders. So the question is, whether you're from the right or left or something in between, what has made you happy or unhappy about American foreign policy since the advent of the Obama administration?



For myself, I see a great contrast between the way the Iraq war was engaged, and the more careful support of the Libyan rebellion. We played a much different role, with much greater success, at an incredibly less financial and military cost. Fiscal dollars on Iraq? $800 billion. Fiscal cost of Libya? Slightly over $1 billion.



I think the drawdown on Iraq has been slow, but well within the time frame that was set up for it. The country might fall into civil war, but I think that's equally true whether we have no troops, a few thousand as was originally thought, or 500,000 troops. The next steps depend upon diplomacy and economic support.



Afghanistan I'm less sure about. I don't completely disagree with the approach taken. Left on it's own, it could become a terrorist haven again. But in that regard we have a much worse terrorist haven right down the road in Pakistan. All in all, I think President Obama would have done better following Vice President Biden's suggestions that required fewer troops and more targeted attacks/involvement.



I support a two state solution between Palestine and Israel, but I recognize that as a difficult thing, and that everything else being equal, we have to stand with Israel.



I also believe that it has to be a priority that when we negotiate free trade agreements we have to emphasize worker's rights, salary and working conditions, on all countries involved, including the United States.



When I have done foreign policy questions before, I am always surprised at the amount of isolationist sentiment expressed, even among those who in the past have supported Bush/Cheney's military extremism. There is not only a large rejection of new conflicts (not necessarily a bad thing), but a significant derision of foreign aid, particularly of an economic nature. Given that all foreign policy actions AND inactions have unintended consequences, I still feel it is better to support countries with economic growth and independence than it is to militarily try to impose our will. Many Americans won't bat an eye in spending $800 billion on a war of questionable value, but will go into a we-can't-afford-it apoplectic rage if it's suggested that we could do the same thing with $8 billion of economic aid.



Well, those are my thoughts. What are yours? What makes you happy or unhappy about our foreign policy? What would you like to see us doing differently?