LETTER TO THE EDITOR: President Obama’s performance commendable, impressive

A wide range of words have been used to describe President Barack Obama’s approach to [the] Unites States’ foreign policy and national security, including, but not limited to, “naïve,” “dangerous,” and “timid.”

Some critics of the president have even gone as far as saying that he was providing “aid and comfort to the enemy,” going on an “Apology tour,” and that he was “dithering” when it came to making decisions about troop levels in Afghanistan.

However, I would argue that if anyone took a closer look at the president’s performance in the realm of national security, they would find it to be commendable, especially for someone who was constantly accused of not having enough experience to answer a 3 a.m. phone call to the White House.

Some of the president’s successes include authorizing the raid of a compound in Pakistan that killed America’s most wanted terrorist Osama bin Laden, helping assemble a coalition of NATO allies for military action in Libya that eventually led to the fall and death of Muammar Qaddafi, the accelerated and largely successful use of predator drone strikes to kill top al-Qaeda operatives (including Anwar al-Awlaki) and fulfilling a campaign promise that first propelled him into the spotlight by announcing that all combat forces will be removed from Iraq by the end of this year.

With that being said, I would argue that President Obama’s approach to national security and foreign policy, although far from perfect, is not only commendable, but impressive. And it looks like a majority of Americans concur, as an Associated Press poll showed 64 percent of them approving of how the president is handling national security.

None of these developments should surprise anyone.

For example, if you paid attention to what the president was saying in debates when asked about whether he thought the U.S. should act if we found that Osama bin Laden was in Pakistan and the Pakistani government refused to act, he said that we should. This is almost exactly what happened.

Also, when Obama was asked which of his predecessors’ foreign policy that he liked, he mentioned [former] President George H.W. Bush because of how he was able to assemble a coalition of countries to help the U.S. in the First Gulf War. Obama also praised Bush for the use of multilateralism and international cooperation. This sounds a lot like the operation in Libya to me.

Although President Obama should not be devoid of criticism, I think saying that he is somehow guilty of treason or that he’s making America less safe is lunacy; and these are not only foreign policy victories for President Obama, for they all happened under his stewardship of the U.S., but they are also major victories for the U.S. overall.

– Donovan Dawson, 

SGC-MMC Speaker of the Senate