Hard decisions ahead in US foreign policy

• Source: Global Times
• [00:45 September 21 2009]
• Comments

Bernard Gwertzman
 

Editor's Note:

Bernard Gwertzman (Gwertzman) is a consulting editor at the Council on Foreign Relations, a former New York Times correspondent based in Moscow, and has been working in the American media for over 40 years. Global Times (GT) reporter Wu Mian interviewed him on the Obama administration's China policy and the relationship between US media coverage and its foreign policy.

GT: Can you give us a brief summary of President Obama's foreign policy?

Gwertzman: Obama's honeymoon has come to an end. People are getting less enthusiastic about his policies. There's a lot of concerns about economic and foreign policy. Right now American foreign policy is in a bit of a crisis. Obama was against the Iraq war, which was launched by former President George W. Bush.

Before the Republican defeats in 2006 and 2008, Americans paid little attention to Afghanistan, compared to Iraq. Right now, the war in Iraq is virtually over for the US, since our troops have pulled out of the cities and the rest will pull out by the end of 2011. But after taking office, Obama increased troop numbers in Afghanistan.

The Democratic chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Senator Carl Levin of Michigan, said he was opposed to any more troops going to Afghanistan before they sort out the situation there.

This is coming just as the American generals in Afghanistan are about to ask for an increase in troops. This will be the major news story for media in the coming week. We are facing some difficult talks with Iran and we need to reach a consensus with China. Therefore what is in front of us is a series of hard foreign policy decisions that must be made.

Also, Obama needs to be very careful in the Middle East. He needs to be publicly even-handed, instead of being anti-Israel, because many Americans support Israel strongly, especially Jews and Christians. If he appeared to be very anti-Israel, he would suffer politically. On the other hand, American foreign policy is best-suited to be even-handed, since we are trying to bring Palestine and Israel together.

On relations with Iran, Obama came to the office promising that he would have a dialogue with Iran. The liberal media thought it was a good idea, but conservatives didn't. Now there will be a meeting between Iranian officials and officials from the US and Europe. The issue that has bothered the US most is nuclear weapons. The American press has been very careful to say if Iran does not come forward with a proposal that meets US demands, then Obama has to make some tough decisions. Iran is also unpopular because of the elections and the violence against the opposition.