For nearly the entirety of Obama's tenure there has been one, constant, criticism. Either he and his administration sit around debating foreign policy problems until it's too late to solve them, or they simply deny the problems exist until they become too big to ignore.
You might assume that the complaints about his inaction come solely from conservatives, but you'd be wrong. Plenty of pundits, politicians, and military experts - from both ends of the political spectrum - have noticed the pattern. ...And they were, apparently, all wrong.
Obama's not "doing nothing until it's too late." He's employing what he's decided to call "strategic patience." What does that mean? Who knows? Nothing really. It probably just focus-tested better than "finding out from the news."
As Foreign Policy reports:
Critics of President Barack Obama’s foreign policy have for years assailed his administration for responding too slowly to crises ranging from Syria to Russia. In a far-reaching blueprint released Friday that outlines the administration’s worldview, the White House insisted the United States is leading the global effort to confront challenges in a deliberate manner described as “strategic patience.”
The National Security Strategy, required by U.S. law, is intended to set the direction for the administration and communicate American intent to lawmakers, the public, and the world. It is Obama’s second such strategy, and likely last, before he leaves office in early 2017.
It aims to rebut criticism that he has consistently waited too long to respond to challenges like the rise of the Islamic State and Moscow’s military aggression in Ukraine, allowing the problems to worsen while his administration debated ways to act.
So, now we can all stop criticizing him.
He's not "letting ISIS turn itself into one of the most fearsome radical forces the world has ever seen while it slaughters thousands of men women and children in the most brutal ways imaginable." No! He's exercising "strategic patience."
When it took two weeks for the United States to secure the scene at the ransacked Benghazi compound, he wasn't acting "too slowly," he was employing "strategic patience."
What's that? Iran's working on its nuclear program while we engage in a bunch of worthless back-channel negotiations? You guessed it. More "strategic patience."
While Rome burns, Obama worries that throwing water on the fire could lead to unpredictable results. So he's going to watch the flames for a while.
Or, if you prefer administration speak, he says he can't "act out of fear." So he's acting very slowly “with a long-term perspective, influencing the trajectory of major shifts in the security landscape today in order to secure our national interests in the future." ...Which, in Obama's case, means basically the same thing.
We're sure the parents of ISIS's victims, both foreign and domestic, appreciate his subtle, nuanced, and cautious approach.
