Strategic Leadership: The foreign policy of Barack Obama

Desperate to diminish the President's strong record on foreign policy, conservatives have pathetically attempted to paint President Obama as a weak President who is soft on America's enemies. There is an entertaining but dangerous testosterone contest among the Republican presidential candidates about who would be the first to bomb Iran. In this election year, I think a very important question Americans need to ask themselves is this: Do we want a reckless warrior or an intelligent leader?

After 9/11, we heard a lot of tough talk from Republicans and at the time it worked very well for them but after 10 years of perpetual wars and trillions of dollars spent, many Americans are skeptical about how effective all of that tough talk really was and because of the military successes of President Obama, are beginning to see that there is a more sensible approach to foreign policy.

There are two big reasons I believe Obama is an intelligent leader and his Republican subordinates are reckless: (1) The way he handled the Bin Laden assassination -- a very fragile situation-- and (2) The way that he is dealing with Iran.

Of course, any President would have ordered the death of Bin Laden, which, was the result of several years of intelligence gathering for which no one person can take credit. The question is not whether or not Obama deserves credit for Bin Laden's death, but how would the mission have been carried out differently if someone else was President?