Obamaville - April 15 - Foreign Policy Initiatives - What is to lose? Is it time to trust the people - not politicians!

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Not many people think much of the Obama foreign policy morass and for good reason if you look at what happened in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Yemen, Syria, Russia, Ukraine, and all the others I forgot.

However, my philosophy has always been trust the people, not the politicians.  Thus, Obama and congress continued to fight over everything not important while the world awaits important decisions that are important.

Well by now, we should have learned a few lessons in foreign diplomacy.  No one really tells the truth when negotiating.  No matter what we do, we will figure out how to waste billions of dollars in defense and foreign aid spending, our intervention will result in millions of refugees, sanctions really do not work, and no one seems to be hearing the people impacted by the policy decisions.

What to do?

How about we actually try to reduce tensions, stabilize economies, protect homes and property of the people of the world, make sure no more crises result from refugees, give kids a permanent home and education, and make sure war is not part of so many people's lives around the world.     

Start by defusing what should not be a crisis.

1.  Lift the sanctions on Cuba - the people of Cuba have been through enough.  The incorporation of the people of Cuba into the American influence that can result from open borders and no sanctions is far more likely to bring our people together, than actions by the governments.  The people of Cuba are a wonderful people as witnessed by the Cubans already living in America.

2.  Adopt the Iran nuclear agreement and drop the sanctions.  Once again the people of Iran have always been wonderful friends and contributors to the American way of life and the only way the shackles of outrageous practices under the guise of religion can be broken is to immerse the people in exposure to alternatives in lifestyle.

3.  Stop treating Russia as the bad boy and acknowledge that our governments do not have to agree on everything.  For one, Crimea and a border strip of land to Crimea from Russia has always connected Russia to Crimea.  Even the Ukraine people know the pro-Russian influence of eastern parts of Russia.  Give Russia land access to Crimea.

Also, agree to let the Ukraine be an independent nation without dictating government affiliations with the East or West.  In this day of government over-reach in monitoring everything from your phones to bedrooms, how could anything bad go unnoticed in this viral age.  We have the ability to monitor everything, legally and illegally I might add, so use it for a meaningful purpose like peace rather than just for national security and war.

While we are at it, get rid of the economic sanctions we imposed on Russia.  The people of Russia hurt the most from these financial sanctions, not the government, or the bankers.  These people being hurt are the same ones victimized after the fall of the Soviet Union when we went in and tried to establish democracy in Russia.

There was no way a democracy could work in a country ruled by czars for 1,000 years and Communism for 75 years without years of slow development, but we shoved it down their throats and then were shocked when it not only failed miserably, but nearly bankrupted this new nation once freedom was established.

We may not like Putin but the Russian people do and we should listen to them and deal with Putin as he holds the key to long-range action in Iran, Syria, North Korea, and other world hot spots.  Obama claims to be the great negotiator yet fails to negotiate with someone very important to the Middle East, Asia, and even Europe.

4.  Double and triple our efforts to work with China.  They hold more American debt than any other nation, bank, or family.  We share some ideals with the emerging Chinese superpower like working for a better standard of living for our people, improved environmental initiatives to clean the air, water, and land, and the management of natural resources in responsible ways.

Does anyone think China does not want to clean up pollution?  It will cost billions of dollars and millions of Chinese people need other help, yet the huge clean up effort started and will continue.  In the meantime, China is becoming one of the best trading partners of America.

Like America, China faces a long legacy of corruption, corruption that must stop, involving the politicians, government employees, contractors, the rich, the financial institutions, and foreign governments.  There is amazing progress by President Xi Jinping in attacking this problem, yet we have been quiet in supporting his efforts.

Instead, our government warms of the emerging power of China, frets over defensive moves by the rising nation, and blames China for every cyber attack that takes place until investigations show they did not do it.

NO ONE has trampled over the rights of people to privacy and freedom more than the United States government.  No one has the technology to eavesdrop on every aspect of American life like our Intelligence agencies, and thanks to Edward Snowden, the despicable acts of our government, in spying on their own people, are public information.

We have no business as a nation tossing accusations of cyber snooping on Russia or China when the finger should point at us, the United States, who have routinely monitored every government in the world legally and illegally for decades.

It takes a lot less money to feed the hungry than to spy on our perceived adversaries.  It takes a lot less money to help China clean up their environment, which directly helps the world environment, than to encourage the Asians to increase defense and intelligence spending to find out what we are doing to them.

What ever happened to common sense?

Why not devote a generation to tearing down border restrictions, improving the quality of life for everyone, eliminating hate-inspired sanctions, and helping people preserve their cultural heritage rather than obliterate it.

Our priority should be helping every young person in the Middle East, Asia, and Europe find decent jobs rather than forcing them into terrorism for an occupation.  The investment would be far cheaper than the multi-billion dollar cost of new and unnecessary weapons systems or intelligence capabilities.

Let us work as hard to bring down barriers between people as we did to build them.

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