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Prof. Niall Ferguson on Obama: A colossal failure of American foreign

The result has been a foreign-policy debacle. The president has alienated everybody: not only Mubarak's cronies in the military, but also the youthful crowds in the streets of Cairo. Whoever ultimately wins, Obama loses. …

Publish Date: 09/30/2011 6:43

http://politicalarena.org/2011/09/29/prof-niall-ferguson-on-obama-a-colossal-failure-of-american-foreign-policy/

RealClearPolitics – President's Foreign Policy Failures Increase

President Obama, like most American presidents, is lucky that the public pays little attention to foreign policy and rarely casts its votes on the basis of presidential foreign-policy performance. It required something as dramatic …

Publish Date: 09/28/2011 5:53

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2011/09/28/presidents_foreign_policy_failures_increase_111498.html

Click on the image to enlarge it.

ObamaCare finally scraped through and seems too have given Obama a little boost back home, but his overseas agenda is looking worse and worse.

Before going into the blunders it needs to be said that although the Obama administration did achieve a missile treaty with Russia, it was far more profitable for Russia than for the U.S. because Russia needed to reduce the costs of its nuclear arsenal, and the arms talks with the U.S. gave it some wanted prestige.

So Who Has Obama Upset So Far?

Canada

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton publicly criticized the Canadians for failing to invite all eight members of the Arctic Council to a recent consultation and the following day, the Canadian Foreign announced that Canada will be ending its Afghan mission next year.

Just one day after the above was written, Clinton again publicly attacked Canada.

This time critiquing it’s approach to abortion.

Israel

Obama behaved as badly as is possible by telling Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he was going to have dinner and hoped that Netanyahu would have come up with some better ideas by the time he returned.

The E.U.

The administration recently angered the EU by refusing to attend a summit in Madrid and the EU powers are no longer leaping to Washington’s support on Afghanistan.

Britain

The administration angered Britain by seeming to side with Argentina over negotiations about the Falklands Islands and a British parliamentary committee has just pronounced the US-UK special relationship as over.

Afghanistan

Afghanistan’s  President Karzai was angered because his visit was cancelled.

Brazil

Obama upset the Brazilians by rushing over to Copenhagen to try and snatch the 2016 Olympics from Rio and Brazil’s President Lula da Silva has now publicly rejected Secretary Clinton’s public request for support for a sanctions resolution at the U.N.

Turkey

Turkey is angry about the passing of another version of the Armenian genocide resolution through a key House committee and it’s now getting closer to Iran with Russia.

Obama Is Perceived As Weak And Naïve

North Korea, Cuba, Venezuela and Iran have totally rejected the administrations overtures and the administration’s actions have simply given the world the impression that the administration is weak.

It’s possible that the reason that Israel is being given such a hard time right now, is not so much because of its insistence on building homes in east Jerusalem, but because the U.S. needs to gain some badly needed credibility.

April 7, 2010

Just a quick follow up to the above;

via Ganguly: India Is Annoyed With Obama – Newsweek.com.

West Bank settlement housing gets initial approval | Rise of the Right

www.riseoftheright.com2/23/12

JERUSALEM — Israel gave preliminary approval on Wednesday to a plan to build 600 new homes in a settlement deep inside the West Bank, a move that drew rebukes from the United Nations and Palestinians and threatened to raise tensions with the U.S. as the prime minister prepares to head to the White … The U.N.'s Mideast envoy, Robert Serry, called the Israeli announcement “deplorable” and said it “moves us further away from the goal of a two-state solution.

Politics, Music & Irony: Abolishing the Palestinian Authority an …

beatnikmalcontent.blogspot.com2/23/12

For them, the Israeli-Arab conflict was won and forgotten years ago, somewhere around 2004 when George W. Bush informed Ariel Sharon that the US does not expect Israel to withdraw to the 1967 borders, thus effectively ending the … By building for the well-to-do in new private-sector cities like Rawabi, located safely in Area A, by building new highways (with Japanese and USAID assistance) that respect Israeli “Greater” Jerusalem and channel Palestinian traffic …

Natanyahu Makes A Master Play

I’m simply amazed at how many supposed political pundits misread what happened in Jerusalem during Biden’s recent visit.

Journalists whom you’d imagine would know better almost jumped with joy and wrote such nonsense as;

“Bibi angry and embarrassed”.

“Bibi apologizes for unbelievable gaffe”.

Ehud Barak is angry”.

“Red faces in Jerusalem”.

Etc. etc.

A Master Play

The announcement, during Biden’s visit that plans to build 1,600 homes in East Jerusalem, had been approved was obviously orchestrated and both Bibi and Eli Yishai (who is a very astute politician) played excellent poker.

Joe Biden most likely doesn’t not know it, but the Palestinians certainly remember that a similar Israeli maneuver was used in order to get a green light for East Jerusalem’s Har Homa neighborhood.

What Really Went Down

If you find it hard to believe that the announcement was premeditated then just look at the end results.

Following Bibi’s apology for the announcement, and his statement that actual construction in Ramat Shlomo would not start for several years Biden said at Tel Aviv University:

"The substance and timing of the announcement, particularly with the launching of proximity talks, is precisely the kind of step that undermines the trust we need right now".

and added that,

“The U.S. has no better friend than Israel”.

So intended or not, what Biden publicly implied was that the timing of the announcement was embarrassing, but the intended building in a few years time would be OK.

Thus Israel essentially received an American green light for its building plans in East Jerusalem.

Israel obviously doesn’t need a green light to build but feels much better when it gets it.

The Cherry On The Cake

Prior to Biden’s arrival, the Arab League had just recommended that the Palestinian Authority’s President Mahmoud Abbas agree to Washington’s proposal for indirect talks with Israel, but now, instead of being able to leave with an announcement that the talks have officially begun, Biden left with the news that Abu Mazen wouldn’t agree to talks and that the Arab League had suspended its recommendation.

Biden’s visit to Israel was intended to pressure Netanyahu to advance negotiations, but Abu Mazen is now refusing to enter into talks and the world is instead looking to the Arab League summit in Tripoli which is due to kick off in just under two weeks, to see what it proposes.

I was recently amazed at how many journalists bought into the idea that Mossad sent 28 plus operatives to Dubai to exterminate a cockroach, and never questioned why Mossad would use the names of Israeli residents etc.

In short, it’s clear that most political writers would be better off writing about some other subject, almost any other subject than politics, because they obviously haven’t got a clue when it comes to interpreting politicians and their plays.