Obama's Foreign Policy Fiasco

Gary Bauer, Contributing Author: The damage that Barack Obama is doing to America economically and culturally is obvious to most of you, and we are doing all that we can to fight back. But the damage to our foreign policy is not so obvious, and the mess Obama is making will be very hard for the next president to clean up.

For example, while Obama is trying to prevent law-abiding American citizens from owning certain firearms, he is sending tanks and jets to the radical Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt -- weapons that could well be used against our ally Israel. While reducing America's dependence on oil from hostile regimes has been a key priority for years, Obama has so far refused to embrace the Keystone pipeline from our ally Canada.

Now there are reports that Obama sent secret missions to North Korea. For years the Left railed against George W. Bush's "cowboy" policies. "If only we would talk to our enemies," they said, as if our disagreements were just simple misunderstandings.

So what did Obama do? He reached out to North Korea, and it got us nothing but another nuclear test. The latest North Korean propaganda film says the nuclear test was prompted by our "hostility" and shows Obama and U.S. soldiers engulfed in flames. By the way, North Korea is working hand-in-hand with Iran too.

But the really breathtaking part is that we conducted these missions without letting Japan, a key ally, know. Not only did we not tell Japan, but when Japanese officials discovered evidence of our secret flights to North Korea and approached us, the Obama Administration's response was dismissive and arrogant, even threatening. According to the report, "The U.S. State Department even warned the [Japanese] Foreign Ministry against making further inquiries, saying they would harm bilateral relations."

I understand that the U.S. can't conduct every foreign policy mission in broad daylight. But to the Japanese, this must surely seem very unusual. Japan is facing an increasingly aggressive China, and it is well within range of North Korean missiles. Why wouldn't we want Japan to know unless we were getting ready to make concessions they would object to?

Obama's approach to the world can be summed up as a unique foreign policy that reaches out to our enemies while insulting our friends. That is not a recipe for success.

More Questions About Hagel
In recent days new information about controversial speeches by former Senator Chuck Hagel has come to light. Yesterday the Washington Free Beacon reported that during a 2010 appearance at Rutgers University, Hagel allegedly accused Israel of routinely violating U.N. resolutions, called for negotiations with Hamas, labeled Benjamin Netanyahu a "radical" and suggested that Israel was becoming an "apartheid state."

This new revelation comes on the heels of a report last week about another Rutgers speech Hagel gave in 2007. During those remarks, Hagel said, "The State Department has become adjunct to the Israeli Foreign Minister's office." Monday the Daily Caller reported that Hagel's 2007 speech was organized by a foundation directly controlled by the Iranian regime. In fact, Hooshang Amirahmadi, who ran the foundation at the time of Hagel's speech, is a candidate for the Iranian presidency this year.

In recent days, I have received a number of emails expressing frustration that some Republican senators appear willing to end the filibuster of Hagel's nomination. These senators fundamentally believe that the president should get his choices.

As frustrating as that is (and we think Hagel could still be beaten), the really depressing thing is that the overwhelming majority of Senate Democrats campaigned as friends of Israel. Yet not one of them has been willing to stand up to Obama and oppose Chuck Hagel.
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Gary Bauer is is a conservative family values advocate and serves as president of American Values and chairman of the Campaign for Working Families where his articles are also shared.

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Tags: Gary Bauer, Campaign for Working Families, President Obama, foreign policy, fiasco, tanks, jets, radical, Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt, Keystone pipeline, Canada, North Korea, nuclear test, nuclear missile, China, Japan, nomination, Chuck Hagel, anti-Israel To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!