On July 25, 2012, Taliban fighters in Kunar province in Afghanistan successfully targeted an American Army CH-47 helicopter with a new generation Stinger missile. The American pilot was able to nurse the crippled craft to the ground in a hard landing.

The next day, an explosive ordnance disposal team found one fragment that contained an entire serial number and the Stinger tracked back to a lot that had been recently signed out by the CIA.We're not professing to be an expert in foreign policy, but we do believe that a basic requirement is to know who our enemies are and to make sure they're not receiving weapons that can later be used against us.When we hear a top administration official like Secretary of State John Kerry profess that America's foreign policy is right on target and that the president is to be applauded, it makes us wonder if he's living on the same planet.Regarding weapons shipments, even the New York Times reported in October of 2012 that most of the arms shipped are "going to hard-line Islamic jihadists, and not the more secular opposition groups that the West wants to bolster." It said Qatar is reportedly the largest source of shipments going to the jihadists fighting in Syria.According to the Times, "American officials have been trying to understand why hardline Islamists have received the lion's share of the arms shipped to the Syrian opposition through the shadowy pipeline with roots in Qatar, and, to a lesser degree, Saudi Arabia."That was nearly two years ago and obviously, they're still trying to figure it out.Our policy in Iraq is even more muddled. America is opposing the current Sunni rebellion led by ISIS but in Syria we are backing the Sunni rebellion. While the president announces that he is sending nearly 300 Marines and 300 special forces to Iraq as advisers, the reality is that America is arming and advising both sides of the same war and thus, fighting itself.In Iraq, America reportedly wants to remove President Nouri al-Maliki. One of the names being "floated" as al-Maliki's successor is Ahmed Chalabi, who has been connected to the most hardline elements in Iran and reportedly had close ties with Iranian intelligence.Last month, Sen. Ted Cruz correctly stated that the most consistent error of the Clinton-Obama foreign policy is the failure to understand the nature of our enemies. He said they do not understand the radical religious extremism of individuals committed to Jihad who had pledged to murder Americans and it leads them to keep making mistakes over and over again.One of the most glaring was the release of five senior Taliban terrorists in the swap for Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl. Most agree that these individuals will return to active warfare against the U.S.Finally, Cruz got it right when he said that you cannot win a battle against radical Islamic terrorism if you're unwilling to utter the words 'radical Islamic terrorism, a term this administration has avoided using.By Jim Zbickeditor@tnonline.com