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Deja vu — Judith Apter Klinghoffer

Judith Apter Klinghoffer

OBAMA/CLINTON "SMART POLICY" BACKFIRES IN RUSSIA

Hillary Clinton trip to Russia has been a disaster. She came to office calling for the use of the new academic concept which replaced "soft power," "smart power:"

"We must use what has been called 'smart power,' the full range of tools at our disposal -- diplomatic, economic, military, political, legal, and cultural -- picking the right tool, or combination of tools, for each situation," Clinton said in her opening remarks. "With smart power, diplomacy will be the vanguard of foreign policy."

Hence, reset buttons, revival of arms control talks and to crown it all, throwing the Poles and the Czechs to Russian bear by canceling the missile shield. As the much maligned Neo-cons could have predicted, it was all for naught. Indeed, relations with Russia got worse, not better. Here are a few recent headlines coming out of Clinton's recent trip to Moscow:

Russia Not Budging On Iran Sanctions: Clinton Unable to Sway Counterpart

Agreeing to sanctions, was supposed to be the big pay off. Hillary claims she did not even ask thereby as Martin Peretz (who permitted himself to be fooled by Obama) characterizes as making a "a cupcake out of a turd." It gets worse -

Russia: We’ll Nuke ‘Aggressors’ First and we also mean Iran:

In an interview published today in Izvestia, Nikolai Patrushev, the secretary of the Kremlin’s security council, said the new doctrine offers “different options to allow the use of nuclear weapons, depending on a certain situation and intentions of a would-be enemy. In critical national security situations, one should also not exclude a preventive nuclear strike against the aggressor.”
What’s more, Patrushev said, Russia is revising the rules for the employment of nukes to repel conventionally armed attackers, “not only in large-scale, but also in a regional and even a local war.”

And worse -

Russia calls for new European security body despite thaw with U.S.

Russia will continue to promote the idea of creating a new pan-European security body despite the U.S. decision to scrap its missile shield plans for Central Europe, the Russian president said on Wednesday.
"Despite the easing of tensions, the solving of several problems, and the recognition of a multipolar world order by key international players, it seems to me sensible to set up such a system, and we will promote this idea further," Dmitry Medvedev said after talks with his Czech counterpart, Vaclav Klaus.

In another words, a challenge to NATO. It is announced at the presence of the Czech president who takes the opportunity to reiterate his refusal to sign the Lisbon Treaty. Under the circumstances, it makes sense for the Czechs for trying to do their own kind of appeasing. They will be followed by others.

Hillary retaliated by calling for more democracy in Russia. Yes, you read right. In obvious desperation, the secretary of state of an administration that has nothing to say about the Iranian brutal treatment of their people, is suddenly concerned about Russian domestic policy. Is this not the type of issues that concern unsophisticated "neo cons?"

In a town-hall meeting with almost 1,000 students at Moscow State University, Mrs. Clinton spoke forcefully about human rights abuses and the weaknesses in Russia’s legal system.
“That’s why attacks on journalists and human rights activists are such a great concern, because it is a threat to progress,” Mrs. Clinton said. “The more open and dynamic political system you have, the more opinions that will flow in, and the more successful outcomes will flow out.”

She even tried to sow discord between Putin (who did not bother to stay in town for her visit) and Medvedev by emphasizing the president's is official superiority.

On Wednesday, when Mrs. Clinton was asked during a Moscow radio interview why she had gone to see the president, she pointedly reminded listeners of who directs Russia’s foreign policy.
“The president sets the policy,” Mrs. Clinton said. “I carry out President Obama’s policy; Minister Lavrov carries out President Medvedev’s policy. So making sure we are communicating is very important.”

First came "soft power." When it obviously failed we got "smart power." It fared no better. In other words, Obama is learning the lesson Carter learned when he was president though forgot after he was booted out. We are still paying for the price of his temporary enlightenment. For those who forgot, they included the Soviet take over of Afghanistan and the Islamist take over of Iran.

Posted on Wednesday, October 14, 2009 at 12:11 PM | Comments (1) | Return

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