Who Loves America?

Michael Cohen, writing in the Politico, cites poll data indicating that Democrats have shed their "Blame America First" label.  However, this passage cannot stand (or at least, I cannot stand it):

The greatest irony of the conservative response to the Nobel Committee’s honor is that it is a clear indication that there is a global thirsting for American leadership and engagement. Conservatives should be delighted by what is basically a European call for American leadership; yet the response has been to treat it as a mark of shame for Obama.

Mr. Cohen retreats from "global thirsting" to "basically a European call" within one paragraph.  Given more space he might have arrived at the truth - the Nobel Peace Prize was a call by some European leftists for Obama to be more like them.  They have no interest in American leadership - they want American followership on global warming, engagement over confrontation with our enemies, and a host of other issues.  And they will probably get it.

As to that "global" thirst for American leadership, the story of US aid to Pakistan is instructive.  In September, the Times reported that Team Obama had lots of grand ideas for the new American aid package to Pakistan.  This aid always comes with a bit of tension - Pakistan has more than its share of graft and corruption and its military is hostile to India.  However, after much study the State Department had a vision:

After a recent visit to Islamabad, the deputy secretary for management and resources at the State Department, Jacob J. Lew, expressed anxiety about how to ensure that the aid money was spent properly, saying he was concerned that “the money needed to go to the purposes for which it was intended.”

“We had to choose a method of funding that was most likely to produce results efficiently and effectively,” he said Sept. 11 at a briefing at the State Department.

Mr. Lew’s suggestions of inappropriate spending by the Pakistanis caused such a furor among government officials that the American ambassador, Anne W. Patterson, issued an unusual public statement on Wednesday intended to reassure the Pakistanis that the United States was “not depriving the Pakistani government any degree of direct funding as a result of lack of confidence or trust.”

However, the package went south - Pakistan's generals claimed the bill was micromanagement and put the civilians in charge military promotions.  This led to a backlash in Pakistan:

Unlike previous no-strings aid packages, Kerry-Lugar makes support conditional on Pakistan's military being subordinated to its elected government, and taking action against militants sheltering on its soil. But by dangling the prospect of a desperately needed aid package on terms deemed intrusive by the military and opposition parties, the legislation may be weakening the very civilian government it hoped to bolster.

The furor over the aid package has left President Asif Ali Zardari increasingly isolated as normally fractious opposition parties unite against its "humiliating" conditions, with even the junior partners in Zardari's ruling coalition expressing misgivings. Public opinion ranges from suspicion to hostility, and the army high command broke with its recent habit of remaining quiet on political matters to issue an ominous statement.

In an effort to slake the Pakistani thirst for American leadership Team Obama nearly drowned the Pakistani civilian government - Heckuva job!

The latest wrinkle is that Pakistan's Foreign Minister is in Washington and has apparently persuaded John Kerry and Obama Administration officials to attach what could be described as a Congressional signing statement to the bill:

Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, who was in Washington last week applauding the $7.5 billion aid plan, was back on Capitol Hill on Tuesday after his country's military protested against the bill. It ties some funds to fighting militants and is seen by critics as violating sovereignty.

...U.S. lawmakers, while sympathetic to delicate Pakistani politics, made clear conditions attached to the aid, which still has to be appropriated by Congress, could not be eased.

But Senator John Kerry, one of the authors of the bill, said an attempt would be made in the next 24 hours to clarify in writing some of the terms that he described as not having been characterized accurately "in some quarters."

"The bill doesn't have to be changed," Kerry said after meeting Qureshi. "If there is a misinterpretation, it simply has to be clarified."

Aides said lawmakers would issue a "joint explanatory statement" on Wednesday laying out what was in the bill.

So Congress won't change the bill, they will just write a supplement to tell the rest of us non-psychics what it really means.

Of course, none of this would be a problem if we were providing aid to Norway.

Comments

[narciso]

brilliant we'll have another military coup, putting some figurehead figure like justice Leghari with the pro Taliban ISI calling the
shots, that couldn't possibly go wrong.

[John Kerry? That John Kerry?.]

Unofficial Saudi aid is more effective than our official aid.
===================================

[Jack is Back!]

I thought the Once wanted to invade Pakistan. Why give them all this money if we are going to end up invading them? Something "fishy" here and I am going to write Anita Dunn. Sounds like something Beck needs to get his fat little fingers around.

I know its old but it is still charmingly clever and funny. LUN

[E. Nigma]

See, it's not a flip -flop, it's just a clarification.

Change we can believe in. What could possibly go wrong?
As was said on another thread regarding the foreign policy gurus of the Obama Administration, if Joe Biden is the smartest/wisest guy in the room, we are in a lot of trouble.

All the treasure, and especially all the blood that has been shed since 2001 will be squandered in the next three years by this sort of ridiculous and profligate foreign policy. I thought we had these guys cornered and on the run.
It looks like they'll be back in the saddle again soon. They being the ISI, Taliban and of course the black flag of Islam, Al Qaeda.

[clarice]

I know Jack Lew. I like Jack Lew. Jack Lew is a friend of mine. In his position, knowing the level of graft and corruption in Pakistan and his obligation to prevent it, what would you have done?

In other news, I do so hope that if the nets do not immediately apologize to Rush and retract their slanders of him, he does not get the franchise so his claim for monetary damages will be even higher than it is now..

http://blogs.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/timblair/index.php/dailytelegraph/comments/they_want_to_believe/>Sue, Rush!

[Dave (in MA)]

Some of the keywords in this thread appear to have caused a match.com ad to get pulled into the sidebar, one in which a guy wearing a kaffiyeh is featured. Perhaps not the advertiser's best use of its funds.

[narciso]

That's the think I won't forgive or forget about CJ, he's gone down the rabbithole and
taken his eye of the ball, of Wahhabism and Salafism, I know Sullivan did too, but he had less impact, and arguably extenuating
circumstances. Are you the thought mesh guy, nigma

[Charlie (Colorado)]

It's really the usual — the goofs want us to demonstrate "leadership" while not being different.

[centralcal]

Rush should sue, absolutely, and he should also continue to expose these vile media scum while doing so.

Chaco - I want to switch from IE to Firefox, will you promise to please not use italics today? :-)

[steve sturm]

the Nobel Peace Prize was a call by some European leftists...

One quibble, the Prize was awarded by five Norwegian leftists. 5 leftists from a country with the population of a small state, and which most kids couldn't find on a map, decide Obama is the greatest thing since Al Gore and we're supposed to stand in awe?

IF (moot since it would never happen) they had given the award to some conservative, the liberals would have fallen over themselves complaining about the composition of the committee (too old, too white, not diverse enough to represent the 'world') and belittling its significance.

[narciso]

Actually, one of the members was what passes
for a Norwegian conservative in the Storting
,what's Norse for RHINO. Which makes it's all that more pathetic. BTW, Siv Jensen is one of the future candidates, for that list.

[JM Hanes]

TM:

A stunning memo from a USAID diplomat on Richard Holbrooke's clumsiness, to put it mildly, may have been a catalyst here too. My fellow Holbrooke fans will not be surprised.

I don't know if the New York Times covered this story, but in the past couple of weeks, it seems to me that Holbrooke, the premier practitioner of DC c.y.a., has been getting an almost complete pass. A recent article on Afghanistan strategy sessions at the White House, describing numerous comments from other major players, only quoted Holbrooke "aides" not Holbrooke himself. There's only one vague reference in the Times article you link today: "Qureshi met the U.S. special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard Holbrooke."

You'll find a real assessment of Obama's Afghanistan Czar, in USA Today:

Special representative Richard Holbrooke's bid to rapidly shift U.S. aid from American contractors to local Pakistani organizations will "seriously compromise" the effort to stabilize Pakistan, a U.S. diplomat says in a "dissent channel" message to senior State Department officials.
[...]
The problem — according to the memo by C. Stuart Callison, an economist with the U.S. Agency for International Development — is that Holbrooke is canceling successful programs run by U.S. contractors and preparing to bypass them by giving large sums to local organizations with shaky financial track records.

Holbrooke, the top civilian overseeing Obama administration policy on Afghanistan and Pakistan, has asked to personally approve every project funding renewal involving U.S. contractors, Callison wrote — and "the disapprovals already received are shockingly counterproductive."

Check out the PDF of Callison's Dissent in all its glory. It's about as scathing as diplomacy gets. The memo was apparently "sensitive" but not classified, and the fact that it has made a public appearance, suggests that folks on the ground in Af/Pak are seriously alarmed.

Maybe it's just me, but lately I've had the sense that there's a perfect storm brewing internationally, and that we will be seeing what happens when an administration goes wobbly on U.S. exceptionalism, from economic instability to foreign policy retreat, and when the concept of U.S. strategic interests is supplanted by myopic pettifoggery.

[JM Hanes]

Dave:

It was probably TM's thread on the hottest heads of state.

[clarice]

JM Hanes, May I have permission to repost this as a blog on AT, crediting you? It is your usually brilliant take which deserves a broad audience.

[clarice]

BTW, I'm still waiting for an answer to my post about Jacob Lew. What is one charged with avoiding waste and fraud in disbursement of funds to do when the recipients are known to be thieves?

[PeterUK]

"Mr. Cohen retreats from "global thirsting" to "basically a European call" within one paragraph."

Actually,a handful of Norwegian politicos thirsting. Outside a mention in the press,nobody I know has even mentioned president Nemo's Nobel.Sorry,it is as interesting as watching a coffin warp.

[JM Hanes]

Any time, clarice! I feel like I should be cross posting all this stuff I write over at Quasiblog, but it just seems like putting messages in bottles, and I somehow get stuck every time I set out to change hosts from Typepad.

[Neo]

Looks like there is a new cowboy in town ...

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.”

Barack Obama, Nobel laureate.

The price of that medal is looking pretty darn steep about now.

[Jane]

OT; LUN is a Don Surber piece about how Chicago had the votes and Michelle cost them the Olympics.

Tee hee.

(DOn't they realize who she is?)

[glasater]

An interesting "take" from Ayaz Amir of The Asia Despatch says:

Kerry-Lugar: bill or document of surrender

Doesn't this language suggest that the US President is also president of FATA, the NWFP, parts of Balochistan and parts of Punjab? This is not wounded sovereignty but ceded sovereignty. And for what? A few pieces of silver.
(my empasis)

US military spending in Afghanistan every year is close to 60 billion dollars. Kerry-Lugar foresees 1.5 billion dollars a year to us, for five years. This is being hailed as a strategic partnership. Sounds more like the cheapest rent-a-nation contract in modern history.

[Dave (in MA)]

Jane, your link prompt for username/password.

[clarice]

Jane that LUN is to a closed access site.

[Jack is Back!]

Clarice,

Listening to Rush yesterday in the car-rider line at school, I was under the impression that if the nets didn't claw back with appropriate apologies he was going to take legal action. I would love to see that. Even his "Magic Negro" song was a parody based on what a black oped columnist in L.A. had written and coupled with Reverand Al's doubting of Obama's leadership abilities.

But this plays to the net's problem of "false but accurate" since it fits the narrative. They do have to stop making things up and selling it as the absolute infallible truth. Who do they think they are - Obama?

[narciso]

They did, that's why they voted no.

[clarice]

I think he will sue.The problem he has is establishing monetary damages because frankly this sort of controversy seems to drive up his audience numbers which is why I suggested that if his bid for a franchise is lost as a result of this stuff, he can claim big bucks--maybe even enough to drive MSNBC and even CNN out of business.

[clarice]

To call someone a racist it seems to me is slander per se and he would have no trouble with most of these folks charging actual not just imputed malice.

[macphisto]

"Why give them all this money if we are going to end up invading them?"

so they can defeat us, silly.

[Jane]

Try it now.

[macphisto]

that works. thanks!

[Neo]

U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler to step down

In a conference call Tuesday night with Democratic leaders, Wexler said he will become director of the Washington-based Center for Middle East Peace and Economic Cooperation. Wexler, 48, is expected to make a public statement about his plans at a 10 a.m. Wednesday press conference at his Boca Raton office.

[JM Hanes]

Sometimes being called by history is a good thing, Neo.

[MayBee]

Some kinds of quitting are less quitty than others, I guess.

[Annoying Old Guy]

narisco;

I'm the thought mesh guy.