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Posted on 01/27/2013 5:22:31 PM PST by kristinn
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:
(Transcription by Kristinn Taylor)
"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."
And, it is their lord and savior that has made it more perilous by creating dangerous, Islamist regimes.
MITCHELL: “And what’s happening in Afghanistan as we retreat and the effect on that, and North Korea.”
I bet Andrea would like to have that sentence back.
Admiring Obama’s work.
“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”.”
Kristinn:
Thanks for taking the time to put up this amazing display of post-election honesty on the MSM. They can afford to be honest for a moment now that Barry is safely reelected.
I was watching Up With Chris Hayes on MSNBC this AM and several far left commentators slammed Hillary as being mostly involved with “hugging” struggling folks around the planet and totally walled off from serious foreign policy direction. That direction came only out of the White House or from special envoys who took away from Hillary any responsibility for Israel/Palestine, Aghanistan, Pakistan or any other area that would hurt her in 2016 if anything went bad.
Didn’t even mention China and Japan. Or the real enemy, the Republicans.
Remembering him as the egotist he is, I loudly turned to my wife within earshot of him and said "Reagan was 10 times the man that yipping press corps Chihuahua will ever be."
He turned to look where the barb came from. I made eye contact - and glowerrd -- uncertain, he dared not get into it ...
Somewhat gratifying, I suppose. I figured the guy never heard me swearing at him as I watched him on TV in Reagan's press conferences back in the '80's.
I'd like to think he finally heard me last night for the first time....
Was tempted to make a snarky comment about his recent DWI in DE, but I refrained.
FReegards!
Meanwhile, CBS, acting at the request of the Obama Ministry of Propaganda, produces an interview with the two fools responsible for our foreign policy failures, Obama and Clinton.
CBS is another arm of the Democratic Party.
I had no idea we had a foreign policy. I thought Obama ran it out of his back pocket. I suppose he believes his charisma will simply make other nations and leaders do what he wishes. It must be a terrible burden to be that “special”.
IOW, without directly mentioning zero by name, appeasing thugs and dictators, bowing down to Islamist hate-mongers and making the US substantially weaker than ever isn’t paying off too well for “The Won”.
There is a more obvious example of zero’s poor foreign relations program - notice that virtually no foreign leaders seek him out for counsel and support. Early in his first term, our staunch alies came by to see and be seen with him, only to be treated only slightly better than the dirt on the WH doormat. With those insults delivered, they haven’t come back.
For good reason. Zero has not bothered to hide the fact that he has been courting the leaders of countries that hate us and would love to see America gone. The same as zero. But, the downside is that we have less than zero influence in the rest of the world because they know how weak we are.
Thanks, Obama. Thanks for making the world much more dangerous than it was 4 years ago.
Sorry, Madam Secretary, but you can't just toss off your connection with this president, or the fact that you were Secretary of State during these bleak years.
Ask not for whom the bell tolls...
So much to hate about these stupid liberals and so little time left, thanks to them.
Then along came the amateur and a contagion of flawed rebellions engulfed the middle east. So now Obama is the father of the Arab Maelstrom that is resulting from his mishandling of events.
hahahahaha love it
Obama got the Peace Prize and some want to give one to Hillary.
The world has gone crazy.
The Nobel Peace Prize is meaningless.
.
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