Foreign Policy Credibility

Russia is doing it, now Venezuela is doing it and Iran is trying to do it if not already. They are nationalizing their energy resources. What that means is the U.S. is being turned against by countries using their energy resources. They are not using manpower to fight against the U.S. they are using the natural resources that lie within their sovereign borders to fight against the U.S. They are using what the U.S. relies on the most, oil. What a shame. What this means is the U.S. in the future will definitely have to start dealing with a shortage of oil and a downturn in the economy which is bound to happen no matter how much lipstick they try to put on this and present it to the public that it is not going to hurt. If it was not going to hurt these countries would not have moved to nationalize their oil resources (not to mention the potential of China’s impact on our economy). What will happen is the price of will climb and there will probably be a stock market sell off. There will be some of effort to try to keep the economy from sliding but will it be enough.

And then the president is ordering more troops to Iraq with the possibility of heading into Iran which no doubt the international community sees as a signal that the U.S. is not changing its foreign policy and they will probably take up defensive posturing in their foreign policy. What undoubtedly is about to unfold is the US having to back track on its ambitions because of external economic forces.

And as usual none of the news media outlets have reported on this news and with good reason I suppose. All weekend long they have been reporting on back burner news stories when there is plenty of pertinent front burner news stories to report on, which in earlier days would have made blockbuster headlines.

It is not the pulling out of our troops from Iraq that will discredit the U.S., it is the U.S. foreign policy and the unwillingness of congress to forcefully challenging that foreign policy that has already and will discredit the U.S. in the international community. The only way to regain U.S. credibility in the international community will be to send the greatest signal that can be sent: congress must act against the executive branch with a bold hand. They must put aside what happened in times pass because there is no comparison. What has been done to this country both internally and externally, its’ standing in the international community, far out weighs the actions of the previous president of which proceedings were brought against him and considered a political statement which the misdemeanor he was charged for justifies it as that, a political statement. The current congress claims that in the name of bipartisanship and that those proceedings are just a political statement and not an enforcement of law as the reason preventing them from acting. It would be a dereliction of duty for congress not to act in this instance.

If the congress does not act it will send a message to the international community that we all are in complete complicity with the foreign policy of the executive branch. The U.S’ credibility in the international community will unfortunately be damaged beyond repair. As a result of congress allowing the executive branch under this administration to continue to carry out its foreign policy, any individual who leads and occupies the executive branch in the future would not enjoy the trust and respect that the U.S. could once claim. Future U.S. leaders will always be greeted with skepticism from the international community and an unwillingness to cooperate. The U.S. will be greeted with the difficulty of accessing the natural resources that is vital to the economics of this country. Congress owes it to the founders of this nation to preserve the integrity of the principles this country was founded on. Congress owes it to the future of the United States.