The five foreign policy questions every candidate should be asked

It’s amazing that with almost two presidential debates every week, many critical foreign policy questions have gone unasked and unanswered - even while the television networks spend entire hours discussing when and where the US should bomb next.

These topics that will be crucial for the next president, yet are rarely if ever brought up. Why aren’t they being raised at every opportunity?

The Libya catastophe

By all accounts, Libya is currently a cesspool for terrorism. Filling the vacuum created by the chaos after the US helped depose Gaddafi in 2011, Isis fighters are reportedly telling their followers to go to Libya to train and fight instead of Syria - which leads the the obvious question: why did we make such a catastrophic mistake of once again overthrowing a country’s leader?

Instead of asking about the scandal that is the Libyan invasion, this week’s debate moderator Jorge Ramos decided to ask Hillary Clinton about the other Libyan controversy, Benghazi, which she has answered for in detail over and over. This yet again allowed Clinton to reel off a practiced answer while avoiding the real issue.

The New York Times wrote a huge two-part series on Clinton’s leading role in the intervention in Libya and its subsequent descent into chaos, yet there was barely a blip on the radar when it came to questions on the campaign trail or on television. Clinton has skated through the entire election cycle while only getting a handful of questions about the catastrophe, while continuing to call for more military intervention elsewhere.

But it’s not just Clinton. Republicans have never been pinned down on Libyaeither, and now, are of course all in favor of us sending our drones and special forces in yet again.

Saudi Arabia’s destruction of Yemen

If there is any central US ally that has been outright ignored during this election season – as usual – it’s Saudi Arabia. Currently Saudi Arabia is engaged in an indiscriminate bombing campaign in one of the world’s poorest countries, Yemen, which has led to thousands of civilian deaths and millions of people being displaced. While the media has been focused on the violence Syria and Iraq, they’ve virtually ignored Yemen - and the United States plays central role in facilitating the war. The US has sold billions of dollars worth of weapons to the Saudis – including cluster bombsbanned by most countries in the world – that they’ve used to bomb schools, hospitals, and civilian centers (many of these weapons deals were facilitated by Clinton when she was Secretary of State). The US has also provided with intelligence for their airstrikes, and even flown surveillance drone flights for them. Far from doing anything to stop the carnage, they’ve encouraged it.

Where do the presidential candidates stand on this appalling war? Will they continue to help Saudi Arabia fight it, thereby creating another generation of terrorrists in Yemen? Or will they stand up to the Saudi monarchy to try to put an end to it?