Scenes from a foreign policy
A pattern has emerged in the Obama administration in its foreign policy. Let’s take a look at a collage of events.
President Bush made a rare comment about his successor at a join appearance with President Clinton. Washington Times: “International pressure — diplomacy only works if there’s leverage,” Mr. Bush said. “It sounds wonderful — ‘Let’s go talk to people’ — but you better have leverage in order to make diplomacy work.” As for leverage, there’s this from Israel’s “stalwart friend,” the Obama administration:
Government sources said the administration has held up Israel’s request for the AH-64D Apache Longbow attack helicopter. The sources said the request was undergoing an interagency review to determine whether additional Longbow helicopters would threaten Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip. “During the recent war, Israel made considerable use of the Longbow, and there were high civilian casualties in the Gaza Strip,” a source close to the administration said.
Unfriendly actions towards friends, and silly words for enemies. Mark Steyn poked fun at Obama’s statement that North Korea’s nuclear explosions and missiles will “not find international acceptance.” Steyn: As the comedian Andy Borowitz put it, “President Obama said that the United States was prepared to respond to the threat with ‘the strongest possible adjectives.’ Later in the day, Defense Secretary Robert Gates called the North Korean nuclear test ‘supercilious and jejune.’”
In other news, President Obama has pledged to learn about the existence and functions of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) by the end of the year. Yes indeed, the re-branding of America seems to be just about complete. What is that “tick-tick-tick” we hear just over the horizon?