The “Investigative Report on the Terrorist Attacks against U.S. Facilities in Benghazi, September 11-12, 2012” has widely been characterized by Democrats and the mainstream media as exonerating the Obama administration. Yet, questions are now being raised about the methodology of the committee and about important information omitted.

Recently reelected US President Barack Obama has started a three-day Southeast Asia tour in a bid to change US diplomacy balance in the region. While there, the President will also try to secure the opening of new markets for American business. In his first trip abroad after his reelection on November 6, Obama has arrived Sunday in the capital of Thailand, Bangkok.

The eruptions in the Middle East have posed perhaps the severest, most direct test yet of the limits of President Obama’s signature foreign policy innovation during his first term, what the White House hails as the “light footprint” strategy.

Across the world his standing remains markedly lower in predominantly Muslim nations. However, Leila Hilal, a Mideast expert at the New America Foundation, said Obama may have made more progress toward improving relations than critics say."Obama inherited a very damaged U.S. credibility in the region," she said, and so it would be unrealistic to think that his "new beginning" would take hold fast.

Barack Obama is a smart guy. So why has he spent the last four years executing such a dumb foreign policy? True, his reliance on “smart power” -- a euphemism for giving the Pentagon a stake in all things global -- has been a smart move politically at home.

Yesterday, Al Jazeera English aired a segment discussing the use of “smart power” in the Middle East. Smart power is the combined application of hard and soft power resources to accomplish an objective. It recognizes that neither hard nor soft power strategies are effective on their own in certain situations, and that these elements must complement each other in an effort to achieve a goal.