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Obama’s plan

President Barack Obama was to reveal at least the outline of a policy for dealing with Islamic State terrorists this week. He planned to discuss it today with congressional leaders. It was expected he would announce his plan to the American people during a speech Wednesday.

To be effective, Obama’s foreign policy – regarding both terrorism and other critical issues – will have to be a 180-degree turn, in many respects.

Obama has managed to encourage those who threaten peace while alienating some of our most important allies.

His record on Israel is one of both criticizing our only staunch ally in the Middle East while praising leaders of terrorist organizations such as Hamas.

At one point in his presidency, Obama walked out of a White House meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – going to dinner with his family while leaving the Israeli leader to wait an hour for resumption of their talks. No wonder Israelis, in the face of such snubs, do not see Obama as a friend.

Worse, Obama last month stopped a planned shipment of U.S. Hellfire missiles to Israel – at a time when Hamas terrorists were raining rockets down on the Jewish state by the hundreds.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is another sorry chapter in the Obama book of errors. He has refused even to provide U.S. armaments to Ukraine, in effect begging for Russian leader Vladimir Putin to show restraint.

Islamic State terrorists are the worry of the day, however. Obama’s record there is true to form with the rest of his policies.

Obama has known about the Islamic State organization for nearly a year, yet did nothing to stop it when it might have done so. Instead, he referred to it as a “junior varsity” terrorist group.

The president’s many mistakes are clear. The question now is whether he is ready to reverse himself in order to safeguard Americans.

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