HOME :: PUBLICATIONS :: The Erosion of America's Global Prestige, by PRESIDENTIAL POLICY: DOES IT MAKE THE GRADE?, JAMES JAY CARAFANO, PHD

The Erosion of America's Global Prestige

by PRESIDENTIAL POLICY: DOES IT MAKE THE GRADE?, JAMES JAY CARAFANO, PHD July 18, 2011
 
Deficit debate dominated Washington talk last week, mostly leaving national security matters on the sideline. That trend, coupled with the president’s abysmal foreign policy has left many Americans distracted and demoralized when it comes to thinking about protecting America’s interest overseas. Recent polls show Americans are more disinterested in foreign affairs than ever. They are not alone. A new poll of opinion in the Arab world suggests that US prestige has plummeted to an all time low.
 
The great irony of the current situation is that the president pays no political price for failing on foreign policy. While Obama’s approval ratings are nothing to high-five about, few would argue that this is the result of how he has handled foreign affairs and national security. The US seems to be in a sort of “death spiral” where the worse the president gets the less they care.
 
Current affairs might be tolerable if the world was a less dangerous place, but that does not appear to be the case. Even as a new US commander takes over in Afghanistan the Taliban are on the offensive. The fate of Iraq remains uncertain, while the rise of Iran does not. The war on terrorism does not seem to be winding down despite the president’s pronouncements otherwise. Last week, terrorists bombed Mumbai and Turkey reported uncovering a plot involving over a dozen al Qaeda operatives.
 
Meanwhile, the only interest the president continues to show in national security is gutting the defense budget.
 
It makes it really hard to give Obama a passing grade for the week. He gets another “F” for focusing too much on his poll numbers and not enough on national security.
 
 
FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributing Editor James Jay Carafano, Ph.D., is a leading expert in defense affairs, intelligence, and strategy, military operations and homeland security at the Heritage Foundation.
 

James Carafano is a leading expert in defense affairs, intelligence, military operations and strategy, and homeland security at The Heritage Foundation. He was an Assistant Professor at the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, N.Y., and fleet professor at the U.S. Naval War College. Carafano is the author of several military history books and studies. Carafano also is the coauthor of Winning the Long War: Lessons from the Cold War for Defeating Terrorism and Preserving Freedom; coauthor of the text book, Homeland Security published by McGraw-Hill; and the principal author of Emergency Responders: Drastically Underfunded, Dangerously Unprepared. He has testified before the U.S. Congress and has provided commentary for ABC, BBC, CBS, CNBC, CNN, C-SPAN, Fox News, MSNBC, NBC, SkyNews, PBS, National Public Radio, the History Channel, Voice of America, Al Jazeera, Telemundo, Al Arabiya and Australian, Austrian, Canadian, French, Greek, Hong Kong, Irish, Japanese, Portuguese, and Spanish television. His editorials have appeared in newspapers nationwide including The Baltimore Sun, The Boston Globe, The New York Post, Philadelphia Inquirer, USA Today and The Washington Times. Carafano is a member of the National Academy's Board on Army Science and Technology, the Department of the Army Historical Advisory Committee, and is a Senior Fellow at the George Washington University's Homeland Security Policy Institute.

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