Shadow Government
Grading Obama’s first 100 days: Kori Schake
I would give him a C-. The administration set a politically-expedient timeline for abandoning Iraq with no hedge against resurgent violence or challenges to what we and the Iraqis have achieved in this most important of the wars we are fighting. Their Afghan "strategy" is just an increase in military force without the civilian personnel ...
I would give him a C-.
The administration set a politically-expedient timeline for abandoning Iraq with no hedge against resurgent violence or challenges to what we and the Iraqis have achieved in this most important of the wars we are fighting. Their Afghan "strategy" is just an increase in military force without the civilian personnel or politico-economic lines of operations necessary to succeed. The G20 and NATO summits were a bust -- the president failing to get cooperation on stabilizing the global economy or increased effort in Afghanistan. All they could wring out of the UN after a provocative missile test by North Korea was a statement, while the president was proclaiming that actions must have consequences. The Obama administration has improved the atmospherics of foreign policy, but only by apologizing for us and asking for nothing from others.
Most importantly, though, the president submitted a budget that will double the national debt and raise government debt to 85 percent of GDP by 2017. That's by their own calculations. If one applies less hope and more economics to their predictions about the pace of recovery, it's red ink as far as the eye can see. This is the single most damaging thing the president could do to American power.
I would give him a C-.
The administration set a politically-expedient timeline for abandoning Iraq with no hedge against resurgent violence or challenges to what we and the Iraqis have achieved in this most important of the wars we are fighting. Their Afghan "strategy" is just an increase in military force without the civilian personnel or politico-economic lines of operations necessary to succeed. The G20 and NATO summits were a bust — the president failing to get cooperation on stabilizing the global economy or increased effort in Afghanistan. All they could wring out of the UN after a provocative missile test by North Korea was a statement, while the president was proclaiming that actions must have consequences. The Obama administration has improved the atmospherics of foreign policy, but only by apologizing for us and asking for nothing from others.
Most importantly, though, the president submitted a budget that will double the national debt and raise government debt to 85 percent of GDP by 2017. That’s by their own calculations. If one applies less hope and more economics to their predictions about the pace of recovery, it’s red ink as far as the eye can see. This is the single most damaging thing the president could do to American power.
Kori Schake is the director of foreign and defense policy at the American Enterprise Institute, a former U.S. government official in foreign and security policy, and the author of America vs the West: Can the Liberal World Order Be Preserved? Twitter: @KoriSchake
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