GOP’s bizarro foreign policy: Alienate America’s closest allies on “day one”

The Republican plan to restore America's global standing: Break our word to our allies as soon as humanly possible

SIMON MALOY

When Republicans criticize Barack Obama’s foreign policy, their critiques usually break down into two broad themes: America’s enemies no longer fear us, and America’s allies no longer trust us. The part about our enemies fearing us is usually a reference to Russia – conservatives believe quite earnestly that Russia’s military expansionism over the last few years is a consequence of Vladimir Putin sizing up the president and determining that he’s a weakling. No less an authority than Peggy Noonan made this very argument just last Friday, lamenting “a Russian president who took the American’s measure and made a move, upsetting a hard-built order that had maintained for a quarter-century since the fall of the Soviet Union—what a mess.”

As for our allies, the claim that they can no longer trust us is typically a reference to Israel and the ongoing spat between Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over Iran policy and the two-state solution with the Palestinians. Republicans and conservatives aren’t shy about their preference for Netanyahu’s foreign policy vision and even do kooky things like invite him to speak before Congress while he’s in the final stages of a tough reelection fight.

But regardless of whom they’re referring to, Republicans are clear on one point: Because of Obama, America’s friends across the world just can’t take us at our word anymore. And the GOP candidates for 2016 have a plan for how to fix that: On their first day as president, they’ll break our word to our allies.

I’m referring, of course, to the multilateral negotiations on Iran’s nuclear program, in which the United States is partnered with France, Germany, Britain, Russia, and China. Even before the outline of the agreement was unveiled last week, Republicans with ambitions for the White House promised that they would withdraw from whatever arrangement the allied world powers came to with Iran, and that they would do so on literally their first day as president. Assuming that a deal does come together, it will be the product of decades of international pressure and many long months of delicate negotiating. Everyone from Marco Rubio to Ted Cruz to Scott Walker has said they’ll obliterate all that work in less than a day.

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http://www.salon.com/2015/04/06/gops_idiotic_foreign_policy_alienate_americas_closest_allies_on_day_one/