In 1 day, Obama tackles multiple foreign tests
WASHINGTON (AP) — Seldom has one day captured the breadth, aspirations and limitations of American foreign policy.
On Monday, President Barack Obama imposed sanctions on members of officialdom in a resurgent Russia, tried his hand at an elusive Mideast peace deal and visited wounded soldiers at Walter Reed, a reminder of two wars ending under his watch.
Each topic deserves volumes to discuss. But the rare and coincidental confluence of events offered an all-in-one glimpse at Obama’s world view and at the evolution of U.S. foreign policy under his presidency.
The private visit with the wounded underscored the U.S. withdrawal from costly wars in Iraq and now from Afghanistan, a central goal of Obama’s when he first ran for president in 2008. His Oval Office meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas illustrated what has long been an intractable Middle East peace process that has frustrated presidents before him. And the freezing of assets of seven Russian officials over Moscow’s intervention in Ukraine put on display Obama’s weapon of choice these days — economic sanctions — to confront a muscle-flexing Vladimir Putin who, Obama critics say, is exploiting a U.S. aversion to the use of force.
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http://www.salon.com/2014/03/18/in_1_day_obama_tackles_multiple_foreign_tests/