Is Obama’s Foreign Policy Too Soft?

Obama’s foreign policy: Too soft, weak, overly cautious, lacking assertiveness, is that what it is?

Have we learned nothing?  Have the wars we started in Afghanistan and Iraq now over a decade ago taught us so little?

It must be sheer political grandstanding: Say anything to make one’s political opponent look bad.  Even better: call him weak and ineffectual on foreign affairs.  Do Obama’s political opponents really think that the US should be doing a lot more saber rattling?  Do they seriously think we should be flaunting more military might and unabashedly flex our muscles against Syria, perhaps also against Putin in Russia, and while we’re at it, why not threaten Iran as well, maybe even China?  Strong as we are (or think we are).

Exaggerating a bit much, am I?  That’s precisely my point.  All this talk about Obama’s foreign policy being too weak, that he’s not showing enough strength of will, that he should be more assertive and demanding and commanding—it’s sheer foolishness and overly exaggerated.

We want brains, not brawn.  We need wise leaders not gung-hoe, shoot ‘m up, “go-ahead, make-my-day” leaders.  Enough of that already!

Stomping around the world with a big stick and an arrogant swag is not what we need or want for an American foreign policy.  We’re leaving Afghanistan this year, more or less; yet, despite all our guns and bombs and mighty military expenditure, we have little to celebrate by way of a victory parade.  Why?  Because: you can kill the body but you can’t kill the soul of a people.

Heart, passion, and Spirit!  That's what counts.  We must consider a people’s defiant spirit, the will to defy and deny any and all foreign interference, which leads to absolute resistance: The will to defend one’s homeland at all costs.  This is what we seem to regularly fail to take into account—whether speaking of Vietnam, or Afghanistan, or Iraq, Iran, Palestine, Russia, or China.  You can kill the body, but you can’t kill the spirit!  Hence, saber rattling serves only to make them more determined, not less so, to defy us and to dare us to do our worse.  In short, regularly flaunting one’s military might, as a standard strategy for foreign policy, is very narrow, short-sighted, and actually quite naïve.

Thus, as a patriotic American, I don’t want to hear any more talk about how America should be showing more strength on the international scene.  I want more wisdom and more respect for international cooperation and diplomacy.

Yes, let us negotiate from a position of strength.  Indeed!  But let us negotiate.  Carry a big stick?  Sure!  But, reserve the stick for emergency purposes only, when all else fails, and for purposes of self-defense only—the big stick should never be used to beat and bully others into submission to our will.

For, as we’ve seen in our own backyard, bullying often results in the creation of an angry and vengeful enemy who will bide his/her time until such opportunity arises to take revenge: in a shooting rampage, for example, killing indiscriminately, guilty and innocent alike.  This truth will just as likely play itself out in the international scene, as it does in any schoolyard.  And we’ve already seen the results at both levels.