Koppel, Woodward on Obama-Clinton Foreign Policy: World in Meltdown; U.S. in Most Dangerous Period

Last week on Meet the Press, it was NBC News' Chief Foreign Correspondent Richard Engel slamming the Obama administration's "diminished",foreign policy influence around the globe.

Today on Meet the Press, two veteran Washington newsmen, The Washington Post's Bob Woodward and former ABC, now NBC News correspondent Ted Koppel, matter of factly described the present foreign policy environment as being in "meltdown" and entering "one of the most dangerous" periods in U.S. history. Their remarks were made without directly blaming President Barack Obama and outgoing Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, but they were made in response to a question pointing out Obama's neglect of foreign policy in his second inaugural address last Monday.

Host David Gregory opened the segment with a clip of Clinton's 'what difference does it make' outburst at the Senate Benghazi hearing last week. Gregory went on to ask Koppel:

"Wider than just the Benghazi investigation and the questions are about a region that's in ferment, in revolution in certain parts where there are a lot of threats facing the United States. And it's not getting a lot of attention thus far from the administration, certainly from the president's inaugural address. And there are real fears in the region that Iran particularly is gonna be on the edge of causing problems for the United States."

Koppel: "I think David as I suggested before that we're entering one of the most dangerous periods this country has ever known. A--it's not over in Afghanistan. B--to the degree that al Qaeda has moved over in to Pakistan. That's a country that has over a hundred nuclear weapons. Syria which is an ongoing problem. The suggestion constantly seems to be that we need to come in on the side of the rebels. There are at least a thousand al Qaeda members in Syria today fighting on the side of the rebels. If the chemical weapons fall in to their hands, big problems. You mentioned Iran. Remember now, it may even have been on this program I think that Bibi Netanyahu the Israeli prime minister suggested that come Spring come early Summer if the Iranians still have not pulled back from building a nuclear weapon the Israelis may attack. The Iranians would respond against the United States and they have the capacity to do it with cyber war."

Woodward: "I think it's even bigger and more troubling than that. It isn't just the Middle East and that region. Look at North Korea announcing that they are gonna target the United States. They have nuclear weapons--unlike Iran at this point. You look at what happened in Algeria and Mali. The Egypt problem is not solved.

"I actually had one the experts tell me recently that the next book I ought to do is this whole sweep of foreign policy and the working title of the book would be, "Meltdown"."

Gregory turns to Andrea Mitchell to save Hillary Clinton's reputation as if this "meltdown" hasn't happened on her watch.

Gregory: "And Andrea I want you to respond to something. Hillary Clinton, when she was not talking about Benghazi, issued a warning for her successor. Which I gather she also wanted to make sure was heard inside the White House when she talked about the region in this case, North Africa, the al Qaeda presence, bigger than Benghazi. This is what she said."

Clinton: "Let me underscore the importance of the United States continuing to lead in the Middle East, in North Africa and around the world. When America is absent, especially from unstable environments, there are consequences. Extremism takes root, our interests suffer our security at home is threatened."

Mitchell: "I think she is trying to warn the administration and the world that we cannot retreat from this engagement here. And right now over night we've seen that the US is doing refueling of French fighters in Mali which is very troublesome to some it is a much more aggressive posture. But, the UK has taken all of their nationals out of Somalia overnight. This area of North Africa, as Bob and Ted were just saying is the most dangerous perhaps in the world aside from Pakistan and Afghanistan which are nuclear armed against each other--and oh, Pakistan and India are nuclear armed against each other. And what's happening in Afghanistan as we retreat and the effect on that, and North Korea. So they have to really not just look at immigration and guns and the budget as the next challenges."

Also on the panel were the Heritage Foundation's Jim Demint and the NAACP's Ben Jealous. They were brought in to the conversation at this point. Click this link to view the entire Meet the Press panel discussion segment titled "Panel recaps turmoil in the Middle East."

"Thanks, Obama. Thanks for making the world much more dangerous than it was 4 years ago."

The product of moral relativism - the poor are made to appear rich by making the rich poorer and the weak are made to appear strong by making the strong weak.

The Supreme Doctrine by Hubert Benoit. Read it, then we can talk. My current tagline is taken from the great Nabokov's book PALE FIRE.

Looks like I've got some books to order from Amazon...

The show was great, and well worth it. Great storyline and great music interspersed.

Clever dialog, great singing and the guy who plays Frankie Valli does as masterful vocal imitation.

Find yourself a nice Jersey Boy to take you, do dinner at Nocello's on 55th before the show and you'll have a rewarding night!

I'll give ol' uni-brow Sam a call, tell him I found his toupee sitting affixed to the toilet scrubber in the men's room, have him show up again to claim it and then you can have at him too!

FReegards!

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