TWO PRONG EMBASSY ATTACK

In discussion of the announcement that the State Department is going to close 25 embassies in response to Al Queda threats, Rick Santorum said on meet the press that closures show the Obama administration is weak in the face of extremism. This may be true. It is a valued judgment meaning the State Department is being attacked on two fronts in an extremely difficult situation in the Middle East. The Muslim World does not trust us. Can politicians be so ignorant as not to understand why? I believe that’s the case. We have a history of allowing greedy business interests dictate our foreign policy. It is not just the Muslim Nations; they have buggered up South and Central America as well.  Finally, we have a president who understands foreign relations in a different light, which Republicans cannot comprehend and Muslim Nations are not ready to trust; it will take years. Big oil companies are no longer our diplomats.

It is a two-pronged attack on Obama. The first attack is from within. The House of Representatives passed a bill (HR 850) that would increase the sanctions on newly elected President elect Hassan Rouhani of Iran. It seems like the bill was passed in response to Rouhani’s announcement that he is headed toward making shifts in his country’s foreign policies. Although, this is not exactly an extension of the hand-of-peace on his part it was a gesture toward that end. However, in typical Republican fashion, the best way to handle overtures of peace is to slap him in the face. This is especially bad when the United States—read Obama’s State Department—has been asking the Iranian people to elect a moderate. They did. What the House of Representatives has done in response is to increase the sanctions, which is equivalent to saying you cannot trust us.

Add to this the internal party struggle for supremacy of the right wing radical politics, which is the only way you can describe “Cheney-ites” verses pseudo-realist, neo-isolationist, and libertarian foreign policy.  Both want to drive the country in different directions—both wrong. In their attempt to be the “baddist” man in town, they act against the best interest of the United States. Case in point, examine the attack on President Obama and Susan Rice over Benghazi. Senators like McCain and Graham rather than attack the enemy; they attacked their own State Department.

What the State Department is doing is responding to threats from Al Queda across the Muslim world but also from threats from the both tips of the forked tongue of the Republicans. State Department must have judged it is best to appear timid, which is what Santorum accused them of being, and protect the embassies from both Al Queda and the team of McCain, Santorum, and Graham. It is time the American people ask themselves the question, “If the State Department is working in the best interest of the United States, what are the Republicans doing?”

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