More liberal dissatisfaction
Marty Peretz, who was very supportive of Obama as a candidate, continues his criticism in TNR:
Obama hasn’t reset the American relationship with Russia. He was taken for a ride. Maybe his vanity won’t let him admit it. But, believe me, the Russians know they have taken him (and us) for a big ride, indeed.
Here are the facts: After Obama agreed to cancel the missile defense program for Poland and the Czech Republic, the president got Moscow to give him an inch. Maybe, they said, we’d have to move on tougher measures against Iran if Tehran doesn’t satisfy us on its nukes. “Hallelujah!” said the president and his entourage.
All of this good cheer is now over. Lavrov greeted Clinton in Moscow with the bad news: “At the current stage, all forces should be thrown at supporting the negotiating process. … Threats, sanctions and threats of pressure in the current situation, we are convinced, would be counterproductive.”
Just before Hillary arrived in Moscow, she warned that America was impatient. With whom? With the Iranians, of course. But her impatience with Tehran will be useless unless we get impatient with Russia. “We did not ask for anything today,” she said. “We reviewed the situation and where it stood, which I think was the appropriate timing for what this process entails.”
Of course, if you don’t ask, you don’t get. In fact, with the Russians, if you don’t demand and threaten a little, you get zero.
As the saying goes, once fooled, twice shy.
October 15th, 2009 at 5:15 am
This sounds about right to me — we’ve been seriously trumped by the Russians and we’re too naive to admit it. Clinton can’t admit she asked for something and not announce that she got something. The Russians have taken our measure, decided they want Iran to continue what it’s doing because that does not hurt Russian petroleum sales, and played us like a trout on a hook. Very sorry situation. F
October 15th, 2009 at 6:54 am
“Smart power” in action. Maybe we just need to swap out the batteries in the reset button.
October 15th, 2009 at 8:55 am
I think a commenter on FNC put it best when discussing what we could expect from Hillary’s trip: “When you possess a credible threat, it’s called negotiations. When you have no threat, it’s called begging.”
Obama has slashed the defense budget, cancelled the next generation of fighters, emasculated missile defense, and promised more defense cuts to come.
How’s that begging working for you Hillary?
October 15th, 2009 at 10:35 am
Peretz seems to have left a significant fact out of his article – Putin left town to visit Siberia when he knew Hillary was coming!
http://www.weeklystandard.com/weblogs/TWSFP/2009/10/another_former_president_who_h_1.asp
(Possibly he had an important City Council meeting to attend. Or maybe a ski vacation.)
Carry a big stick, and the world listens to you. Throw your stick away, and nobody important gives you the time of day.
October 15th, 2009 at 1:41 pm
Ah, the Manichean conflict of State diplomacy vs military force which has been ongoing since probably the birth of the Republic. For State, although probably less so for DoD, the use of the U.S. military anywhere in the world represents an institutional defeat for State. And there really isn’t much room for compatibility and mutual cooperation since the two cultures could hardly be more different. We are currently in an administration which views process and talking as everything and has no means of effective communication with the military. As long as Iraq remains a relatively obscure backwater for the news media, the military will be given authority for an orderly windup and withdrawl. Afghanistan is, unfortunately, the object of media scrutiny and, therefore, it is unclear whether this administration will allow an active military campaign to successfully conclude operations there.