Weekly Standard: If This Is What Success Looks Like, Just Imagine Failure
The Obama administration once pointed to Yemen as the proof that the application of what it calls “smart power” works. Today, from John Zarocostas, writing for McClatchy, we learn that:
American citizens escaping Yemen, including small children and some frail elderly, are arriving exhausted in Djibouti after harrowing journeys from the besieged country …
The U.S. ambassador:
… Tom Kelly, said hundreds of Americans have arrived in Djibouti in recent days aboard foreign ships and aircraft after journeys that for some included hundreds of miles of dangerous land travel from Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, to the ports of Hodeidah and Aden.
With:
... some would-be evacuees ... left behind at the port of Aden because they had been unable to climb up rope ladders to board an Indian navy frigate from smaller boats that had ferried them to the larger ship, which had been unable to dock because of fighting in the city.
The Americans who fled Yemen were on their own after the Obama administration decided it wouldn’t be smart “to organize a rescue mission for the estimated 3,000 to 4,000 U.S. citizens in Yemen.”
WNU Editor: There are still 3 to 4 thousand Americans trapped in Yemen, and if it was any other administration, the U.S. press would have been on this story 24/7. And the weird part of this story is that many Americans have been rescued from other countries, Russia included. And while it is hard to be sympathetic to people who decided to stay even though they were repeatedly warn that it was dangerous .... the U.S. government still has an obligation to try its best to bring them back home.
3 comments:
Contrast this to the effort to get Bergdahl back.
James .... I originally wanted to make that link to Berghdahl .... it was after-all the official line of the White House ... the need to try and bring Americans back home. But I did not put it because of Berghdahl's status as a "soldier" .... which makes it complicated. But .... I do remember Grenada, and President Reagan's rational for invading the island. He sent in the marines to save American medical students .... and to bring them out safely. He was criticized for the invasion and that his primary reason was to send a message to Cuba and the Soviet Union that he "was going to be tough".... but as he mentioned later .... he would do it again to save American citizens wherever they were and if it was possible. Contrast that to today .... a completely different policy and Presidential altitude.
This is not a disaster. It is a non- event.
Judging from the polls Obama is doing well.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/other/president_obama_job_approval-1044.html
Without constant pressure, people think the economy & the world has gotten better.
The MSM is not going too apply that pressure.
Teo Leoni is shilling for Hillary and the bet goes on.
Post a Comment