The U.S. Foreign Policy Circus

By Kelli Krauss

The current foreign policy stance held by the Obama administration, being heralded on the left as the way back into the good graces of other countries (including ones that want to destroy us), has been like watching a circus. President Obama is the ringleader with his blame America speeches and our State Department, headed by Hillary Clinton is like the car full of clowns. With every foreign affairs mishap, it's like another clown exiting the car. The question is how many clowns are in there?

First, Hillary Clinton went to Russia and met with Sergey Lavrov, the Russian Foreign Minister. She gave him a plastic "red button" with Russian print on it that was supposed to say "reset" to represent the "reset" of relations between our two countries. Unfortunately, the Russian was wrong and the button actually said "overcharge." Apparently, they gave him the button that was meant for the American people.

Then Secretary Clinton went to Mexico where she continued to blame the U.S., citing the statistic that "90 percent of the weapons used to commit crimes in Mexico come from the United States." In fact, only 17 percent of guns found at Mexican crime scenes have been traced to the U.S. An ATF spokeswoman stated the statistic as being, "over 90 percent of the traced firearms originate from the U.S."

While in Mexico, Secretary Clinton stopped at the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe to leave a bouquet of white flowers, “on behalf of the American people." She then asked, "Who painted it?" to which the Monsignor responded “God!” She apparently did not do her homework. The image of Our Lady of Guadalupe was miraculously imprinted by Mary on the cloak of St. Juan Diego in 1531. Upon leaving the basilica, Mrs. Clinton told some of the Mexicans gathered outside to greet her, “You have a marvelous virgin!” Don't forget, this is "on behalf of the American people."

Secretary Clinton then went to China to beg and plead with them to keep buying U.S. debt. This was extremely important because the President and Congress are finding all kinds of ways to spend money that our country doesn't have and someone has to pay for it. Why not the Chinese and then eventually the next generation of Americans?

The U.S. then sent four detainees from Guantanamo Bay to the lovely island of Bermuda. Bermuda has control over it's own affairs which include immigration, but not foreign policy, defense or security, because they are still a British territory. Decisions on these matters would be made in London. Except if you are President Obama, the ringleader, then you let your operatives and State Department blindside one of our most reliable and important allies.

Meanwhile, North Korea continues to launch missile tests and threaten the U.S. with attacks if anything is done to prevent them or their pursuit of nuclear weapons. Our response, they are a "grave threat" and we are "looking into it." Now, because the Bush Administration took North Korea off the terror list, we are trying to decide if we should put them back on. It is like the green, red and yellow cards my kindergartner gets at school. If they are having a good day, they keep the green card next to their name. When they start misbehaving, they get the yellow card for a warning, and when the teacher has had it, the red card goes up along with a note home. Right now, North Korea has a yellow card and we are trying to decide if we want to switch them to red and send a note to the mother of all foreign affairs, the dysfunctional United Nations.

We also had members of the Congressional Black Caucus visit Cuba. "Former President Fidel Castro is very engaging, very energetic," said CBC Chairwoman Barbara Lee, a California Democrat. "Our conclusion is, given the new direction in our foreign policy, that it's time to look at a new direction in our policy toward Cuba." Lee and others gave much praise to Castro, saying that he was warm and receptive to them. Lee described her time with Castro as, “quite a moment to behold." Representative Bobby Rush, an Illinois Democrat said, “It was almost like listening to an old friend", and "In my household I told Castro he is known as the ultimate survivor." I guess that would be true if your old friend is a communist tyrant who is a human rights abuser, suppresses free speech, fair elections and imprisons political dissenters.

Now we have our State Department telling its embassies and consulates around the world that “they may invite representatives from the government of Iran” to their Independence Day celebrations which are gatherings that usually have hot dogs, red-white-and-blue decorations, fireworks and is a general celebration of America, it's roots and values. Nothing like a friendly barbecue to show that the communication lines are open with a government that wants to wipe Israel off the face of the earth and whose leader despises America.

This was announced right before Secretary Clinton went to El Salvador where she is trying to improve relations in Latin America because they are concerned about the influence that Iran has been gaining there. Of course while there, as is the pattern with the Democrats (they did it for eight years, so I guess habits are hard to break) Clinton blamed the Bush administration and their policy in Latin America for the Iranian influence.

Even with the ongoing violence taking place in Iran today, with protesters marching in the streets, risking their lives in opposition to the current government and their election controversy, State Department spokesman, Ian Kelly said, "There's no thought to rescinding the invitations to Iranian diplomats. We have made a strategic decision to engage on a number of fronts with Iran. And -- and we tried many years of isolation, and we're pursuing a different path now."

So to recap our foreign policy: we gave a plastic "red button" to Russia that didn't translate correctly; we went to Mexico and falsely accused the U.S. of supplying bad guys with guns; told the people in Mexico City that they have a "marvelous Virgin"; begged China to buy up more of our debt because we can't stop spending like drunken sailors; we sent Gitmo detainees off to live in a paradise governed by our ally without notifying them; we have scolded North Korea; engaged Fidel Castro, the communist dictator, and praised him; and now we are going to invite representatives from Iran to come and celebrate America's birthday with hot dogs, which depending on what kind you buy, they can't even eat because Muslims don't eat pork. With three and a half years left to this administration and it's foreign policy, I think the clown car is going to be really big.