More Jimmy Carter foreign policy
Last night I wrote about the measures that the Obama Administration is finally enacting to deal with the problems in Libya. among them was a no-fly zone to protect anti-government forces. But Russia put the kibosh on that plan since they’re on the Security Council and any action by the UN would require unanimous consent from that useless body.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov described the idea of imposing limits on Libyan air space as “superfluous” and said world powers must instead focus on fully using the sanctions that the U.N. Security Council approved over the weekend.
Of course, we all know that this administration won’t act unilaterally. They’d rather drain our own resources on useless sanctions and blockades while floating a small city off the coast of Libya than assert themselves on the world stage. So much for that new respect among nations we were promised in the 2008 presidential campaign.
And while we’re on the subject, the foreign press is beginning to notice how the US is a foreign policy eunuch. In The Telegraph, Nile Gardiner writes;
The fact that it took ten days and at least a thousand dead on the streets of Libya’s cities before President Obama finally mustered the courage to call for Muammar “mad dog” Gaddafi to step down is highly embarrassing for the world’s only superpower, and emblematic of a deer-in-the-headlights approach to world leadership. Washington seems incapable of decisive decision-making on foreign policy at the moment, a far cry from the days when it swept entire regimes from power, and defeated America’s enemies with deep-seated conviction and an unshakeable drive for victory.
Actually, it more than ten days because Gaddafi was trying to distract the world’s attention from his problems with the Gaza bloody shirt more than 14 days ago. Why not? It has worked to stir up the Palestinians in the past…for more than forty years.
The only thing missing that would mirror the Jimmy Carter way of dealing with these situations is to offer refuge to Gaddafi similar to what Carter did for Iran’s shah and Nicaragua’s Somoza so that Libyans can hate us for not turning over the despots.
Thanks to Old Trooper for one of those links.
Category: Barack Obama/Joe Biden, Foreign Policy, Terror War
“Washington seems incapable of decisive decision-making on foreign policy at the moment”. Man, those Brits, being so charitable with Ears? I mean, who could guess they’d throw in “at the moment”? This administration has not displayed any “decisive decision-making” on anything foreign, since the immaculation day.
Well, except to insist on re-installing a communist in Honduras, when his own people threw him out on his ass.
I don’t know why anyone would be surprised. Obama was a community organizer; that’s it. He is way out of his element on foreign affairs, which has been shown time and again. We had a sneek peek of things to come during the campaign, when Russia invaded Georgia. McCain came out immediately and denounced the Russian aggression. Bobo took 3 days and many meetings with at least 100 advisors before he said anything and when he did finally open his piehole, you got the most generic 2 minutes of milquetoast you could imagine. The world took notice and had already made up their mind about him before the election. Putin knew that he had found his bitch. Ahmadinnerjacket found a metrosexual suburban wimp. The rest of the world wasn’t glowing in a newfound respect for the US, like the leftist/commies are fond of saying; they were too busy laughing to say much of anything.
Who really thought that Russia would vote with us on the security council? They will control much more of the oil supply into Europe with out the Libya oil flowing. More chaos in Libya is more money in Vlad’s pocket.
…emblematic of a deer-in-the-headlights approach to world leadership.
Damn I wish I’d said that!
jpj; you are absolutely right. Russia won’t do anything to harm their own oil exports, that’s for sure.
Ya know what would help? I know this is just a crazy thought, but may if we allowed drilling in our own backyard, we wouldn’t have to rely on the benevolence of others??? I know that’s crazy talk, but I figured I would just throw it out there for shits and giggles.
There will be no drilling for domestic oil as long as any democrat has any level of control to stop it. They are the most pathologically stupid crew I have ever even heard of. Common sense in in the democrat party is an unheard of virtue.
Oil production has increased in North Dakota and Oklahoma. If we were to open the Gulf back up and start exploiting the fields in Alaska and import from Mexico and Canada we could be self supporting. Like one not so popular politician use to say “Drill baby Drill”.
Plain and simple we need to start putting troops into Libya as soon as possible. And I don’t mean some lame half-assed attempt that we have to ramp up later. We learned from the surge in Iraq. We need to start off at that level. And we need to make it known from the beginning that there will be no withdrawal timelines or cut-and-run strategies. And the American people need to know the cost up front so they don’t complain constantly about the “cost of war”.
http://www.redstate.com/blog/2011/03/01/as-the-saudi-tanks-roll-to-bahrain/
The people in Bahrain are stating to rise up against an oppressive leader. The Saudis are sending tanks to crush the rebellion. The US needs to strike NOW and not pansy ass around and wait for the UN or some other bullshit. Troops need to be dropped in Bahrain immediately to push back against the Saudis and support the freedom of the people. The Saudis have attacked the US over and over. Something needs to be done, and we need to be prepared for the long run regardless of the cost.
A buddy of mine emailed the CIA list of countries and how much oil, barrels a day, they EXPORT. We export more oil than Libya.
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2176rank.html
Check out the list. Russia is #2. We are 13th. Now, if we have an “oil” emergency, why can’t the government order the stop of oil exports from here until all refineries etc. run at capacity, then they can export what can’t be stored? Of course that will never happen. Silly for me to think it could.
Hey AC, two things about that. I admit up front it’s been awhile since I did the research, so this could be dated info, but the first issue as I understand it isn’t actually crude availability here in the US, but our ability to refine it. I don’t think we have the refinement capacity, and getting up to speed could take a decade. I believe it should be done, I’m just pointing out that having more crude doesn’t solve our immediate problem. The second thing is how keeping our exported oil here at home would I believe have the effect of raising prices in the short term because of the afore mentioned problem and the fact that our oil companies would start losing revenue from their exports that we would then have to make up at our pumps.
This is a problem that was decades in the making, it’s gonna take a while to fix, if we’re allowed to.
As for Libya? I’d let them soften each other up a little longer before doing anything. 😉
One can always count on Russia to do the exact opposite of the US.
Of course, chaos in North Africa and the Suez means the demand for Russia’s oil increases, along with prices and the expect bootlicking Putin so loves from his western European neighbors.
Its good to know that Carter 2.0 won’t act unilaterally, to you know, stop the slaughter of *hopefully* democracy seeking rebels. Cuz if there were ever a time to step in and act like Captain Kirk and not Spok, pretty much NOW would be the time.
But please, by all means The Glorious Leader should bring Hope and Change just by the Gloriousness of His Voice. . . riiiigggghhhhtttt.
Mayhaps the mooslims would just swoon if Ears would, yet again, remind them that he thinks the call to prayer is the “most beautiful” thing he’s ever heard?
As for stopping the slaughter, he didn’t, in Iran, no reason to think that, after two weeks of dithering, he’d do anything different now.