The possibility the U.S. may join forces with Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad in a bid to crush the jihadist Islamic State of Iraq and Syria is a prime example of the Obama administration's aimless foreign policy, says Ed Morrissey, a senior editor with Hotair.com and columnist for The Week.
"This is such a frustrating example of what happens when you have a rudderless foreign policy,'' Morrissey told "The Steve Malzberg Show" on
Newsmax TV on Thursday.
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"We are [constantly] reacting to things in this region rather than being proactive, rather than trying to shape events to our advantage and also trying to implement long-term foreign policy.
"Because we pulled … all the way out of Iraq we've lost the ability to influence issues in Iraq, we lost the ability to confront ISIS when it was al-Qaida in Iraq and that has consequences for what we can do in that region.''
Morrissey believes Americans must share some of the blame because they elected Obama, partially on his promise to leave Iraq — which is being stormed by ISIS militants, who want to create an Islamic state.
"The problem is we've been bouncing back and forth ever since about what to do in that region,'' he said.
"We started off [saying] Bashar Assad was a reformer even though he was crushing rebellion … shooting unarmed civilians in the streets who were protesting his regime back in 2011.
"And then last year, we were going to bomb his regime because he was using chemical weapons and now we're coming back around to figuring out how we can at least ally in a de facto alliance against ISIS while still trying to get rid of Assad by giving weapons and training to the so-called moderate rebels.''
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