President Barack Obama will release an updated national security strategy next spring, according to a White House announcement issued on Friday.
The announcement comes as foreign powers are rushing to take advantage of Obama’s first-term U.S. national security policies.
“The new Strategy will update the vision I provided in 2010 and describe my Administration’s national security priorities for the remainder of my term…. [dubbed] the whole-of-government” strategy, the White House’s statement read.
“In my National Security Strategy of 2010, I addressed how the United States would strengthen its global leadership position; end the war in Iraq; disrupt, dismantle, and defeat al Qaeda; and achieve economic recovery at home and abroad,” said the announcement.
The new strategy will likely continue Obama’s first-term emphasis on diplomatic accommodations with rival states and his rhetorical focus on nascent economic and trade deals.
He’s likely also to continue his P.R. focus on the Pakistan-based Al Qaeda organization, while also downplaying the spreading danger Islam’s jihadi ideology, which is fueling renewed Muslim militias in Arab countries. Since 2009, jihadi-shouting Muslim groups have stepped up their attacks in African countries below the Sahara desert, including Nigeria, Mali, Sudan and Somalia. In Kenya, a group of eight jihadi Muslims murdered at least 67 shoppers at a mall during September.
The benefits to Americans of Obama’s first-term national strategy are unclear.
Iran used Obama’s first-term 2010 voluntary retreat from Iraq to solidify its reach through Iraq to Syria to Israel’s borders, and is now using a late November diplomatic agreement with Obama to shield its nuclear weapons development program from Israel’s air force. The program is likely to cause the region’s unstable Muslim governments to build their own nuclear weaponry, which may be captured by jihadi groups in future coups and revolutions.
Iran’s nuclear program has been aided by Russia, despite Obama’s 2009 effort to “reset” relations after the departure of President George W. Bush.
In North Korea, the dictatorship may restarting its idle plutonium nuclear reactor, which is capable of producing fuel for powerful H-bombs, U.N. officials said Nov. 28. North Korea is the world’s most oppressive dictatorship, and can repeat its blackmail strategy of threatening to sell its weaponry to Iran and other countries unless it gets valuable food and other resources from South Korea and the United States.
In Syria, Obama’s much-touted effort to cripple the Iran-backed dictatorship crashed in Setpember, prompting him to accept a face-saving chemical-weapons disarmament deal and leaving Iran free to helps its Syrian ally crush a popular rebellion. Since September, Obama and his deputies have downplayed the Syrian battles.
In Asia, China used Obama’s 2012 mismanagement of the nation’s finances to deep-six Obama’s proposed U.S.-centered trade Asian pact in October. Instead, China won regional approval for a trading zone that excludes the United States, delivering a little-publicized humiliation to Obama and wrecking his post-2010 plan to shift U.S. security focus towards Asia.
This November, China exploited his renewed focus on the Obamacare failure to grab for military control of a resource-rich ocean shelf owned by Japan, a long-time U.S. ally, Japan. In response, the former community organizer has suggested via his deputies that U.S. airliners avoid the zone, suggesting he doesn’t want to confront China’s southern advance, which is opposed by U.S. allies in Japan, Taiwan and South Korea. However, Obama has sent U.S. aircraft, in cooperation with Japans air force, through the airspace, showing he does not want to immediately fold.
In Egypt, Obama protested the military’s 2012 rescue of the country from the orthodox Muslim Brotherhood, which Obama largely supported throughout his first term. But the president hasn’t cut funding to Egypt’s military, partly because his Secretary of State, John Kerry, wants to support the government.
In northern Africa, Obama helped Islamists take over Libya in 2010, leaving the country without a strong government to suppress regional jihadi forces. Since then, jihadis used weapons looted form from Libya’s armories to take over the nearby countries of the Central African Republic and Mali. However, Obama provided some aid to the French forces that pushed the Islamists out in January, 2013.
In Libya, on September 11, 2012, jihad groups killed four Americans — including ambassador Chris Stevens — in Benghazi. The next day, Obama flew to a fundraiser in Las Vegas. Afterwards, Obama and Secretary of State blamed the attack on video-maker in California, who was subsequently jailed after the president of the United States told a U.N.’s General Assembly that “the future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam.” (RELATED: White House blames intelligence agencies for Benghazi confusion)
In Turkey, Obama’s extensive outreach to the Islamist government of President Recep Erdogan didn’t stop Turkey from violating the trade-embargo with Iran, or expanding Islamic sharia rules over the once-secular society, nor extending diplomatic support to the Hamas jihadis who control the Gaza Strip alongside Israel.
In Europe, governments and publics reacted angrily to the leaks confirmed widespread surveillance by the National Security Agency, which U.S. officials say provides the president with best and most accurate intelligence on secret developments round the world.
U.S. international influence as also been sapped by Obama’s management of the economy, which raised U.S. debt by $7 trillion, increased the non-working population by roughly 9 million, and slowed economic growth by extending government regulations over several sectors of the economy, including the energy, banking, health and education sectors.