Russia and China Thumb Their Noses At Sanctions, But Not Our Good Friend France
The United States through the years has always had the back of the French. When the going got tough, the United States was always there to help out. These days, while President Obama tries to get Russia and China to climb on board the sanctions train to Iran, with little tangible success, French President Nicolas Sarkozy has jumped in to bridge the gap. Viva la France!
President Obama said today that while he does not have the full support of the international community (an understatement to say the least), the United States and France are "inseparable" in their resolve for sanctions. How the once mighty United States has fallen to think that France has come to our rescue while the other world powers (we are, for the time being the only superpower) ignore our wishes.
The Russian-U.S. Negotiations Over Sanctions
President Obama took missile defense in Eastern Europe off of the table to appease Russia in the hopes that they would sign on to tough sanctions against Iran. What did we get? Nada.
President Obama has agreed to the framework of START (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty), which on its surface appears to be fairly one-sided in Russia's favor. The brunt of the nuclear cutting, and the types of weapons and delivery systems to be cut, appears to fall on the United States. Is START in the best interests of the United States, or is it yet another attempt at a quid pro quo aimed at getting the Russian's to sign on to tough sanctions? The Senate,will require a two thirds majority to allow this treaty to be put in place, so there is hope that non-appeasing heads will prevail.
The French Connection
Today in Washington President Obama stated that he would like to have sanctions in place on Iran in weeks rather than months. This statement came months after the December 31, 2009 deadline that President Obama gave to Iran to agree to the uranium enrichment deal or else. The only action in the new year has been on the health care.
One can only wonder that had the President spent one tenth the effort on Iran that he spent on health care reform, some positive action would have taken place by now. Instead our allies ignore our wishes and Iran is emboldened. And we have health care.
These are the statements that Obama and Sarkozy made today:
Obama: "Do we have unanimity in the international community? Not yet. And that's something that we have to work on."
Sarkozy: "Iran cannot continue its mad race. The time has come to take decisions."
Obama: "The door remains open if the Iranians choose to walk though it."
Obama: "My hope is that we are going to get this done this spring. So I'm not interested in waiting months for a sanctions regime to be in place. I'm interested in seeing that regime in place in weeks."
We shall see.
Photo courtesy of CNN.
Comments
Other than the author's little "freedom nuggets" of opinion he throws in about once per paragraph, looks like USA foreign policy is headed in the right direction. Apparently logic and diplomacy aren't the author's strong points, rather conservative distrust, doubt, and disapproval talking points. Great piece, even the author's negative slant on good news can't ruin this story. The author probably hates health care reform (even though it's based on Republican ideas), the author hates any jobs bills passed (even though they were written by a Republican), and he probably hates the new offshore drilling initiative (even though "drill baby drill" was the mantra chanted at John McCain rallies in 2008). Hypocritical a little bit...??? At some point it's not about policy anymore... Don't be a tool like this guy and at least attempt to think for yourself.
The sarcastic tone toward France really isn't called for. Since Sarkozy became their President, France has dropped the obstructionist policies of the Jacques Chirac era and become much more friendly and supportive of the U.S.
If France chooses to be a responsible member of the world community (which it certainly was NOT under Chirac) and back the United States in its efforts to prevent a terrorist-sponsoring outlaw state from having nuclear weapons, then we should be grateful for their support. China and Russia are always going to do whatever they think will cause us difficulty, even if it's utterly stupid in the long run. Russia will live to regret it when a Chechen nuke by way of Tehran gets set off in a Russian city. (God forbid that happen to anyone, but if they don't help in opposing Islamic fanatics, it will.)
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