Here is another view, not easily distinguishable from the aforesaid, on how the US is being perceived in the world. I saw that photograph, yesterday I guess it was, and was embarrassed. Look at the US Ambassador to the United Nations. Is she a grown-up? She looks like a temperamental teenager arguing with her father about why she should not be grounded. While wearing her father's sweater which is six sizes too big for her. Look at the people in the background looking and laughing. I'm humiliated. I read whatever article accompanied the photo that I saw initially. And was embarrassed. Read the article below, in particular Power tweeting while at the UN, and was embarrassed. Read here that Obama congratulated Putin on the Paralympics and...I could not believe it. This is a nightmare and it's getting worse. It's surreal. Make this go away.
"There’s an amazing picture taken a few days ago at the United Nations.
"There’s an amazing picture taken a few days ago at the United Nations.
Russia had just vetoed America’s diplomatic proposal for Ukraine. So Ambassador Samantha Power, the former Harvard professor appointed by Barack Obama, who is also a former Harvard professor himself, walked over to Russia’s ambassador, Vitaly Churkin, to give him a piece of her mind.
Churkin didn’t even stand up. He just looked at her. And his aides, standing behind him, laughed.
They weren’t laughing at the ironically named Ambassador Power. They were laughing at their good luck; that they had the good fortune to get into the invading business when a feckless man like Barack Obama was in charge of the free world.
OK, maybe they were laughing at Power, too. While Vladimir Putin – former KGB agent, invader of
Georgia, arms dealer to Syria and Iran, underminer of his own country’s democracy – was rolling special forces into Ukraine, Power was… tweeting. As in, she was writing little notes on Twitter. Like this one:
I missed the day at law school where self-determination was defined as Russia-determination. Russia must halt its military action.
Or this one:
Russia can veto a Security Council resolution, but it can't veto the truth.
Is that all America can bring? That’s what Obama has deployed to counter Russian tanks – a Twitter slogan that sounds, well, like it was written by a clueless professor?
But it gets worse. Over the weekend, Obama himself got on the phone to Putin. And after the phone call, both the White House and the Kremlin published what they called a “readout” of the phone call – their version of what was said.
Obama’s version was just as pitiful as you might imagine. Obama said if Putin didn’t withdraw from Ukraine, their annexation of Crimea “would never be recognized by the United States.” That’s it. That was the big “or else”.
Obama said “there remains a clear path for resolving this crisis diplomatically.” But surely Putin knew that before the phone call – and he instructed Churkin to veto that diplomatic solution.
The Kremlin’s official read out was more interesting. Putin said that he and Obama “discussed the possibility of sending an OSCE mission to monitor the situation in Ukraine… all parts of Ukraine.”
The OSCE is a European agency that typically monitors elections. They refused to monitor the Ukraine referendum, saying it was illegal and illegitimate. But Putin got Obama to consider bringing in observers to monitor the Ukrainian government itself – as if Ukraine itself is the illegitimate, questionable authority, not the Russians!
But then the Kremlin release this note:
“Mr. Obama congratulated Mr. Putin on the success of the Paralympic Games and asked Mr. Putin to pass on his greetings to the athletes."
Hang on. In a phone call about a war, an illegal invasion, a sham election, Barack Obama took a moment to say, hey Vladimir, great work on the Special Olympics?
As former UN ambassador John Bolton says, it was like a cupcake negotiating with a steak knife.
At least Samantha Power stomped her feet and wrote a mean Twitter tweet. But Obama personally congratulated Putin, during a phone call about a war?
Do you think this is over? Do you think Putin is satisfied, and has eaten until he’s full?
Or – like Churkin’s staff – do you think Putin is laughing, laughing at his good fortune for having such impotent opponents?"
