Posted by
Crispian on Sunday, March 15, 2009 10:03:27 PM
Barack Obama promised to improve our reputation in the world and to carry out a more sophisticated foreign policy. Unfortunately, the administration has had some difficulty getting up to speed. Earlier this month, there were a
series of gaffs when the British Prime Minister arrived for his first official visit with President Obama. There was also the minor, though absurd,
mistake when Secretary of State Clinton gave the Russian Foreign Minister a toy red button which should have read "Reset" in Russian but instead read "Overcharged." It was gimmicky and poorly executed.
Additionally, there was the
secret letter from President Obama to the President of Russia offering to scrap our development of a missile defense shield if Russia convinced Iran not to develop nuclear weapons. Not only is this kind of positional bargaining a naive approach to foreign affairs but also ignores the concerns of our allies like Poland and the Czech Republic who want the missile defense shield. Now there is talk of Russia
establishing bases in Cuba and Venezuela.
Watch the video below for a French view on President Obama's approach to foreign affairs. This is a popular French political satire show done with puppets. It often criticized President Bush as being unintelligent and portrayed his sidekick as Sylvester Stallone. It looks like Freedom Fries might be coming back under President Obama if they keep this up. If the French don't like our foreign policy, we must be doing something wrong.