Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher once said, “Don’t follow the crowd, let the crowd follow you.”
This advice was pertinent to a person like her, who so often had to stand up and lead, not sit down and follow. Our current administration, under President Barack Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry, would be wise to follow Thatcher’s advice.
Time and time again, whether it was the Charlie Hebdo terrorist attacks in Paris in Jan. 2015, the even deadlier terrorist assaults that Paris suffered through in Nov. 2015, or the Brussels Airport bombing that occurred last month, Obama has shown absent leadership in a time of world crisis. Obama’s “lead from behind” mentality that he views as the right vision for American foreign policy has failed in the past, is failing now and will not succeed in the future.
The administration fails to realize that the United States and nearly all other countries, especially those in western Europe, face the threat of terrorism in their daily lives.
While we have luckily been shielded from these threats for the most part in the United States (in large part thanks to the counterterrorism measures that President George W. Bush put in place and that, to his credit, Obama has continued), the citizens of countries like France, Germany, Belgium and the United Kingdom now must fear that any time they go to a public place, their life is threatened. Like the people of London during the Blitz in World War II, they are forced to live in a state of perpetual fear. And fear, in the absence of strong leadership, can drive people to extremes.
Obama has not been the leader the free world needs. Time and time again after these attacks, he lacks the common sense to at least travel to these countries and pay his condolences. Furthermore, he stubbornly asserts that his strategy towards ISIS and terrorism is somehow working, when it is obvious it is not. Again and again, from Iraq to Libya, foreign policy crises have piled up because of this administration’s lack of true leadership.
I hope our next president, whoever that may be, chooses a new direction for our country’s foreign policy. That direction would start by bringing our allies together, in one place, to make it clear that we are united against terrorism. It would mean to continue increasing funding for our military to make sure that it is the strongest in the world, with an emphasis on special forces, which will be most needed in the fight against terrorism. And most importantly, it means we take a new attitude that clarifies America’s position as the leading country in the world, one who stands for what is right and just and one that is proud to do so.
Patrick Waters is a freshman accounting major from St. Louis, Missouri.
