It is difficult to imagine appointing individuals with little or no personal diplomacy to major diplomatic posts; however, that difficulty is easily overcome when one realizes that it is the Obama administration doing the appointing.A case in point is U.S. United Nations Ambassador Samantha Power. Not only does Ms. Power not even show up for some critical deliberations at the U.N., she is well known for "shooting from the mouth"in not-so-diplomatic ways. Last Wednesday. at the U.N. Association for the United States Global Leadership Awards, the person chosen to represent this country on a very international stage said:
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| AMBASSADOR SAMANTHA POWER |
It is unlikely that Ms. Power has any recollections of "Hanoi Jane" visiting North Vietnamese anti-aircraft installations in 1972, as Power would have barely been two years of age at the time. Be that as it may, in a few short words, Samantha Power managed to offend just about every Vietnam veteran in the U.S.
Samantha Power has come a long way in a remarkably short period of time. Educated at Yale, the Irish-born Power only received her Harvard law degree in 1999; nevertheless, her notoriety for ill-advised words has long preceded her. During the 2008 Obama campaign, for example, she had to be shuffled off center stage by Obama's handlers for saying of Hillary Clinton that she was "...a monster whose modus operandi is deceit." Despite that statement and despite Clinton's service as Obama's secretary of state, Power was brought out of mothballs, given a variety of lesser Obama administration posts and somehow eventually nominated and appointed as U.N. ambassador.
Barely out of law school and using her directorship of an appendage of the Kennedy School of Government for making a name for herself as a leading thinker against genocide, Power did not spare her adopted country, lambasting in public statements in 2003 America's foreign policy record:
"American Foreign Policy needs a force reckoning. We should open the files and acknowledge the force of a mantra we have spent in the last decade promoting in Guatemala, South Africa and Yugoslavia...Instituting a doctrine of the 'mea culpa' would enhance our credibility by showing that American decision-makers do not endorse the policies of their predecessors."
Continuing with her train of thought, Ms. Power referred to German Chancellor Wily Brandt's famous visit to the Warsaw ghetto, during which he went down on bended-knee to emphasize German contrition for the Holocaust. In a not-so-veiled allusion that American transgressions were on a par with those of the Nazis, our present U.N. ambassador suggested, because of its foreign policy, America might want to consider doing the same.
Earlier statements concerning Israel were indicative of Power's thinking concerning the Middle East. In 2002, she suggested that it would be worthwhile for the United States to employ its forces to protect the Palestinians from the Israeli Defense Forces. Furthermore, she was on record as stating that military aid to Israel should be suspended and funds previously committed to Israel should be devoted to the support of a Palestinian state.
Once engaged in the confirmation process for her ambassadorial post, Power changed her tune and became pro-Israel, indicating to skeptical senators that she would be a consummate defender of the Jewish state. Her about face did the trick; and, since her appointment earlier this year, Power has generally adhered to a pro-Israeli line. But, with recent developments in the Obama administration's Middle Eastern policy, Ms. Power may bear watching as a bellwether of things to come.
Samantha Power is, for all practical purposes, a nonentity. She is far from being the equivalent of previous ambassadors to the U.N., such as Adlai Stevenson, Daniel Moyniham, Jeane Kirkpatrick, Madeleine Albright and John Bolton. Nonetheless, she is an exemplar of the kinds of individuals that our president likes to surround himself with. Significantly, Power is married to "regulatory czar" Cass Sunstein, a University of Chicago law professor, who has questioned the absolute nature of free speech as guaranteed by the 1st Amendment to the U.S. Constitution; and, in one of his zanier statements, suggested that animals should be entitled to bring suit in the U.S. legal system. One cannot imagine a couple being more suited for one another.
It is no secret that American foreign policy is a complete and utter disaster, and this is especially true in the Middle East. From Libya and Syria to Egypt, America has gone from debacle to debacle. Arab countries thought previously to be in the American camp are now scrambling to find alternative means of security. Baffled by the infamous Obama "red line" and most recently by a naive effort to "befriend" the Islamic Republic of Iran, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Jordan and the Emirates are no longer looking to Washington for leadership, because, obviously, leadership is not there.
Recently, we have, perhaps, witnessed a harbinger of things to come when an unnamed official in the Obama administration confirmed in what, for all practical purposes was a "leak," that a strike on Hezbollah-bound missiles and war materiel near Latakia in Syria was carried out by the Israeli Air Force.
Obviously dismayed by the inconsistency of America's policy moves, Israel, probably our only remaining friend in the troubled region, is pondering what the future might hold. Finally breaking his silence on what Secretary of State John Kerry is up to in Geneva, Benjamin Netanyahu has spoken out that Geneva is shaping up as "...the deal of the century for Iran" and "...a very bad deal for peace." As for the Iranian atomic program, the Israeli prime minister bemoaned the likelihood that, in return for the lifting of economic sanctions against Iran, it would appear that the Iranians will not give up even a single centrifuge.
And so, it is on this note that we come back to Samantha Power. Is the nebulous thought of Ambassador Power representative of fuzzy-minded logicians deeper in the administration? Might there be a "stealth anti-Israel" mindset embedded in the Obama White House? These questions will be considered in a follow-up in a subsequent posting on Two for Texas.
Deo vindice!
May God bless Texas, and may the Lone Star State remain forever red!
Samantha Power has come a long way in a remarkably short period of time. Educated at Yale, the Irish-born Power only received her Harvard law degree in 1999; nevertheless, her notoriety for ill-advised words has long preceded her. During the 2008 Obama campaign, for example, she had to be shuffled off center stage by Obama's handlers for saying of Hillary Clinton that she was "...a monster whose modus operandi is deceit." Despite that statement and despite Clinton's service as Obama's secretary of state, Power was brought out of mothballs, given a variety of lesser Obama administration posts and somehow eventually nominated and appointed as U.N. ambassador.
Barely out of law school and using her directorship of an appendage of the Kennedy School of Government for making a name for herself as a leading thinker against genocide, Power did not spare her adopted country, lambasting in public statements in 2003 America's foreign policy record:
"American Foreign Policy needs a force reckoning. We should open the files and acknowledge the force of a mantra we have spent in the last decade promoting in Guatemala, South Africa and Yugoslavia...Instituting a doctrine of the 'mea culpa' would enhance our credibility by showing that American decision-makers do not endorse the policies of their predecessors."
Continuing with her train of thought, Ms. Power referred to German Chancellor Wily Brandt's famous visit to the Warsaw ghetto, during which he went down on bended-knee to emphasize German contrition for the Holocaust. In a not-so-veiled allusion that American transgressions were on a par with those of the Nazis, our present U.N. ambassador suggested, because of its foreign policy, America might want to consider doing the same.
Earlier statements concerning Israel were indicative of Power's thinking concerning the Middle East. In 2002, she suggested that it would be worthwhile for the United States to employ its forces to protect the Palestinians from the Israeli Defense Forces. Furthermore, she was on record as stating that military aid to Israel should be suspended and funds previously committed to Israel should be devoted to the support of a Palestinian state.
Once engaged in the confirmation process for her ambassadorial post, Power changed her tune and became pro-Israel, indicating to skeptical senators that she would be a consummate defender of the Jewish state. Her about face did the trick; and, since her appointment earlier this year, Power has generally adhered to a pro-Israeli line. But, with recent developments in the Obama administration's Middle Eastern policy, Ms. Power may bear watching as a bellwether of things to come.
Samantha Power is, for all practical purposes, a nonentity. She is far from being the equivalent of previous ambassadors to the U.N., such as Adlai Stevenson, Daniel Moyniham, Jeane Kirkpatrick, Madeleine Albright and John Bolton. Nonetheless, she is an exemplar of the kinds of individuals that our president likes to surround himself with. Significantly, Power is married to "regulatory czar" Cass Sunstein, a University of Chicago law professor, who has questioned the absolute nature of free speech as guaranteed by the 1st Amendment to the U.S. Constitution; and, in one of his zanier statements, suggested that animals should be entitled to bring suit in the U.S. legal system. One cannot imagine a couple being more suited for one another.
It is no secret that American foreign policy is a complete and utter disaster, and this is especially true in the Middle East. From Libya and Syria to Egypt, America has gone from debacle to debacle. Arab countries thought previously to be in the American camp are now scrambling to find alternative means of security. Baffled by the infamous Obama "red line" and most recently by a naive effort to "befriend" the Islamic Republic of Iran, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Jordan and the Emirates are no longer looking to Washington for leadership, because, obviously, leadership is not there.
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| IS THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION ISOLATING ISRAEL? |
Recently, we have, perhaps, witnessed a harbinger of things to come when an unnamed official in the Obama administration confirmed in what, for all practical purposes was a "leak," that a strike on Hezbollah-bound missiles and war materiel near Latakia in Syria was carried out by the Israeli Air Force.
Obviously dismayed by the inconsistency of America's policy moves, Israel, probably our only remaining friend in the troubled region, is pondering what the future might hold. Finally breaking his silence on what Secretary of State John Kerry is up to in Geneva, Benjamin Netanyahu has spoken out that Geneva is shaping up as "...the deal of the century for Iran" and "...a very bad deal for peace." As for the Iranian atomic program, the Israeli prime minister bemoaned the likelihood that, in return for the lifting of economic sanctions against Iran, it would appear that the Iranians will not give up even a single centrifuge.
And so, it is on this note that we come back to Samantha Power. Is the nebulous thought of Ambassador Power representative of fuzzy-minded logicians deeper in the administration? Might there be a "stealth anti-Israel" mindset embedded in the Obama White House? These questions will be considered in a follow-up in a subsequent posting on Two for Texas.
Deo vindice!
May God bless Texas, and may the Lone Star State remain forever red!
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