Obama heads for Asia with eyes on Middle East
November 17, 2015  10:49
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President Barack Obama landed in Southeast Asia today for string of summits with Asian leaders, a visit he had hoped would highlight progress in his seven-year charm offensive in the region but was instead overshadowed by the fight against Islamic terrorism in the Middle East. The terrorist attacks in Paris and talk of reprisals against the Islamic State threatened to cloud Obama's good-news tour to the Philippines and Malaysia this week.


While Obama was ready to talk up his freshly inked trade deal and military cooperation in Asia, the rest of the world was looking for leadership on the Islamic State's relentless terror spree. It was hardly the first time the Middle East has kept Obama from making the pivot his administration once imagined would be central to his foreign policy legacy.
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