Reuters
WNU Editor: In all of my years of covering diplomacy and international relations .... I have never seen U.S. diplomacy and its relations with many of its allies and adversaries this low. Today's U.S. sanctions on Russia has destroyed diplomatic relations between the two countries for the foreseeable future .... even with President-elect Trump entering the White House. U.S. Secretary of State Kerry's speech yesterday has destroyed the White House's relations with the current Israeli government .... Relations between Obama, Netanyahu camps hit rock bottom (AP). U.S. relations with other Middle Eastern allies have also been strained over U.S. support of the Iranian nuclear deal .... and U.S. reluctance to escalate its involvement by supplying more advanced weapons to the rebels in the Syrian war. Other strained relations include the Philippines .... Philippines' Duterte 'deliberately' avoided Obama at summit (CNN). Turkey .... Erdogan accuses US, West of supporting terrorists in Syria (Al-Monitor). I would also include in this mix Egypt and the White House's past support of the Muslim Brotherhood and Egyptian President Morsi. Afghanistan and the progress of the war (or lack of). Ukraine disappointed in not getting the U.S. military and economic aid that was promised. China and the South China Sea. The U.S. and the E.U. over trade and corporate tax issues (tax on Apple and U.S. fines of major EU banks). The list of countries who have a beef with the White House is long ... and I am just touching the tip of a very large iceberg. And while it is true that in every mess both parties are responsible .... I have never seen it at this level for a U.S. administration. But here is the punchline .... even with this much wreckage and with all of these strained relations .... many in the main stream media are more worried about what President-Elect Trump would do when he is in the White House.... Why Donald Trump Keeps Dissing America’s Allies in Europe and Asia (James Kirchick, Daily Beast).
Sighhh ... I just cannot make this up.
Hopefully diplomatic relations with Russia are not destroyed "for the foreseeable future." Surely there is SOMETGING the incoming Administration can do to at least move things back in the right direction. After all he is supposed to be the man they preferred. Also, a big reason why he won the election was to improve relations with Russia. Surely one man and his supporters acting rashly cannot undermine things for the rest of us. Surely there is something his selection of Secretary of State who has strong ties to Russian leaders can do to get things moving in the right direction.
ReplyDeleteIt's sad to see carefully orchestrated diplomacy based upon prudence and sound judgment that has taken many months to get into place and just when it seemed there may be hope to have it all dashed to pieces by a man child throwing a temper tantrum and his children in adult body supporters joining him in throwing a temper tantrum because they did not get their way. Truly sad. Your sigh does not even begin to cover it.
How long do you mean by the foreseeable future? 2 years, 3 years, longer? It was always going to be a slow process any way as both parties have trust issues with one another they are going to need to work through. Just was does need to be done to restore diplomatic relations between Russia and the United States? In other words what steps can the Administration take immediately upon entering the White House?
WNU,
ReplyDeleteI strongly agree with you. This administration is worse than the Jimmy Carter one in Foreign policy...and by far. What I fear is Obama is few more days on power and can do the worse for USA and for the rest of the world too. He seems out of control.
"He seems out of control." This seems to be the case with his entire party and the media. One would think that cooler heads would prevail. I must admit I never thought they would stoop to the levels they have. I'm pretty sure Mr. Trump did not either.
ReplyDeleteAccording to the President Elect, Obama created ISIS, so that should go into the "win" column for The Kenyan Muslim Usurper:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.google.ca/amp/s/amp.cnn.com/cnn/2016/08/11/politics/donald-trump-hugh-hewitt-obama-founder-isis/index.html?client=safari
Obama has always been a hot mess.
ReplyDelete