Barack Obama has been one of the greatest foreign policy presidents of recent times...

[kentuck]

Regardless of what you may think of his domestic policies, it is difficult to criticize his accomplishments overseas. Neither Reagan nor Clinton can match his credentials. Of course, Reagan had the huge number of Marines blown up in Beirut and had to withdraw. He also had the arms sales to the Iranian terrorists thru Nicaragua and Central America via Ollie North and Robert McFarland. Clinton did a little better but he did have the USS Cole blown up on his watch. As for George W Bush, it would be difficult to find any President in history that created a bigger mess of foreign policy.

However, Barack Obama's Administration was able to track down Osama bin Laden and kill him in what he must have thought were the safe comforts of Pakistan. Not long after, he killed the successor to Bin Laden, Awlaki. Then, when he decided to confront Khadaffy as he was intent on butchering his own citizens, he stopped that effort dead in its tracks. He was able to enlist the help of our European allies and they kept pressure on Khadaffy until he was finally tracked down and killed by rebels of his own country. There is no need to rejoice but as someone said, if he were a Republican, he would already be on his way to Mount Rushmore...

[whatchamacallit]

1. Based on body count I suppose.

Peace.

[TheKentuckian]

3. +1

[KG]

20. ++++

[kentuck]

21. What is the body count?

Compared to George W Bush?

[Billy Burnett]

2. Not.

The fundamental war is against U.S. tax payers.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x627304

[MattSh]

4. Hope that puts a lot of food on the table...

Somehow I think the USA would have been a lot better off if Obama just skipped all this stuff and bought all the troops home in 2009.

[leftstreet]

5. Strange that such a strong leader is so willing to compromise at home n/t

[Divernan]

11. Big Oil profits to be made in Libya. Social sec. recipients aren't cash cows.

[Erose999]

6. If you're willing to call drone strikes "great" foreign policy, then, yes.

Furthermore, he didn't decide to confrony Gadhafi, the Libyans themselves decided that.

Obama was well on his way to normalization with Gadhafi before the Arab Spring started. He was working on a deal to sell Gadhafi some armored personnel carriers and other military hardware.

[lamp_shade]

7. THEY'RE HERE!!

[bowens43]

8. I don't consider war or killing

to be accomplishments or a measure of foreign policy success .

[peacetalksforall]

9. I can't disagree with you more. I am too disappointed to even try to explain.

[sibelian]

10. I don't really agree, I'm afraid.

I don't think war's a very good idea.

[BlueCheese]

12. al-Awlaki the successor to Bin Laden?

Not even close. That's comparing a lieutenant (if even that) to the commander-in-chief.

[closeupready]

13. Sorry, Kentuck, but I have to unrec, as I completely disagree.

nt

[kentuck]

14. I understand...

But I think this is how he would be remembered in history, if it were written today?

I don't think Barack Obama is a war monger. I think he is playing the hand that was dealt him. Reportedly, Khadafy was about to massacre his own people and Barack Obama intervened with the US military and stopped it. Khadafy had been on the defense since that point. We did not invade that country with troops. We were able to get help from our European allies. We did not lose a lot of America lives. We did not spend a lot of American money, relatively speaking with wars. We can be against war but we cannot be against reality.

Also, we wish he had gotten out of Iraq sooner but was it really possible? Perhaps, but I am not a military expert. He inherited a helluva mess over there and I wonder who could have done better??

[closeupready]

16. For some of those answers, we'll need to wait, of course.

I just assess based upon what we know now, rather than what may be, or what we may know tomorrow, etc. :hi:

[lamp_shade]

15. IMO, you could leave out the words "one of". n/t

[EFerrari]

17. Oh, dear.

You must now Awlaki was not Bin Ladens successor. And you should know that Gaddafi was not indiscriminately killing civilians. He was fighting a civil war.

Obama has continued Bush's policy in Latin America and expanded it in the Middle East. He's expanding our military footprint in Africa and arming the Indonesian government against its own people.

He just signed an FTA with the butchers in Colombia. His administration is trying to gin up animosity against Iran based on an FBI sting operation that doesn't bear inspection. He's left Haiti to the Clintons who are funding sweatshops and not housing out of our earthquake donations while State virtually presides over filthy elections and lobbies against raising the minimum wage.

He's doing great if you measure greatness by assassinations that we criticized when they were Cheney's idea.

[kentuck]

18. You may be absolutely right but...

In my opinion, the majority of Democrats disagree with you.

It may have been only a "civil war" but Khadafy had them surrounded and was bearing down on them. The decision by Obama was to take the side of the rebels. Yesterday was the final result of that decision. War is ugly and evil.

[EFerrari]

25. The final results of Obama's decision in Libya aren't in .

NATO is leaving, leaving Libya awash with armed insurgents.

[kentuck]

27. That is true.

I do not disagree with that point.

[themadstork]

26. Luckily the majority of Democrats do not write history.

And historians are unlikely to share your fondness for the national propaganda.

Obama will be remembered for greatly expanding the law-flouting militarist policies put in place before him.

[JoePhilly]

19. As in all things, Obama as President remains very sober ....

He remains, steady.

You can disagree with him. You can demand that he do more (or less) in various situations. But he remains steady.

When the GOP are total assholes, and we want him to kill one of them, he stays steady,

While our military is about to potentially take out Osama, he stays steady.

My sense is that he knows that he can not panic. Bad things are happening all over ... but he can not afford to panic. He has to stay steady, and push forward.

Its one of the qualities that I saw in him as a candidate.

[MadHound]

22. And a sad statement that is,

Because frankly, Obama hasn't been all that great with foreign policy, given the wars, and assassinations and what have you.

[kentuck]

23. It's a game the two political Parties play...

Much like Reagan ended the Cold War when the Berlin Wall came down. Unfortunately, it came down under the Administration of George H.W. Bush. The world is our chessboard and dictators are only pawns to promote those myths. :-)

[Kaleko]

24. Perhaps the foreigners who were on the receiving end

of these great policies should have a voice in the final verdict?

Um... just a suggestion.

[themadstork]

28. But most of them are dead!

And who cares about the dead?

[Romulox]

29. Tag 'em and bag 'em, eh?

:puke:

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

30. You wouldn't know it according to Fox News

I watched Fux yesterday to see how they covered the Khadaffy assassination. All I saw were long, long faces of the commentators. They kept repeating the lines from certain Republican Senators criticizing Obama for having supposedly dragged out the Libyan operation and not having gone in early enough. They kept repeating the fact that the Libyan operation cost the U.S. taxpayer $1.1 billion. And they kept repeating the fact that it wasn't a U.S. drone that got Khadaffy, but either a NATO jet or the Libyan rebels themselves. In other words, it was bullshit as usual.

[xiamiam]

31. do you mean the nobel peace prize winner who now send drones into villages

and has us involved in more wars than any president of my lifetime?

[kentuck]

32. Those dumb furreigners...

:-)

[cynatnite]

33. The USS Cole was not blown up...there was a gash on the side of the ship...

Of course, you mention that, but not 9/11 which happened on bush's watch.

As far as I'm concerned, Clinton and Obama were brilliant when it comes to foreign policy.

[kentuck]

34. Yes, you are right.

I just didn't have time to write down all of Bush Jr's mistakes and blunders.

[cynatnite]

35. You would crash DU if you did. :) n/t