Saturday, May 2, 2015

Why U.S. Allies Are Now Waiting Out The Obama Administration

First lady Michelle Obama and President Barack Obama are greeted by King Salman as they arrive in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on Jan. 27. Reuters

Aaron David Miller, Wall Street Journal: Why U.S. Allies Saudi Arabia and Israel Are Looking Beyond Obama

As changes unfold in Saudi Arabia and Israel, it increasingly appears that Jerusalem and Riyadh may be looking beyond this administration. (We don’t care about Obama; we care about Washington, former Saudi diplomat Abdullah al-Shammari was recently quoted as saying.) It’s ironic that as the Middle East devolves and the U.S. needs friends in the region–regardless of their imperfections–relations between Washington and its two oldest allies are so strained.

There are many reasons for the upset, but the most important is Washington’s emerging relationship with Iran. And right now, it looks unlikely that the U.S. can balance relations between its new friend and its old ones.

WNU Editor: They (Israel and Saudi Arabia) are trying to treat President Obama as a lame duck .... but President Obama clearly has other ideas. I also do not believe that the next President will significantly alter U.S. foreign policy ... and if he wanted to would find that his "influence" is not as great as it use to be. U.S. allies like Saudi Arabia are also now pursuing more openly their own agenda .... and in the case of their involvement in Yemen .... did not even bother to tell the White House until after the fact.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Why was there a capital strike against FDR?

FDR bitterly complained about the capital strike. They waited him out for a decade.

"It was a "capital strike" said Roosevelt, and he ordered the Federal Bureau of Investigation to look for a criminal conspiracy (they found none). Roosevelt moved left and unleashed a rhetorical campaign"

Amity Shlaes' "The Forgotten Man" covers FDR's nostrums.

FDR was one of the original trust fund babies, but he went into politics instead of art.

We were saved from FDR by WW2. He ceased his war against private business and wound down many of his alphabet soup agencies. He could not fight the axis and have a domestic war at the same time.


Obama is just as uneducated and useless as FDR.

Unknown said...

" I also do not believe that the next President will significantly alter U.S. foreign policy"

GWB kind of said the same. He said whatever the campaign rhetoric that once a person gets into office, they get information from the government and after digesting it they would make decisions similar to his.

It is worth considering.

Unknown said...

I can't find the Bush quote.

But presidents could be considered like this

At the start of their presidency they try to implement all the partisan policies of their campaign.

As time goes on they deal with reality and their response to crisis and problems look like every other president. 1/3rd of the people accuse them of having sold out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5DruDnV78k


Socials issues are somewhat of an exception.