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Updated Saturday, January 23, 2010 3:39 pm TWN, By Peter Brookes

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Barack Obama's year of foreign-policy fumbles

Obama's Russia policy has left other former Soviet states nervous, too. Skipping ceremonies on the 20th anniversary of the Berlin Wall's fall only bolstered the sense of indifference New Europe now feels from the New World. And what exactly is it that we've gotten in return from the Kremlin?

Venezuela: Strongman Hugo Chavez continues to be problematic, cutting deals for Russian nuclear reactors and more arms, allowing narcotics traffickers to cross his country, harboring Colombian FARC terrorists and bankrolling the Latin American, anti-Yanqui Left.

And don't forget Chavez's “axis of unity” with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Bad actors keep entering the region via regular Venezuela-Syria-Iran flights.

The White House's reaction? We sent our previously expelled ambassador back to Caracas.

But it's not all horrible news.

Iraq: While the situation is fragile and violence persists (at much lower levels), the Bush surge is working. Critical elections come this spring and U.S. combat troops are due out this summer.

Terror: While the “Crotch Bomber” shows the Obama team hasn't improved the homeland-security system, they've maintained the Bush-era Predator drone strikes on al-Qaida overseas — an approach that's still working. Unfortunately, Obama's outreach to the Muslim world (e.g., the Cairo speech) basically has had no positive effect.

AfPak: It's too early to give a grade on this with a new strategy just in place, but the fight against the terrorists on both sides of the Afghanistan-Pakistan border remains a challenge. The question is: What will the prez do if he doesn't get his quick victory?

Egged on by media fawning, Obama wrongly assumed he could turn Obama-chic abroad into foreign-policy results. Oops: Turns out countries (and groups like al-Qaida) act to promote their own interests, uninfluenced by anyone's popularity.

The world needs U.S. leadership to deal with big problems. More than that, this country needs traction on these issues — something, regrettably, that Obama has yet to deliver.

Peter Brookes is a Heritage Foundation senior fellow and former deputy assistant secretary of defense. peterbrookes@heritage.org

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