Don’t Expect Obama to Bring Real Change in U.S. Foreign Policy

Afghanistan and Pakistan will be Obama’s Iraq. Only a few days after his inauguration, drone attacks were launched in Pakistan, killing 22. This comes as a 30,000 U.S. troop surge/escalation is being prepared for Afghanistan. Additional warning of this came from Joe Biden himself who said things are going to escalate there on CBS’ “Face the Nation”. A Washington Times article said the following on the issue:

Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. said Sunday that there will be an “uptick” in American casualties in Afghanistan as the U.S. military increases its presence in that country, which he characterized as “a real mess.”

The vice president’s prediction prompted outrage from liberal antiwar groups who characterized it as “cavalier,” although a leading scholar at a Washington neoconservative think tank called the Biden remarks an overdue recognition of reality.

Of course the new administration is just blaming everything on Bush (who does deserve a huge amount of blame). But the point is that they are going to continue the same policies Bush had, just with different rhetoric. There will be no real change (except for the worse) as the powers that be bench “W” and put in their new man Barack. So much for Obama being an anti-war peace candidate. More broken campaign promises are on the way–of that we can be sure.

Ron Paul, as usual, summarizes things quite well: