PRESIDENT OBAMA IS A WELL INFORMED & THOUGHTFUL LEADER

…The 44^th US President, Barack Obama

It takes years to determine how most US Presidents will be considered by history.

It is going to be very interesting after the current president leaves office, as to how his terms in office and how his administration will be considered.  I have a feeling that all of today’s nay-sayers about President Obama’s foreign policy approach, and those that consider him not being well-informed, will be revising their opinions.

As compared to President George W. Bush, there is no comparison as to what Obama has had to deal with versus Dubya Bush.  The list of what Obama inherited from Bush, from 2 wars, the worst economy in almost 100 years, getting the Affordable Care Act passed, not to mention now the ISIL terrorists that have now taken over portions of Iraq, along with a host of other critical issues.

Oh I know, President Obama sometimes comes across as seeming that he’s vacillating and is indecisive.  This is obviously an impression that can be considered fatal in his dealings with US allies, US adversaries, and, of course, any of the US electorate.

But unlike Bush, Obama has a reality-based foreign policy and he offers no apologies. Also unlike Bush, he has no messianic zealots, (Such as Cheney, Wolfowitz, & Rumsfeld) among his advisers.

 

He also gives the kind of well-considered responses that suggest a president who carefully engages with truly difficult policy issues.

Based on President Obama’s complex election promises, Obama promised to get the US out of the two wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.  He has completed one, is working on the 2^nd. 

He also tried very hard to get the then new the Iraqi leader to develop an inclusive government of Shias, Sunnis and Kurds, which that Shia leader al-Maliki has ignored, and now the people of Iraq are paying the price in having to deal with the ISIL. 

 

…some Iraqi Military

As to some of these complex issues with which the president has to deal, many insiders are saying that Iraq’s al-Maliki had expected the US to bail Iraq out against the ISIL with the use of American air-power.  Then al-Maliki and his cronies had figured that they could continue running the country. 

 

But, some DC insiders are now saying that Obama decided to just let ISIL do the dirty work that America was unwilling to do in forcing out the leader, al-Maliki.  This would all occur with the US military advisors keeping just enough military pressure on ISIL to prevent them from overrunning Iraq altogether.

 

If this was true, that kind of tactic is complex and risky as hell and it hardly adds up to a long-term policy for hanging a hat on.  But the end result apparently worked and al-Maliki is finally on his way out.

The above concept was revealed recently in a recent interview with New York Times columnist Tom Friedman.  President Obama had said,  "We did not just start taking a bunch of airstrikes all across Iraq as soon as ISIL came in.  [that] was because that would have taken the pressure off of Prime Minister al-Maliki." That only would have encouraged, he said, Maliki and other Shiites to think: “We don't actually have to make compromises. We don't have to make any decisions. We don't have to go through the difficult process of figuring out what we've done wrong in the past. All we have to do is let the Americans bail us out again. And we can go about business as usual.”

Now that al-Maliki is stepping down, the new inclusive government will hopefully all work out, but these three factions in Iraq have only been at war for about 1300 years, so why should anyone think it all won’t eventually work out….....Right?

…Hamas Terrorists

Another area that I think is misunderstood about President Obama is the supposed tension between him and the leader of Israel and in dealing with the issues between Israel and the Hamas organization in Gaza.

With all the many years that there have been American presidents dealing with the negotiations between the Palestinians and the Israeli’s, there has been no US president willing to apply the necessary leverage over negative Israeli actions on the settlements on the West Bank, or for the normalization of civilian life in Gaza.

In fairness to Obama, since no American president has been willing to push the Israel alliance to its breaking point, this situation has up to now, once again made this president appear disengaged and potentially weak.

But President is very well informed and thoughtful regarding this situation.

In his conversation with Friedman, Obama gave a very clear explanation as to how he sees the issues with the American political system and how they compare to the situations going on in the middle east.  In particular he told Friedman, "We Americans will never realize our full potential unless our two parties adopt the same outlook that we're asking of Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds, or Israelis and Palestinians.” 

Now, as thoughtful as that statement is, one must conclude that as nasty as the Republicans can be, American politics is not at the level of the Sunnis versus the Shiites, the Israelis versus the Palestinians, and much less the ISIL versus the rest of the civilized world.

The conclusion I am trying to convey here is that as compared to some of this nation’s past presidents, President Obama’s sometimes appearance of indecisiveness and weakness is instead his ability to absorb and see highly complicated relationships and to take the time for discerning the best approach for dealing with a plethora of issues.

Barack Obama is one of the best-informed and most thoughtful foreign policy presidents America has had in a very long time.  Yes, his appreciation of an issue’s complexity often comes across as apparent indecision.  But in today's foreign policy crises, unfortunately, there are few if any good right versus wrong choices.

Somehow, this president needs to show that he is not being indecisive, but is instead being more thoughtful and more thorough.  In this world of instant decisions and declarations, that’s a highly difficult task. 

But back to my initial issue, in the long run, I think President Obama will go down as being a very capable leader and exactly what was needed by this nation, at the time Barack Obama took office.

Copyright G.Ater  2014