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As President Obama prepares to visit Russia, the new neocon organization called the Foreign Policy Initiative (the successor to the defunct Project for the New American Century) has issued a letter, which was also signed by several liberal hawks, imploring him to raise the issue of human rights. It also points to what it calls Russia's attack on Georgia as a sign of renewed imperialism, even though it was Georgia that attacked Russia. Simultaneously, former UN ambassador John Bolton declares in today 's Washington Post that the crackdown in Iran shows that Obama should stop trying to play kissyface with the mullahs. It's time to prepare for a military assault.
Not so fast.
These messages, as I argue in the National Interest online, ring somewhat oddly in light of a remarkable page one story by Glenn Kessler that appears in the Washington Post. Apparently, Saddam Hussein, in a number of interviews with the FBI, explained that he had no interest in antagonizing America or in forging any alliances with terrorist groupings. Instead, he saw Iran as his main enemy. In fact, he would have liked to forge an alliance with Washington--perhaps like the one he originally enjoyed when Donald Rumsfeld visited Baghdad as a Reagan administration emissary to fete the Iraqi despot?
Now urging Obama to stand up for human rights is all well and good. But what, exactly, would he accomplish by upbraiding Vladimir Putin for his lapses? Not much. He can and should raise human rights issues, but Russia is not the Soviet Union of yore, a totalitarian power that seeks to expand its influence wherever and whenever it can. Instead, it displays a wounded nationalism. Seeking to reach an accommodation with Moscow and prod it it improve its record seems like a better approach than condemning it out of hand, which would indeed create a new cold war, something that not a few neocons seem to hankier after.
But America needs Russia's cooperation in Iran and elsewhere. The neocons, by contrast, subscribe to a Michael Jackson theory of foreign policy in which we are the world, but it isn't so. Similarly, there should be more circumspection about launching military strikes on Iran. Tehran doesn't need to be undermined from abroad. It's undermining itself.
As Obama clearly understands, as important as what America does is what it does not. Though Obama was attacked for his lack of foreign policy experience during the campaign, it has become his strong suit. Obama, you could argue, has performed even better in foreign than in domestic policy. His trip to Russia is likely to further bolster his credentials--and weaken the arguments of his critics on the right.
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Whavever neocons say to do is absolutely wrong. That's been proven over the last 8 years. Obama would be well advised to ignore any neocon advice.
As a number of writers point out, the issue of concern is that President Obama would sound ridiculous, given the human rights abuses that are the norm here in the US. Indeed, many Americans have only the vaguest idea of what constitutes "human rights" (the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights is a good place to start). From our prison/legal system to our celebrated welfare "reform", the US is well behind the more modern nations in this area. Both President Obama and President Putin know this, and raising the issue could prove embarrassing for President Obama and the US.
Countries that waterboard captives shouldn't really be pointing the human rights finger of scorn at anybody. Neocons who have cozied up to most of the worlds dictatorial regimes when expedient have very little credibility in the human rights department.
I seem to remember something about an unprovoked attack against another sovereign nation, torture, and people being swept up and hauled off to be held in prison without charges. Oh and that's the United States. Just goes to prove that the war-mongering neocons think everything we do is justified but that others who may do similar things are evil and should therefore be eliminated from the planet. Is it that they think they are God's people; righteous in anything they might do? Saddam Hussein was right when he said that "religion and government should not mix." I'm pretty sure that was the idea of our Founding Fathers.
Georgia attacked South Ossetia, a people who had long been oppressed by Georgia, and Russia came to the aid of South Ossentia which the US itself should have done. But it did not because Neon Leon Bush had another agenda which had nothing to do with human rights.
And if memory serves me correctly, while speaking with Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili, John McCain took the liberty of saying, "that I know I speak for every American when I say to him today, we are all Georgians.
Though I guess compared to declaring two unprovoked wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the boldness of his announcement paled.
Well, the Afghanistan invasion was actually justified. You know, little thing called 9:11...
The neo-conservatives have demonstrated themselves to be a dangerous, war mongering cult. It's past time Republicans simply froze them out.
They are indeed twits.
Assuming Obama continues his rant of "America is weak..." deal this will set back our position in interantional affairs decades...
Russia has a history of being evil... anti-personal freedoms and our duty as Americans is to spread freedom...
Georgia has a history of being evil to S. Ossetia. Does being weak mean you have to steam roll over a people who only want their freedom?
I think most of the world is tired of Amerika spreading "freedom." Take that nonsense to the Heritage Foundation where you and other neocons can discuss where the US can next spread mass death and instability in the name of "freedom."
The US has a higher percentage of its population in prison than Russia does. Is that the kind of freedom you want us to spread?
And the US has the largest prison population, per population unit, than ANY other country on this planet, including the former Soviet Union.
The US also has a history of trying to overthrow democratically elected socialist governments in favour of nasty dictatorships that suck up to US corporations for kickbacks. "Freedom from communism" was the excuse -- but all it freed the people of several South and Central American, Asian and African nations from was having safe water, schools, a right to vote and the profits from their own resources.
With so much on our own plates here in the U.S. I am surprised that individuals like yourself feel that we have the spare time to indulge in the kind of meddling that you seem to want. We have high unemployment and are already engaged in too many world issues that are stretching us thin. We have States going bankrupt and our last Administration set such a poor example around the world of American ideals that I doubt we have the coin to tell others what to do., but here is an idea. If you are so interested in other nations affairs why don't you go over there and tell them how to live personally.
How convenient to forget that America also has a history of being evil, not to mention of meddling in other countries' business in maliciously self-serving ways, masked under the rubrics of bumper-sticker mantras like "freedom" and "human rights." By now, most other countries see through us, whether or not we see through ourselves; how much influence can we hope to have among peoples who seem to be at least that much more intelligent than we are? How can we win the respect of other countries when they can plainly see that we're dumb enough to believe our own propaganda?
There is a story that Tibetan monks attached a prayer wheel to a water wheel so that prayers might rise continually to heaven without any undue effort by the monks. Perhaps, President Obama should hire their wheel to pray for human rights. With a proper engine, more than one prayer might be turned out and a prayer for the United States might be included.
During Netanyahu's first term of office, our neo con advisors wanted him to invade Iraq. He had more sense, and they had to wait for George W Bush to come along. I assume, Netanyahu still knows a crazy person when he hears one.
Can't recall the exact quote, but something like."A pair of hands clasped around a shovel accomplishes more than a thousand hands clasped in prayer".
That's an excellent quote! I've gone looking for it, but so far no luck.
Neither the neocons, nor the Republicans, should tell Obama what to say to the Russians. It is none of their or our business. When we elected Obama, that put HIM in charge of foreign policy for this country.
Besides, Obama has enough to criticize and be criticized for here at home. Human rights? His Justice Department has become anti equal rights when it comes to gays, both in marriage and military rights. Except for the stimulus package and proposed health care, I feel we still have Bush in the White House. Obama continues a war in Afghanistan, as if those wars could ever be won or resolved. We will have to pull out of there with our tails between our legs as we did in Viet Nam. Obviously, there is no peace in Iraq, whether Biden goes there or not. What can Obama teach Putin? Not to hold prisoners without evidence or trial? Is Putin even doing that? Close Guantanamo, but what's the difference? You hold prisoners somewhere else without trial? Oh, no, Bush is still in the White House, so why don't I just vote Republican next time?
Republicans and Neo-cons are L-O-S-E-R-S and LIARS. Forbes magazine, a CONSERVATIVE econ mag ranked ALL the presidents since FDR though Clinton. The results: the TOP 3 presidents in terms of economic performance were ALL DEMOCRATS(
Pres. Obama is the biggest failure our country has ever seen. It's simply amazing how the Democratic Congress pass the most sweeping legislation in the history of the United States that is going to bankrupt our nation in the near future. He lauds the European countries and is trying to follow their way of government, he doesn't seem to remember how we bailed them out. His DDay
speech was empty words The USA has been the leader, not a follower and is still a great country
that need not apologize to any European country. Let us remember this on Independence Day and remember our great freedoms, and what we stand for.
"Pres. Obama is the biggest failure our country has ever seen."
Were you comatose during the eight years of Bush?
It seems clear that the basic neocon goal is to scream a lot.
Actual concrete results, well ....
"Actual concrete results, well ...."
The War in Iraq was pretty concrete. Now if the neocons could just start a war with Iran it would be all so perfect.
Some of these neocon types refuse to acknowledge that modern Russia is more democratic than Afghanistan ever will be, and it may be that they don't care. They apparently have something to gain from antagonism and are hoping enough of us are ignorant enough to believe them. The reality is that we have every good reason to cultivate constructive relations with Russia, not the least of which is oil supply (they own most of the Arctic oil, and it's a much shorter trip from Murmansk to New York than from the Middle East or an increasingly destabilizing Nigeria). As for human rights, I'd argue that Russia today has a much better record than China, but I don't see many people suggesting we should obstruct that very critical relationship.
Russia has a history of tyranny and there's no evidence that that has really changed... Also, there is very rich and very poor in this country. They continue to be anti-American (given our religious freedom and personal freedoms) and so it's best that our President keep them 'down' a bit...
My Russian friends would disagree with you. Not strongly - they're pretty cynical about their country. But they certainly don't feel their nation is living up to its history of tyranny, as you put it; in fact, if they tried to tell me it was, I'd point out that to make such a statement, in the correspondence my Russian friends are allowed to engage in freely with me, would be ludicrous on the face of it.
You have no idea what you're talking about. You should be embarrassed by that nonsense. "They continue to be anti-American (given our religious freedom and personal freedoms) "--gimme a break. You know NOTHING about today's Russia.
I highly recommend making friends with Russian nationals and finding out for yourself that their opinions are no more monolithic than ours. More of us need to understand and appreciate what an enormous treasure of human resources the Russian people are.
No, Georgia really did attack first. Saakashvili had no regard for what the people of South Ossetia or Abkhazia wanted, and if you know anything about those Katyusha artillery rockets fired indiscriminately on Tskhinvali, you'll know it's impossible to aim those things with any accuracy. That the western media failed to admit Georgia's aggression for a whole month does not make it any less of a fact, neither does the stupidity of Georgian tactics (attacking Russian forces in the first place, rushing in without close air support, neglecting historically predictable overwhelming and brutal retaliation, you name it). And don't forget that Saakashvili called on McCain for help and not Bush (and you can find plenty online about adviser Randy Scheunemann's paid lobbying efforts on behalf of the Georgian regime). Besides, only a neocon with some undisclosed vested interest would have the audacity to desire intervention in those Caucasian blood feuds, anyway; it's no secret that people in those parts have a rather humorless "code of honor" that rarely accomplishes anything constructive.
I wasn't going to include the above paragraph but I saw that some commenters didn't see the corrections in western media after a month of erroneous reporting, and I don't really fault them because those corrections seemed to get the old "page 10" sidebar treatment despite all the sensational front page headlines.
If we listen to these far right extremists in the United states, we be just as crazy as they are. These neo-cons, often make me wonder, wondering if they are humans. I also wonder if they were born with the same common sense as we do. Because oftentimes their views and ideologies are so off. Are they reading, paying attention and listening to the same things that we do? Or is it the fact that their hearts are so bitter? Nevertheless, what is so shocking, is that they are the first set of people to talk about Christianity, family values and love. How can anyone be a promoter of those sacred values, the bible teaches and practiced by Jesus, yet still everything that comes out of their mouth is hate?
Where was it implemented that the USA is the prime example and beacon of the world, that everyone should live by our statutes? Who said that we are God? Who ordained us to such high authority? We're at fault in many things, the same as in every country. No fault is greater, wrong be that it may be, is wrong. The precedent that Obama is setting, is one that's moral. That we must seek to live in peace as one nation around the world, where we all can get along. The past is always an hindrance in moving forward if we continue to look back. Didn't Lot's wife turned into a pillow of salt when she looked back?
Every country has this type, They are war mongers with pretend ideals. Usually their is something else , some other motive lurking in their warped minds. They use concepts such as Freedom and peace and what not as tools for manipulation, and not because they really believe in them. These peopler regardless of what nation they reside in start the wars but it seems as though they never want to participate in them. That is why I invite these no accounts to go on their own and wage their little conflicts that they seem so enamored of and stop dragging the rest of us into them.
The Neo-con[artist]s are credible as concerns supporting human rights. Yup. Sure are. Couldn't be a better source of umbrage against human rights violations than them there Neo-con[artists]s.
Indeed, it was probably the Neo-con[artist]s who invented human rights. And then told "God" about them. Yep. [w]Holy religious are them there Neo-con[artist]s.
So long as the classification "human" is applied soley to Zionist racial supremacists.
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