What Caught My Eye Today - Barack Obama's Foreign Policy Plan

Fred's Note: It occurs to me that in recent posts regarding the upcoming U.S. Presidential election that I am guilty of doing the same thing as various media outlets by rendering opinions on statements that I may have taken out of context. To be fair, I'm not a professional journalist and doubt very much that my blog will ever reach the critical mass that the New York Times does. However, the information is readily available to anyone who truly wants to make an informed decision come Election Day in November. With that in mind, over the next several days and weeks, I'll be posting excerpts from the websites of both the Republican presidential candidate, Mitt Romney and the incumbent Democratic candidate, Barack Obama. It goes without saying that I will be adding some color commentary, but the content will be from the candidates themselves. 

Okay, boys and girls, this is the last one--Barack Obama's foreign policy plan.  Compared to Romney's plan (click here), the Obama plan seems almost non-existent.  My take is that if Obama wins a second term, we're likely to see more of the same.  Seriously though, not a single mention of Canada or Europe from either candidate? Where is the love, people?


President Obama has restored America’s standing across the globe and kept his promise to be a strong and responsible leader on foreign policy.

• Bringing our troops home from Afghanistan: President Obama is drawing down our troops in Afghanistan as we transition security responsibility to the Afghan people, and is on track to responsibly end the war there in 2014. Of course there is the little matter of that 10 year security agreement Obama signed with Afghanistan, but I guess there is a separate accounting of the troops that will be required to support that effort.
• A severely weakened al Qaeda: President Obama made the bold decision to order a raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound in Pakistan, eliminating the man responsible for the 9/11 attacks and the only leader al Qaeda had ever known. I don't think anyone disputes that this was a gutsy call and a huge feather in Obama's cap, but it is not clear to me how this translates into a foreign policy plan for the next four years.
• Making progress toward a world without nuclear weapons: In 2010, President Obama announced an international effort to secure all vulnerable nuclear materials in four years, and has worked to prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons in Iran and North Korea. Yeah, yeah and he got a Nobel Peace Prize to go along with it (clearly one of his better speeches), but where is the plan?
• Restoring America’s standing around the world: President Obama has strengthened our alliances around the world with friends like Israel, our NATO allies, and our partners in Asia and Latin America. And he has brought together international coalitions to confront shared challenges, such as Iran’s nuclear program. Seriously, dude, you had a great run, but what are you planning to do for an encore? Give me something to work with!

And that is pretty much it from the incumbent. No Russia, no Africa, no Latin America, no Asia, no Middle East. No nuthin' about nuthin' really. I guess it is all about the economy this year. 

As I said, this concludes our public service announcement series on the presidential candidates positions on key issues (not all, but most).  Now go out there and make your voices heard. Vote!