Kumbayah, My Lord
Samantha Power is back in. You’ll remember her as the Harvard prof/Obama advisor who was forced to resign after she called Hillary a “monster,” one of the earlier examples of Obamian gutlessness, when an apology would have sufficed. Back from Coventry, out of the oubliette or whatever closet she was shoved in, Power’s now working on the Obama transition team preparing the way for Hill’s ascendance to State. Washington Post:
Power is listed on Obama’s transition Web site as part of the team reviewing national security agencies. Her duties, according to the site, will be to “ensure that senior appointees have the information necessary to complete the confirmation process, lead their departments, and begin implementing signature policy initiatives immediately after they are sworn in.”
In short, she is part of a team that is likely to work directly with Clinton, a potentially awkward situation for the two women. Obama is expected to officially announce Clinton as his choice for secretary of state after the Thanksgiving holiday.
Transition officials declined to comment. A spokesman for Clinton did not respond to an e-mail sent yesterday evening. Power has been on the list of review team officials since mid-November; the Associated Press first called attention to her presence on the list yesterday.
But people close to the transition suggested too much was made of Power’s comment at the time, and said that she has made moves to bury the hatchet with Clinton and that the senator accepted those efforts.
If so, that could pave the way for Power to reemerge as a key adviser for the new president after being barred for months from appearing on television as a foreign policy surrogate for Obama.
Power, who is close to Obama, resigned March 7 after being quoted in the Scotsman newspaper saying that Clinton “is a monster” and that “she is stooping to anything. . . . The amount of deceit she has put forward is really unattractive.”
Kumbayah, my lord. Turns out we can all just get along. But this is not reallly about whether we can play nicely. Anyone who is concerned about the position of the United States in the world should be concerned that this woman, whose eyeballs apparently have not been gouged out, is being allowed anywhere near Foggy Bottom. Never mind her delightful, undiplomatic frankness. Samantha Power is a major Kumbayah chorus leader with incredibly bad ideas whose presence at the table bodes ill for what a lot of people have hoped could be a scorched-earth, harken-to-my-name-and-tremble Secretaryship of State, a somewhat welcome example of Obamist change.
(Nice wide-eyed, deer-in-the-headlights portrait above lifted from Harvard. Not sure what’s up with the strange frosty effect. It came that way. I think it might be pixie dust, picked up on Samantha’s last trip to Fairyland.)
Previously re Power, the genocide expert who thought preventing genocide was a cheesy excuse to stand by the Iraqi people after we took one of the great practitioners of genocide in our time. Hey, I called her a “Kumbayah chorus leader” then, too. I relaly need to get a new cliche for these pathetic spineless moralists.
JFK School Kumbayah chorus leader weighs in on Iran. Samantha Power sees American arrogance, saber-rattling as a problem, especially since Iran’s nuclear ambitions have been revealed as another Bush lie. No mention of Iran arrogance, saber-rattling, etc., and this essay suffers from other flaws in facts, perspective. But Power may be onto something when she counsels engagement with Iran. TIME:
The war scare that wasn’t stands as a metaphor for the incoherence of our policy toward Iran: the Bush Administration attempts to gin up international outrage by making a claim of imminent danger, only to be met with international eye rolling when the claim is disproved. Sound familiar? The speedboat episode bore an uncanny resemblance to the Administration’s allegations about the advanced state of Iran’s weapons program–allegations refuted in December by the National Intelligence Estimate.
Samantha Power, meet Henry Kissinger.
In the eyes of even our closest allies, the Administration’s Iran policy amounts to a lurch from one imagined crisis to the next.
Samantha Power, meet Angela Merkel , Nicholas Sarkozy and Gordon Brown.
Power goes on to note that Iran is a wretched, oppressive regime, but suggests we’ve only made it worse by removing two other wretched oppressors, Saddam Hussein and the Taliban. We should talk with Iran. I suppose that means we should have limited ourselves to talking to Saddam Hussein and the Taliban. There are people who believe that, though by my reckoning that means they’d still be beheading women in Kabul’s soccer stadium, Osama bin Laden would be happily esconced in Afghanistan, enjoying Pakistan’s full favor instead of being stuck in its tribal closet, and Saddam, sanctions-free, would be well along in his rebuilt nuke program and, if his pre-invasion feelers are any indication, hosting AQ operations. So would a terrified Iran be with us, or in that case judging us as a worthless, spent power, angling to dominate the Middle East … much as it wagers we are a worthless, spent power today and is biding its time to dominate the Middle East? All interesting exercises in what-if, but we need to deal with reality.
Power posits a decline of US influence in the region. Evidently she missed the unprecedented showing of Arab nations at Bush’s peace party at Annapolis, the Gulf states lining up versus Iran last week, Pakistan’s interest in an increased U.S. military training/advisor role, Iraq’s interest in a long-term strategic relationship.
Not noted by Sam, we are in fact talking with Iran. Iran loves to talk. But what are words without action? Samantha Power, meet Gen. Petraeus.
A new Iran policy should start with the premise that any country behind a problem can also be behind a solution. No aspect of the Iraq quagmire can be resolved without Iranian involvement. Washington has a better chance of modifying Iran’s influence in Iraq–and Afghanistan, the Palestinian territories and Lebanon–than of immediately halting it.
Entirely agreed. A little modification can go a long way. Modify Iranian influence in Iraq, modify Iranian influence in Lebanon, modifiy Iranian influence in Syria, modify Iranian influence in Gaza, modify Iranian influence in Afghanistan, modify Iranian influence in the Gulf, modify the Iranian nuclear program. Meanwhile, continue modifications to Iran’s economic relations with the world. Iran must be involved. We modify, Iran gets modified. Sounds like we’re all on the same page here after all.
Engaging Iran won’t guarantee improved U.S.-Iranian relations or a more stable gulf region. But not engaging means more of the same. The longer we wait to rethink our Iran policy, the greater the likelihood that the next crisis will erupt into a full-fledged confrontation.
Power is right. We’ve been dragging out this casual dating thing too long. Engagement is good. Engage with their IRG speedboats. Engage with their terrorist training camps. Engage with their nuclear program. The longer we wait to become engaged, the greater the likelihood the next crisis will erupt into a full-fledged conflagration!
JFK School deep think by Samantha Power on how to stop genocide in Iraq. Quick take:
Genocide is a Bushy myth spun by people who have bounced from one myth to another to justify war in Iraq, because that’s just what kind of people they are. But genocide is also a legitimate fear of well-meaning concerned non-Bushy people, who legitimately fear genocide in a well-meaning kind of way. However, some anti-Bushites dismiss the genocide, saying we should just leave, but that’s not good. US troops can’t stop sectarian violence, therefore we should announce that we are leaving.
That will scare the Iraqis into solving their problems (an idea I’m pretty sure she stole from the genocide dismissers). On the way out the door, we will use our influence to institute important political and judicial measures to stop genocide. Also, asylum all around for anyone who wants it, and warnings to Sunni terrorists and Shiite death squads that once we’re gone, we won’t tolerate any more of that sectarian violence nonsense. Some kind of small US force will be left to stop that, although how they are supposed to do what the current big US force supposedly can’t, not clear.
At least I think that’s what she’s saying, but this thing is all over the place. Power apparently has failed to notice that the surge strategy she disparages is in fact cutting sharply into the sectarian violence, that economic and political measures to get the Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds singing Kumbaya are topping the agenda. Her myopia on these matters may be a result of reading limited to sources such as the Boston Globe, the New York Times, the Guardian, the Associated Press. I don’t know, so I can’t say that.
But I can say that this is quite possibly the most ridiculous thinking on Iraq I’ve heard yet. Must read for full appreciation of its precocious child-like admonishing charms.
Well, good thing no one took her advice on Iraq. Bad news is, she now has a chance to influence policy re Iran and its Bush-imagined nuke program.
More at Four Horsemen of the Obacalypse: Obama anoints self-obsessed hippy, and helpfully points to Power’s blog, could be fruitful ground to pick over for any half-rotten potatoes to throw into future stews.
Malkin, Hillary gets the nod Monday, Bill to cough up secret donor names. Hot Air, Monsters of State.
Hey, Whiskey Fire through-clickers, that guy old enough to be drinking that? Reading clearly isn’t his strong suit, but maybe focusing is the problem. Drunk and ignorant, not a pretty site. Anyway, all incoming are welcome. Stick around, you might learn something.
Topics: Clintons, Iran, Iraq, Obama, genocide
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 9:21 am on Saturday, November 29, 2008
9 Responses to “Kumbayah, My Lord”
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November 29th, 2008 at 10:22 am
From that comfy, crowded, pre-election zone under the Obama bus…Arise ye bruised & tossed denizens of Temporary Barack Rejection(TBR) ! If the delicate Samantha thought Hill was a “Monstaw”, whatever will she have to(quietly)say about Bill Gates, killer of ‘yootful Islamist Butchers?
November 29th, 2008 at 11:16 am
Wasn’t she the moron who wants to have the Untited States forcibly disarm the Isreali Defense Force so that the Palistinians won’t have a reason to attack them?
I guess she never asked the Isrealis what they might think of that idea or our own military who would be carrying out the order.
(Or more then likely flat out refusing the order)
November 29th, 2008 at 1:31 pm
Moves to bury the hatchet notwithstanding, Good Sam’s eyes may not have been gouged out… yet… but let’s remember, Hillary is a patient woman.
November 29th, 2008 at 7:06 pm
Blame opponents when things go wrong and take credit when things go right
November 30th, 2008 at 2:22 pm
Woops…Meant Robert Gates above..!
I’ve confirmed by google snooping that this Harvard-Brit really
DOES look as nutty as she appears here. Bummer.
November 30th, 2008 at 4:05 pm
That picture screams “moonbat” more than a parking garage full of Priuses.
December 1st, 2008 at 2:58 am
http://www.abovethelaw.com/2008/02/the_real_reason_cass_sunsteins_1.php
Cheers
December 1st, 2008 at 4:56 am
“Samantha Power is back in.”
And mass-murdering despots, fanatic terrorists and those who favor ugly women are cheering worldwide.
December 1st, 2008 at 5:09 am
I figure Sam’s strategy for stopping genocide is to throw herself naked at the feet of the genocidal despots, and they’ll then stampede into heavy traffic trying to get away.