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Do We Even Have A Foreign Policy?
Even The New York Times is piling on Susan Rice for this — so perhaps it’s unnecessary to pose the question — but her comments strike me as so wondrously stupid and terrifying that I’ve got to wonder whether there could be any charitable or vaguely reassuring way of reading it:
[Rice] was peppered with critiques of the president’s Syria and China policies, as well as the White House’s delays in releasing a national security strategy, a congressionally mandated document that sets out foreign policy goals. On that last point, Ms. Rice had a sardonic reply.
“If we had put it out in February or April or July,” she said, according to two people who were in the room, “it would have been overtaken by events two weeks later, in any one of those months.”
I get that she was being sardonic. I get it that this is not what she literally and officially thinks about this. But she’s an experienced public official who knew this would make the front page of The New York Times. It would therefore seem that she knowingly told the whole world — and not entirely in jest — the United States no longer has foreign policy goals because there have been a series of crises in the past year. Oh, and by the way, to hell with Congress.
Does that sound as epically mad to you as it does to me? Is there any way her comment could have been funny and appropriate at the time, or that she could have thought, reasonably, that it would never leak? I suppose it’s possible that I’ve lost my sense of proportion and this actually makes perfect sense. But even The New York Times is freaking out, so I fear it’s every bit as Under-the-Reign-of-Elagabalus as it sounds.
Published in Foreign Policy, General
Totus,
Just as I thought, it’s that Mr. Nobody guy again.
Regards,
Jim
I suppose the Bush administration would have cancelled the installation of the ABM systems in Poland and the Czech Republic, too.
And, it would have acquiesced in the acquisition of nukes by Iran.
And it would have torpedoed the “special relationship” [sorry, I should have said “had,” Obama’s managed to ruin that, too.] we have with Britain.
And, it would have alienated the chickensh*t Israelis as much as possible.
Real bastards, they were.
All depends on whether you look or not. ISIS is not some new phenomenon. It began as AQL, and did pretty much what it is doing now. The reaction then was the Marine Corps in Anbar province and Patreaus’ strategy of getting the Sunni tribal leaders on his side.
This is not the same as getting them on the Iraqi side. Unfortunately, we tend to view the world as if they think like we do. They do not.
But ISIS was predictable. It was driven out of then-Iraq and into (fortuitously for it) the Syrian civil war, where in the chaos they thrived. When they then returned to Iraq, the Shia had pretty much destroyed any fibre of commonality there.
Even in much of its current form it has been present in Syria for some time. Any reasonable intelligence gathering would have discerned this. I am afraid we have an administration that simply did not want to be bothered with all this.
It may be an altogether different question of whether we should be involved or just let them thrash it out themselves. But knowing is not part of that discussion.
?How about 8, and take it out of the hide of all the lefties. I personally love the fact she brought retribution on their heads. She wasn’t that bad in the ’67 war either.
PPS: The Air Force hates it, but us grunts love it. Sort of reminds me of the old Sky Raider of my time. Big and carries a LOT of ordnance. Rather like the sentiment under it, too.
Dev,
Alright then 8 it is. On your authority she gets a battlefield promotion. I’d just love to see A10s loose on ISIS. Those guys show nobody any mercy. Somebody should return the favor.
Regards,
Jim
This, for my money, is the most terrifying quote in the NYT article:
So much for that whole “Team of Rivals” garbage we were being fed in 2008. The kids driving the campaign vans are now deciding whether we make a nuclear deal with Iran or send arms to Syrian “moderates.”
We were the ones we were waiting for.
How did we get from there to here? We may never know. Perhaps, as stated previously, Epstein’s recollections of fellow law professor is best. Paraphrase, after talking and engaging with Obama for hours, he listened to your opinions, but after leaving, you never knew what Obama’s thoughts and opinions were. He was like a cold fish. (Apologies ahead of time if I paraphrased Epstein incorrectly).
So, we have a canvas we are trying to figure out. The blankness (referring to Obama’s inner being which is molded by upbringing) is now being unfolded. Looking at his role models, it becomes much clearer why our foreign policy is where it is at.
Another question you can ask is how did the Republicans and especially the Democrats, allow this to happen? I don’t like the answer I am getting, so I need help with this one.