Sarkozy was put off of Obama when the Royal Couple visited Paris but refused the usual invitation to a state dinner. Instead, they chose to dine out in a restaurant by themselves.
Sarkozy showed his anger at the UN summit when Obama repeatedly cut and avoided him, but spent the whole time cozying up to Muslima and Communist dictators. Gordon Brown actually had to cut through the kitchen to reach Obama, who then ignored him anyway.
Obama has deliberately and repeatedly insulted almost all our European allies PERSONALLY, as well as thumbing his nose at them politically.
No doubt Sarkozy disapproves of Obama’s positions on defense, the economy, and other international issues. But he must also resent the constant stream of personal insults. You just don’t do that to your major allies. Not if you are supposed to be POTUS. Because your every move is scrutinized. One slip of etiquette might be a mistake, but were’s talking about hundreds of slips at this point. And they’re clearly not slips; they’re deliberate insults.
“No doubt Sarkozy disapproves of Obama’s positions on defense, the economy, and other international issues. But he must also resent the constant stream of personal insults. You just don’t do that to your major allies. Not if you are supposed to be POTUS. Because your every move is scrutinized. One slip of etiquette might be a mistake, but were’s talking about hundreds of slips at this point. And they’re clearly not slips; they’re deliberate insults.”
This crap started with the dvd boxed set to g. brown (or arguably the churchill bust before that, though that wasn’t personal against a foreign leader), and has been non-stop since then.
My personal un-favorite was using the 70s anniversary of the soviet invasion of poland to can the missile defense deal. I just wonder if the russians asked for that date in particular or it was his own idea.
I agree with all of that and it isn’t helpful. zero has created a situation that would be ridiculous if it wasn’t so serious .
But, except for Sarkozy, Euro leaders treated Bush rather poorly so I can’t say, except in Sarkozy’s case, that snubbing those leaders bothers me much on a personal level. Obviously, on a national security level, this is at best precarious and at worst downright dangerous.