No Free Passes for Obama in Europe

In the world of international relations, you can't call a do-over after you've screwed your friends.  Pres. Obama is probably starting to get a feel for the extent of the rebuilding job he faces when it comes to foreign relations with our traditional allies--it's pretty huge.  Newsweek has a pretty good column today laying out the challenges Obama faces and the source of the incredible erosion of US/European relations over the past eight years--the slights, deception, lack of respect and arrogance that were the norm in the Bush Administration's foreign relations, G20:  Can Obama Win Over Europe's Leaders?

It is hard to overestimate the damage that the Bush administration did to America's historic Western alliance. Former defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld's offhand dismissal of "Old Europe," as against the new states of Central Europe, set the tone. Rumsfeld later said he'd mangled his text; and in another circumstance the European allies might have accepted that. But Rumsfeld's misspeaking, if that is what it was, points to the real damage. At its root, the Europeans believe they were systematically brushed aside—even lied to. At the depth of the Iraq debacle, one senior adviser at No. 10 Downing Street exclaimed: "We've been betrayed by a bunch of incompetents in Washington." Tony Blair, Brown's predecessor and that official's admired boss, was effectively destroyed by his support of W. The same adviser is now in Britain's Washington embassy. Does anyone believe he has forgotten what prompted his outburst? 

 It sickens me how the Bush Administration dismantled the infrastructure of good government, whether it was the competence of FEMA, the strength of our regulatory agencies, the trust in government that is the essential foundation of the social contract between the government and the governed and the longstanding alliances that are the basis for global stability and security. 

Comments

[Lynn]

g.....you need to see somebody about that BDS (Bush Derangement Syndrome). You got it bad, my friend.

[g.]

Can you name one way we're better off as a nation as a result of his presidency? Maybe if you could name a few things it would be the first step to recovery...

[Lynn]

Yes, I can. There was the.....er, uh....wait, wait.....its coming to me. Uhmm......I guess I'll have to get back to you on that.

[g.]

Cool! I know you're not that much of a fan of him so don't strain too hard.