By Patrick J. Buchanan
“This state visit is … a terrible mistake,” said Rep. Eliot Engel, chairman of the House Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere.
“He is illegitimate with his own people, and Brazil is now going to give him the air of legitimacy at a time when the world is trying to figure out how to prevent Iran from having nuclear weapons.”
Engel was speaking of the state visit of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that began Monday, at the invitation of President Luiz Ignacio Lula da Silva of Brazil.
Extending such an honor to the leader who hosted a conference of Holocaust skeptics and deniers, often predicts Israel will disappear from the map, stole his last election and is stiffing the West on Iran’s nuclear program is clearly a poke in the eye of Barack Obama.
Nor is this the only dissing of Obama and America by Lula.
The Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa has, for two months, been host to Honduran President Manuel Zelaya, a Chavista, who was ousted by his own Supreme Court and booted out of the country by the army.
America will survive such irritants. But they are symptomatic of something larger: the mounting disrespect Obama and America are receiving from friend and adversary alike.
Under the new center-left government that broke a 50-year hold on power by the LDP, Japan will cease refueling U.S. warships off Afghanistan, is demanding renegotiation of a U.S. troop deployment deal already agreed to and is moving out of Washington’s orbit — and closer to Beijing. Pyongyang, having tested a second nuclear device, continues to dismiss all U.S. demands.
China just backhanded Obama’s request to revalue its currency to stanch the steady hemorrhaging of U.S. jobs, technology and factories to the mainland, and treated Obama’s call for openness and better treatment for dissidents and minorities with dismissive contempt.
Yet, had it not been for U.S. magnanimity in throwing open its market to Chinese goods, Beijing would never have registered the double-digit growth rates it has seen for the past two decades.
Some gratitude China is showing.
Despite U.S. warnings, President Hamid Karzai has stolen the Afghan election in a fashion so brazen as to make a mockery of U.S. claims of his legitimacy. Corruption remains pandemic, and ignored, including in Karzai’s own family. He knows we have no other option.
Iran continues to slap away Obama’s open hand, secure in the knowledge that China or Russia will veto any serious U.N. sanctions.
Israel, too, has taken the measure of Obama.
“Bibi” Netanyahu, elected on a platform of no negotiation with Hamas, no Palestinian enclave in Jerusalem and no withdrawal from the West Bank, a la Gaza, has defied Obama’s demand for an immediate halt to any and all expansion of settlements. Not only has Bibi gone unpunished, his poll ratings have soared in Israel, and Obama has capitulated completely, leaving Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas so disillusioned and demoralized he is considering not running again.
The hopes raised by Obama’s Cairo speech have disappeared, as our traditional Arab friends like the Egyptians and Saudis have been hung out to dry.
Hillary Clinton may have pressed the reset button on relations with Russia — but there has been precious little reciprocity for the U.S. decision to scrap the ballistic missile defense in Poland and the Czech Republic.
Moscow has recognized Georgia’s breakaway provinces of South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent republics and is now busy meddling in Ukraine to inflict a humiliating defeat on our man in Kiev, President Viktor Yushchenko, in January’s election.
Again, none of the above represents a grave threat to any vital U.S. interest. Nevertheless, this lack of reciprocity, this lack of respect, this indifference to what the president is demanding or even asking is revealing about the era we have now entered — and about Barack Obama.
All that bloviation we heard for two decades — about the “Second American Century,” the “End of History,” the “New World Order,” America as “omnipower” and “indispensable nation,” the “New Rome” seizing its “unipolar moment” to impose “benevolent global hegemony” on mankind and “ending tyranny in our world” — it was, all of it, bullhockey.
Second, though Obama may be liked and admired by people all over the world, this counts for next to nothing in global power politics.
Brazil, Japan, China, Russia and Israel are all countries with their own national interests that do not necessarily comport with those of the United States. All have come to see Obama as a diffident, dithering, doubting dilettante who can be dissed with impunity. And none of these nations is going to sacrifice what it considers critical to win a smile from Barack Obama.
Multilateralism and globalism are on the way out. Unilateralism and nationalism are on the way in.
As other countries look out for their national interests first, why do we not do the same?
If we Americans will not put America first, who will?
Related posts:
- What’s Next Mr. President?by Patrick J. Buchanan – April 7, 2003 At this writing, there seem only two...
- Hamlet as War PresidentBy Patrick J. Buchanan Led by a conflicted president of a divided party and nation,...
- President Bush: Meet Walter Jonesby Patrick J. Buchanan – January 16, 2007 America is four years into a bloody...
- Failed President, Flawed Policyby Patrick J. Buchanan – December 18, 1998 It is a tradition among Americans that...
- President Obama: Give Peace a Meeting!By Cindy Sheehan — Op-Ed News Since you took office, 125 of our irreplaceable young...
- The Breaking of the Presidentby Patrick J. Buchanan – January 22, 1998 The saddest of commentaries on the Clinton...
- Pastor to the President?By Patrick J. Buchanan When the assassination of John F. Kennedy horrified a nation, Black...
Loading ...
I really don’t care about those issue, let’s show shirk the US empire a bit by ending pointless wars, securing our boarder and spending money on our people! If Israel does not want to deal, cut off there funding, russia is doing no wrong we were building bases on their old territory… we would go crazy if they put a base in Mexico. We are tied to China b/c they could crash the dollar if we put up trade barriers and Japan is sick of having US bases on their land. Let pull back and take care of our own issue… but have a strong navy, secure boarders and nukes to back up our position of strength.
Any chance that much of this has nothing to do with Obama’s personality but is rather the result the Bush years turning us into a bankrupt paper tiger, bogged down in 2 wars abroad and scaredy pants about terrorists at home?
I think this column makes an important point.
I do agree with rickandgary that the Bush years weakened America and hence its persuasive power throughout the world. Pres. Obama is playing catchup in just about every significant area of national concern.
But Pat’s points are valid too. It could happen that this aspect of Pres. Obama’s presidency could be the deciding factor three years from now, given a noticeable improvement in the economy and some smart moves in (or out of) Afghanistan, if there are any!
How can Resident Obama garner respect as the leader of America, when the American people clearly do NOT recognize him as a legitimate president? He is an usurper, and no different than Iran’s illegitimate “president.”
Resident Obama is nothing more than the Manchukuo puppet emperor of David Rockefeller’s secret government known as “Council on Foreign Relations.”
He is a community organizer placed into high political office and a position of trust, as a stooge for the New World Order.
Obama came into office with his narcissistic sense of self-entitlement, claiming the mantle of JFK’s Camelot. He utterly failed to enforce JFK’s Executive Order 11110, abolishing the Federal Reserve.
Obama was quite willing to strike a pose of magnificence, without actually doing the hard work as a basic prerequisite to his fantastic claim as presidential timber.
The American people now behold a naked emperor, and the man who would be king.
History will judge “America’s First Black President” as a total fraud and Great Imposter.
Another great article by The Greatest American, and our real president–His Excellency, Patrick J. Buchanan.
Our intelligent, yet naive, president is, I think, starting to figure out that the rest of the world is unwilling to play fair with us.
Greetings from Brazil.
The thing is, the current Brazilian government is not really leftwing, just as the former administration was not really right-wing. Brazilian politics has a way of melting everything away, and so it is with Lula’s previous leftism. In a way, Lula is a sort of nemesis to the Brazilian left, because his government shows that a leftist administration (according to the Chavez model at least) is impossible here. Brazilian communists, in general, just hate president Lula, simple as that.
As for Chavez, Zelaya and Ahmadinejad, what really happens is that Brazilian diplomacy has come to the conclusion that any war in South America ou in the Middle East is bad businness. Within the last two weeks the country has been visited by the Israeli president (who in my opinion is a war criminal), the AP leader Mahmoud Abbas (who is a lame duck) and Ahmadineajd (who is a clown). So, we had a terrorist, a lame duck and a clown – I don’t particularly like any of them, but I approve of their visits, for Brazil should at least try to open a multilateral channel of dialogue. There are a lot of jews, arabs (muslim or not) in Brazil, and nobody here wants to see another war in the Middle East.
As for Zelaya, the truth is that the man has more or less invaded the Brazilian embassy in a period when all the rest of the world (US included) was saying just oh how terrible a cup is happening in Honduras. In others words, if the Brazilian embassy had thrown Zelaya out, he would problably have been killed and at least 40% of South America would put the blame on – well, Brazil. The best thing to do about Honduras is tolet them mind their own businness and let the whole thing fade away.
By the way, the thing that nobody seems to realize is that Chavez sees Brazil as his true adversary in South America, despite all the lovely exchanges between him and Lula – it’s all scenery, they both know that Brazil and Venezuela are rivals, and will always be as long as Chavez or some such guy has a hegemonic project to the continent. The best way to neutralize Chavez is to strenghten Brazil’s position in the world, and it seems that, unfortunately, inviting a terrorist, a lame duck and a buffoon is part of the game.
Francisco, you hit a sore spot here when you called the Israeli president a war criminal. Sure, the last Israeli invasion of Gaza might have seemed heavy-handed, but in reality it wasn’t (any more than any other action in the Muslim Middle East was heavy-handed). In Israel’s case, you have to look at the history of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. Whatever you think about the reasons for the establishment of the Israeli state and the way that it was brought about, the fact that this conflict became a major Cold War battlefield is the main issue. After decades of Soviet-backed Palestinian militancy, the Cold War ended with no resolution for the Palestinians. That was a recipe for disaster, and it fell right into the hands of a rising regional Islamic militancy. It can be talked about infinitely, but the best way to get a feel for the side of the Israeli Jews is to try to imagine yourself as a Jew in Israel, surrounded by a sea of extremely angry Islamists. Sitting down there in Rio or Sao Paulo with your own South American issues and not much else, it might be easy to forget that other parts of the world have complicated problems that don’t have easy answers.
Wow……………It was fun when could have the best friends money could buy, wasn’t it?…..Go broke, and watch your phone calls stop being returned. Teddy Roosevelt said, “Walk softly but carry a big stick.”…..Maybe we should embrace isolationisim more, invite our stockholders to return our factories, or move to China themselves! Like Russia’s Jewish Oligarths, our “Banksters” have their suitcases packed to escape with our wealth as well.
“Nationalism” is comming…And the marxist ideologies of diversity and multiculturalism will get caught in the crossfire. “Ike” tried to warn us, that the Military Industrial Complex now runs America!……..And they refuse layoffs and downsizing.
Yes, Bush crippled the U.S. superpower. Given that fact, electing Obama was the wrong move. Americans begged to graciously surrender our omnipower status by electing ‘Mr. Softee’, but in fact that omnipower had already been stripped away from us.
Only if you are indeed an Omnipower do you need a Benevolent Idealist to lead you. Pat’s right, we’re just another dog in the hunt — it’s time we start growling for scraps like all the other dogs.
But world, I wouldn’t get too cocky just yet. This Obama baloney will not stand. It’s only a matter of time before we elect our own version of Vladimir Putin.
Those other issues are just irritants and it’s Buchanan’s not getting over the Republican/Democrat axis. The problem is the Middle East and the power of the cabal.
kanaan, Who would you have rather had, McNuts?? And yes, Viva Putin!!
Hello, Friscokid. Indeed, I’m well aware that “terrorist” is a problematic word in the US, and I have no intention of being confrotational here. I must say however that I am not sitting in Sao Paulo or Rio – actually I live in the south of Brazil on the border with Argentina – and I am well acquainted with the side of Israeli Jews, among other things because some people in my family are actually Jewish and have lived in Israel. That however does not change the fact that the Israeli government promoted a campaign of terror against civilians in Gaza, and in this very moment that same government us taking away the lands of other civilians in the West Bank. We could really go on forever, but just for the record, originally I was not talking about the Gaza bombing, but about the 1948 war, when today’s so called israeli moderates did things that were at least as bad as Ariel Sharon’s crimes. All that is well documented in a book written by israeli historian Illan Papé, The ethnic cleansing of Palestine.
Really, I have no idea of what it is to live surrounded by Islamists, among other things because all muslims I know in Brazil are pretty decent people. Neither do I know what it is to live under occupation by fundamentalist jews, supported by a brutal army. No, I have no idea of how that would be like, and neither do you, I suppose. But one thing everybody can easily check up on is international law, and according to it, what happened in Gaza was a series of act of terror, done partly by Hamas and partly by the Israeli army, with the difference that the israeli army killed much more people.
Being myself an admirer of USA, I can only hope that someday this great nation will distance itself from that illegal occupation. Again, I’m well aware that I am an outsider here and I do not want to sound confrotational or offensive. My best wishes,
Francisco.
I can tell you’re really ticked off. I wasn’t trying to be polite, but I also wasn’t trying to be overly rude. I agree that Palestinians are living in misery, but it seems to me that this very weird situation should be solved by an international effort, not by demonizing Israeli Jews. Look, hatred for Israel is simply an indirect hatred for the U.S. And rocket attacks by Hamas and Hezbollah deserve to be punished ten-fold. What does it take to get those morons to understand that they have to stop attacking Israel? Just because they’re gluttons for punishment doesn’t mean that Israelis need to back off from punishing them. And though I live in the U.S., I do understand what it’s like to live in the midst of Islamist extremists. I’ve been watching this drama in the news my entire life, and I know that the religion of the Muslims is designed to incite them to violence whenever their leaders deem it to be necessary. Just because there are peaceful Muslim communities all over the world doesn’t mean that their children aren’t potential terrorists. The Koran insures that potentiality. I will never trust them. And by the way, don’t worry about sounding confrontational. That’s the cool thing about Pat Buchanan’s site. As long as you don’t threaten to kill someone, Pat and Linda will let you get it off your chest. One more thing: you’re not an outsider. If you read this blog, you’re family, dude.
Hi, Friscokid. Well, I’m not ticked off – at least, not by your comments on Palestine. Maybe a little bit by your suggestion that I’m sitting somewhere in Rio or São Paulo. There is a big rivality between the South of Brazil, where I live, and the axis Rio-São Paulo, but abroad we southerners always get counfounded with our “rivals” (you had no way to know about that, so I’m actually not ticked off at all, just joking).
As for everything you said about palestinian children being future terrorists and therefore (if I do understand you) theirs deaths being more or less justifiable, I obviously disagree. I won’t start an eulogy of good muslims, as that kind of condescendence doesn’t pelase me. Maybe you are simply convinced that muslim arabs are a fair target anytime, so I wont bother to argue. But just remember that not all palestinian or lebanese are muslims, and that there have always been christians among Israeli’s victims, and up until the 90’s islamism was not an important force among the palestinian militancy (you surely remember Israel funded Hamas for years so it would defeat Fatah’s secularism). In short, there would be no islamist palestinians now if their nation hadn’t been occupied and violated for the last 60 years. And you know the best way to create more islamists in the future? Well, just bomb their mothers and siblings, starve them to death, take away their lands and them justify that by saying “well, what the hack, they were muslims”. I frankly don’t see the difference between Hamas firing rockets that kill 3 israelis and an entire army firing missiles that kill more than 300 children (potential terrorist, uh?) while some rabbi over there says that it is okay to kill gentile kids. Freaks me out, man, that you actually agree with that rabbi when it comes to muslim kids.
Freaked out, not ticked off, and cheers, my best wishes to all.
Francisco, at this point, our little discussion is in the Archives, so probably nobody except us is reading this. Anyway, I’d like to clarify my feelings about Muslims. I don’t trust them, as I’ve already said. They’re all “potential” terrorists, thanks to their defective religion. However, I don’t hate 99% of them. They’re just humans like everybody else. It sure would be nice if they would all convert to Christianity, so that we don’t have to fight them forever, because at some point, loose nukes are going to make for some difficult decisions on our part. As for the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, no I didn’t know that Israel supported Hamas at one time, but all this talk about the details of the history of the state of Israel is making my head hurt. Unless Israel decides that they can remain secure after splitting in half that little strip of land that consists of Israel, Gaza, and the West Bank, then it seems to me that Palestinians are going to be left with 3 choices: shut up, die, or get the hell out. Their misfortune is just too damn bad, I say. I support Israel, and it’s not for any personal connection. It’s a philosophical choice I’ve made. I support whatever the Israeli government decides that they have to do, because I know that their choices are limited and that none of those choices can possibly satisfy outsiders.