Foreign Policy: Gates and Rice Offer Clarity and Good Advice

Posted by Tina

Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Robert M. Gates, former Secretary of Defense under Bush and Obama, penned a piece together for the Washington Post. It assesses the situation in Syria and the goals of Putin but also offers the administration some advice…not that it will be heeded.

Putin, they say, has moved to fill a void. He has no interest in stabilizing the region. His interests are pure “power politics” without regard to the safety of innocents or the efforts of the U.S. and her allies to defeat ISIS.

Correcting the errors in current policy is suggested as the way forward:

…we have to create our own facts on the ground. No-fly zones and safe harbors for populations are not “half-baked” ideas. They worked before (protecting the Kurds for 12 years under Saddam Hussein’s reign of terror) and warrant serious consideration. We will continue to have refugees until people are safe. Moreover, providing robust support for Kurdish forces, Sunni tribes and what’s left of the Iraqi special forces is not “mumbo-jumbo.” It might just salvage our current, failing strategy. A serious commitment to these steps would also solidify our relationship with Turkey, which is reeling from the implications of Moscow’s intervention. In short, we must create a better military balance of power on the ground if we are to seek a political solution acceptable to us and to our allies.

Obama is fond of deriding his critics, however, clearly his efforts have not led to stability or the defeat of our terrorist enemy. As many have speculated, his strategy all along has not been to defeat the enemy and win the war, bring peace to the ME, or even to secure the safety and well-being of the West. No, his strategy all along has been to completely collapse western leadership and dominance and in it’s stead, to create a “paradisal state”.

We are now witnessing the consequences of this delusional radical left thinker:

…while Obama succeeded in carrying out his real doctrine under the breezy banner of we “don’t do stupid sh-” the results were the opposite of his expectations. Instead of Paradise Lost it was a case of Hades Found.

It is clear that the president’s strategy is failing disastrously. Since 2010, total fatalities from armed conflict in the world have increased by a factor of close to four, according to data from the International Institute of Strategic Studies. Total fatalities due to terrorism have risen nearly sixfold, based on the University of Maryland’s Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism database. Nearly all this violence is concentrated in a swath of territory stretching from North Africa through the Middle East to Afghanistan and Pakistan. And there is every reason to expect the violence to escalate as the Sunni powers of the region seek to prevent Iran from establishing itself as the post-American hegemon. …

The advice offered by Gates and Rice may be excellent but it’s unlikely to be heeded by a president with unrelated goals. Obama set his foot on this current destructive path long before his rise to the presidency and he is unlikely to suddenly change his worldview. He sought fundamental transformation which required tearing down the West to make room for the “dreams” from his father and the many radicals who mentored him.

The coming year will bring even more chaos and death. The question is, who will replace Obama when that year comes to an end? The Democrat field offers little more than a repeat of the last seven, and counting, years in terms of domestic policy. In terms of international policy it’s a mixed bag. Hillary’s bungling covert operation at State offers no assurance that America could experience strength and success on the world stage. Bernie Sanders would cut the military budget even more and “only go to war as a last resort,” the typical non-committal response from the radical left. He wants to spend that defense money to further subsidize college tuition. Joe Biden’s foreign policy record seems to be all over the map. The most likely scenario is that he would continue with the Obama policy:

…Biden gave Obama some sensible advice, which Obama then chose to ignore. As Obama’s vice president, Biden isn’t going to highlight the things that Obama got wrong because the core argument for a Biden candidacy is that he will continue Obama’s policies.

Biden’s always present gaffes would at least make for interesting comic reading. And what about Elizabeth Warren? Will Warren get into the race? Who knows. She is rumored to be a VP choice for Biden. Either way she would offer little hope for a better outcome.

Americans need a change from the chaos and uncertainty of Obama’s “we don’t do stupid sh–” doctrine. We need a president that might actually listen to advisers, serious people like Rice and Gates. We need a president who will make decisions in the best interests of America and will re-establish good relations with our allies. We need a president that will come up with a strategy to win, and to win, we need a president who will strengthen our economy as well as our military. Anyone in the Republican field would improve America’s standing in the world, respect the office of the president, and make decisions that would be good for America and the world instead of pursuing a western hating Utopian agenda.