Foreign Policy

Throughout the year I plan to research US foreign policy as it relates to current world events, such as the tsunami in Japan, fallout from the end of the war in Libya, and where to go from here as far as the war in Iraq and the war on terrorism. Obama has been criticized repeatedly for his policies, especially in the Middle East, where his lack of action at times appeared to signal that Obama was at a loss for what to do and merely hoped to bide time until he came up with a solution. While currently roughly 45,000 troops remain stationed Iraq, the Obama administration passed a resolution on September 6, 2011 to reduce the number of troops in Iraq down to 3,000 by the end of the year. Generals had originally wanted upwards of 10,000 troops to remain in order to effectively protect the citizens of Iraq and ensure the success of their recently formed government, yet they lost their battle. While the common man praises the notion of pulling out of an endless war with fewer loss of American lives, yet generals and others complain that by the end of the year that number will be too small to work with effectively.

With regards to the war on terror, the recent passing of the 10th anniversary of the villainous acts of murder on September 11, 2001, at the World Trade Center sparked debate as to far we have truly come from that date. Are we safer now? Have intensified security systems and efforts to combat terrorism worldwide truly been beneficial? Are we truly better off? Unfortunately, concerns over rising debt in America consumes more of our energy than necessary, and it appears to have hampered us in what could be done in other areas of the world.

Here is one person's view on issues relating to foreign policy, Republican candidate Ron Paul; not only has Obama failed in areas such as the war and his handling of situations in Libya and the Middle East, he has failed to address the issue of the debt crisis and it needs to stabilize before we can even hope to move forward with other issues of foreign policy.

http://youtu.be/z7DAHs6p4c4