President Barack Obama's foreign policy is in search of a strategy, Lt. Col. Oliver North told Fox News' "America's Newsroom" on Thursday.
"They have neither a knowledge of what's going on, because our intelligence is so poor. And No. 2, absolutely no strategy whatsoever," said North, a retired Marine officer and Fox News military analyst.
Speaking about U.S. foreign policy at a news conference on Wednesday, Obama called for patience, saying, "We live in a complex world and at a challenging time. None of these challenges lend themselves to quick or easy solutions, but all of them require American leadership. And as commander-in-chief, I'm confident that if we stay patient and determined, that we will, in fact, meet these challenges."
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North said that when Obama said the United States needed to be "patient and determined" on foreign policy, that was really code for "we don't know what the hell we're doing."
While it may appear the United States doesn't have a clear foreign policy, North said, "Our adversaries do."
"Putin knows what he's doing. He wants to exercise hegemony over all the territories around the original Russia.
"The Chinese have their strategy of expansion into areas you expect history shows have been part of Tokyo or Manila, or even Vietnam. And, they're pushing the envelope there.
"We also see the Iranians doing something they've wanted to do now for better than a decade. And, that is building nuclear weapons," North said.
Problems with the militant insurgent group ISIS as it continues to overtake large swaths of territory in Iraq, and the tensions between Israel and Islamic group Hamas add to foreign policy challenges for the White House, North said.
Because of the U.S. policy failures amid uncertainty around the world, North said the Obama administration is "one of the most inept and incompetent regimes in Washington history."
"That's the assessment of leaders in Amman, in Riyadh, in Seoul, in Manila, and Tokyo, in places where we count on our friends," North said. "Our friends no longer trust us. Worse yet, our adversaries no longer respect us."
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