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GOP, Democrats Spar Over Obama’s Foreign Policy, Amid New Fears of Putin Takeovers

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Photo Credit: REUTERSTop Democrats and Republicans squared off Sunday over President Obama’s foreign policy, in the aftermath of Russia taking over part of Ukraine and amid new fears that Russian President Vladimir Putin is just getting started.

The deepening dispute between East and West is expected to dominate Obama’s visit to Europe, which begins Monday in the Netherlands. Obama will join world leaders at the Nuclear Security Summit and head a hastily arranged meeting of the Group of Seven – the U.S., Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan.

Former GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney delivered perhaps the most stinging criticism of Obama’s handling of the Ukraine crisis.

He accused Obama of being naïve about Putin’s world views and “lacking the judgment” and foresight to perhaps have stopped the Russian president from taking over Ukraine’s Crimea region before he even ordered troops across the border.

“There’s no question but that the president’s naiveté with regards to Russia, and his faulty judgment about Russia’s intentions and objectives, has led to a number of foreign policy challenges that we face,” Romney, also a former Massachusetts governor, said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”

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Obama’s Paper-Tiger Presidency

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Photo Credit: National Review Most Americans who are dissatisfied with Barack Obama’s leadership are thinking about the poor economy and the misbegotten health-care law. That disillusionment is justified — if tardy. But the foreign-policy failures of this administration are likely to be far more consequential, lasting, and possibly catastrophic.

What we are seeing is the collapse of American influence in the world.

Permitting people like Obama, Clinton, Hagel, and Kerry to deal with the brutal realities of world politics is like putting Richard Simmons into the ring with Muhammad Ali.

On Sunday, reflecting an innocence that really ought to be prosecutable, John Kerry announced that the U.S. would impose sanctions on Russia if it annexes Crimea and continues to threaten the rest of Ukraine. But, he hastened to add: “We hope President Putin will recognize that none of what we’re saying is meant as a threat, it’s not meant in a personal way.”

Frankly, credible threats might restrain Putin, but it’s way too late for that. By threatening Syria on the use of chemical weapons and then collapsing like a cheap tent when Bashar Assad called Obama’s bluff, the president turned himself into a paper tiger. John Kerry’s blatant groveling to Putin — his obvious fear of offending the little Moscow thug — is a new standard of cravenness.

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President Obama’s Foreign Policy is Based on Fantasy

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Photo Credit: J. Scott ApplewhiteBy Editorial Board.

FOR FIVE YEARS, President Obama has led a foreign policy based more on how he thinks the world should operate than on reality. It was a world in which “the tide of war is receding” and the United States could, without much risk, radically reduce the size of its armed forces. Other leaders, in this vision, would behave rationally and in the interest of their people and the world. Invasions, brute force, great-power games and shifting alliances — these were things of the past. Secretary of State John F. Kerry displayed this mindset on ABC’s “This Week” Sunday when he said, of Russia’s invasion of neighboring Ukraine, “It’s a 19th century act in the 21st century.”

That’s a nice thought, and we all know what he means. A country’s standing is no longer measured in throw-weight or battalions. The world is too interconnected to break into blocs. A small country that plugs into cyberspace can deliver more prosperity to its people (think Singapore or Estonia) than a giant with natural resources and standing armies.

Unfortunately, Russian President Vladimir Putin has not received the memo on 21st-century behavior. Neither has China’s president, Xi Jinping, who is engaging in gunboat diplomacy against Japan and the weaker nations of Southeast Asia. Syrian president Bashar al-Assad is waging a very 20th-century war against his own people, sending helicopters to drop exploding barrels full of screws, nails and other shrapnel onto apartment buildings where families cower in basements. These men will not be deterred by the disapproval of their peers, the weight of world opinion or even disinvestment by Silicon Valley companies. They are concerned primarily with maintaining their holds on power.

Read more this story HERE.

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MSNBC’s Wagner: Obama Hasn’t Articulated Foreign Policy Because “His Heart Has Never Been In It”

By Real Clear Politics.

ALEX WAGNER: A lot has been said about the administration’s foreign policy in recent weeks and especially in recent days, and a lot of it has been critical of the president. And I am sort of the camp that, you know, I’m not sure if the president could have done anything to prevent Vladimir Putin from doing what he was going to do. But it certainly puts the White House in a position where their foreign policy seems incredibly reactive and has so for really almost — the recent past, I mean, years at this point.

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Is the Obama Admin Freezing Fox News Out of Foreign Policy Interviews?

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Photo Credit: Daily Caller The Obama administration faces a difficult problem. Diplomacy has failed, despite its best efforts, and the ruthless winner-take-all attitude of its adversary now leaves them but two choices: break off relations or capitulate to its demands.

That adversary, of course, is Fox News — and President Barack Obama finally seems prepared to enforce a hard line against them. In the past week the White House has frozen the top-rated news network out of two key foreign policy interviews provided to other networks — one on Sunday with Secretary of State John Kerry, and one last week with National Security Adviser Susan Rice.

Kerry made the rounds yesterday to discuss the White House’s response to Russia’s Friday invasion of Ukraine, appearing on NBC, CBS and ABC’s Sunday shows to promise a tough (if unspecified) response to Vladimir Putin’s power grab. But Chris Wallace of ”Fox News Sunday” was shut out.

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Obama’s Unserious Foreign Policy And America’s Permanent War Footing

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Photo Credit: The federalist

Photo Credit: The federalist

Obama’s address on the State Of The Union showed the lack of seriousness about international affairs by which his Administration has been making the world ever more dangerous for Americans. The passages on war and peace, like the rest of the speech, consisted of patent untruths loosely related to Administration programs – the former meant to justify the latter.

Whatever one might think of Obama’s domestic agenda, these couplets reflected a serious intent to advance it. Thus, because ”climate change” is the cause of Western drought and Eastern floods, Obama will impose new restrictions on the use of fossil fuels; and because “reform” of unemployment insurance will get people back to work, Congress must extend the term of current insurance for 1.6 million people. People with an interest in such things know to disregard the nonsense and to take the agenda as seriously as it is meant.

But Obama’s discussion of war and peace verged on abstraction from reality, was not heartfelt, and is certain to call forth disdain. For Obama, the world’s major events might as well be happening on the planet Pluto. Russia is re establishing itself in its “near abroad,” and working with Iran to project a neo-Soviet agenda from Southwest Asia to the Mediterranean. China is inexorably asserting sovereignty over the Western Pacific. As Islam’s Sunni and Shia factions tear at each other’s vitals, they seem to agree only on contempt for America. Obama mentioned none of this.

Rather, as with regard to domestic matters he claimed credit in advance for events that he hopes will take place, and asked for the people’s support on the basis of that claim. He ended the war in Iraq, and is ending the war in Afghanistan. In Syria, he is supporting the good guys. He has put al Qaeda “on the path to defeat, and is doing the same to all similar folk. He is ridding Syria of Chemical weapons, while American diplomacy is at work settling the Arab-Israeli war – the key to a larger peace. He asked Americans to believe that Obama is moving the country “off a permanent war footing.” How, he gave no hint. It is difficult to imagine foreign nations, friend and foe alike, taking any of this seriously. Or Americans for that matter.

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Ted Cruz: Obama’s Egypt Policy a ‘Stunning Diplomatic Failure’ (+video)

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Photo Credit: APBy Brendan Bordelon. Texas Republican Sen.Ted Cruz blasted the Obama administration’s policy toward Egypt in a scathing op-ed in Foreign Policy magazine, slamming the president’s stance on the Muslim Brotherhood “one of the most stunning diplomatic failures in recent memory.”

As the Egyptian military ends President Mohamed Morsi’s rule, Cruz points out that the ire of many people in the streets of Cairo is not reserved for the Muslim Brotherhood alone.

“The people protesting in the streets were not only carrying anti-Morsi signs,” Cruz writes. “They were also carrying signs with slogans like ‘Obama Supports Terrorism’ and ‘Obama Supports Morsi,’ as well as pictures of the American ambassador to Egypt, Anne Patterson, with a large red ‘X’ through her face.”

Cruz believes that the 22 million Egyptians committed to ending Morsi’s rule are largely secular, pro-democratic people dismayed at the religious authoritarianism slowly strangling their country.

By throwing America’s weight behind Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, Cruz argues that President Obama has alienated potential allies in the region.

Read more from this story HERE.

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Anti-Obama photos from the Tahrir Square Protests that you probably haven’t seen

Photo Credit: Doug Ross @ Journal Photo Credit: Doug Ross @ Journal Photo Credit: Doug Ross @ Journal Photo Credit: Doug Ross @ Journal

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Egypt orders arrest of 300 Islamists: state media

By AFP. The Egyptian police have orders to arrest 300 leaders and members of Mohamed Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood after the army deposed the Islamist president on Wednesday, the website of the official Al-Ahram newspaper reported early Thursday.

A senior interior ministry official confirmed to AFP that arrest warrants have been issued for “Muslim Brotherhood members”, but provided no further details. Read more from this story HERE.

John Kerry’s First Foreign Policy Speech Spins Global Warming Hysteria

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Photo Credit: The New American

In his first major foreign policy speech on Wednesday, newly appointed Secretary of State John Kerry delivered a rather unconventional introduction, arguing that Americans need to garner up the “courage” to tackle climate change. Emphasizing security measures that are necessary to maintain national security, Kerry added that new environmental policies and investments in “green” energy technologies should be a priority for his department.

“We as a nation must have the foresight and courage to make the investments necessary to safeguard the most sacred trust we keep for our children and grandchildren,” he said, highlighting the “catastrophic” impact climate change will have on future generations: “An environment not ravaged by rising seas, deadly superstorms, devastating droughts, and the other hallmarks of a dramatically changing climate.”

The secretary of state called for collective action to curb the “detrimental” effects of climate change, as he propagated a doomsday scenario where sea levels rise and rising temperatures wreak havoc on the Earth:

And let’s face it — we are all in this one together. No nation can stand alone. We share nothing so completely as our planet. When we work with others — large and small — to develop and deploy the clean technologies that will power a new world, we’re also helping create new markets and new opportunities for America’s second-to-none innovators and entrepreneurs to succeed in the next great revolution.

So let’s commit ourselves to doing the smart thing and the right thing and truly commit to tackling this challenge. Because if we don’t rise to meet it, rising temperatures and rising sea levels will surely lead to rising costs down the road. If we waste this opportunity, it may be the only thing our generations are remembered for. We need to find the courage to leave a far different legacy.

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President Obama’s Naive Foreign Policy Unravels As A “Tiny Country” Threatens Us With Nukes

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Photo Credit: IrishCentral

Four years ago a newly minted President Obama assured us we had very little to fear in his new world of foreign policy. There was no longer a Soviet Union that could threaten our very existence and besides, as a Nobel Peace Prize winner he had the moral authority to reset our foreign policy….to make America loved, rather than feared. Unlike it had been during the Bush administration.

He proclaimed that Iran, Cuba and North Korea were tiny countries and wouldn’t be able to resist his charm offensive coupled with a beer summit.

In order to show the utmost self confidence in his ability to change the world, President Obama acquiesced to the Russians and didn’t install planned anti missile defenses in Eastern Europe aimed at incoming missiles from Iran. He also cancelled/delayed planned deployment of anti missile shields on our own soil leaving us wide open and unprotected

But after over 4 years of the Obama foreign policy/charm offensive, the administration is feverishly trying to deploy the very missile shields it cancelled 4 years ago. These shields were designed to thwart incoming nuke missiles from the tiny country of North Korea. 14 anti missile batteries are being rushed into place in Alaska, along with other measures previously rejected by Obama in other parts of the world.

Four years of dithering and charm offensive have let Iran and North Korea go forward virtually unchecked in their nuclear ambitions. Now those chickens are starting to come home to roost.

Last week North Korea cancelled the armistice it had with South Korea and declared their right to launch a preemptive nuclear strike on the US in retaliation for new sanctions imposed on them.

North Korea has already thumbed its nose at Obama by conducting underground nuclear explosions and successfully launched a missile capable of striking the US….All of this in the face of “stern” threats from the paper tiger Obama administration.

Ominously, in the other tiny country of Iran, the acquisition of much faster centrifuges will speed up the time it takes to get them enough enriched uranium for nuclear weapons…again all of this in the face of “stern” threats and trade sanctions from the Obama administration.

Buried in the press a few months back was the report that Iran had suffered an accident at one of their nuclear sites. The accident killed several of their scientists, but reportedly killed a few North Korean scientists as well.

President Obama: Today even tiny nuclear armed countries can have the ability to ruin our day, not by just lobbing nuclear missiles at us, but by spreading those weapons to terrorists and other rogue, tiny countries around the world. It’s time you take the rose colored glasses off. In this world it is far better and safer to be feared and respected, rather than trying to be liked.

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Ed Farnan is the conservative columnist at IrishCentral, where he has been writing on the need for energy independence, strong self defense, secure borders, 2nd amendment, smaller government and many other issues. His articles appear in many publications throughout the USA and world. He has been a guest on Fox News and a regular guest on radio stations in the US and Europe.

John Kerry Commanding Respect – Russian Foreign Minister Won’t Return His Call

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Photo Credit: Foreign PolicySecretary of State John Kerry called all the foreign ministers of countries that deal with North Korea following Monday’s nuclear test and all but one of them picked up the phone — Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

Speaking to reporters Wednesday, Kerry made his first remarks about the new nuclear test, which the North Koreans warned the State Department about in advance.

“With respect to the DPRK, President Obama made it crystal clear last night and previously in all comments, as have other countries, that North Korea’s nuclear weapons and ballistic missile program are a threat now to the United States of America, because of what they are pursuing specifically, as well as to global security and peace,” Kerry said.

“Following their latest provocation, which we have termed and believe is reckless and provocative, needlessly, I called Foreign Minister Kim of South Korea, I talked to Foreign Minister Kishida of Japan, I talked to Foreign Minister Yang of China, and we have placed a phone call to Foreign Minister Lavrov, and consulted with all of them with respect to the steps that we need to take,” Kerry went on. “The international community now needs to come together with a swift and clear, strong, credible response, as pledged in the U.N. Security Council Resolution 2087.”

The now-defunct six-party talks on North Korea’s nuclear program included the United States, China, Japan, South Korea, North Korea, and Russia. But Russia’s leaders are the only members of that group with whom Kerry hasn’t spoken this week.

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A ‘Fast and Furious’ Foreign Policy

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photo credit: al jazeera english

Let’s get this straight: Guns are too dangerous to be left in the hands of ordinary Americans. But guns in the hands of unknown rebels, who may turn out to be violent extremists, are just fine.

At the same time the Obama administration is threatening to curtail access to firearms in order to prevent gun violence at home, the president is channeling Warren Zevon abroad: “Send lawyers, guns, and money.”

And send them to the most dangerous, unstable places in the world.

The United States armed the rebels who overthrew Qaddafi in Libya. The administration is at least contemplating arming anti-Assad rebels in Syria. And although France balked at the U.S. invasion of Iraq, we will be providing logistical support to our freedom-fries friends in Mali.

What could possibly go wrong?

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