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    Back to To the Point

    To the Point

    President Obama Outlines Post-War Foreign Policy

    At West Point today, President Obama told graduating cadets he would betray his duty to them if he sent them into harm's way just because military action was "the only way for America to avoid looking weak."

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    By Warren Olney • May 28, 2014 • 1 min read

    At West Point today, President Obama told graduating cadets he would betray his duty to them if he sent them into harm's way just because military action was "the only way for America to avoid looking weak." Emphasizing that many critical problems don't need military solutions, the President then went on to describe what he called his "vision" for the US and the military "in the years to come." As to the spread of terrorist organizations to the Middle East and North Africa, the President said he's developing "a network of partnership," new resources that would be used for security forces in Yemen, Somalia and Mali… with what he called "critical focus" on Syria. Invoking post-war Presidents Eisenhower and Kennedy for their reliance on international institutions, he defended his own record, saying that America's ability to shape world opinion through international institutions served as a "counterweight to Russian propaganda" about recent actions in Ukraine… and that reliance on multilateral negotiations has created the prospect of preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. We hear more about the President's much-awaited foreign policy guidelines, including a strategy for combating terrorism. What did he leave out?

    The full episode

    2 of 3
    From West Point to Afghanistan, Obama Defends His Foreign Policy
    1. 0:00Edward Snowden Says He Was Really a Spy
    2. 8:10President Obama Outlines Post-War Foreign PolicyYou’re reading this
    3. 43:06Amazon.com Battles Publishers
    • https://images.ctfassets.net/2658fe8gbo8o/AvYox6VuEgcxpd20Xo9d3/769bca4fbf97bf022190f4813812c1e2/new-default.jpg?h=250

      Warren Olney

      former KCRW broadcaster

    • KCRW placeholder

      Andrea Brody

      Senior Producer, KCRW's Life Examined and To the Point podcast

    • KCRW placeholder

      Mike Kessler

      freelance journalist

    • https://images.ctfassets.net/2658fe8gbo8o/AvYox6VuEgcxpd20Xo9d3/769bca4fbf97bf022190f4813812c1e2/new-default.jpg?h=250

      Gideon Brower

      Independent Producer

    • KCRW placeholder

      Brian Katulis

      senior fellow at the Center for American Progress

    • KCRW placeholder

      Stephen M. Walt

      Harvard University

    • KCRW placeholder

      Max Boot

      columnist who covers national security for the Washington Post

      NewsNationalPolitics

    The full episode

    2 of 3
    From West Point to Afghanistan, Obama Defends His Foreign Policy
    1. 0:00Edward Snowden Says He Was Really a Spy
    2. 8:10President Obama Outlines Post-War Foreign PolicyYou’re reading this
    3. 43:06Amazon.com Battles Publishers
    Back to To the Point