Rubio: Say, This Obama Middle East “Policy” Has Backfired

Senator Marco Rubio has penned an op-ed in the Washington Post, noting how bad Obama’s Middle East policies have failed

The fall of the Iraqi city of Ramadi to the Islamic State and recent gains by the group in Syria are the latest signs that President Obama’s strategy to defeat this brutal terrorist group is failing. But the problem is far bigger than that. The president’s entire approach to the Middle East has backfired.

The Middle East is more dangerous and unstable than when Obama came into office — a time when Iraq and Syria were more stable, the Iranian nuclear program was considerably less advanced and the Islamic State did not yet exist.

Much of this instability is a result of Obama’s disengagement from the region, best symbolized by the withdrawal of all U.S. troops from Iraq in 2011. The vacuum created by America’s pullback has been filled by bad actors, including terrorist extremists, both Sunni and Shiite, who have flourished in the absence of U.S. leadership.

There’s a few more paragraphs of that, noting the rise of ISIS and the problems with Iran, which fails to delve into how bad Obama’s Libya policies were and are, how he started a war then just let things go, his failure to engage during the Iranian Green Uprising and the Arab Spring, his botched Egyptian policies, his poor Israeli policies, has poor Syria policies, which leads into his ideas for the Middle East, which are (read the entire op-ed for the full details)

  • Broaden the coalition
  • Increase U.S. involvement in the fight (note: he’s not calling for a massive surge of troops)
  • Not cut a bad deal with Iran
  • Prevent the Islamic State’s expansion beyond Iraq and Syria

This is all interesting, and what he is doing is laying out a few of his ideas in opposition to Obama. As Hillary once said “at this point, what difference does it make?” Well, it can certainly make a bit of a differnce, being that Obama still has over a year and a half (shudder) left in office, plenty of time to make things worse. But, Obama has as much chance of changing his “policies” as a an alligator does in growing wings. This is a campaign op-ed by a guy running for President, and neither the word “Clinton” nor “Hillary” appear anywhere within the piece. He seems to forget that she was Secretary of State for 4 years, and much of the failure of the policies can be laid are her doorstep. He’s missing a big chance to take her on, force the media and others to ask her tough questions…well, since she won’t actually take questions, force the media to write about what Rubio said. Frame it in terms of “well, here are my ideas for the Middle East, what are Hillary’s? How would her policies be any different from Obama’s during her 4 years at State?” He needs to take a page from Carly Fiorina, and go after the presumptive Democratic nominee.

Crossed at Pirate’s Cove. Follow me on Twitter @WilliamTeach.

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