Foreign Policy Thoughts

Recent good news on the foreign policy front includes the end of Qaddafi and the looming pullout of US troops from Iraq. Andrew Sullivan captures this nicely:

I think of the actual record of this president. He has drastically tightened the noose around Assad and Khamenei and avoided the war the neocons so desperately want with Tehran. And he has ended the war in Iraq as he promised to, and concluded a war with a victory many of us doubted at the get-go, without another quagmire, and with considerable allied and Arab support.

The good news is that my predictions of doom in Libya have been proven wrong.  Thrilled to be mistaken!  Among his foreign policy and national security accomplishments, President Obama has now seen:

• A successful conclusion to the Libya intervention, with zero American casualties
• A pullout from Iraq as agreed to three years ago
• The death of Osama Bin Laden and other Al Qaeda figures
• No major terror attacks in the US

Of course, the Republicans are never happy with anything if Obama's name is attached.  Watching Mitt Romney dodge and weave as he tries to tell everyone how disastrous this foreign policy goes is kind of fun viewing. 

However, I have big criticism in one area, from the Left: targeted killings by drone are way up, and the US has used remote missiles to kill American citizens on foreign soil without any due process.  Now the Right isn't going to condemn this- they're fine with killing more people to protect America.  In fact I'm not squeamish about using military power to protect us, but I don't like the implications of this: If it's OK for an American president to order an American citizen in Yemen killed based solely on his say-so, with no due process whatsoever, what's to stop him from ordering any of us killed anywhere?  I know that sounds paranoid, but really what's to stop him legally?  I read here from Glenn Greenwald that a US drone strike killed not only Al-Awlaki, but a subsequent strike killed his 16 year old son.

So I guess Obama isn't squeamish about killing people.  He's not squeamish about deporting Illegal Aliens either; the administration has deported more than any administration ever has.  Maybe he takes these positions to demonstrate that he's not the crazed Leftist that Republicans say he is.  More likely he believes in doing it.  And there's nobody but a few aging hippies to protest it.