>in many ways when it came to Foreign Policy.
>
>Obama's instincts on foreign policy were remarkable and
>intuitive - and although his administration made its errors
>and was laden with Establishment figures - he deserves more
>credit for resisting the Foreign Policy Establishment and at
>least starting to pave the way towards a new methodology of
>foreign engagement.
>
>Consider this:
>
>*Obama distanced us from our unsavory alliance w/ Saudi Arabia
>in search of a more neutral posture in the region
>*Brokered one of the most historic diplomatic achievements in
>U.S. history - the JCPOA (Iran Deal)
>*Broke new ground in putting a real check on Netanyahu's
>extremism in Israel
>*Regarded his administration's interventionism in Libya
>(pushed by Clinton when she was Sec. of State) to be the
>biggest mistake of his presidency
>*Resisted the bi-partisan war cry for offensive action in
>Syria
>*Normalized/de-escalated relations with Russia
>*Correctly focused more on China's gross human rights
>violations and growing threat
>
>This excerpt from the Atlantic typifies Obama's leadership in
>foreign policy - and his conflict with the Clintonian foreign
>policy Establishment:
>
>"Syria, for Obama, represented a slope potentially as slippery
>as Iraq. In his first term, he came to believe that only a
>handful of threats in the Middle East conceivably warranted
>direct U.S. military intervention.
>
>Hillary Clinton, when she was Obama’s secretary of state,
>argued for an early and assertive response to Assad’s
>violence. In 2014, after she left office, Clinton told me that
>“the failure to help build up a credible fighting force of
>the people who were the originators of the protests against
>Assad … left a big vacuum, which the jihadists have now
>filled.” When The Atlantic published this statement, and
>also published Clinton’s assessment that “great nations
>need organizing principles, and ‘Don’t do stupid stuff’
>is not an organizing principle,” Obama became “rip-shit
>angry,” according to one of his senior advisers.
>The president did not understand how “Don’t do stupid
>shit” could be considered a controversial slogan. Ben Rhodes
>recalls that “the questions we were asking in the White
>House were ‘Who exactly is in the stupid-shit caucus? Who is
>pro–stupid shit?’ ”
>
>The Iraq invasion, Obama believed, should have taught
>Democratic interventionists like Clinton, who had voted for
>its authorization, the dangers of doing stupid shit. (Clinton
>quickly apologized to Obama for her comments, and a Clinton
>spokesman announced that the two would “hug it out” on
>Martha’s Vineyard when they crossed paths there later.)"
>
>So yes - Obama (like all presidents) presided over an American
>empire that has been shamefully complicit in international war
>crimes and human rights violations - but to call out Obama -
>and give others a pass (namely Trump & Bush) signals egregious
>prejudice.
>
>That said - I also think it's shameful when analysts refuse to
>criticize Obama - but will grill (only) Republicans on matters
>of foreign policy - when both parties are responsible for the
>bi-partisan consensus for war.
>-->

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