Obama Shows Weakness in Foreign Policy

Obama has made it clear, he thinks we should talk with Castro, al-Asad, Ahmadinejad and Kim il-sung. Heck, he’d meet with them personally and might even invite them to the White House for a sit down chat.

Obama has made this point over and over again.

“The American people aren’t looking for more of a do-nothing Cuba policy that has failed to secure the release of dissidents, failed to bring democracy to the island, and failed to advance freedom for fifty years, because they know we need to pursue new opportunities to achieve liberty for the Cuban people. If I am the Democratic nominee, I will offer the clearest contrast to John McCain’s call for four more years of George Bush’s policies, because I want to fundamentally change our foreign policy to secure the American people and restore our standing in the world.”

“Very early in this campaign, I said I would meet not just with our friends but also with our enemies, not just with leaders we like but leaders we don’t,” Obama said. “Washington, when I said this, they said, ‘Oh, you can’t do that.’ I said, ‘Watch me; I will.’”

Okay, isn’t that nice. The President of the United States needs to understand that you can not give these dictators R-E-S-P-E-C-T. You can’t chat with them since it elevates them to a position of higher power within their own repressed countries; the repressed population only sees what the dictator wants them to see.

President Bush responded.

“Sitting down at the table, having your picture taken with a tyrant such as Raul Castro, for example, lends the status of the office and the status of our country to him. He gains a lot from it by saying, ‘Look at me. I’m now recognized by the president of the United States.’”

If you think Obama’s position is off the mark, you’re not alone, but it gets worse. How do you think Obama would treat our allies when it comes to foreign policy? Well he’s flat out said that NAFTA is not working and that we should threaten to pull out of the agreement.

Not only should we threaten to pull out, we should use hammer diplomacy. Quoted from CBC News:

“I will make sure that we renegotiate in the same way that Senator Clinton talked about, and I think actually Senator Clinton’s answer on this one is right. I think we should use the hammer of a potential opt-out as leverage to ensure that we actually get labor and environmental standards that are enforced.

“And that is not what has been happening so far. That is something that I have been consistent about.”

Also note that Clinton thinks we need to ditch NAFTA. From CBC News:

Clinton was asked if she would notify Canada and Mexico that the U.S. would pull out of the North American Free Trade Agreement within six months of her presidency.

“No. I will say, we will opt out of NAFTA unless we renegotiate it,” Clinton said. “And we renegotiate it on terms that are favourable to all of America.”

What’s wrong with Obama? It’s simple, he wants to invite dictators and terrorists to the Oval Office to chat but wants to use a hammer on one of our strongest allies in the war on terror.