The way the Obama administration is handling the conflict in Syria can be summed up in one word: haphazardly.
Many seemed surprised that the president carried out one of the most significant foreign policy victories in recent history — the killing of Osama bin Laden. What is overlooked is the fact that President Barack Obama has fumbled continuously on the foreign policy front.
It is all too easy to start with the recent Syrian conflict.
The president famously drew a red line on chemical weapons last year and has failed to act on that threat until recently. He claimed then that no regime change would take place. Now, he demands it.
He was all too ready to strike Syria until he wanted the input of a fractured Congress.
This move puts the administration in even more of a predicament.
If Congress strikes down the intervention measure, all of the president’s tough talk and line-drawing will have gotten him nowhere. If the president plans to strike without congressional support, he would successfully circumvent the dissenting people’s branch.
If America ultimately decides to attack Syria, would this set a precedent that we should attack other nations with dangerous weapons? Should we therefore attack North Korea or Iran?
The last country we directly intervened in — and consequently also had a haphazard intervention and exit strategy — was Libya. After the intervention and on the 11th anniversary of 9/11, terrorists attacked the U.S. Consulate and killed four Americans.
In 2009, then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton presented her Russian counterpart with a cartoonish “reset” button with the hopes of improving the relationship between the two countries.
However, the relationship has significantly worsened. Russia and the U.S. currently are engaged in Cold War tensions — tensions escalated by the mishandling of the NSA leaker Eric Snowden.
Snowden’s leaking of America’s spying policy not only hurt America’s relationship with Russia, but also irked Germany, Colombia and many of our other allies.
Let’s not forget our rocky relationship with China. In regard to Syria, the administration is doubling down on Russia for backing Assad, but China is not receiving the same treatment. This double standard undermines U.S. credibility abroad.
The president is also not addressing the cyberattacks from Chinese hackers on our newspapers, government agencies and small businesses.
The president’s statements about foreign terrorism is contradictory to reality. Obama stated that “al-Qaeda has been decimated” — however, we currently see the group spreading and gaining strength in African countries such as Mali and Nigeria.
The candidate who ran as the antithesis of George Bush now is expanding Bush’s foreign policy.
Many remember Obama making a historical speech in Berlin. He addressed the anti-American sentiment in Europe and called for a change in perception.
“The view that America is part of what has gone wrong in our world, rather than a force to help make it right, has become all too common,” he said.
The candidate of “hope and change” has fallen short of expectations.
By and large, America’s standing in the world has not changed for the better, though our country sees itself becoming far too involved in it. Citizens of other countries like Barack Obama as a person but fail to relate to his grand vision of American influence in an increasingly dangerous and uncertain world.
This is where Obama’s administration fails: It lacks a coherent vision of American influence in the world. The administration is failing to advance American interests abroad, lacks the ability to send a clear message to our enemies and is becoming too entangled in countries that will not directly benefit America.
In Syria, we currently see that lack of vision and comprehensive plan in action.
The administration fumbles to build an international coalition or even get the measure through Congress. Even more unfortunate for the administration, it does not have another bin Laden to kill.
Michael Beato is a UF economics sophomore. His column runs on Tuesdays. A version of this column ran on page 7 on 9/10/2013 under the headline "Obama continues to fumble on foreign policy"
