Having done a world tour on his way into the White House, President Obama’s now planning an even bigger global victory lap in his final year in office. Too bad that everything in-between is a heaping mound of hot foreign-policy mess.
The president has reportedly ordered his staff to set a heavy international schedule for 2016. What, to celebrate the arrival of world peace?
The White House, Politico reports, means the trips to cement a legacy of “Trans-Pacific Partnership, increased attention to Asia, an opening of Latin America, progress against the Islamic State and significant global movement on climate change.”
Left off that list:
- The Obama-Clinton “reset” with Russia . . . and Moscow’s subsequent invasion of Ukraine and bombing of our Syrian-rebel allies.
- Years of inaction on Syria — including the humiliating retreat from enforcing Obama’s “red line” against chemical weapons . . . which opened the door for the rise of ISIS.
- The total US pullout from Iraq . . . leaving the government to ally with Iran, alienate the Sunni minority and collapse when ISIS invaded.
- Intervening in Libya to help oust the Khadafy regime . . . then abandoning the nation to civil war, chaos and new terrorist camps.
- Drastic reductions in the US military, so that the drawdowns in Europe and the Middle East left no forces to add as Obama supposedly “pivoted” to Asia.
- An easing of relations with Cuba that gave the Castros much of their wish list — even as their crackdowns on dissent continue unabated.
- A surge-with-an-expiration-date in Afghanistan that’s left the Taliban in better shape there than it’s been since 2001 — with al Qaeda back and ISIS now in the mix, too.
- A nuclear “understanding” with Iran that gives Tehran hundreds of billions in fresh income, while maybe delaying its nuclear program a decade — and leaves all America’s traditional Mideast allies believing Washington no longer has their backs . . .
There’s more, but this is exhausting.
“You’ll see the president spending a lot of time driving to the finish line, obviously with the counter-[ISIS] campaign, but also with respect to affirmative elements of his presidency,” said Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes.
Because the president would rather talk about climate change than the legacy he’s actually got: Aiming to be the president who ended wars, but being one who just created more.
Hopefully he won’t muck up anything more up while he’s celebrating his “achievements.”