{"id":233499,"date":"2016-03-23T12:54:07","date_gmt":"2016-03-23T12:54:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/?p=233499"},"modified":"2016-03-23T20:25:21","modified_gmt":"2016-03-23T20:25:21","slug":"understanding-obamas-foreign-policy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/breaking-news\/understanding-obamas-foreign-policy\/","title":{"rendered":"Understanding Obama’s Foreign Policy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Eric Zuesse<\/span><\/p>\n

On 28 May 2014, U.S. President Barack Obama addressed the West Point Military Academy class of graduating cadets, future leaders of America\u2019s armed forces, and he gave them\u00a0their marching orders, in the careers upon which they were just starting out<\/span><\/a>\u00a0(here abbreviated as a summary of his rhetorical<\/i>\u00a0 <\/span>view of U.S. foreign policy):<\/span><\/p>\n

Russia\u2019s aggression toward former Soviet states unnerves capitals in\u00a0Europe, while China\u2019s economic rise and military reach worries its\u00a0neighbors. From Brazil to India, rising middle classes compete with us,\u00a0and governments seek a greater say in global forums. \u2026 Today, according to self-described realists, conflicts in Syria or\u00a0Ukraine or the Central African Republic are not ours to solve. \u2026 A different view from interventionists from the left and right says that\u00a0we ignore these conflicts at our own peril; that America\u2019s willingness\u00a0to apply force around the world is the ultimate safeguard against chaos,\u00a0and America\u2019s failure to act in the face of Syrian brutality or\u00a0Russian\u00a0provocations not only violates our conscience, but invites escalating\u00a0aggression in the future. \u2026\u00a0<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

We don\u2019t have a choice to ignore what happens beyond our borders. If\u00a0nuclear materials are not secure, that poses a danger to American\u00a0cities. As the Syrian civil war spills across borders, the capacity of\u00a0battle-hardened extremist groups to come after us only\u00a0increases. Regional aggression that goes unchecked \u2014 whether in southern Ukraine\u00a0or the South China Sea, or anywhere else in the world \u2014 will ultimately\u00a0impact our allies and could draw in our military. We can\u2019t ignore what\u00a0happens beyond our boundaries. \u2026\u00a0<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s my bottom line: America must always lead on the world stage. If\u00a0we don\u2019t, no one else will. The military that you have joined is and\u00a0always will be the backbone of that leadership. \u2026 International opinion matters, but America should never ask permission\u00a0to protect our people, our homeland, or our way of life. (Applause.)\u00a0<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

On the other hand, when issues of global concern do not pose a direct\u00a0threat to the United States, when such issues are at stake\u00a0\u2014 when\u00a0crises arise that stir our conscience or push the world in a more\u00a0dangerous direction but do not directly threaten us\u00a0\u2014 then the\u00a0threshold for military action must be higher. In such circumstances, we\u00a0should not go it alone. Instead, we must mobilize allies and partners\u00a0to take collective action. We have to broaden our tools to include\u00a0diplomacy and development; sanctions and isolation; appeals\u00a0to\u00a0international law; and, if just, necessary and effective, multilateral\u00a0military action.\u00a0In such circumstances, we have to work with others\u00a0because collective action in these circumstances is more likely to\u00a0succeed. \u2026\u00a0<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

A critical focus of this effort will be the ongoing crisis in Syria. As\u00a0frustrating as it is, there are no easy answers, no military solution\u00a0that can eliminate the terrible suffering anytime soon. As President, I\u00a0made a decision that we should not put American troops into the\u00a0middle\u00a0of this increasingly sectarian war, and I believe that is the right\u00a0decision. But that does not mean we shouldn\u2019t help the Syrian people\u00a0stand up against a dictator who bombs and starves his own people. \u2026 With the additional resources I\u2019m announcing today, we will step up our\u00a0efforts to support Syria\u2019s neighbors \u2014 Jordan and Lebanon; Turkey and\u00a0Iraq \u2014 as they contend with refugees and confront terrorists working\u00a0across Syria\u2019s borders. I will work with Congress to ramp\u00a0up support\u00a0for those in the Syrian opposition who offer the best alternative to\u00a0terrorists and brutal dictators. And we will continue to coordinate\u00a0with our friends and allies in Europe and the Arab World to push for a\u00a0political resolution of this crisis, and to make sure that\u00a0those\u00a0countries and not just the United States are contributing their fair\u00a0share to support the Syrian people. \u2026\u00a0<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

Now, there are a lot of folks, a lot of skeptics, who often downplay the\u00a0effectiveness of multilateral action. For them, working through\u00a0international institutions like the U.N. or respecting international law\u00a0is a sign of weakness. I think they\u2019re wrong. Let me offer just two\u00a0examples why.\u00a0<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

In Ukraine, Russia\u2019s recent actions recall the days when Soviet tanks\u00a0rolled into Eastern Europe. But this isn\u2019t the Cold War. Our ability\u00a0to shape world opinion helped isolate Russia right away. Because of\u00a0American leadership, the world immediately condemned\u00a0Russian actions;\u00a0Europe and the G7 joined us to impose sanctions; NATO reinforced our\u00a0commitment to Eastern European allies; the IMF is helping to stabilize\u00a0Ukraine\u2019s economy; OSCE monitors brought the eyes of the world to\u00a0unstable parts of Ukraine. And this\u00a0mobilization of world opinion and\u00a0international institutions served as a counterweight to Russian\u00a0propaganda and Russian troops on the border and armed militias in ski\u00a0masks. \u2026\u00a0<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

The values of our founding inspire leaders in parliaments and new\u00a0movements in public squares around the globe. And when a typhoon hits\u00a0the Philippines, or schoolgirls are kidnapped in Nigeria, or masked men\u00a0occupy a building in Ukraine, it is America that the world\u00a0looks to for\u00a0help. \u00a0(Applause.)\u00a0<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

So the United States is and remains the one\u00a0indispensable nation. That has been true for the century passed and it\u00a0will be true for the century to come.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

When Obama first came into office in 2009, he was informed by his State Department and CIA that\u00a0Syria was in the midst of a devastating drought, which might help finally bring about<\/span><\/a>\u00a0the conditions that\u00a0Kim Roosevelt, Teddy Roosevelt\u2019s grandson who had led the CIA coup that ended democracy in Iran in 1953 and installed the brutal Shah\u2019s dictatorship in order to benefit U.S. and British oil companies, had set forth in his subsequent 1957 plan as being prerequisites to overthrow the secular Ba\u2019athist Party in Syria and take over that country<\/span><\/a>\u00a0so as to move it away from its alliance with the then Soviet Union. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Syrian government of the current Ba\u2019athist leader of Syria, the nominally Shiite Bashar al-Assad, begged the U.S. and aid agencies for food and drought-assistance<\/span><\/a>, but received nothing from the Obama regime \u2014 and then Assad\u2019s government got swept up in the \u2018Arab Spring\u2019 anti-government, pro-Islamist, demonstrations which were going on in 2011 throughout the Arab world. Saudi Arabia and other Sunni-fundamentalist lands sent jihadists in to overthrow the Shiite Assad. Obama helped the Sauds, and their fundamentalist-Sunni friends Tayyip Erdogan who runs Turkey<\/span><\/a>, and the Thani family who own Qatar, set up a sarin-gas attack in Syria in August 2013 to be blamed on Assad, and the U.S. and other Western propaganda-media reported<\/span><\/a> heavily about this evil use of sarin gas \u2018by Assad\u2019, even though it was totally a U.S.-allied job, to stir international hatred against Assad<\/span><\/a>. U.S. \u2018news\u2019 media never reported that Obama himself was behind the sarin gas attack, which he blamed on Assad and claimed to \u2018justify\u2019 America\u2019s invasion of Syria. It was a very successful con-job, by all concerned. And the U.S. still supplies the jihadists in Syria<\/span><\/a>, while claiming to fight against them. The U.S. supplies the jihadists through its NATO ally, Turkey<\/span><\/a>, and those supplies come not only from the U.S. but from other NATO countries, as well as from Saudi Arabia.<\/span><\/p>\n

Obama also sent military supplies to the Saud family who own Saudi Arabia, and they sent not jihadists but their official U.S.-armed troops into nearby Bahrain, whose royal family were old friends of the Sauds and were likewise fundamentalist-Sunnis but they ruled over a 75%-Shiite population<\/span><\/a> who were demonstrating not for a Sunni Islamic-law government (as our jihadists in Syria were demanding), since they already had that; they were demonstrating instead for some degree of democracy and equal-rights in Bahrain\u2019s Sunni dictatorship, and\u00a0they got bullets and torture and bloodshed instead<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Though there is no longer any ideological \u201cCold War\u201d between communism versus capitalism (if there ever really was<\/i>\u00a0 <\/span>such a basis for that conflict), there has intensified ever since the U.S.-imposed Shah was overthrown in Iran in 1979 a conflict between the Sunni dictatorship in Saudi Arabia and the 1979-installed Shiite dictatorship in Iran. That conflict\u2019s origins go actually all the way back to\u00a0the founding of the Saud dynasty in 1744 and their commitment ultimately to conquer if not exterminate all Shiites worldwide and convert everyone to the extremist-Sunni sect of the Saud family\u2019s friend Muhammad Ibn Wahhab<\/span><\/a>. Because the new, post-1979, Iran is as controlled by its fundamentalist-Shiite clergy, just as Saudi Arabia has long been controlled by its fundamentalist-Sunni clergy, this conflict has indeed become a global Sunni-versus-Shiite war; and, whereas the U.S. is allied with the Sunnis, Russia is allied with the Shiites. So: instead of capitalism-versus-communism, the new \u2018Cold War\u2019 is instead between Sunni-versus-Shiite \u2014 and it\u2019s hot<\/i>\u00a0 <\/span>not cold.\u00a0(Those millions of refugees are very hot in Europe \u2014 and are not wanted there \u2014 but, because the U.S. and its Sunni fundamentalist allies are determined to defeat Russia, Europe does what it must to deal with them.)<\/span><\/p>\n

The U.S. is allied with the Sauds \u2014 the extremist Sunnis \u2014 for two reasons:<\/span><\/p>\n

1) The Sauds are the largest buyers of U.S.-made weaponry and basically run the Gulf Cooperation Council of other fundamentalist-Sunni Arab royal families, which include some of the other top foreign buyers of U.S. weaponry; so, the U.S. relies heavily upon those dictators to keep the profits and employment up at Lockheed Martin and other U.S.-based arms-companies; and,<\/span><\/p>\n

2) The U.S. also runs the anti-Russian military club, NATO (another marketing-arm for U.S. weaponry), and the main economic competitors of America\u2019s Arabic dictators\u2019 oil-producers happen to be Russia and Iran \u2014 the real targets of American actions.<\/span><\/p>\n

Wheras the two largest arms-exporters (dwarfing any others) are\u00a0the U.S. and Russia<\/span><\/a>, the top arms-importer (dwarfing any other) is\u00a0Saudi Arabia<\/span><\/a>; and their royal friends,\u00a0the UAE<\/span><\/a>, are #7.\u00a0So, the U.S. needs the Sauds in order for U.S. weapons-makers to have a big-enough market for U.S. weapons so as to keep the Pentagon\u2019s budget, which is already about 40% of the global military budget, from being even larger \u2014 perhaps 50% of the global military budget. This is the efficient way to keep American arms-factories humming. (Higher production-volume means lowered cost-per-weapon to manufacture.)<\/span><\/p>\n

And then there\u2019s the oil-and-gas factor: the world\u2019s largest oil-and-gas exporter is Russia, but Saudi Arabia is the world\u2019s largest oil-exporter, and their buddies the fundamentalist-Sunni Thani family who own Qatar are the world\u2019s largest gas-exporter \u2014 and both the Sauds and the Thanis have long wanted to build, through currently Shiite-Iran-allied Syria<\/span><\/a>, oil and gas pipelines to get their oil-and-gas as cheaply as possible into the world\u2019s largest energy-market: Europe. That\u2019s why Obama wants to overthrow the non-sectarian Syrian government of Bashar al-Assad and replace it with a Sunni government, even if that\u2019s an al-Qaeda-allied or other extremist-Sunni government. (After all, both the Sauds and the Thanis are likewise Sunni fundamentalists. They can get along with jihadists, unless the jihadists are doing their terrorism inside their own countries. For example: 9\/11 didn\u2019t hurt the Saudi royals one bit. By donating to jihadists<\/span><\/a>, those royals retain the loyalty of their clerics, who provide their authority to rule, but the jihad is always supposed to be outside the country<\/span><\/a>.)<\/span><\/p>\n

Wall Street, and U.S. private-equity and other investment funds, are heavily invested in, and have interlocked directorates with, U.S. oil and gas and weapons producers; so, the financial health of Wall Street, and of those major investors, depends heavily upon defeating Russia and its allies \u2014 beating the \u2018competition\u2019. This is why Obama says, “Russia\u2019s aggression toward former Soviet states unnerves capitals in Europe, while China\u2019s economic rise and military reach worries its neighbors. From Brazil to India, rising middle classes compete with us.\u201d He aims not only to take over the formerly Soviet Ukraine, and formerly Russia-allied Serbia (now entering NATO), but to defeat the BRICS countries \u2014 Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa \u2014 so as to keep all of them down, and America and its allies up, in the international \u2018competition\u2019, such as he outlined to the West Point graduating cadets.<\/span><\/p>\n

Here are some of the ways that this plays out:<\/span><\/p>\n

Obama is right now\u00a0trying to overthrow the current, Russia-allied, government of Brazil<\/span><\/a>. As usual, this is portrayed in U.S. propaganda-media as an \u2018anti-corruption\u2019 operation by the U.S., but the forces that the U.S. is trying to install there are even more corrupt than the government that exists there (as is usually the case); the real reason for Obama\u2019s love for the Brazilian opposition is that Brazil, like the rest of the BRICS, is Russia-allied.<\/span><\/p>\n

Back in February 2014, Obama\u00a0overthrew<\/span><\/a>\u00a0the democratically elected President of Russia\u2019s neighbor Ukraine, in an\u00a0extremely bloody coup<\/span><\/a>, which was\u00a0at least a year in being set-up<\/span><\/a>, and the rationale for this \u2018democratic uprising\u2019 was that that actually democratically elected President was corrupt \u2014 but no one mentioned that all of Ukraine\u2019s post-Soviet leaders have been<\/i>\u00a0 <\/span>corrupt. The \u201carmed militias in ski masks\u201d that Obama referred to in\u00a0the coup<\/span><\/a>\u00a0and the\u00a0\u2018Anti Terrorist Operation\u2019<\/span><\/a>\u00a0afterward, were actually his, not Viktor Yanukovych\u2019s (the President whom Obama overthrew); they were America\u2019s mercenaries<\/span><\/a>, not Russia\u2019s as he pretends they were. And now, after\u00a0the extremely bloody civil war<\/span><\/a>\u00a0that resulted in Ukraine when\u00a0the regions that had voted overwhelmingly for the President whom Obama overthrew<\/span><\/a>\u00a0rejected Obama\u2019s coup-regime and refused to be ruled by it, Ukraine is\u00a0even more corrupt than it ever was<\/span><\/a>, but, for some mysterious reason, the United States isn\u2019t overthrowing the post<\/i>-coup government. Obama had gotten what he basically wanted out of his coup: Russia\u2019s ability to pipeline its gas into the EU is now severely hampered by the necessity to establish alternate pipeline-routes.\u00a0Ukraine is crucial to strangulating Russia, because most of Russia\u2019s gas-pipelines into Europe run through the formerly friendly nation of Ukraine, which now is rabidly anti-Russian. So: the coup and ethnic-cleansing<\/span><\/a> and all the rest have been just a part of America\u2019s effort to strangulate Russia; and all of the maimed and dead people are merely collateral damage \u2014 no concern of Obama.<\/span><\/p>\n

Libya, likewise, was a Russia-ally under Gaddafi, but no longer under Hillary Clinton\u2019s joyously\u00a0\u201cWe came, we saw, he died, ha, ha!!\u201d<\/span><\/a>\u00a0failed state.<\/span><\/p>\n

And the U.S. government has now officially blamed Iran for having caused the 9\/11 attacks and fined Iran $10.5 billion for them<\/span><\/a>, though the Sauds were actually behind it<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Those are perhaps the main examples of Obama\u2019s foreign-policy successes; but, if he gets his TPP, TTIP, &\/or TISA, mega-\u2018trade\u2019 deals approved, then he\u2019ll have an even more successful legacy of isolating Russia, China, the BRICS generally, and preserving U.S. global hegemony, or the U.S. Empire. <\/span><\/p>\n

Anyone who says that Obama has no foreign policy simply doesn\u2019t understand what his foreign policy is. It has been very successful, even if Russia might be doing a surprisingly effective job of countering it.<\/span><\/p>\n

As regards Russia\u2019s allies, which Obama is trying to destroy so as to isolate Russia, Obama has been especially successful, but George W. Bush\u2019s conquered nation of Iraq also shows as being extraordinaily miserable \u2014 he too experienced some success in that regard. In the 22 March 2016 Gallup 2015 Global Emotions Report<\/span><\/a>, which covers 140 countries, one sees on page 8: \u201cIraq, Iran Top Negative Experience List,\u201d and Syria is #4 on that list. On page 5: Syria had the \u201cLowest Positive Experiences Worldwide, 2015,\u201d and Ukraine is 11th-lowest; Yemen is 7th-lowest. On page 9: \u201cIraqis Are Saddest and Most Likely to Be in Physical Pain.\u201d Moreover: \u201cIraqis alone led the world in sadness and physical pain. They statistically tied Iranians in anger.\u201d Thus, to be an \u2018enemy nation\u2019 in the view of official Washington, or else a conquered nation (like Ukraine and Iraq), means to be a nation of extremely unhappy people. Under the latest-two Presidents, the U.S. government seems to be doing its foreign-policy job, of punishment. This must give America\u2019s controlling powers considerable satisfaction.<\/span><\/p>\n

Obama\u2019s paymasters who will be celebrating his legacy throughout his retirement, will praise and reward him handsomely, even if not be publicly doing it for the actual<\/i>\u00a0 <\/span>reasons behind their \u2018donations\u2019. He\u2019s a gifted man, who will be highly \u2018gifted\u2019 in retirement. But how can historians write the history of his Administration, when the contemporary \u2018news\u2019 accounts about it are composed of such lies as that the coup in Ukraine was a \u2018democratic revolution,\u2019 and that the sarin gas attack in Syria in August 2013 was by Assad instead of by Obama and his allies, and that Assad isn\u2019t popular in Syria, and that the Obama Administration is seeking to establish \u2018democracy\u2019 instead of a very unwanted jihadist dictatorship or else failed state in Syria<\/span><\/a>?<\/span><\/p>\n

All of this just goes to show how successful Obama has been, especially with his own nation\u2019s press. But that very success will present a challenge to America\u2019s historians. If they don\u2019t condemn America\u2019s press, will they really be<\/i>\u00a0 <\/span>historians? Perhaps there won\u2019t be a market for historians of America, inside America. And, if America\u2019s Empire continues, then where will<\/i>\u00a0 <\/span>there be a market for historians of America? How long will propaganda continue to be marketed as \u2018news reporting,\u2019 and as \u2018history\u2019? Perhaps some subjects are doomed to be only mythology, never history. Perhaps mere rhetoric (such as Obama\u2019s rhetoric) will always be reported, while its lies will never be noted, and this will constitute \u2018history\u2019, until the end of time \u2014 forever. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014<\/span><\/p>\n

Investigative historian Eric Zuesse is the author, most recently, of\u00a0 They\u2019re Not Even Close: The Democratic vs. Republican Economic Records, 1910-2010<\/i><\/span><\/a>,<\/i> and of<\/span> \u00a0<\/i>CHRIST\u2019S VENTRILOQUISTS: The Event that Created Christianity<\/i><\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Eric Zuesse On 28 May 2014, U.S. President Barack Obama addressed the West Point Military Academy class of graduating cadets, future leaders of America\u2019s armed forces, and he gave them\u00a0their marching orders, in the careers upon which they were just starting out\u00a0(here abbreviated as a summary of his rhetorical\u00a0 view of U.S. foreign policy): Russia\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1254,"featured_media":233031,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[487,461,18],"tags":[115,30,27,32,96,535,698,907,753,804,526,524,754,523,76,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-233499","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-breaking-news","8":"category-editorials","9":"category-latest-news","10":"tag-barack-obama","11":"tag-big-brother","12":"tag-bush","13":"tag-cia","14":"tag-cover-up","15":"tag-global-news","16":"tag-hillary-clinton","17":"tag-isis","18":"tag-police-state","19":"tag-politics-2","20":"tag-propaganda","21":"tag-russia","22":"tag-syria","23":"tag-ukraine","24":"tag-warfare","25":"tag-white-house"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233499","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1254"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=233499"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233499\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/233031"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=233499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=233499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=233499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}