Many foreign diplomacy experts and retired government officials are beginning to see the results of what they predicted years ago after the end of the cold war. With the fall of the Soviet Union America has run roughshod over the middle east and the art of diplomacy has been thrown out the window. In favor of big guns, sophisticated technology, and shoot first ask questions later. The Barack Obama administration has the unenviable task of sifting through the rubble.
U.S. diplomacy hit its all time low under the Bush administration. 9/11 was the perfect excuse for Dick Cheney, the Bush administration, and Great Britain to seize Iraqi oil fields under the pretense of Saddam being connected to 9/11. The truth was that Saddam and Bin Laden despised each other and all intelligence showed that Saddam was not connected. Still Bush continued to beat the war drum by mentioning 9/11 and Saddam in the same sentence for months and in the end 45% of the public started to believe it .That's called roughshod diplomacy.
The proclivity to use force during the Bush administration without exit strategies or well thought out diplomacy have left the U.S. with several mini Vietnams through out the middle east. The Obama administration's refusal to place sanctions on Israel over further development in Gaza or bring them to task on human right's violations has made things worse for the United States when foreign diplomacy is discussed with arab countries.
Everyone would agree that Obama is going through a learning curve on foreign diplomacy. The main players in Washington are aware of that fact so they are using hit and run political tactics to force his hand on key decisions and keep him off balance. The Obama administration is quite aware of this as is evident by Obama's long and deliberate planning on the Afghanistan surge. The good thing is that he's surrounded himself with an excellent staff and he's a quick learner, if Republican's ever give him enough breathing room to step back and see the whole picture he has the potential to clean up the whole mess in the middle east.
This take on foreign policy has little to do with party affiliations. George Bush Sr. had an excellent record in foreign policy. He showed enough content of character after the fall of the Soviet Union at the end of the Cold War to not force democracy on developing nations. He also followed excellent judgement in not going after Saddam at the end of "Desert Storm" and risk getting the U.S. bogged down in a war we could not win.
The real story is all the secret files that were created after the Bush administration's "War on Terror". Now Barack Obama has the complicated task of healing a foreign diplomacy strategy without appearing soft on terror. The Republican strategy is simple, blame all the blowback from the Bush administration's "War on Terror" on Obama and win some seats in Congress in 2010.
The fact of the matter is Abdul Mutallab was trained in Yemen. During the Bush administration the U.S. insisted that Yemen use 200 U.S. trainers for the Yemeni Army, whose deployment was announced January 3, 2002 by Dick Cheney. On April 11 Yemen leaders told al-Jazeera: “As for the American anti-terror security experts and technical equipment, it is not we who requested them. It is the U.S. government that insisted". Poor planning and disregards for blowback in the whole strategy has caused a whole new generation of al-qaeda recruits to pop up all over.
Like Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said recently "the United States still has not learned from the mistakes they have made in the past". Keep in mind that when Ahmadinejad speaks a lot of Arab leaders and extremists listen. Did the Bush administration not realize that Iran's obtaining of secret files summarizing the CIA and MI6 orchestrated coup d'etat in 1953 is a "must read" for middle eastern regimes? That this information has been a "required reading" in almost every political science class from Iraq to Pakistan is proof enough. They have the play book, it's time to write a new chapter.
How many times do we have to see American troops go into the middle east region with guns blazing with luke warm support from arab leaders. While al-Qaeda sits back and waits until after the smoke clears to exploit ethnic divisions, provoke a bloody anti-U.S. reaction and then recruit young extremists. The cycle of violence is the whole point: use America's proclivity for force to split the world into Muslims on the one hand and pro-U.S. forces on the other. This is the al-Qaeda strategy. So far it has worked very well from Afghanistan to Yemen. The only way the Bush devised "War on Terror" would work is if you wiped everybody out. Its weakness is there were no exit strategies and the diplomacy play book has been seen too many times in the middle east to work anymore.
So that leads us to Barack Obama's ace in the hole and what he is gambling his whole foreign diplomacy initiative on for the future and what keeps Dick Cheney up all night. The one piece to the puzzle that if played right will be the source for endless embarrassment for the Bush administration and all the Republicans currently trying to ride the Bush terrorism strategy coattails.
The Obama administration rewrote the Classified National Security Information procedures devised by the Bush administration. This is information labelled with a classification by the government (i.e. Top Secret,Secret,Classified). Many historians and legal experts are salivating at the chance to get a look at documents left over from the "War on Terror". Without going into too much detail the one paragraph that stands out the most in the Obama administrations new Classified National Security Information procedures is this one.
Information originated by the incumbent President or the incumbent Vice President; the incumbent President's White House Staff or the incumbent Vice President's Staff; committees, commissions, or boards appointed by the incumbent President; or other entities within the Executive Office of the President that solely advise and assist the incumbent President is exempted from the provisions of paragraph (a) of this section. However, the Archivist shall have the authority to review, downgrade, and declassify papers or records of former Presidents and Vice Presidents under the control of the Archivist pursuant to 44 U.S.C. 2107, 2111, 2111 note, or 2203. Review procedures developed by the Archivist shall provide for consultation with agencies having primary subject matter interest and shall be consistent with the provisions of applicable laws or lawful agreements that pertain to the respective Presidential papers or records. Agencies with primary subject matter interest shall be notified promptly of the Archivist's decision. Any final decision by the Archivist may be appealed by the requester or an agency to the Panel. The information shall remain classified pending a prompt decision on the appeal.
It looks like this says that if the Obama administration wants to look at all those top secret files from the Bush administration they will be able to, provided the Archivist approves it of course. Dick Cheney has to be livid right now. Many have questioned whether Geneva War Crimes were committed at Guantanamo. What if an American soldier is captured by the enemy?
Republicans from the Bush administration are rushing to get their memoirs out to take advantage of the increased exposure they are sure to get as the leaks start to come out. They also want to put their spin on classified information before it comes because it may be viewed as negative by the public. Here's a look at the line up.
-
Karl Rove
Former deputy White House chief of staff's book Courage and Consequence will be published on 9 March by Simon and Schuster's Threshold Editions, a conservative imprint. Deal reported by US media at $2m -
Laura Bush
Memoir due in the spring from Scribner. Deal may be worth more than her husband's. US media put it at $8m -
George W Bush
Autobiography, tentatively titled Decision Points, to be published by Crown. Deal estimated at $7m. -
Dick Cheney
Scheduled for spring 2011. The former vice-president shares publisher with Rove. Deal estimated at $2m
Comments
Obama's approval is on the way down and Cheney's is on the way up. The press will no longer be able to manipulate the people's opinion regarding people like Cheney and Palin.
Obama should be afraid of the American people's opinion of him.
58% of the American public want Muttallab to be waterboarded, regardles of what the press thinks.
For two years, Obama has been attacking Cheney and now it's Cheney's turn: if you live by the Cheney, you die by the Cheney.
Thank you for your article, Clifford; I appreciate your opinion. Please continue sharing your great writing with us.
Mike
Great article. Are you sure that you're a conservative? Your conservative buddies aren't going to like this article very much. I would have also mentioned that Cheney wants to re-write history so that U.S. and world opinion will not have such a negative view of him and GW. Cheney was and is a coward, (5 deferments during Vietnmam) and he is an illegal war profiteer. He and his boyz have made unknown millions off of Haliburton's no-bid contracts. Plus the creation of his own private army (Blackhorse) should be enough alone to put his tired ass in prison. Yeah I said it.
As far as GW is concerned, he will never measure up to his father's success or Jebs. GW was an intellectual midget who should have never been elected President of a country. Maybe President of the local VFW. Keep up the good writing man. I knew you had it in you. GB
Silly Clifford! You are as stupid as the one cell brain obuma has.
DuHHHHHH!!!!!! have you ever wondered why obum hasn't sanctioned Israel, and why he never will????
..... because the Jews from all over the world flock there, to enrich the Holy Land with their great brain power.
Einstein certainly wasn't black. Hurts doesn't it!
Your bitterness is sooooooo apparent. LIVE WITH IT!!!!!!!
If the Jews have such high IQs why is it they can't make it on their own. Why have they been expelled from over 100 countries throughout history.
Israeli exellence of Israeli technology is only matched by America's.
It's got nothing to do with being expelled.
There is worldwide anti semitism, due to jealousy that's all.
Ha!
Just because Israel is a young democracy,does not mean she cannot make it on her own.
o"bum has had more opportunities to sanction Israel in the last year, than any US President ever previously could,except Jimmy carter.
obum has a good command of public opinion after his inauguration and garnered even more support after seizing the Nobel Prize. He was on a humanitarian roll, presenting him with a unique opportunity to take advantage of this moment, and hold Israel responsible for crimes against humanity, an unprecedated view, shared by the wide majority of world opinion.
The reason he passed on this, was not because he changed his view, but because he was advised by clever people, that sanctioning Israel would backfire on his silly azzz, with extremely grave consequences.
Cheney has done more to help his country than Obama will ever do for the simple fact that Obama hates this country and Cheney loves it.
“We are 5 days away from fundamentally transforming the United States of America.”
BHO
www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cqN4NIEtOY
You do not "fundamentally transform" that which you love.
Lavon Affair says: Why have they been expelled from over 100 countries throughout history.
They have been expelled BECAUSE OF PEOPLE LIKE YOU!
Israel is nothing without Europe and US backing it. It's high-time the US stops sending billions to a country who has no loyalty to the US whatsoever other than what they can get out of it. It's also time to stop wasting brave American men and women's lives or seeing them maimed for Israel's wars.
This is the most idiotic article I have read. Learning curve?!?! If you put your 3 year old behind the wheel of your SUV, would he have a learning curve while driving on the Interstate?
You are lost man. Hang up your keyboard and find another profession. You AND Obama are idiots.
It's ironic that you slam "obuma" yet obuma is also known as the first Jewish president because of all the Jewish members in his cabinet.
As lovely as America and the American people are, Israel can manage without her.
The abundance of Jewish brain power in tecnology and especially in Science, has enriched Israel's capacity for sufficience.
There's no point in talking about hypothetical fantasies like Israel going down the drain, because that has not nhappened yet.
On the contrary,eventhough their education system stinks, there are genius Jews from all over the world, who immigrate to Israel, and use their genius in science,technology and business to advance and enrich her self sufficiency.
The Israelis could not make it on their own, but there are literally thousands of great jewish brains streaming back to their homeland of Israel, and applying their scientific brainpower to the most modern techological and scientific breakthroughs of this young century.
A large portion of Jewish personel in the obum administration does not a great government make.
The politicians are only as great as the scientific and technological genius that holds it hostage.
If the Genius wants to run with the GOP, that's fine!
I think the entire American public is afraid of Obama now -- not of him, personally, but of the power he has over all our lives and the various roads he is traveling. But I do agree with Mike -- Obama should be running scared of the entire American public's opinion polls as well!
anti-semitism is a disease you catch from zionist khazars.
all your egos will be your own downfall. no one want peace because they are filled with pride and self interest -- until the flood comes. as it was in the days of noah so it will be in the end - whether you are a jew or a gentile --it matters not.
LOL...what a fool believes he sees....
Ecellent tune by the Doobie Brothers in 1979 "roy"
This article was about the unethical tactics of Bush and Cheney, why would you bring Obama into this, he is the one who will save us. We have a wonderful President...
Molly Williams says: Obumbler is the one who will save us. We have a wonderful President...
OMFG!!!!! There are STILL people who really believe that enough to type it? Now THAT is scary!
My dog sleeps about 20 hours a day. He has his food prepared for him. He can eat whenever he wants, 24/7/365. His meals are provided at no cost to him. He visits the Dr. once a year for his checkup, and again during the year if any medical needs arise.
For this he pays nothing, and nothing is required of him. He lives in a nice neighborhood in a house that is much larger than he needs, but he is not required to do any upkeep. If he makes a mess, someone else cleans it up. He has his choice of luxurious places to sleep.
He receives these accommodations absolutely free. He's living like a king, and has absolutely no expenses whatsoever. All of his costs are picked up by others who go out and earn a living every day.
I was just thinking about all this, and suddenly it hit me like a brick in the head --
Holy smoke, my dog's an Obama Democrat!
forgive me, but your piece was right out of Obama's mouth.
"Everyone would agree that Obama is going through a learning curve on foreign diplomacy." because obama has a learning curve don't expect big things from him, eh?
"The main players in Washington are aware of that fact so they are using hit and run political tactics to force his hand on key decisions and keep him off balance."
Obama is the commander in chief. As such, he needs to make key decisions and quickly. George Bush quickly had to become a wartime president after 9/11, and did not have the luxury of spending endless hours deciding what to do. Now it is Obama's turn. If Obama can't handle it, then he should surrender the office to someone who can.
Cheney why don't you do what you do best shoot a deer and please don't make a mistake and instead shoot a friend. Oh you did that already. Just shut the f up.
American soldiers are being killed and maimed in Afganistan and Iraq. Since when is Israel responsible for that?
Lavon- check your facts! Bin Laden and Ahmadinijad are the ones terrorising your phat azz.
Wasn't Dick Cheney hiding in his bunker while President Bush declared "Mission Accomplished"? The Bush/Cheney regime created this mess. Instead of concentrating on Al Queda and their protectors, the Taliban, most of the war resources were directed at Iraq. Sadam Hussein viewed both as enemies, and would always come down hard whenever Al Queda or the Taliban attempted to establish a presence in Iraq. I assume that Cheney wanted his so-called “blind trust” investments in Halliburton to do well at the expense of our soldiers. Where is Halliburton based today? Halliburton moved its corporate headquarters from Houston to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.
With a name like "Sal" you probably are a fat slob but we'll really never know will we doofus so keep being a keyboard warrior geek. You wouldn't understand facts if it bit you on your arse.
Whatever Cheney was doing in his bunker is a damn sight better than what that Muslim retard obummer is doing, or rather NOT doing now.
At least Cheney didn't hide behind an undeserving peace prize on the pretext that he will achieve more for peace than Bush.
What a fake MORON obummer is.
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