Barack Obama is highly likely to receive a warm reception when he addresses the United Nations General Assembly today, whereas his predecessor in the White House was greeted with undisguised contempt and stony silence.Gardiner's post-speech reaction:
It is not hard to see why a standing ovation awaits the president at Turtle Bay. Obama’s popularity at the UN boils down essentially to his willingness to downplay American global power. He is the first American president who has made an art form out of apologizing for the United States, which he has done on numerous occasions on foreign soil, from Strasbourg to Cairo. The Obama mantra appears to be -- ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do to atone for your country. This is a message that goes down very well in a world that is still seething with anti-Americanism.
It is natural that much of the UN will embrace an American president who declines to offer strong American leadership. . .
The president scores highly at the UN for refusing to project American values and military might on the world stage, with rare exceptions like the war against the Taliban. His appeasement of Iran, his bullying of Israel, his surrender to Moscow, his call for a nuclear free world, his siding with Marxists in Honduras, his talk of a climate change deal, have all won him plaudits in the large number of UN member states where US foreign policy has traditionally been viewed with contempt.
Simply put, Barack Obama is loved at the UN because he largely fails to advance real American leadership. This is a dangerous strategy of decline that will weaken US power and make her far more vulnerable to attack.
It’s always a bad sign when a US president gets several rounds of heavy applause at the UN General Assembly, as Barack Obama did this morning in New York. Needless to say, the loudest cheers from the gathering of world leaders came when he condemned the actions of a close US ally, Israel, in continuing to build settlements in the West Bank. You can always rely on attacks on the Israelis to generate the biggest roars of approval at any meeting of the United Nations, and Obama dutifully obliged. . .See also Michael Barone in the September 23rd Washington Examiner: "Obama's time warp: The U.S. is still the bad guy"
Overall this was a staggeringly naïve speech.
(via Instapundit)
1 comment:
> have all won him plaudits in the large number of UN member states where US foreign policy has traditionally been viewed with contempt.
... because they perceive our leaders as weak-kneed little pansies who will squeal like a pig if they ever get caught actually doing something any rational, sensible individual would do under the same circumstances.
...And hence the widespread disparagement of Bush -- He was one who did not hesitate to acknowledge America's right to protect her own interests, the interests of her allies, and the cause of her political philosophies around the world.
Mind you, those dictators and wannabe dictators out there hated the USA for that, but they did respect Bush, I will guarantee you.
They still hate Obama, too (after all, he STILL REPRESENTS AMERICA, and, as long as America HAS power there is the possibility of leaders like Bush), though some of them will not say it to his face (after all, why make your contempt obvious, and prove that such foolish appeasement has no value) but one thing is for certain -- there isn't a significant world leader who has any business being in charge of a nation who respects Obama one iota.
Post a Comment