Samantha Power Agrees She Is Naive

One of our leading Smart Diplomats, Samantha Power, earned widespread ridicule with this insight from a recent speech:

Samantha Power, the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, hoped that a team of UN investigators — many of whom, presumably, have a longstanding relationship with Iranian leaders -- could write a report that would convince Iran to abandon its ally at the behest of the United States.

"We worked with the UN to create a group of inspectors and then worked for more than six months to get them access to the country on the logic that perhaps the presence of an investigative team in the country might deter future attacks," Power said at the Center for American Progress as she made the case for intervening in Syria.

"Or, if not, at a minimum, we thought perhaps a shared evidentiary base could convince Russia or Iran — itself a victim of Saddam Hussein's monstrous chemical weapons attacks in 1987-1988 — to cast loose a regime that was gassing it's people," she said.

Iran was going to turn on Syria and embrace the policies of the Great Satan? Putin was going to take his thumb out of Obama's eye? Does that sound naive? Well, yes, and Ms. Soft Power said so a bit later in her speech:

The international system that was founded in 1945 —a system we designed specifically to respond to the kinds of horrors we saw play out in World War II—has not lived up to its promise or its responsibilities in the case of Syria. And it is naive to think that Russia is on the verge of changing its position and allowing the UN Security Council to assume its rightful role as the enforcer of international peace and security.

The timing of her conversion is unclear - was it naive to think Russia might change its policies six months ago, or does she think the naivete only became obvious with recent developments?

It must be tough being that brilliant.

Comments

[tommy r]

It's been amateur hour at the WH for the past nearly five years. No news at all.

[Steve]

Audio: Rush Limbaugh: Americans Starting to Notice Obama's 'Incompetence' Thanks to Syria

http://commoncts.blogspot.com/2013/09/audio-rush-limbaugh-americans-starting.html

[narciso]

From the other thread, this was Egan's first take on the Huntress;

In choosing as his running mate Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska, two years removed from her only other significant political job, as a small-town mayor, John McCain has certainly offered up a giant-killer -– “Sarah Barracuda,” as she’s known in the Last Frontier State.

[2JIB4]

You only have had to live or visit Ireland for a small period of time and pay attention to their international views to understand the naiveté of Samantha Power. Nothing new here. Ever hear of Mary Robinson?

I am sure she'll be the perfect tonic for the Congolese.

[Marlene]

narciso,thanks for linking the O'Rourke column last night.I read it this morning and was spitting out coffee. Happy Saturday everyone!

[narciso]

This was the jarring bit, I pointed out last night;

On February 21, Power appeared on Charlie Rose and compared Barack Obama to Sergio Vieira de Mello, who is the subject of Chasing the Flame. "This would be Sergio's lesson: if you are not thinking in terms of both dignity and freedom from fear, and this is the other thing Obama has come back to, the old Rooseveltian idea. Obama has tried to run a campaign that moves us out of the politics of fear. He is also very sensitive to the degree to which, and Sergio uses this line, 'fear is a bad adviser.' This is a line that could have come out of Obama's mouth, though happened to come out of Sergio's mouth. We make bad judgments when we are afraid."[29]

[Clarice]

Yes, it's a feature in Sunday's column, The best and the brightest, eh?

[Clarice]

The Irani spiritual leaders' call to kidnap Obama's daughters and rape them just might give this twit pause about with whom she's dealing.

[rse]

I still tremble at the thought that this twit, with her access to power, is married to sunstein, with his fondness for nudging and fdr's 2nd bill of rights.

It's as if in the drive for utopia no one feels the need to acquaint themselves with reality or past consequences from comparable initiatives.

[Jane on Ipad hi there NSA]

It is so typical of liberals to believe with just the right laws, or treaties or whatever, they can change human nature.

I don't know if we will survive 3 more years.

[Clarice]

To think I hang with and am so fond of a crowd so lacking in the nuance of the elites..sigh

[Marlene]

rse,the Bangor Daily has an article from Bloomberg News about the opposition to Common Core. Gov. Lepage now disavows Common Core,but won't stop implementation. Common Core opponents in Maine need to collect 57,277 signatures to put a referendum on the Nov.2014 ballot.

[narciso]

The point is to come farthest away from the truth, without going ovrr;

http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/09/05/3607961/obama-shadowboxes-with-putin-at.html

[fdcol63]

The problem is that the rest of us ..... and other world leaders .... just aren't as brilliant as Obama and Power. /end sarcasm

[Captain Hate on an iPhone]

It merits repeating from last night: it's like a college faculty has been given the reins to a super power; not unlike when Eddie Griffin got behind the wheel of a racing car.

[rse]

Marlene-jeb's ed national roadshow has chosen Boston as the city for the annual confab in October. Yesterday they announced Clayton Christensen as the 2nd day keynoter. I have heard his associate's oh so clever way of extinguishing the CC controversy with a plan that dovetails perfectly with what my research showed the actual implementation to be consistently over the past 3 years.

In many ways the book is more current now than it would have been a year ago. CC is about getting computers as the dominant emphasis is the classroom, changing the nature of assessments away from objective knowledge to changing the child at the psychological level and monitoring, and changing the nature of classroom interactions.

You will find that whatever the rhetoric about CCSSI and even if you are VA or Texas without the CCSSI, there's really no variance in the desired implementation. And it tracks consistently internationally as well.

But trying to get those signatures focuses attention on the troubling policies and practices coming or being reenforced through high school. What is coming in under the name of the Common Core should then get the blame and we can talk about how useful ed is in achieving new kinds of mindsets and values. And how dangerous it is to foster this for political and economic power while the reality of the dangerous world churns. Largely unappreciated until something deadly wakes up the slumbering rational consciousness.

[reliapundit]

this is what you get when your government is run by unseasoned, untested, un-American pedants who are more more committed to transnational institutions, anti-American ideologies and unicorns.

[myiq2xu]

Weapons-grade stupid.

[Walter Sobchak]

And I have a song for our Sam:

"A Cockeyed Optimist" from "South Pacific" by Rogers and Hammerstein

When the skies are brighter canary yellow
I forget every cloud I've ever seen,
So they called me a cockeyed optimist,
Immature and incurably green.

I have heard people rant and rave and bellow
That we're done and we might as well be dead,
But I'm only a cockeyed optimist,
And I can't get it into my head.

I hear the human race
Is falling on its face
And hasn't very far to go,
But every whippoorwill
Is selling me a bill,
And telling me it just ain't so.

I could say life is just a bowl of Jello
And appear more intelligent and smart,
But I'm stuck like a dope
With a thing called hope,
And I can't get it out of my heart!
Not this heart ...

[Walter Sobchak]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0DusO6ipLw

From the Movie version.

[Danube of Thought]

Barack Obama, John Kerry, Chuck Hagel, Susan Rice, Samantha Power, Valerie Jarret. The fate of the nation is in the hands of those six imbeciles. It is frightening and dangerous.

Kerry is a special case. He's been around a long time, and has always had his eye on the main chance. He volunteered for the Navy and Vietnam, then when public opinion became hostile to the war, so did he--and built his political career on it. Years later, he was hot for the war in Iraq, then the public soured on it. What to do? Why, claim that he only voted for it because he had been deceived, of course. So it is especially delightful to see him now, forced to defend an indefensible policy that is hugely unpopular, and which can't be blamed on anyone else.

[Jane on Ipad hi there NSA]

Rse, are you coming up for that gala?

[Thingumbobesq]

Samantha Power, humanitarian interventionist. Just not tough enough for us neo-con chickenhawk lickspittles, in other words.

[rse]

Jane,

I thought about it but it backs up to an interview I am doing for the producer of this movie http://www.amazon.com/Agenda-Grinding-America-Curtis-Bowers/dp/B003Z3CZGG who is filming a new movie.

I will let you know when I make it up your way. At the moment the Diva is just full of lessons inconvenient driving distances away and without a driver's license yet. Hubby thinks she is just not ready when she does turn 16.

Once she can drive, I should be free to start travelling and talking.

[McCloud]

Since someone at Power's level is probably neither stupid nor overly naive she seems to be saying they've tried diplomacy and it didn't work, ie, really crappy diplomacy they knew would never work. So bombs away.

That fits in nicely with "Responsibility to Protect".

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2012/04/24/obama-appoints-responsibility-to-protect-champion-samantha-power-to-chair-genocide-panel/

“So we have Cass Sunstein’s wife advising on the Responsibility to Protect,” Glenn said “If you’re in the circle of George Soros, she was a queen. George Soros immediately funded a group to push the Responsibility to Protect.”

The admin is setting themselves up as the new UN. And they said Bush wanted to take over the world.

[Ignatz]

--Samantha Power, humanitarian interventionist.--

Did you read the post dumbass?
It's about her incredibly stupid idea that Iran, a regime renowned for sending young boys on kamikaze runs into the face of an armored division, stoning to death citizens especially women who refuse to submit to sharia, sponsoring terrorism worldwide and imprisoning torturing and murdering ethnic and religious minorities, would have its conscience so pricked by a UN report it would cast loose Syria, its most important client state in its war with Israel and the west.

[bgates]

someone at Power's level is probably neither stupid nor overly naive

Then we must find that person, and get the rest of the administration to listen to him.

[boris]

The rest of the administration would most likely look for a bus to throw him under.

[Ranger]

someone at Power's level is probably neither stupid nor overly naive

Unfortunately, the evidence of the last 5 years seems to contradict that assessment.

[Stephanie]

I cringe at the thought that she and I went to the same high school. Of course, she was such an imposing student that I can find few students or teachers that even remember her. The cross country coach does and he is a good friend and just shakes his head in disbelief when her name is mentioned. She was and still is a wannabe cool kid that never realized she had dreams her brains and personality couldn't cash. Loser then and loser now.

[Al Sheeber]

I never doubted it for a minute, looking at whom she married tells it all. Looking at whom she had a crush on, before she had to settle down is even more telling. That Canadian Russian Baron Michael Ignatieff, a leftover from the old Imperial Russian regime, who took refuge in Canada, one of the last aristocrats, turned into a "thinker", a failed liberal politician , a Harvard "University" scholar and a failed politician,a married man, was her first choice, a second choice was the Chicago University wimp, Obama's "regulation Czar", something out of a Kafka novel, become the second pick. All looking so artificial, manufactured and unreal. This woman is one stop before a train wreck. All her dumb and idiotic ideas never seem to add up, and a more naive popinjay, a Gay cock head took her for a guide, a counselor, and neither one has a clue what to do, the world doe not work according to the freeloading lounge lizards of Bolshevik Harvard "University", world affairs, is another reality, neither the JFK Regime could tackle, nor did Carter or Clinton. It is beyond them. They know they hit a wall, now the train wreck, the melt-down is coming. could fool Canada and turn it into a Socialist Disneyland,

[Ranger]

Funny how the media lets things slide for Dems. If a Republican cabinet member has said something this dumb, it would have been played over and over again for days.

BTW, this is funny in a grim way. Kerry gave an interview to HufPo and had a little slip of the tongue:

John Kerry: Obama Can Bomb Assad Even If Congress Votes No

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/06/john-kerry-congress-syria_n_3881200.html

My concern is that if we don’t hold Saddam -- I mean Bashar al-Assad ...

It also contains this little bit:

Well, why does it say "for combat operations"?
I have no idea.

There are actually some serious and tough questions in the interview. I guess even some on the left is getting tired of just giving these guys a pass.

[Thomas G. Collins]

So Ms. Power's assessment of Imam Khameinei was that since Bashir made not-nice to his people in a manner similar to the way in whch Saddam made not-nice to Iranain soldiers, Imam Khameinei would support a temporary time out for Bashir, notwithstanding that Syria is a key strategic chess piece of Imam Khameinei?

Jimmy Carter and his foreign policy team look better and better compared to Sun Tzu Obama and his crew.

[McCloud]

It's tempting to just say these Obamaites are naive flower children--maybe--but the left accused Bush of being stupid and naive as well. If she's not stupid and naive that leaves a devious ideologue pursuing a globalist dream.

Here's Abramowitz in the WaPo talking about "R2P", which he says Syria is the perfect case..

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/does-the-united-states-have-a-responsibility-to-protect-the-syrian-people/2013/09/06/5decf4c0-167d-11e3-be6e-dc6ae8a5b3a8_story.html

Obama is not invoking it, probably because he knows that Soros will come tumbling out if he does, but his State Dept supports it 100 percent.

[narciso]

Adter the first 98,000 you would think that ship has sailed, or make it an even 80,000 thanks to that site for whom they consider martyrs

[Thingumbobesq]

"Did you read the post dumbass?"

So you are in the camp of the Saudi royal family dark age obscurantists that funded the 9/11 hijackers, I'll have to assume. Enemy of my enemy drivel. The fact is this is Kissingerian geopolitics of divide and conquer religious/tribal civil war created by Sikes-Picot that dumbassedly is lighting the fuse on WWIII. And the Armageddonist fruitcakes just are the opposite side of the coin of the enlightened ones. They both answer to the same masters Cigty of London and Wall Street.

[narciso]

This shindig is sponsored by the letters Q & K, Qatar and the Kingdom, which have much more of a hold on us, as we have on them,
Syria is part of the configuration of old Ottoman vilayers, Homs Aleppo, et al.

[Old Guy]

See the problem "brilliant" people have is that they think everything they think is so very important and right whereas they usually don't have the sense to come in out of the rain.

[Clarice]

bgates--SMOOCHES______

[narciso]

They generally dismiss those people like Adminral Blair, after making them look ilie
idiots,

[Clarice]

DoT, Iggy, boris--everyone's in rare form this afternoon! Bravo!

[MaryD]

bgates@11:44 - absolutely brilliant!

[McCloud]

Then we must find that person, and get the rest of the administration to listen to him.

If only. Just because someone is neither stupid nor naive doesn't automatically make them worth listening to. Just saying--consider the opposite of Power being naive on this--that leaves craven.

[Thingumbobesq]

Wow! Evasion and circle jerks for nerds. Hard to beat that! What a site...

[McCloud]

See the problem "brilliant" people have is that they think everything they think is so very important and right whereas they usually don't have the sense to come in out of the rain.

Yes, the saying "piled higher and deeper" has its roots there. The trainwreck known as the Obama admin is either 1) a bunch of idiots in way over their heads or 2) smart people who think they alone know how to run the world and are pursuing that goal causing the destruction we see. Limbaugh has consistently chosen the 2nd option in explaining them. It may not matter in the end.

[Clarice]

I am sure it comes as no surprise but the EU has told the Administration to go to the UN--Love those international tests,right John Kerry?

[pinkman]

Eric Cantor; 'Why I like AQ"

http://www.timesdispatch.com/opinion/their-opinion/columnists-blogs/guest-columnists/cantor-america-has-a-compelling-national-security-interest/article_5bf148d2-1a90-5b18-a3cf-ba981aedb52f.html

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