#BringBackOurForeignPolicy

Whether the You Tube beheading of American journalist James Foley by ISIS terrorists was a brilliant stroke of propaganda or a tactical blunder sure to backfire, is really quite irrelevant. Of much greater relevance is the fact that ISIS is a construct of American government policy that has left a huge vacuum in the balance of power around the world and specifically the Middle East.

When Boko Haram terrorists kidnapped 276 Nigerian schoolgirls in April to be used as chattel and sold into slavery, America’s response more or less was the hash tag campaign on Twitter to “#BringBackOurGirls.” Initiated by Rep. Lois Frankel (D) Florida, the campaign gained momentum when First Lady Michelle Obama added her now famous picture to the Twittersphere. If the only response America can muster is a “tsk-tsk” by the president’s wife, then it’s a small wonder that those who consider America the enemy are throwing ever-bigger chips into the pot. The Russians are carving off large tracts of Ukraine because they are 100% sure that America under Barack Obama will do absolutely nothing to stop them. The Chinese are raising tensions with their neighbors to ever higher levels because they realize that America does not have the will to protect its own interests, much less the interests of its allies. Iran is developing nuclear weapons and is rewarded by the Obama Administration with lifted sanctions for renewed “negotiations.” What’s to negotiate and will it make a difference when Tel Aviv or Haifa ends up as radioactive heap of molten glass?

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Red lines are drawn over the use of weapons of mass destruction by the Syrian government that result in absolutely no consequences once crossed. Libya has been left in a shambles that has become a breeding ground for an assortment of Islamic terrorists. Obama’s decision to pull all American troops out of Iraq has made it possible for ISIS to take over a large portion of that country and institute a reign of religious and ethnic cleansing. The same will happen when all American troops quit Afghanistan. America, while being the world’s sole Superpower, somehow hasn’t managed to win a war since 1945 and God knows there have been plenty of conflicts in which America has participated. Successive administrations have engaged in various conflicts, but haven’t had the backbone to resolve those conflicts in America’s favor. In fact this trend has been evident from Korea to Vietnam To the Iranian hostage crisis to Iraq, Libya Afghanistan and now again Iraq. It shouldn’t be a surprise that the West’s enemies are getting ever bolder and ever more savage with their provocations. They realize that at worst they’ll be chided with silly hash tag campaigns on Twitter or have the Secretary of State show outrage over such savage and primitive behavior in the 21st Century. There will be more public beheadings because our enemies realize that we do not have the will to prevail, much less to win if our best response is a hash tag campaign on Twitter.