President Obama and The Middle East

Our Commander In Chief has his plate full at the present time with foreign policy decisions concerning the Middle East, especially Iraq, terror threats in general, Isis and those inside and outside of congress who think every decision the President makes is wrong.  The negative voices will become even louder before the November elections and the 2016 Presidential election. 

So far the Commander in Chief has made the right decisions and his mindset of being deliberate in his thinking has served our men and women in uniform and our country well.  The negative voices who said the President reneged on his line in the sand concerning Syria's chemical weapons were dead wrong.  It was the President working with our allies and the U.N. that brought about Syria not only allowing international inspectors inspect their stockpiles of those WMD but also destroying them.  Syria knew if they did not go along with this President Obama would act.

On Iraq, the negative voices wanted the President to act against Isis and those making trouble before the Iraqi military could prove their worth in defending their own country.  Those voices also wanted the President to act even though the Iraqi Prime Minister was a big problem for his own country.  President Obama wisely orated that Iraq needed new political leadership that would be inclusive of all Iraqis that would be necessary to unite the country and fight Isis. The President also publically said it is up to the Iraqi military and its people to defend their own country. 

The President's push for new political leadership in Iraq worked.  The President also ordered U.S. air strikes on Isis positions that also worked.  Those strikes will continue and may be expanded according to administration sources.  The President has also continued his policy of no U.S. ground combat role in Iraq which the negative voices are clamoring for.

Retired General Lawrence Korb an outspoken critic of the Iraq war and a former Assistant Secretary of Defense from 1981-85 during the Reagan administration said it all recently on MSNBC when he said he likes the Commander in Chief to be deliberate in his thinking and actions concerning what is taking place in the Middle East with Iraq and Isis.  The general understands all too well it is not in the best interest of the President to rush to judgement before having the big picture and all the facts.  Being a military man, General Korb knows how our men and women in uniform can pay a heavy price for bad decisions that are not thought through.

This writer pointed out here in "PolitiDose" on more than one occasion that the U.S. does not have to invade and occupy country's in the Middle East to defeat terrorists.  The U.S. has other means to do so and the Commander in Chief should continue to be deliberate in his decisions, especially in that part of the world. 

There was a time when members of congress stood tall and backed the Commander In Chief on foreign policy.  That all changed with the unAmerican conservative ideology that the republican party practice today.  The Commander in Chief deserves better from members of congress.


This commentary written by John Lucia