{"id":7403,"date":"2014-08-12T12:28:58","date_gmt":"2014-08-12T16:28:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/?p=7403"},"modified":"2024-09-11T21:39:12","modified_gmt":"2024-09-12T01:39:12","slug":"obama-foreign-policy-maxim-actually-bad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2014\/08\/12\/obama-foreign-policy-maxim-actually-bad\/","title":{"rendered":"Obama Foreign Policy Maxim Actually Not Bad"},"content":{"rendered":"

According to Hillary Clinton, the Obama administration’s guiding maxim for foreign policy was “Don’t do stupid shit<\/a>.”<\/p>\n

But if that was their lodestar, why did they ever hire Hillary as Secretary of State? Hillary would also have been disqualified for that job if the Obama team\u00a0relied on Google’s (former) motto: “Don’t be evil.”<\/p>\n

If the Obama administration had actually followed the “stupid shit” maxim, they would have avoided almost all the disastrous interventions that have occurred since 2009.\u00a0 Karzai would not have been propped up in Afghanistan, Maliki would not have been supported in Iraq, and the U.S. would not have bombed Libya. Nor would it have provided aid to Syrian rebels that was used to propel ISIS – the group that Obama began bombing last week.<\/p>\n

Hillary offered a different diagnosis for the latest debacle” \u201cI know that the failure to help build up a credible fighting force [in Syria]\u00a0. . . left a big vacuum, which the jihadists have now filled.”\u00a0 Some experts predicted this would be the result as soon as the U.S. began propping up the opposition in the Syrian civil war.\u00a0\u00a0 Hillary has thus far avoided the castigation she deserves for pushing U.S. intervention in Syria.<\/p>\n

Washington Post cartoonist Tom Toles nicely captured the stupidity of U.S. Mideast policy.\u00a0\u00a0 The Post editorial page would be vastly improved if this guy was writing their editorials, as opposed to their usual “bombing cures all”\u00a0line.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

According to Hillary Clinton, the Obama administration’s guiding maxim for foreign policy was “Don’t do stupid shit.” But if that was their lodestar, why did they ever hire Hillary as Secretary of State? 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