Obama’s foreign policy

I understand the new Obama administration is very light on foreign relations experience. But surely somebody at the White House must have some experience. In less than two months Obama has managed to:

Insult our oldest and closest ally, Great Britain.

Threaten a trade war with the European Union and Canada.

Allow threats from Russia to place bombers in Cuba and Venezuela to go unanswered.

Allow threats from North Korea to test intercontinental ballistic missiles to go unanswered.

Abrogate sections of the NAFTA treaty with Mexico and get them to impose tariffs.

And we don’t even want to think about what’s going on with Iran. The Obama administration has managed to do one thing though. They have really made me an advocate for “hope and change” — quick, before it’s too late.

Mike Thompson
Sibley

Comments

[Engineer]

solomon
If Briton is not our oldest ally, it is surely our closest and most reliable. And spin it as you will, our administration did insult them. There have been many years since WWII during which it would be difficult to say that France has been a full fledged ally. As to "planned missiles in Poland and the Czech Republic", what was planned was a missile defense system, not the same thing as offensive missiles.

[solomon]

If my reading of history is correct, France is our oldest ally.

Great Britian is our close ally but also our largest foreign investor.

Whisperer did an excellent job of correcting the letter writer on everything else.

..."that oughta make those Muslim nations absolutly love us!"-El Mon Kee

Keep those priorities straight, you bigot.

[mike d]

Maybe it's because he is too busy filling out his flippin NCAA bracket. This guy is starting to make GWB look good. Someone might want to point out that when you are on the national stage, you might want to just say - "I think this tournament (or Superbowl) is good for America and I hope it's a good game". Is that so hard?

[Kee]

Yep he is an absolute Messiah, just the other day his AG announced that some of the terrorists held at Gitmo would be released in the US, that oughta make those Muslim nations absolutlely love us!

And shoot since good old Bill and his Pal Jimma Carter gave nukes to Korea, no big deal we can absolutely can count on them not to give us any trouble at all!

And hey you have to love the Neville Chamberlin policy with Iran, no doubt any day now the Messiah and the Mullahs will sing a piece of paper claiming absolute friendship for ever!

Then the members of the whackdom can join hands and dance around Maypoles singing "I Would Like to Buy the World a Coke"!.

God save us.

[JayhawkinMO]

Thompson dragged many red herrings around without any sound reasoning behind them as clearly illustrated by Whispering. And then NoNiceGuy beats BudRog with an airhead conservative comment. Nothing to add to Whisperings comments... KUDOS!!!

[NoMoreMrNiceGuy]

Of course if you are not a Teamster then off with your head. Typical liberal gangbanging ignorance.

[whispering_to_kc]

$40/bbl oil is stalling "what’s going on with Iran".

Unfortunately, $40/bbl oil conflicted with the hopes of Bush's friends in Houston and Riyadh.

Let's hope Obama isn't "pallin' around" with the real terrorists - the ones in Stetsons and keffiyeh - that Bush was holding hands with.

[whispering_to_kc]

The Obama administration hasn't "insulted" GB.

The rightwing press (and Thompson in this space) tried to use the "Churchill bust return" for political fodder and create an "insult dustup" but, once beyond a friendly rightwing audience, the attempt fizzled.

Winnie was on loan to the Bush White House and once Bush left town, Winnie was returned to the British ambassador's residence. Winnie's replacement (Lincoln) was a better choice anyway.

There have been no threats of a trade war with the EU and Canada.

Thompson is guilty of hyperbole over the Congressionally proposed "buy American" restrictions in the stimulus bill and its bad overseas press.

The Russians haven't threatened to place bombers in Cuba or Venezuela.

A senior Russian military officer declared, in only the Russian media (Interfax), that offers had been made for use of airbase facilities in both countries but nothing further has been publicly acknowledged. Venezuela says this is all news to them; their constitution prohibits foreign military bases and they have no existing suitable facilities.

Recent Russian moves are pushback from old Bush policies: boosted US Navy Black Sea patrols and planned missiles in Poland and the Czech Republic.

The Russians based (temporarily) a pair of Blackjack bombers in Venezuela last year and staged naval maneuvers in the area but the Bush administration brushed it off as only "show". Regular Russian long range bomber patrols were resumed in 2007 after a 15 year hiatus. That should all be of more concern than fuzzy Russian airbase offers but Thompson is oddly silent on those matters.

North Korean ballistic missiles? They tested their first one in 1998, the last one in 2006. Diplomats are trying to pressure NK to shut their program down and the Japanese are preparing ballistic missile interceptors to greet "Dear Leader" if he lights one off successfully. That's an "answer".

Mexico is retaliating against the new Obama DOT for closing up the "Bush Mexican Trucker Program". The new Mexican tariffs were crafted to hurt their consumers least while directing the maximum hurt at key members of our Congress. In the middle of a raging domestic drug war, you'd think the Mexicans would have better things to do than boost taxes on California almonds. Sillier yet, since those almonds were produced with Mexican labor.

It might be the dream of every neocon fruitcake like Thompson to open our borders and highways up to Mexican trucks and boost their personal investment portfolios but it's not my notion of a good idea. We have no shortage of American truck drivers currently and the average pay is nothing to brag about. If nothing else, open borders should be an anathema to rightwingers concerned over drugs, illegal aliens and border security.

The Mexican trucker program was only designed to replace "overpaid" American drivers ($40000/year) with more cost effective Mexicans ($10000/year). Even if it doesn't matter to you if your Teamster neighbor loses his job to a Mexican, it should matter that the American drivers we currently share the roads with are subject to safety regs designed to see us all home each night in one piece while Mexican drivers fresh across the border are free of those "encumbrances".

The KC Star had a nice investigative piece on Mexican drivers a couple of years ago but I can't find a record of it. Mexican drivers to replace American Teamsters is a favorite project of the WSJ and Wall Street. You'd think the NY boys had done enough harm to America without going for more.

At some point, reason has to return and business and Wall Street has to take the back seat for a while. You're only selling ropes to Lenin as fast as you can ring the register and count the shekels.