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Congressman Jason Smith

Representing the 8th District of Missouri

Draining the International Swamp

Dec 30, 2016
Weekly Capitol Report

Talk tough to your allies and ignore your enemies. That has become the foreign policy doctrine which will define our current President. President Obama’s decision to abstain from voting on an anti-Israel United Nations (UN) resolution this week is a clear betrayal of our strong alliance and our enduring commitment to support Israel. The nation of Israel serves as one of our most outspoken allies to combat radical Islamic terrorism and is our strongest voice in the Middle East. Nonetheless, President Obama and Secretary Kerry not only ignored our ally in a time of need – they even went one step further during a speech by Secretary Kerry in which they all but blamed Israel for the decades long conflict with Palestine.

In his closing days in office, President Obama is revealing his global convictions that will come to define his presidency – a belief that a weaker America, one that doesn’t stand with its allies and one that doesn’t follow through on lines drawn in the sand with our enemies, somehow increases the safety and security of American families. As the threat of terror grows and is carried out around the world and here in the United States, this is the exact wrong message to send. While these actions may have taken place thousands of miles away, the safety and threat of terror impacting those of us in southeast and south central Missouri, or any part of our country for that matter, is a major concern.

The result of this decision for Israel could potentially be devastating, but sadly this isn't the first time President Obama has turned his back on our allies. The legacy that President Obama will leave behind is a long list of foreign policy failures that have left the world and the United States less safe than it was 8 years ago. President Obama’s habit of alienating America’s allies while catering to our enemies has resulted in increased instability in the Middle East - like the genocide of over 400,000 people in Syria and a strengthening of ISIS, chaos in Libya that led to American casualties in Benghazi, and the disastrous Iran nuclear deal that has only strengthened the leading world sponsor of terrorism. Meanwhile the President seems more concerned with making excuses and sanctioning Russia for Hillary Clinton’s failed Presidential run than standing up to those who actually want to do physical harm to American soldiers and families.

If anything, the actions of the last week have further confirmed my belief that the time has come to end the use of American taxpayer dollars to fund the ineffective and scandal plagued United Nations. America should not be governed by an outside entity like the UN that treats our freedom like property and does not have our country's best interests at heart. In fact, US taxpayers fund nearly 22% of the UN’s annual budget while at the same time they prioritize attempts to reduce our sovereignty and security instead of promoting peace and the principles of democracy. Simply put, the United States need not participate in an organization which diminishes our country’s place and standing in the world.

In response this week President-elect Trump vowed to stop allowing Israel to ‘be treated with such total disdain and disrespect’ - a promising sign that we will restore our long-standing alliance with Israel. Of course, the response from the Obama Administration, was to chastise the President-elect for not abiding by ‘protocol’ and to refrain from ‘meddling’ in decisions until after the inauguration. That response could not have been more indicative of a tone deaf administration that not only fails to acknowledge their own mistakes, but shows a dangerous arrogance in their commitment to inflict liberal ideology that stands at odds with the American people. It also demonstrates how out-of-touch and unaware the Obama administration is for what is coming the next four years – a dismantling of its disastrous policies, real change to a broken system, and draining a swamp that now extends to an international level.