President Obama will spend most of tonight’s State of the Union Address on domestic matters — but he also owes the nation a serious look at our pressing foreign-policy and defense issues.
It’s fair enough to mention the elimination of 9/11 architect Osama bin Laden, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula’s Anwar al-Awlaki and Libyan strongman Moammar Khadafy. But Obama can’t just look back.
Given the breadth and depth of world problems today, the president needs to tell us how his team is going to protect and advance US interests abroad.
Here’s a quick checklist of what he should hit this evening to give us a sense of the state of our union in the world going forward:
First, lay out his strategy for Afghanistan, where nearly 100,000 US troops are battling the bad guys. Some fear that the withdrawal schedule will be driven more by election-year politics than policy.
Obama should also give us the plan for “peace” talks with the Taliban. What are the goals, and how will we prevent the Taliban from making promises they may not keep after we leave in full?
On Iran, what’s the story with reports of an offer for direct Washington-Tehran talks? How do we plan to keep Iran from going nuclear? Sanctions may finally be biting, but Tehran seems little dissuaded from belligerence — or its atomic aspirations.
Iraq is a mess since US troops left last month. Violence is up (250 killed; 500 injured), the government is fracturing and Iran’s influence is on the rise. The commander-in-chief should tell us the way ahead for ensuring Iraq remains a US ally.
The president also needs to talk on al Qaeda. Drone strikes continue in Pakistan, but what about al Qaeda in Yemen, which is now holding territory, and Somalia’s al Shabab, whose violence is on the rise?
After a year, the promise of an Arab Spring has become the reality of an Arab Winter, with Islamists in the ascent in Tunisia and Egypt. Syria is on the brink of civil war with some 5,000 killed and who-knows-how-many detained. All this, without any real US response.
What about the Russian “reset”? The Kremlin is playing hardball on US missile defense plans and interfering with efforts to get tough on Syria and Iran. Last week, it totally dissed Obama’s new ambassador to Russia — an architect of the extremely friendly US reset policy.
Or how does the White House plan to deal with North Korea, whose young, inexperienced leader is in charge of a large army and a small nuke arsenal?
Plus, China’s expected next president is due in Washington soon for get-to-know-you talks. It’d be good to get a sense of what Obama thinks about Beijing’s rise in the international system — and, more important, what he plans to do about it.
Many are also wondering if the president will mention this hemisphere tonight, which has been largely ignored on his watch. Problems in Mexico, Venezuela and Cuba would be good places to start.
Lastly, US defense spending is in free fall, with each new cut of hundreds of billions more dizzying than the last. Among other questions, how exactly does he plan to deal with growing global challenges using a shrinking US military?
In the end, you can’t help but feel American strategy is adrift, with Team Obama presiding over our decline as a world power. Tonight would be a great time for the president to make the case to the contrary — if that’s possible.
Peter Brookes is a Heritage Foundation senior fellow and a former deputy assistant secretary of defense.