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U.S. foreign policy could use help
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We invaded Afghanistan because the Taliban was harboring Al-Qaeda members and allowing them to train fighters who were willing to kill Americans. Now, 10 years later, we are still there but I don’t think Al-Qaeda is. We now are fighting the Taliban, which, I admit, is a bad group, but not the correct target. We appear to be fighting the Taliban because the Afghans are unable to put together a sufficiently trained army to defend themselves. It is time for us to leave.
I cannot see the value of losing another American life for a cause that no longer is ours and for a country that doesn’t step up to defend itself.
This war should have been over many years ago, but just like Vietnam, our politicians will not allow our troops to chase the enemy into Pakistan, which likely is protecting the Taliban even though they say they are not. Many readers do not remember Vietnam. The American military won every battle, but the United States lost the war because our troops were not allowed to invade North Vietnam or Cambodia to stop the supplies going to the Viet Cong. Our current politicians obviously have not studied history and we are repeating it again.
Some people believe President Barack Obama has Muslim leanings. I believe his actions appear to support that thinking. He is the only American president to bow to a foreign head of state, the king of Saudi Arabia. This act has the appearance of submission.
Now Obama is pushing Israel to return the land that they won in 1967. The Palestinians attacked Israel back then and lost, enabling Israel to keep this territory as a buffer in case of another assault. Israel has been a great ally in a sea of hatred toward America. By supporting the Palestinian position, President Obama has set back the possibility of peace and is encouraging a dangerous position for Israel.
Israel gave up the Gaza Strip as a concession to get peace. Instead, Israel is bombarded by Hamas missiles — as many as 50 a day. If the border goes back to pre-1967, how many more missiles will rain on Israel?
How can our other allies feel secure when they see that America is backing down to the Arabs and placing Israel in an indefensible position?
Over the years, our nation has risen to the position of the world leader. Every country looks up to us. We are losing the respect of the world community because of our handling of the contention in the Middle East and our own financial position, which is in crisis mode and could bring down the entire world economy.
Where else is President Obama taking us, or not taking us? Why did we give military support to the Libyan rebels, but not to the people in Syria, Bahrain, Yemen and Iran, who also are fighting for democracy? Our foreign policy is a disaster of the first order because we have a president and an administration made up of civic organizers, who do not understand how the real world functions.
By not supporting the Iranian people when they tried to overthrow the government, we are cowering from a confrontation, and we are emboldening Iran and its nuclear-weapons program. This will force Israel to attack Iran to protect itself and the consequences could be disastrous to the world.

Calderone is a conservative who lives in Midway. He is a professional salesperson and for 30 years has written articles for trade publications in various fields. He was a Courier columnist from 2006-07.

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