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Well, in reality, the two people that removed any remaining credibility left in the US foreign policy are George W Bush and Obama. Dick Cheney and Condoleezza R
by tomp 12y ago
Well, in reality, the two people that removed any remaining credibility left in the US foreign policy are George W Bush and Obama. Dick Cheney and Condoleezza Rice helped, though.
- seanmcdirmid 12y agoCome on, are Obama and W much worse than Reagan, Nixon, Johnson, Kennedy, Rossevelt? The US will keep using up the last of its credibility year after year, and of course that just means it isn't.
- fit2rule 12y agoCarter replenished the national credibility account?
- seanmcdirmid 12y agoNah, I just picked the most egregious ones as examples, skipping the ones that were lower profile. As I get older, I just see things repeating over and over; the young kids think we are reaching into new bads just because they are seeing it for the first time. Now get off my lawn.
- dredmorbius 12y agoHe's the only U.S. President in a long time to have no US troops deployed in combat, as I recall. Definitely since WWII, possibly WWI or earlier.
- arethuza 12y agoWell, there was Operation Eagle Claw to try and rescue the US hostages in Iran: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Eagle_Claw http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Eagle_Claw
- happyscrappy 12y agoCarter is the canonical example of why you cannot appear soft on foreign policy.
- arethuza 12y agoAlso the Missile Gap: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missile_gap http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missile_gap
- dredmorbius 12y agoNot deployed in combat (or at least didn't reach the stage of combat). The mission itself was a failure.
- jMyles 12y agoI'll bite. Yes, in terms of foreign policy, I think that W and especially Obama have been profoundly, historically, difficult-to-believe bad. I'm not trying to downplay Iran-Contra, Gulf of Tonkin / Vietnam, etc., but the last two administrations have taken what was unduly hostile (and expensive) logistical capability around the world and turned it into Empire. The needs, wants, representative processes, laws, and sovereignty of other nations have reduced in relevance to the Empire's decision making process to zero. It's interesting you bring up Roosevelt: don't forget - that was an actual, declared war - by Congress. So in terms of assessing foreign policy that's different for sure. By comparison, Obama has attacked no less than seven different countries in undeclared wars. I think this is, as you say, "much worse."
- seanmcdirmid 12y agoThe last two presidents will always be the worst ones then? There was a lot of shady stuff going on during W2 that makes today's situation look like child's play. The last 8 years have been relatively quiet compared to the 00s or 90s or 80s. Historically speaking, I bet 20 years from now most of Obama's interventions are mere footnotes, like Reagan's mostly are.
- mkr-hn 12y agoIt's hard to top putting hundreds of thousands of citizens in camps and stealing all their property. And that's just if we limit it to the 20th century to present.
- jMyles 12y agoOf course that occurred to me, but I declined to mention it because it's not, strictly speaking, foreign policy.
- bjelkeman-again 12y agoSeven undeclared wars during Obama's presidency. Is it these? Afganistan, Iraq, ISIL, Libya, Pakistan, Yemen. I seem to be missing one. http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wars_involving_the_United_States#21st_century_wars http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wars_involving_the_Un...
- uptown 12y agoI wouldn't give Reagan a pass either: "...the bulk of U.S. foreign surveillance operations are governed not by acts of Congress, but by a 33-year-old executive order issued unilaterally by President Ronald Reagan." https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2014/09/29/new-documents-confirm-expansive-spying-powers-reagan-era-order/ https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2014/09/29/new-documents-...