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             Obama to Defend US Foreign Policy in West Point Speech

   by VOA News

   U.S. President Barack Obama will seek to counter unrelenting criticism
   of his foreign policy on Wednesday in a speech that may open the door
   to a slightly deeper U.S. involvement in Syria.
   Obama is to outline his plans Wednesday during a commencement address
   at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York.
   The speech comes one day after the president put forward a blueprint
   for ending U.S. military engagement in Afghanistan by the time he
   leaves office.
   Republicans in the Senate, most vocally John McCain, Lindsey Graham,
   Kelly Ayotte, called Obama's decision on Afghanistan a monumental
   mistake on Tuesday, saying the response was a victory of politics over
   strategy.
   Secretary of State John Kerry, speaking to Good Morning America
   Wednesday, bristled at the criticism.
   "Well, I just flatly disagree. There seems to be an industry of
   automatic opposition to anything, but the fact is that everything that
   has been accomplished in Afghanistan in the last five years has been
   accomplished with a deadline," Kerry said.
   The president's broad vision for America's role in the world is one
   that is reliant on international diplomacy and avoids over-reaching or
   unilateral action.
   The speech comes as Obama has been increasingly under fire from many
   foreign policy specialists for his handling of issues like the civil
   war in Syria, the political crisis in Ukraine and the struggle against
   terrorism, according to a report in The New York Times.
   Critics, the report said, have complained that Obama has not exerted
   enough leadership in a world they see as still dangerous more than a
   dozen years after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
   The president is expected to express a willingness to expand assistance
   to Syrian opposition groups who are trying to oust President Bashar
   al-Assad, but officials do not expect him to announce a plan for
   training Syrian rebels.
   Diplomacy efforts
   Obama's tendency to rely on diplomacy and steer clear of foreign
   entanglements has drawn fire from opposition Republicans in Congress
   and various foreign policy pundits, who would prefer a more robust
   approach.
   Obama's efforts to pull the U.S. out of the lengthy and expensive
   conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan have largely defined his foreign
   policy for much of his presidency. But he has at times struggled to
   articulate how his response to a new set of challenges in places like
   Syria, Ukraine and Iran fit into an overarching foreign policy
   philosophy.

   That's left Obama open to intense criticism from opponents who argue he
   has squandered America's global leadership and lacks the credible
   threat of action that can stop international foes. That criticism has
   deeply frustrated the president and is a driving factor in his decision
   to deliver Wednesday's speech.
   It has prompted many foreign diplomats privately to bemoan what they
   regard as a lack of leadership from Washington after more than five
   years of the Obama presidency, much of which has been taken up with
   reviving a deeply troubled economy at home.
   "There's an extreme indecisiveness and cautiousness that just worries
   people," Senator Bob Corker, the senior Republican on the Senate
   Foreign Relations Committee, told Reuters.
   "I'm not for policing the world but I do think that our lack of
   leadership has created a vacuum and I think that into that vacuum
   problems are being created," he said.
   Some information for this report provided by Reuters and AP.
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   west-point-speech/1924165.html

References

   1. http://www.voanews.com/content/obama-to-defend-us-foreign-policy-in-west-point-speech/1924165.html