Wednesday, June 10, 2015

American Foreign Policy Should Be Based On A Grand Strategy That Drives All Decisions

After World War II, successive Presidents of both political parties implemented Containment to prevent the spread of Communism in the world.  This meant Containing the old Soviet Union and to a lesser degree Red China.  Alliances were established and our Defense and Military capabilities were funded to do this job.  Containment was in place pretty much until the collapse of the Soviet Union.  It was then thought that we could take advantage of a "peace dividend", since at that point neither the new Russia or Red China were much of a threat, so there was a bit of a military draw down as relations with Russia and China improved. 

Then came 9/11 and the Islamic Fascist threat that we face today.  All of a sudden, there was a realization that though Russian Communism had been vanquished, we now face a new threat from fanatics that are perfectly happy to die for their ideology in the belief that they will become martyrs for their faith.  The old adage of MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction) that had been in place with the Russians, that presumably were at least sane and did not want to die by nuclear war, no longer applied in our dealings with these Islamic Fascists.  They are happy to die as long as they kill a lot of us in the process.  So, at least while George W Bush was President, this new threat was met with force, for better or worse.

And, that gets us to today with Socialist Emperor Pinocchio Obama in power.  Obama thought he could use his smooth talking skills and Muslim background to make friends with these Islamic Fascists.   Early in Obama's Presidency, he traveled to the Middle East to extend a hand to our enemies and they have since cut it off.  Obama apologized for all the transgressions of the United States and all other countries throughout history related to dealings in the Middle East,  which our enemies just saw as weakness and their green light to create an Islamic Caliphate in the Middle East and beyond. 

Instead of the "Peace Through Strength" that had been our driving force for more than 60 years, Obama  led from behind.  Obama further drew lines in the sand that were never enforced and began cutting our military.  Rather than having a Grand Strategy that drives all of our foreign policy decisions, Obama just manages from crisis to crisis on a daily basis, which has led to an incoherent foreign policy that has resulted in the Middle East on fire, Russia's attack on the Ukraine and China's aggressive claims in the South China Sea.   What has become really obvious is that the United States must again have a Grand Strategy first to defeat and destroy Islamic Fascism, the same way we destroyed Nazism and once again to contain an expansive Russia and China. 

This Grand Strategy should be articulated by the President of the United States, who ever he or she is and then all decisions that come down, including alliances and military defense funding should emanate from this clearly articulated strategy.  This will never happen while Obama is President because he is weak, incompetent and unable to take the long view of geo politics.  Hopefully, we will hear the articulation of a Grand Strategy to manage our foreign policy from the candidates running to replace Obama.  Without a Grand Strategy driving our foreign policy decisions, we are likely to go from crisis to crisis until we arrive at some horrible war.  It is what it is and we have seen this story before. 

  

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