During the George W. Bush administration, liberals and Democrats frequently criticized President Bush for his "unilateral" foreign policy. We need to cooperate with other nations and work with them, President Bush’s critics said. And Barack Obama said he would do that. Except that now that he is president, President Obama is treating key allies as slightly less important than a mid-range stop on a political tour.
Last March President Obama shortened and then cancelled a trip to Indonesia and Australia because he decided he needed to stay in Washington to get his health care legislation passed. But he promised he would reschedule. He did, but now he has cancelled his trip to these countries again. Why? According to the Associated Press:
"Obama had to weigh the risk of again putting off two allies in a strategic part of the world against the problems of crossing the globe while the devastation from the nation's largest oil spill continued - including the expectation of a political backlash at home.
The domestic agenda proved dominant."
But what exactly is President Obama doing to contain the spill? Is he an engineer? Is he personally cleaning up oil off the beaches or helping oil-covered wildlife? Of course not, and one wouldn’t expect him to do either of those things. There are other people who can do that. The president has other things he needs to do.
But President Obama has apparently decided that, instead of visiting allies like Indonesia and Australia, the most important thing for him to do is to stay home and say things like this:
"‘My understanding is that BP had contracted for $50 million worth of TV advertising to manage their image in the course of this disaster,’ the president said in remarks to reporters. ‘In addition, there are reports that BP will be paying $10.5 billion in dividend payments this quarter.’
‘Now, I don't have a problem with BP fulfilling its legal obligations,’ Obama added. ‘What I don't want to hear is that they're spending that kind of money on shareholders and spending that kind of money on TV advertising, [but] they're nickel-and-diming fishermen or small businesses here in the gulf who are having a hard time.’"
Statements like that are clearly important to getting the problem solved. Without the President going to Louisiana to say things like that for the television cameras, BP wouldn’t be doing anything to try to stop the leak. And neither would the federal government be trying to help. It all depends on President Obama being here and talking tough on TV. (sarcasm intended)
After all, Indonesia is only the biggest Muslim nation in the world and on one side of one of the most important and most constricted shipping lanes in the world, the Strait of Malacca. Nothing important to do there.
And Australia? It only has 1,000 troops in Afghanistan and eleven Australians who died helping in Operation Enduring Freedom. No reason to go there.
In other words, President Obama blew off, once again, two key allies because his standing in the public opinion polls was more important. Is this what then-Senator Obama was talking about back in 2007 when he said our problem was cynicism?
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