Ada Fisher: U.S. lacks coherent foreign policy

Published 12:00 am Monday, September 5, 2011

By Dr. Ada Fisher

While others argue over the Obama Administration’s lack of success on the economy and jobs, I would argue its biggest failing is a cogent foreign policy.
The crumbling of Greece’s economy followed by the shakiness of Spain is a ripple on the pond of European nations. With the rise of the “Arab Spring” and the Muslim brotherhood, we saw the fall of Egypt with instability in Syria, Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan following suit. There was as well a palpable retreat from always previously understood support for the nation of Israel, our most consistently reliable Middle East ally. Couple this with droughts and famine in Somalia, the Sudan, Darfur and other areas and we could be facing the “Islamization” of the continent of Africa, which would have dire implications for the world.
Foreign policy drives the economy not only of the United States but of the world. Without trade markets, nations are limited in pushing their products to their own citizens who are looking for bargains, variety and the unusual. High employment reigns worldwide and out of work young men are swelling the unrest unleashed abroad and coming soon to the communities where you live. Though the Obama Administration has given him hell, ever the gentleman, George W. Bush has been quietly taking their assaults, appreciating as do I that when history is written, Bush will be treated far kinder than Barack H. Obama, for Bush looked at the bigger picture.
Only G.W. Bush has had an Africa policy that in its own way did some unusual things. At the behest of Sen. Jesse A. Helms, Bush made AIDS treatment a priority in Africa. Women there were in many senses liberated from this disease and their children protected. In tackling some parts of famines on that continent, Bush and others appreciated that the failure of developed nations to take on this issue will make these populations vulnerable to Islamic extremist assistance. Our lack of aggressiveness in dealing with juntas that exploit masses of people — leaving starving children, raped women and the unprotected weaker — belies the Christian image we claim. The moral imperative of a pre-emptive strike where genocide is occurring was glossed over in preference to weapons of mass destruction, as if all of this is not in our national interest.
Africa as a continent is the world’s largest repository of natural resources, many of which remain undisclosed. Oil abounds in Nigeria, Gabon and other areas that could be further developed to help us and them. Uranium, diamonds, platinum, chromium, cobalt, manganese and other continental treasures there are part of our strategic mineral needs, which we fill without getting our hands dirty in resolving the continent’s human exploitations. In 2005, Africa produced 39 percent of the world’s manganese, 44 percent of its chromite, 21 percent of its gold, 46 percent of its diamonds (dripping with blood on the hands of the newly engaged), 31 percent of its phosphate rock, 13 percent of its petroleum and 16 percent of its uranium.Were these natural resources to fall into Muslim Sharia hands, many more economies will fail.
The United States continues to give most favored nation status on trade and business to countries such as Mexico which send us the illegal drugs and don’t stop the in-migration of illegal aliens. This nation doesn’t exercise its commerce clause responsibilities and permits doing business without penalizing those not enforcing trade laws. Such inaction allows the stealing of patents, underbidding for work and abusive environmental conditions, both here and elsewhere. Lastly, this nation squanders its competitive advantage as did Obama with the space program in shutting a major component down while requiring that its work be shared with Islamic nations so that they will feel good about themselves.
Here’s hoping that “hope and change” is improving your lives, for I see it as too often undermining the best interest of this nation.
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Dr. Ada M. Fisher is the N.C. Republican National Committeewoman and former member of the Rowan-Salisbury Board of Education.