Council on Foreign Relations President Richard Haas recently unleashed criticism of Obama’s handling of foreign policy on Morning Joe.
Although he made the caveat that President Obama inherited a tough situation, he said the following when asked about Obama’s foreign policy decisions:
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“The short answer is not terribly well. In the Middle East, he inherited a difficult situation–but made it much worse. More than anything, the most consequential set of actions was of Syria. Raising fundamental questions in the region and beyond about American reliability. Letting a bad situation get worse. His best idea of his presidency was to pivot to Asia to put more emphasis there, but we haven’t done it. We decreased our diplomacy.”
Haas also pointed out in a piece in Foreign Affairs magazine recently that “American influence has diminished.”  He wrote that: “specific U.S. policy choices, especially in the Middle East, have raised doubts about the American judgment and the reliability of the United States’ threats and promises.”
What do you think? Has Obama made a mess of things in foreign policy? Or has he done about as well as can be expected given the circumstances?
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