Who Won the Presidential Debate Tonight? Obama By a Landslide

The Presidential debate winner is less important than understanding what President Obama has actually accomplished on the world stage. Both sides will argue that their candidate was the winner of the foreign policy debate. President Obama will be the winner according to Democrats, and Republicans will say that Mitt Romney won the third presidential debate.  President Obama won incredible victories on the world stage that benefit all of us.

President Obama’s top victories on the world stage are accomplishments that eluded other leaders for decades. Here are President Obama’s top five successes against terrorists and the nations that harbor them:

1. President Obama went after Osama Bin Laden when U.S. Military leaders were not 100% sure what call to make. They stated that it was a 50/50 chance that Bin Laden was even there. Bin Laden usually released videos ahead of elections. This year, he was on a long swim with the fish in the ocean. We are more secure because Obama led the military to the death of Bin Laden.

2. Bin Laden’s journals stated that recruitment became very difficult when President Obama redefined the conflict as a War against Al Qaeda, instead of a war against Islamic extremists. When Obama addressed the Muslim world he reshaped the entire relationship.  Watch President Obama’s speech that defused the roots of the conflict with Al Qaeda and rebuilt relations with one third of the world that is Muslim. This speech wrecked Al Qaeda’s recruitment ability.

We are more secure because President Obama wrecked Al Qaeda’s recruiting ability and rebuilt relations with the Muslim world.

3. President Obama ended the reign of Gaddafi despite Republicans working to undermine the mission the entire way. If you wish, search Youtube for the video of Gaddafi’s last moments. When Obama set out to increase America’s security with multilateral support it ended very badly for Gaddafi. This problem existed for decades. Watch President Reagan in 1986 as he launched air strikes against Libya. Reagan was dealing with Gaddafi, but after decades it was Obama that finished the job. Watch Reagan describe the terrorist threat that Gaddafi posed to Americans that President Obama ended.

We are more secure because President Obama helped end the rule of terrorist dictator Muammar Gaddafi.

4. President Obama launched a multilateral war of attrition against Iran. The harshest economic sanctions in history are now in place against Iran. Obama led to banks freezing Iranian money flows and halted global trade with Iran.  The currency of Iran is rapidly losing it’s value. The purchasing power has fallen rapidly by nearly half. Today, the resource base that funds the Iranian military is eroding and the Iranian people are getting more and more angry with their own government. 

At the same time, President Obama directed the Pentagon to order double-sized bunker buster bombs retrofitted for delivery by stealth bomber. They are available today and at the President’s orders would be fully capable of destroying the Iranian nuclear program that is contained deep within a mountain. President Obama weakened the adversaries economic base, got the world behind the mission, and the U.S. military is now prepared to end the nuclear program by force.

We are more secure today because President Obama set the stage for ending the Iranian nuclear program.

The President of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is at the root of this problem. His term ends in the summer of 2013. President Obama smartly ratcheted down the war rhetoric because soon the leader causing the problem will be out of office and we are improving our military strength for armed conflict, while Iran gets weaker during that time.  

We are safer because President Obama has not rushed to a war that could trigger World War Three at a time when a little patience might create a window for peaceful resolution, or easier military victory.

5. There is an incredible list of terrorists and extremist leaders who have lost their lives under President Obama’s direction. Obama directed the military to dial up the drone missions against people who spend their lives training and planning how to kill Americans.  While the drone attacks are unpopular, Al Qaeda leaders in Pakistan, Kenya, Somalia, Iraq, Yemen, and more lost their lives under President Obama’s direction.  Take a look at a partial scorecard.

We are safer because Obama led the military to nail almost all of Al Qaeda’s top leadership.

There are many other accomplishments such as bringing the troops home from Iraq, successfully leading the standing up of Afghan forces that will take over security so we can leave, and the negotiation of the nuclear START treaty with Russia that will shrink US and Russian nuclear arsenals.  The list of President Obama’s foreign policy accomplishments is so long that it would not fit in one article.

From the death of Bin Laden and Gaddafi, terrorists who had eluded us for decades, to crashing Iran’s economy and building the weapons needed to destroy Iran’s nuclear program, while wrecking Al Qaeda’s recruitment ability and making peace with the Muslim world, all while smashing Al Qaeda leadership leaving only a couple leaders alive, President Obama has executed a masterful foreign policy and made you and I much safer.

When I watched as the attacks in Cairo and Libya unfolded and now Lebanon I began to wonder if what I was seeing was analogous to wounded dog lashing out with it’s last breaths.  After so many Al Qaeda leaders were killed, I believe their new 9/11 attacks were just an attempt to remain relevant after such defeat.  This may have been their way to appear powerful on TV to try and restart plummeting recruitment.  This also may have been an attempt to use our own elections to remove the President whose leadership brought Al Qaeda to it’s knees.  The election timing of the attacks is uncanny.  Do you think terrorists made these attacks now to undermine the re-election bid of a President who has crushed their organizations?  

One thing we don’t hear about much.  Obama’s actions as Commander in Chief were so effective in Libya that the Libyans themselves went after the extremist organization that harmed Americans.  Here is a photo of the Libyan backlash against Ansar al-Shariah Brigade’s compound.  The Libyans are greatly appreciative of President Obama's leadership and what America has done to free them from a dictator. Read more.

President Obama's foreign policy leadership has left America far more secure and both you and I will benefit from his leadership for years to come.