The Washington Independent

Posts Tagged Foreign Policy

Iowa’s federal delegation give Obama’s MENA speech mixed reviews

By | 05.20.11 | 9:36 am | More from The Iowa Independent

Iowa’s federal lawmakers had mostly positive reaction to President Barack Obama’s Thursday speech on the changing face and policy of the Middle East in the wake of the May 1 death of terrorist Osama bin Laden.

Obama’s comprehensive speech covered a variety of topics, though he emphasized the United More…

Rick Santorum (Photo: Flickr/IowaPolitics.com)

In foreign policy speech, Santorum leans on exceptionalism to ‘re-establish America’s greatness’

By | 04.28.11 | 5:36 pm

Since his announcement of an exploratory committee for a possible 2012 presidential campaign, former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum has been carving out a campaign platform that simultaneously paints President Barack Obama as a failed leader who has no faith in his nation while portraying himself as the hopeful successor More…

Mexico responds to reports of ATF policy encouraging gun smuggling

By | 03.07.11 | 11:45 am

Last week, The American Independent reported on a policy within the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ (ATF) “Project Gunrunner” program to let guns “walk”: that is, to encourage firearm sales to known gunrunners in the interest of following the guns back to the cartels that ordered their More…

Despite GOP Support for Obama’s Handling of McChrystal/Petraeus, a Few Challengers Dissent

By | 06.24.10 | 12:25 pm

Even though virtually all congressional Republicans — including the party’s Senate and House leadership — praised President Obama’s handling of the removal of Gen. Stanley McChrystal and his selection of Gen. David Petraeus to replace him as commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, a few Republican congressional hopefuls used the More…

Poll Reveals Growing Muslim Antipathy to Obama Foreign Policy

By | 06.18.10 | 6:00 am

A year after President Obama’s speech in Cairo vowing to reset relations with the Muslim world, Muslims worldwide are telling pollsters about their disillusionment with what they consider unfulfilled expectations.

According to the Pew Center’s new survey of global attitudes (PDF), released Thursday morning, citizens of Muslim nations report More…

America’s Global Outlook, at an ‘Inflection Point’

By | 05.28.10 | 6:00 am

“We’re at an inflection point,” Ben Rhodes observed about the United States’ global outlook, a year and a half into the Obama presidency.

Rhodes speaks from a unique vantage point. He’s the deputy national security adviser for strategic communications, a title that obscures his importance as one of President Obama’s More…

Romney Tries to Fill GOP National Security Void

By | 03.05.10 | 6:00 am

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) effectively clinched the 2008 Republican presidential nomination in the 10 days between the South Carolina and Florida primaries. Up against a wall, with polls showing Mitt Romney moving up as Rudy Giuliani faded, McCain unleashed a new attack. Romney, he said, had given up on the More…

Romney’s ‘No Apology’ Outlines Foreign Policy for Fantasy World

By | 03.02.10 | 4:53 pm

Mitt Romney’s just-published book, “No Apology: The Case For American Greatness,” is a bid to bolster the former Massachusetts governor’s nonexistent national-security and foreign policy portfolio ahead of a possible 2012 presidential run. But a glance through the remarkable conflation of conservative shibboleths, paranoid global fantasies and deterministic myopia in More…

Public Still Supports Obama’s Foreign Policy

By | 01.26.10 | 6:00 am

On the eve of his first State of the Union address — a speech likely to be viewed as a response to a new Washington pessimism over his domestic agenda — President Obama is recording consistent support for his handling of foreign affairs and national security, according to an overview More…

Analysts Question Al-Qaeda Efforts at Counterterrorism Center

By | 01.15.10 | 6:00 am

The National Counterterrorism Center is in for a brutal week. Its director, Michael Leiter, faces a battery of Capitol Hill hearings next week on what President Obama has described as a systemic intelligence failure ahead of the failed terrorist attack on Northwest Airlines Flight 253. But if lawmakers look beyond More…