Diplomacy in the Hopenchange Era

[Drake Tungsten]

No.

[Drake Tungsten]

Putin pwns Obama...

Vladimir Putin threatens Barack Obama's nuclear stockpile cuts

Putin: We’ll Overwhelm U.S. Missile Shield. (But Thanks for the Concessions, Barack!)

[DaShi]

So now third-world posturing is considered a sly diplomatic move. China really is the new hyperpower.

[Drake Tungsten]

Russian posturing got Obama to remove the US missile shield in Eastern Europe in exchange for nothing.

[DaShi]

Right.

[Drake Tungsten]

Hopefully you'll join me in the reality-based community some day.

[DaShi]

I don't smoke enough to fit in your reality.

[HalfLotus]

Off to a good start!

Obama Gives Brown a Chilly Reception at White House

Brown faces humiliation after Obama 'snub'

Obama's blockbuster gift for Brown to reaffirm the 'special relationship': 25 DVDs

Obama To World: Drop Dead!

If this adroit handling of the ever-difficult British is any indication, Tehran should be giving up its nuclear weapons program by the end of the month.

You'd be hard-pressed to find 4 articles with a higher collective fluff to substance ratio.

[Drake Tungsten]

That reminds me: how are things going with Iran?

[Drake Tungsten]

Absence of key U.S. allies at summit amplifies doubts about Obama’s foreign policy

President Obama is holding one of the biggest global summits ever on U.S. soil starting Monday, but for all the hoopla, the event will be missing America’s strongest allies.

As remarkable as it is, the fact that neither British Prime Minister Gordon Brown nor Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are attending President Obama’s nuclear security summit in Washington Monday and Tuesday is not altogether surprising.

Relations with both countries — Israel in particular — have grown strained under Obama. Combined with Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s recent defiance of the administration, questions are growing about the president’s ability to maintain important relationships.

“It is a curious state of affairs when relations with our major democratic allies are all wobbly at once,” said Michael Green, a former foreign policy adviser to President George W. Bush, who also listed Japan and South Korea as traditional allies whose relationships with the U.S. have frayed under Obama.

“And one has to ask why righting these key alliances has not received more attention,” he said.

http://dailycaller.com/2010/04/12/absence-of-key-u-s-allies-at-summit-amplifies-doubts-about-obamas-foreign-policy/#ixzz0kuWCiTkM

Normally I'd chalk this up to the usual partisan back-biting, but Michael Green is a smart guy and I respect his opinion. If he's worried about America's relationship with its allies in East Asia, there must be a good reason.

[Drake Tungsten]

http://news.search.yahoo.com/search?ei=UTF-8&p=obama+hu&type=photo

[Drake Tungsten]

President Obama said Sunday that the United States is still "working on" democracy and a top aide said he has taken "historic steps" to improve democracy in the United States during his time in office.

The remarks came as Obama met with Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev -- one of the U.S. president's many meetings with world leaders ahead of this week's nuclear summit.

Kazakhstan, which has been touting its record on combating nuclear proliferation, is a key player in the NATO supply network to Afghanistan and currently heads the Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

Some observers see a conflict between Kazakhstan's chairmanship of the 56-nation OSCE, which plays an important role in monitoring elections in emerging democracies, and its own widely criticized human rights record.

But if the Obama administration saw any disconnect, it kept its criticism to itself.

"In connection with the OSCE, the presidents had a very lengthy discussion of issues of democracy and human rights," NSC senior director Mike McFaul said on a conference call with reporters Sunday. "Both presidents agreed that you don't ever reach democracy; you always have to work at it. And in particular, President Obama reminded his Kazakh counterpart that we, too, are working to improve our democracy."

The Wall Street Journal's Jonathan Weisman asked McFaul to clarify.

"You seemed to be suggesting there was some equivalence between their issues of democracy and the United States' issues, when you said that President Obama assured him that we, too, are working on our democracy," Weisman said. "Is there equivalence between the problems that President Nazarbayev is confronting and the state of democracy in the United States?"

"Absolutely not ... There was no equivalence meant whatsoever," McFaul said. "[Obama's] taken, I think, rather historic steps to improve our own democracy since coming to office here in the United States."

http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2010/04/11/obama_were_still_working_on_our_democracy

Exactly what historic steps has Obama taken to improve American democracy? He sure as hell hasn't rolled back any of Bush's policies on the war on terror.

[DinoDoc]

Sigh.

[Hauldren Collider]

The problems in Obama's foreign policy is a superset of the problems in Bush's foreign policy.

And the good things are a subset.

[DinoDoc]

The problems in Obama's foreign policy is a superset of the problems in Bush's foreign policy.

I'm wondering where the fetish for bowing came from.