Time to Move Forward on Foreign Policy

(CBS)  Background and analysis by CBS News State Department reporter Charles Wolfson.

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Unlike the nation's school children who've just returned to classes after having the summer off, President Barack Obama's foreign policy team has not been exactly idle the first seven months of the administration term in office. But it has limited its foreign policy making initiatives, focusing instead on staffing, reviewing existing policies and waiting for the outcome of elections in such critical places as Israel, Iran and Afghanistan.

Mr. Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton now must move much more decisively on a number of key issues. You can have "ongoing policy reviews" only so long and although Mr. Obama is preoccupied with the health care reform debate and other domestic issues, he can no longer put off more specific policy implementation on Afghanistan, Iran and Middle East peace negotiations without being taken to task.

No one ever uses the words "Afghanistan" and "easy" in the same sentence - or at least they never should. Still, Afghanistan is proving more and more problematic on both the military and political sides of the problem. Not only is the fight against the Taliban requiring additional numbers of U.S. troops and causing increased American casualties but Afghan politics is providing policymakers unexpected problems as accusations mount against President Hamid Karzai for tampering with recent election results. The bottom line is an increased questioning of America's role in Afghanistan in the body politic, not something easily ignored or dismissed by the White House.

The Obama administration's Iran policy was predicated on extending an open hand to Tehran if only Iranian leadership would "unclench its fist." Well, so far they have refused to do so, neither before nor after their presidential elections in July. Iran says it will deliver a "package" of proposals this week aimed at dealing with various global "challenges," presumably including its nuclear programs. Expectations are low.

Washington, along with European allies plus Russia and China, have threatened further sanctions if Iran doesn't take steps to curb its nuclear ambitions but these threats never seem to amount to much and certainly not enough to pressure Iran to drop its efforts to obtain a nuclear weapons capability. This fall Washington is likely to find out whether it has enough international support to prevent Iran from reaching its goals.

And then there is the diplomatic portfolio that keeps on giving - the pursuit of peace in the Middle East. George Mitchell, the administration's special envoy, has been working with Israelis, Palestinians and others in the region but to date - and to no one's surprise - there has been little to show for it.

The focus now is on late September when it is hoped Mr. Obama will have a three-way meeting in New York with Israel's newly elected Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority. Such a "tri-lateral" get-together would be proclaimed a big step forward but, if it happens, it would be expected to announce only a temporary freeze on settlement construction and a resumption of direct talks between Israeli and Palestinian leaders. Even this step is not guaranteed since Netanyahu's policy of West Bank settlement expansion continues to alarm Palestinian and other regional leaders in the Arab world and is contrary to Washington's policy that further settlement activity should be "frozen."

In the best of circumstances, what Mitchell is discussing still falls in the category of process, i.e. just getting the parties back to the negotiating table.

Efforts continue on other issues as well, most notably North Korea, but positive steps are hard to find and no one seems to have found the key to getting Pyongyang back to the negotiating table in the first months of this administration. Again, the emphasis is on process and talk of more sanctions. Washington has taken some additional unilateral steps to bring pressure but so far without effect.

Through the first months of the administration the role of Hillary Clinton has not been as high profile as many predicted. Instead, special envoys have handled the details as policy reviews have proceeded. This fall, Clinton already has planned trips to key capitals like Islamabad and Moscow, perhaps a signal she is going to engage more directly in coming months.

In October 2008, then Vice-Presidential candidate Joe Biden famously predicted: "It will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy…. Watch, we're gonna have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy." So far the only tests have been relatively minor - North Korea testing a small nuclear weapon, Netanyahu ignoring Washington on a settlements freeze and Iran continuing its defiance of the international community. The next six months promise to pose a greater problem: become much more pro-active with your policies and move your agenda forward or risk being seen as "weak" - something no president or secretary of state wants to be called.

[babooph]

The "special relationship"-where was the Israeli army in Nam,Iraq,Afghanistan?The US did a lot better with Russia as an ally.

[babooph]

Get rid of this whaco support for Israel& there will be no need of these lost wars.

[opinionsrule]

Foreign Policy is NOT President Obama's strength and I would expect him to seek advice, but lunch meetings with Bill Clinton isn?t going to help him. Mr. Clinton was VERY weak in this area himself - 9/11 happened because of his naivety of wanting a story book life; wanting everyone to play "nice"; having a weak stand on security and fear of adversity. President Obama is also looking weak, so weak in fact that CHAVEZ IS GOING TO HELP HIM! OMG, CHAVEZ! How bad is that? I guess I?m not the only one who thinks Mr. Obama needs help. I pray that he gets it or we will be too buys defending our country to worry about healthcare, etc.

[Ceres6]

The Obama administration is trying to show a sophisticated foreign policy in the most remote regions of the planet, but it seems they forgot that they have a backyard. The news today is that the Venezuelan-president-for-life, Hugo Chavez, now wants to have nuclear technology, in a similar fashion as Iran and North Corea. Without a doubt, the Venezuelan tyrant is a very active man. Last year he screamed several times in public speeches that American people were human excrement. He also coined the term ?pitiyanqui,? to insult those people that have a good opinion of the United States. Those vulgar speeches can be found in YouTube.

He was caught several months ago giving weapons to the FARC, the Colombian terrorist group. When the corrupt Honduran ex president, Mr. Zelaya, was kicked out from government 10 weeks ago for trying to change the Honduran constitution illegally, Mr. Chavez went berserk and threatened to attack the Central American country. At the end, he did not dare to do it, because the United States has the Palmerola military base there.

Several times this year Mr. Chavez has sent mobs of gangsters, armed with bats, machetes, knives, tear gas, and guns, to attack and silence those reporters and politicians that don?t want Venezuela to become a dictatorship. So far this year he has closed more than 100 newspapers and radio stations. One of his supporters is Ms. Lina Ron, a female gangster, who appears to be a cross between Al Capone and a black widow spider. Her specialty is to lead a mob of criminals that fracture the skulls and break the legs of those people in a hit list created by the Chavez advisers.

Two years ago Mr. Chavez spent $4 billion dollars in weapons from Russia, and two weeks ago he decided to buy $2.2 billion dollars more in tanks and missiles. He also created the ALBA group, which includes Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua, Ecuador, Bolivia, and other small Caribbean islands. The philosophy of that group is to hate everything that has to do with the United States, and for its presidents to become presidents-for life. They don?t believe in democratic elections.

Recently he ordered the placement of huge signs in the border with Colombia, claiming that they will be happy to kill any Yankee that dares to mess with them. Under the Chavez Bolivarian paradise, Caracas, the capital of Venezuela, has become of the most dangerous cities in the world. There are weekends in which more than one hundred people are murdered. No one has to be a genius to see that some victims are people from the opposition, who were murdered under the disguise that they were street victims of common delinquents.

And the list goes on and on. Venezuela every day is sinking deeper and deeper into a dictatorship, resembling the one under Stalin. And what the Obama administration has done so far? A big nothing. Since January when Mr. Obama moved to the White House, the only thing that relates Chavez and Obama took place in the month of April, when Obama acted like Bambi and promised meekly to Chavez that he would not interfere in the Venezuelan affairs. I simply cannot understand Obama?s silence about Chavez desire to slave the Venezuelan people and other Latin American countries. And even worse, I cannot understand his pressure against the Honduran people, to place the corrupt Mr. Zelaya back in power in Honduras. Many people that voted for Obama now are getting the feeling that they voted for the wrong person.

[wardead]

zionist control american with the help of the rothschilds of europe

[Ceres6]

I find hard to believe that the Obama administration is still pushing for the return of the corrupt Mr. Zelaya to the presidency of Honduras. It is curious that the day after the Obama administration said that they will not recognize the next elected president of Honduras, as a maneuver to help Zelaya, then Hugo Chavez said that Obama was a good man and that he was going to help him. I wonder who in his right mind will acdept the help of Mr. Chavez, when he hates everything the American people stand for.

It seems that in less than a year, millions of people that voted for Mr. Obama now realize that he was not the person we thought he was. Even though the Democrats tried to demonize anything Republican, many are getting the feeling that perhaps Mr. McCain was a better choice.

[Tu_eres]

Neither South Korea or Iran would never dare to use them, once developed and manufactured, knowing they would be toast after the first launch, and no reason to use them unless attacked
by worldcitizen1

Your argument has some validity to those who care about human life; however, there are people in the world that have no regard for human life whatsoever. It is difficult to apply logic and reason with religious zealots and fanatics who don't possess either, (American or foreign). All political avenues should be completely exhausted before committing to military action, but unfortunately sometimes military action is necessary. Hopefully it won't come to that.

[thomderr1]

It appears that all direction has gone to health care, little to domestic concerns.

What happened to taxing off-shore interests, tax breaks to those companies that keep jobs at home and the monitoring of stimulus monies not spent on infrastructure?