UNITED States foreign policy as conceived and implemented by the Barack Obama administration has been a history of failure after failure.

The US actively encouraged and supported deadly protests against the former president of Egypt, Hosni Mubarak, which then led to a government by the Muslim Brotherhood. That, in turn, created a situation which resulted in a military takeover of Egypt.

The US was adamant in supporting—through the use of military air strikes —a revolt against the Libyan government, headed by Muammar Qaddafi. Libya is now a failed state having broken into pieces controlled by various warlord factions. Ukraine’s government was put in a position of having to choose between the European Union trade pact and Russia’s Eurasian Economic Union. The government of former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych “incorrectly” chose Russia based on Ukraine receiving substantial income from transporting Russia’s natural gas to the rest of Europe and receiving substantial financial incentives for the effort.

While those financial incentives probably included bribes, the US again actively encouraged and supported what turned into violent and deadly protests that saw Yanukovych replaced by someone more acceptable to US interests. However, this left an opening that allowed Russia to become involved in Ukraine’s subsequent civil war and to annex Ukraine’s Crimea region.

Because of the US’s inability or unwillingness to accomplish its stated goal of removing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Russia is now supporting Assad, by successfully attacking the government’s civil-war opponents.

Is it a coincidence that on the heels of its most recent failure in the Middle East, the US has announced that it intends to challenge China’s territorial claims in the West Philippine Sea?

Multiple news sources have reported that the US Navy will soon sail one of its ships inside the 12-nautical-mile limit in one of China’s man-made islands in the West Philippine Sea. A US Defense Department official said, “It’s not a question of if, but when.” We are both skeptical and worried by this news. We find it interesting that the US Navy regularly sailed these waters and conducted routine patrols until 2012. It was in 2012 that China seized the Philippine territory of the Panatag Shoal. Why only now is the US suddenly concerned with asserting its right to travel in these areas? Is it a public-relations effort to balance its current failure in the Middle East?

In May 2015 the Obama administration renewed a nuclear co-operation agreement with China to allow Beijing to buy more US-designed reactors and to buy technology that could be adapted to make its submarines more difficult to detect. The US was not so concerned about China’s encroachment of Philippine territory back then.

What will be accomplished for the Philippines by this action? Will China suddenly see the folly of its actions and go home with an apology to Filipinos?

What the US could do to help the Philippines is to actively bring this matter to the United Nations Security Council. But then again, that would be bad for US business, unlike a boat ride to the West Philippine Sea.