President Obama painted a very rosy picture of his foreign policy accomplishments during his State of the Union address, which has even his biggest advocates questioning if any of it was grounded in reality.
Last night, the president proclaimed that America's fight against terrorism was turning a new page. He touted his success against Putin and Russian aggression in Ukraine and the president boasted that his strategy is defeating the Islamic State (IS). Obama also suggested that the fight in Afghanistan is over.
One problem: Not even his own party is buying it. Chris Matthews expressed doubt of the president’s sincerity in making his claims.
Andrea Mitchell said, "I think that on foreign policy his projection of success against terrorism, and against IS in particular, is not close to reality – they have not developed a strategy."
Russia still occupies Crimea and even though their economy is in recession, Putin remains as defiant as ever. Islamic State’s territory and influence continues to expand as terrorist threats are emerging in every corner of the globe. The president didn’t even mention al Qaeda, whom many fear will have a resurgence in Afghanistan in a similar manner that IS has had in Iraq and Syria.
Still, despite the world being on fire and over 40 percent of Americans saying they fear an immanent terrorist attack on the homeland; President Obama took time to bash George W. Bush’s policies.
Obama said, "Instead of getting dragged into another ground war in the Middle East, we are leading a broad coalition, including Arab nations, to degrade and ultimately destroy this terrorist group."
Chris Matthews’ response was, " I keep thinking tonight that there is a world out there that he didn’t really talk about."