View of the Department of State in Washington, DC. (Kevin Lamarque/courtesy Reuters)
New York Times: Some U.S. Diplomats Stage Quiet Revolt Amid Tensions With Trump
WASHINGTON — As President Trump strains alliances and relationships around the world, some of the nation’s top career diplomats are breaking publicly with him, in what amounts to a quiet revolt by a cadre of public servants known for their professional discretion.
On Monday, the chargé d’affaires at the American Embassy in Beijing, David H. Rank, announced his resignation after telling his staff he could not defend the Trump administration’s decision to withdraw from the Paris climate accord.
A day earlier, the acting ambassador to Britain, Lewis A. Lukens, tweeted his support of London’s mayor, Sadiq Khan, in the wake of a deadly terrorist attack there. On Sunday morning, President Trump had picked a fight with the mayor on Twitter.
Last month, the ambassador to Qatar, Dana Shell Smith, reacted to Mr. Trump’s dismissal of the F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, by tweeting, “Increasingly difficult to wake up overseas to news from home, knowing I will spend today explaining our democracy and institutions.”
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WNU Editor: I have been out of the diplomatic game for almost 25 years .... but when I was in it I always found most U.S. and Western diplomats to be personally liberal/progressive on social issues, economics, and the role of government. And that was then! So am I surprised that there is a revolt among these diplomats against the Trump administration today .... not really. And I am also willing to bet that what really rankles the U.S. diplomatic corp is not the policy differences .... though that is a problem for almost all of them .... but the proposed massive cuts in their budgets. For those who may not know .... the life for a senior Western diplomat is an incredibly privileged one .... it is a culture of entitlement and being incredibly spoiled .... and if you play with their budgets and their expectations on what they can do with that money .... you can take this to the bank .... they go crazy.
5 comments:
I've long known that there is something incredibly wrong with the US diplomatic corps. This further confirms what I have long thought.
I'm also aware of the incredibly privileged lifestyle these people lead and the extreme resentment it breeds among the residents of the countries where they are stationed undermining their ability to actually conduct serious diplomacy. As such, these people have never been serious about diplomacy or representing American interests and are more interested in maintaining the privileged lifestyle that even few successful American business personnel who at least earned their wealth can ever expect to lead even at the expense of American interests. It's long past time for president Trump or someone to clean house and get these people out. If they resign, all the better we can begin replacing them with true American patriots who will represent American interests and advance American diplomacy.
As it stands right now, America is the most hated country on the planet. The actions by these people have done more damage over many long years than DJT has or ever could do. "Paris Climate Accord" and the firing of James Comey!??! Seriously?!!? The firing of Mr. Comey is an internal affair and not something diplomat should have to explain to a foreign representative or should be expected to. As for the so called "Paris Climate Accord," since no one was going to follow it anyway and it was/is hamstringing the US getting out of this would seem a no brainer and to people in the countries that matter and on the issues that really matter this is small in the grand scheme of things. For a diplomat to allow themselves to get distracted on such things is ridiculous. These people are showing themselves to be either unserious people or seriously incompetent.
As for Trump diplomacy, this has achieved better relations with both Russia and China. China is taking or at least talking about taking baby steps to help us with North Korea and the same for Russia. While there is still much improvement that needs to be made and there is still much that can go wrong. For example, the ramifications of upsetting very careful and meticulous diplomatic efforts with Russia solely for partisan political reasons will be felt in a major way that is not good. Fortunately the Russians still seem willing to negotiate. Let's hope this run of good fortune continues until sanity in the US government can be restored or found. The improvement in this area initiated by team Trump offer us at least a ray of hope.
YC; I disagree with much of what you post here. Actually I disagree with most of what you post here but good debate is always appreciated.:-) In this case, I'm asking the same questions you seem to be. Where were these people when the US and its "allies" foolishly knocked over Libya? Where were these people when the US foolishly chose to back the "rebels" in Syria's Civil War? Where were these people during the endless "color revolutions" in Russia's near abroad? Where were these people when the US government foolishly chose to back the coup in Ukraine? Where were these people when the US recklessly imposed sanctions on Russia? The last two decisions being, I believe, the dumbest decisions ever made by a major world power.
The craziness does not seem just limited to the United States diplomatic corps but to the "west" as a whole. Now should some of these people start resigning, FOOD RIDDANCE and PLEASE DON' COME BACK!! BE GONE FROM US FOREVER!!
Cut the budget and make them get real jobs where the CEO is in charge and if you revolt you are fired for insubordination.
Crazy did someone say crazzy
Should fire them all and let all of them re apply. If they have done a good job in the past and kept their mouths shut they have nothing to worry about.
If they like show boating they can join Jaber's keyboard brigade (nothing more entertaining than to see old people getting more and more gungho as they step ever closer to the nursing home )
Young Communist the poser!
If YC got in power he would do what Mao, Chavez, the Castors and Pol Pot did.
Live the high life on other people's backs.
Wait that is not right. Like the others he would do it on a pile of corpses.
YC is no different than Hillary except he has a snake between his legs and he lives in his mommy's basement in Italy. The shiftless man is not marriageable material.
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