Under George W. Bush, foreign policy was simply defined after 9/11: You are either with us or against us. To that end we invaded two countries and operated militarily in several others. Result: we killed thousands upon thousands of terrorists in their own countries or killed soldiers of misfortune who believed their Muslim mullahs about “Satan” America and flocked to Iraq and Afghanistan to kill Americans. They died.

During those Bush years, he also took care of business; for example: Bush negotiated several trade agreements with Central American countries — Central American Free Trade Agreement — (CAFTA) and Panama, Colombia and South Korea.

He worked with Mexico’s President Vicente Fox to allow some guns purchased in the United States to make their way to Mexico where joint Mexican and American officers could track the guns and bust drug cartel people by following hidden GPS (satellite) trackers imbedded in the weapons. The program didn’t work well, so it was stopped.

He also worked with President Fox to organize the first and only Comprehensive Immigration Reform proposal since the 1986 Immigration Control Act Ronald Reagan signed into law. Democrats, including Barack Obama, killed it in Congress.

Bush worked with the Poles and Czechs to develop a missile shield in their countries to protect Europe from Russian and Iranian missiles. Obama killed the program.

Bush did all that while prosecuting two wars.

American Foreign Policy was sidetracked by the election of Barack Hussein Obama. The question is: Is the United States better off today in foreign relations than it was on January 19, 2009?

From the American Hispanic viewpoint, no! American foreign policy has deteriorated so badly it hardly exists today. From the Latin American standpoint, American foreign policy today is worse than even under Democrat President Woodrow Wilson who invaded Mexico twice in two years (1914 and 1916) and Haiti (1915) and the Dominican Republic (1919).

The invasions of Mexico were spearheaded by the U.S. Army and both failed miserably. Haiti and the Dominican Republic were U.S. Marine operations and they were successful. Interestingly, from the American Hispanic view, in the Dominican Republic the Marines organized horseback special operations Marines from Mexican American troops and they “terrorized” the Dominican rebels and bandits that had rendered the countryside helpless before the Marines arrived.

Thousands of Mexicans have died during the Obama Administration. They died by guns the Administration allowed to be purchased illegally and smuggled into Mexico. The Obama people called the program “Fast & Furious.” Despite widespread exposure by Congress of this Obama Administration adventure, no one has been fired from Obama Administration jobs and the President has invoked Executive Privilege to keep 100-thousand “Fast & Furious” documents secret.

From the Latin American viewpoint, for three years Obama totally ignored Latin America by not sending the Bush-negotiated Panama and Colombia trade agreements to Congress for ratification. He also did not negotiate any new agreements with twenty other Latin American countries and Brazil that would stimulate new employment in all concerned countries.

His most serious foreign policy faux pax (screw-up for Joe Biden) occurred when Obama and Hillary Clinton totally screwed up the Honduras emergency that greeted Obama early on in his Administration.

First of all, it was obvious that neither Obama nor Hillary Clinton knew where Honduras was. Secondly, they were not aware that the Honduras Constitution empowered the country’s Supreme Court to expel an elected President if he was successfully impeached by Congress. This leftwing radical Castro-supported Honduran Presidential clown was properly impeached and expelled from the country.

So, did Obama and Clinton side with the legal Honduran government? No, they sided with the clown and canceled visas for Honduran government officials as punishment. Eventually, of course, Obama and Clinton had to quit supporting knee-jerk leftists and let the legal Hondurans run their own country. The Mighty Duo of Obama/Clinton totally screwed up on Honduras.

Back to trade which we need to create good jobs in the U.S. Obama is against free trade agreements as envisioned first by Ronald Reagan, then the Bushes and even Bill Clinton. Obama actually campaigned against the 14-year-old established North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with Canada and Mexico. It helped Clinton create 20-million jobs in 6 years.

In the Senate (2005), he voted against the CAFTA agreement and then voted against its implementation. He also voted (2005) no on a bill that would have expanded work visas for farm workers who the entire universe knows are mostly Mexican.

Add in millions of angry Muslims rioting from North Africa to Australia who hate Americans out of profound jealousy and Americans being murdered by some Muslim terrorists and we are left with one conclusion —- Barack Hussein Obama’s foreign policy rates little more than an “F-plus.”

Editor’s Note:  as with all postings appearing with a by-line, this op-ed is the author’s opinion, and not necessarily the official position of Cafe Con Leche Republicans.

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Raoul Lowery Contreras (1941) was born in Mexico, raised in the USA. Former U.S. Marine, athlete, Dean’s List at San Diego State. Professional political consultant and California Republican Party official(1963-65)…Television news commentator, radio talk show host…published Op-Ed writer (1988 to present)…author of 12 books (as of 1-05-12). His books are available on Amazon.com.