[jwplayer FQHLager]
WASHINGTON – Sen. Ted Cruz had a diplomatic answer to a tough question but one that also revealed a skepticism of the Obama administration’s foreign policy that could hardly run deeper.
The last question for the Texas Republican after his speech at Heritage Foundation’s summit on “Opportunity for all, favoritism to none” came from WND.
“Given the administration is releasing enemies of the U.S. from prison at Guantanamo Bay while trying to jail Gen. Petraeus, is it too provocative to ask which side are we on?”
As the crowd “oohed,” Cruz confidently smiled while pausing to let the gasps die down, then said he wouldn’t quite put it that way.
But he then launched into a lengthy and nuanced response that did not seem entirely at odds with the gist of the question.
“This administration has a very difficult time telling the good guys from the bad guys,” he began.
Expressing extreme skepticism toward the Obama administration’s competence in foreign policy, Cruz’s thoughts were perhaps summed up in a few poignant and scathing observations.
“There is a consistent pattern in this administration of being unable, or unwilling, to tell friend from foe.”
And, “Our friends don’t trust us, and our enemies don’t fear us.”
He concluded, “That is a dangerous state of affairs, and it needs to change.”
In his detailed answer, the senator criticized Obama’s absence at the unity march against radical Islamic terrorism Sunday in Paris.
Cruz said that everywhere around the world, the question expressed in hushed tones by world leaders was the same: “Where is America?”
It was true in Paris, and it is true around the globe, said Cruz.
He cited a litany of what he considered missteps, from sending a bust of Winston Churchill back to England to “shameful” treatment of Israel.
Cruz portrayed Obama as the most antagonistic U.S. president to the nation of Israel in history.
“He constantly refuses to stand by our allies, but when it comes to thugs like (Russian President Vladimir) Putin … ” said the senator, letting the sentence trail off.
Cruz then reminded everyone how Obama had assured Russian leaders he would have “more flexibility” after the election.
“How’s that worked out?” Cruz asked rhetorically, to rueful laughter from the room.
Cruz also cited the administration’s apparent willingness to let Iran build centrifuges and enhance uranium. He called the prospect of an Iranian nuclear weapon the greatest national security threat facing the United States.
He also had a prescription to stop terrorism.
Cruz recalled former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s observation that to stop radical Islamic terrorism, we just need more empathy.
“No, we don’t,” said Cruz.
“We need the resolve to stop them.”
Cruz had a number of comments on a variety of other subjects, ranging from incisive observations to pithy but blunt exhortations.
The senator had a simple prescription to enact what he called the single most important tax reform: “Abolish the IRS.”
Cruz said that might not be possible with Obama still in the White House but insisted it could be done with a Republican president.
He called it less unlikely than the major tax reforms President Ronald Reagan managed to install with the help of former House Speaker Tip O’Neill, a Democrat.
Cruz deplored what he called the weaponization of the IRS, accusing the administration of using it to punish its enemies.
The senator called school choice the civil rights issue of the age, accusing the Justice Department of obstructing minority children from obtaining a good education by denying them the right to pick their own schools.
Cruz called Washington, D.C., “fundamentally corrupt,” saying lawmakers’ allegiance to corporate interests over voters was one of the many reasons to pass term limits.
He recounted how, on the campaign trail, every Republican candidate railed against Obamacare and the president’s executive amnesty for illegal immigrants. Those were also the top two issues mentioned by voters at every stop, he noted.
But now, the only sound from GOP leaders about those topics is “crickets.”
“It ain’t complicated, and we need to do what we said we’d do,” said Cruz, speaking to his colleagues as much as to those in the auditorium.
 What do YOU think? Is America as vulnerable as France? Sound off in today’s WND poll!
