On Monday's TV show, Glenn dedicated time to explaining what is really going on in the Middle East. Back in 2008, one of the main arguments that people made in their support of Barack Obama was that he would repair America's image around the world. He would pull us out of wars, and somehow he would make everyone like America again and facilitate world peace. That was the message that the Obama camp gave the American people, and they have failed to deliver. And their latest plea is simply "Give us another four years". But is Obama's foreign policy really something we want four more years of? That's what Glenn wanted to know Monday night.
Since taking office, Obama has done the following:
- Signed the NDAA into law - making it legal to assassinate Americans without trial- Personally oversees a 'Secret Kill List'
- Waged war on Libya without congressional approval
- Started a covert, drone war in Yemen
- Escalated the proxy war in Somalia
- Escalated the CIA drone war in Pakistan
- Will maintain a presence in Iraq even after "ending" war
- Sharply escalated the war in Afghanistan
- Secretly deployed US special forces to 75 countries
- Sold $30 billion of weapons to the dictatorship in Saudi Arabia
Get more on Obama's Middle East record HERE
Glenn also took issue with the President's stance on the Arab Spring, saying, "Obama stood behind the Arab Spring - and now Reuters is the latest to begrudgingly admit that it has completely backfired, exactly what I warned would happen."
Reuters reports:
Still, the "Arab Spring" appears not to have made as many friends for America as Americans might have hoped.The very countries in which Washington helped facilitate popular-backed regime change last year - Egypt, Tunisia, Libya and Yemen - are seeing some of the greatest anti-West backlash.
The young pro-democracy activists who leapt to the fore in 2011, Washington now believes, have relatively little clout. That leaves U.S and European officials having to deal with groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood.
Glenn also took issue with President Obama referring to Netanyahu's concerns over their safety from a nuclear Iran as "noise", a comment that mirrored statements from Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who also referred to Israel's protests against their nuclear program as "noise".
As an aside, Glenn pointed out that there are now reports surfacing that Ahmadinejad will be meeting with leaders of Occupy Wall Street during his visit to the United States.
“Ahmadinejad is also set to meet American university students, artists, intellectuals and elites, including Occupy Wall Street anti-capitalist protestors, despite the ongoing efforts made by the pro-Zionist lobbies to prevent direct link between American people and the Iranian president,” the state-controlled Fars News Agency report explained.
Based on all of the above, Glenn was left wondering how anyone could think that re-electing President Obama will fix relations between America and the countries in the Middle East. And if things are only going to get worse, is he really the best person to lead America through increasingly difficult time ahead? As Glenn said on radio this morning, Americans have forty-two days until they have to make a choice that will shape America forever.
