Afghanistan / C: I thought C might be a little high given the fiasco surrounding troop deployments and strategy formulation earlier in his tenure, but recent success of Afghan presidential election proves that progress has indeed been made. And of course one must commend the prez’s courageous decision to go ahead with the bin laden operation. All of these however does not offset the extremely stupid act of announcing pullout timetable back in 2010. Another drawback here for the prez being his inability to put a leash on his military, as anyone who is informed on the Afghan stories would admit. So overall a C but this is contingent upon next couple of years.
Iraq / D: Yes it was Bush who went into Iraq and failed hard, but once you are in a war, no matter how undesirable, you need to finish strong. Obama’s failure to do that has landed the US in the worst of both worlds. I think many would give Obama a F on this one, the reason I did not is because while many have argued that pulling out might lead to chaos of Iraq, few have foreseen a disaster of this magnitude. In addition I also suspect that Obama pulled out of Iraq to appease the anti-war lot in Washington who are unhappy with the escalation in Afghanistan. As for the prez’s own explanation for why he pulled out, I think that was just a lame excuse.
Libya & Egypt / B: Obama started strong in both of these countries at the onset of their revolutions. Unfortunately he screwed up on both later on. I give him a B because the effort was worth the applause, had he been successful it would have had a profound influence on how US conducts is foreign policy, a new “Obama-doctrine”. On the other hand, it is also America’s handling of Libya that provoked Russia and contributed to the stalemate in Syria. So I would say that Obama won some and lost some on this matter.
Syria / F: No excuse for this one, Obama screwed up. He didn’t step up when he was supposed to. Putin really took Obama to school over that red line comedy. To use the language of my high school video game years, it was pure “ownage”, and a major contributing factor to the rise of ISIS.
ISIS / D: This is the story of the moment, and it has just started. So far I am not really impressed with Obama’s strategy because he doesn’t seem to have one. He set a high bar for himself…to “destroy” ISIS, this may ultimately draw him into an undesirable spiral of continuous escalation. It is too early to fail him, but I say the prez didn’t start well on this one.
Israel & Palestine / C: Maybe a lot of people think Obama failed hard on this one, I say he did just as bad as other presidents. Every secretary of state since the 90s have made Palestine a priority and no one has aced it thus far, so can you really blame Obama for not achieving anything here? In fact Obama’s report card on Palestine is exactly what most have predicted, he didn’t click with Netanyahu, he was seen as a lame-duck, Israel was basically going to just “take it” and punt the big decisions til after he is gone.
Ukraine / C: I would say while it seems that Obama should have done a lot more on Ukraine, his options weren’t actually that abundant. This is an issue that Putin will go to war for in a heartbeat, but has little implication on America’s national security. Putin has a gift for making the most out of a very bad situation, but he should have avoided this very bad situation in the first place. So overall I say Obama lost a battle but didn’t necessarily lose the war, at least he captured the opportunity and put some life back into NATO. Putin doesn’t deserve A+ on this one either, I would give him a A-.
China / C: This was really supposed to be the highlight of US foreign policy this decade. I think it is also the first time ever that the two strongest country’s bi-lateral relation is not the one grabbing the most attention. The reason here is simple, Obama is too preoccupied with everything else. For China Putin’s enterprise in Ukraine is valuable in that it diverted America’s attention and resource away from Asia, even more so than the cheap natural gas that Russia offered. America’s Asia policy is not without highlights though, it’s ostensible shift of focus invigorated some Asian partner’s to push back against China’s expansion in the South China Sea, though even that has been undermined by America’s reluctance to contribute its military prowess in Europe and the Middle East.
Edward Snowden / F: yea not much to say on this one, people will be talking about this epic fail for years to come. It also had a detrimental impact on America’s cyber security fight. I still remember them pushing hard for that stuff before the snowden revelation, didn’t hear much of that since.
Overall --- D: This administration screwed up big time on foreign policy
Iraq / D: Yes it was Bush who went into Iraq and failed hard, but once you are in a war, no matter how undesirable, you need to finish strong. Obama’s failure to do that has landed the US in the worst of both worlds. I think many would give Obama a F on this one, the reason I did not is because while many have argued that pulling out might lead to chaos of Iraq, few have foreseen a disaster of this magnitude. In addition I also suspect that Obama pulled out of Iraq to appease the anti-war lot in Washington who are unhappy with the escalation in Afghanistan. As for the prez’s own explanation for why he pulled out, I think that was just a lame excuse.
Libya & Egypt / B: Obama started strong in both of these countries at the onset of their revolutions. Unfortunately he screwed up on both later on. I give him a B because the effort was worth the applause, had he been successful it would have had a profound influence on how US conducts is foreign policy, a new “Obama-doctrine”. On the other hand, it is also America’s handling of Libya that provoked Russia and contributed to the stalemate in Syria. So I would say that Obama won some and lost some on this matter.
Syria / F: No excuse for this one, Obama screwed up. He didn’t step up when he was supposed to. Putin really took Obama to school over that red line comedy. To use the language of my high school video game years, it was pure “ownage”, and a major contributing factor to the rise of ISIS.
ISIS / D: This is the story of the moment, and it has just started. So far I am not really impressed with Obama’s strategy because he doesn’t seem to have one. He set a high bar for himself…to “destroy” ISIS, this may ultimately draw him into an undesirable spiral of continuous escalation. It is too early to fail him, but I say the prez didn’t start well on this one.
Israel & Palestine / C: Maybe a lot of people think Obama failed hard on this one, I say he did just as bad as other presidents. Every secretary of state since the 90s have made Palestine a priority and no one has aced it thus far, so can you really blame Obama for not achieving anything here? In fact Obama’s report card on Palestine is exactly what most have predicted, he didn’t click with Netanyahu, he was seen as a lame-duck, Israel was basically going to just “take it” and punt the big decisions til after he is gone.
Ukraine / C: I would say while it seems that Obama should have done a lot more on Ukraine, his options weren’t actually that abundant. This is an issue that Putin will go to war for in a heartbeat, but has little implication on America’s national security. Putin has a gift for making the most out of a very bad situation, but he should have avoided this very bad situation in the first place. So overall I say Obama lost a battle but didn’t necessarily lose the war, at least he captured the opportunity and put some life back into NATO. Putin doesn’t deserve A+ on this one either, I would give him a A-.
China / C: This was really supposed to be the highlight of US foreign policy this decade. I think it is also the first time ever that the two strongest country’s bi-lateral relation is not the one grabbing the most attention. The reason here is simple, Obama is too preoccupied with everything else. For China Putin’s enterprise in Ukraine is valuable in that it diverted America’s attention and resource away from Asia, even more so than the cheap natural gas that Russia offered. America’s Asia policy is not without highlights though, it’s ostensible shift of focus invigorated some Asian partner’s to push back against China’s expansion in the South China Sea, though even that has been undermined by America’s reluctance to contribute its military prowess in Europe and the Middle East.
Edward Snowden / F: yea not much to say on this one, people will be talking about this epic fail for years to come. It also had a detrimental impact on America’s cyber security fight. I still remember them pushing hard for that stuff before the snowden revelation, didn’t hear much of that since.
Overall --- D: This administration screwed up big time on foreign policy
