Thirteen Years of Bad Foreign Policy

Obama has clearly lost his way in a host of issues. Afghanistan, for example. True, he inherited the problem, but he hasn't done much to extricate himself from it. As is the case in Guantánamo, the President has shown himself to be a hostage of the Generals. The "military-industrial complex", as Eisenhower so aptly put it, is the real power behind the Oval Office, and it has imposed its will on Presidents past, current and future, most likely.

So, now, Obama wrestles with the problem, while he hand-wrestles with "his" Generals, but they have the upper hand. In a scenario that repeats itself over and over, the U.S. invades a country, puts a government in place that ends up being as bad or worse than the one it replaced, and then is unable to pull out in a reasonable time period, while getting its youth killed for no reason. After 13 years, the Americans have not accomplished anything of lasting value in Afghanistan, but they can't let go of what was a losing proposition right from the start.

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