Barack Obama on US foreign policy

12 Oct 2007

In this speech at Drake University before his election as the Democratic candidate for the Presidential elections, Barack Obama outlines why the Bush administration's approach to foreign policy was wrong, and explains how he will approach foreign policy problems if he is elected. He begins by pointing out that he was one of the few voices (either democratic or Republican) that opposed the invasion of Iraq in 2003. The question of the authorisation of Iraq, he explains, isn't one that concerns only the past; it also represents an important issue for the future of US foreign policy. In his view, Congress failed the American people by refusing to ask important questions about intelligence reports in the run-up to the conflict, and by voting to give President Bush the authority to wage war with Iraq.

Obama's concern is that the Kyl-Lieberman Amendment on Iran, which was passed in September 2007, and which acknowledges the threat Iran poses to the Middle East and the world, could be used to justify keeping US troops in Iraq. This justification is far-removed from the original mission statement in Iraq, which was to ensure that Iraq did not possess weapons of mass destruction. Whilst Obama believes that the US does need to tighten sanctions on the Iranian regime, including on their nuclear programme and Revolutionary Guards, he checking Iran's influence should not be done with the military presence in Iraq.

Overall, Obama believes that the 'cowboy diplomacy' of the bush administration didn't work, and that the US needs to pursue a diplomacy that engages world leaders, not one that refuses to enter into a dialogue.