Thursday 25 September 2014

Obama Still Baiting Putin

Obama has certainly got his teeth into the gritty foreign policy thing, which all feels rather more real-world than the 'hopey-changey' thing.  He is being roared on by, well, almost everyone; and his coalition-building is on a par with that of George Bush Snr 1990-91, which is saying something.  (It can have its downsides: I well recall the chaos of trying to 'coordinate' an Egyptian armoured column in the attack on Saddam's forces in Kuwait ... a story for another time).

This coalition apparently even includes warplanes from Denmark and Holland, as well as Oz and  France, which is beginning to make the UK look like a real laggard.  Step forward Ed Miliband, whose duplicitous dealings with Dave last time around seem to be the cause.  If Mili is in an uncomfortable position, with several of his MPs beholden to Moslem voters, well, there's a thing.  He should note the actions of the aforesaid Danes and Dutch, who have their own very pressing problems in that regard.  The invitation, Ed, is to stand up and be counted.  Sorry about your Conference and that.

Interesting and significant, isn't it, that Obama used his pulpit to berate Putin again.  This is really baiting the man:  I know you have a Security Council veto, but you're going to hear this anyway. This may be very finely judged, or it may backfire, particularly in the longer term: but it wins a bunch of friends across Eastern Europe.

I wonder if he is going to take the Chinese up on their offer of a few weeks ago ?

Meanwhile, back in his Caledonian fastness, Alex Salmond would like it to be understood that everything's jolly unfair ...

ND

11 comments:

BE said...

I don't know about the "Moslem voters" being behind Ed's principled stand against action against Assad. I expect the real driver was the focus group. Not that anyone asked me, but I was not a fan of intervention at the time of the Syria vote, for the simple reason that we did not really know what we were intervening it. Assad is a nasty pieces of work, but I for one did not know who we would be putting in his place. For all I knew, it could be a group pushing for an islamic state in Iraq and Syria.

Post Yo Blair I think some of us take a view that we ought to know what we are actually trying to achieve before getting our remaining 12 combat troops ready for battle.

I realise this all sounds a bit Ed Miliband, but that is not my intention (no, really). All I am saying is that Ed might be following what his panel of swing voters think, rather than leading on the issue.

I am much more inclined this time to line up with the Danes and the Dutch, because while Assad is careful enough to avoid straying outside his own borders, this IS lot want something a bit different.

Can't we go back to the good old days of spheres of influence and balance of power?

Jer said...

There are many nations with a vested interest in who governs Syria.

Can't think of any good reason why the UK should care though.

Can only think of a bad reason "The Americans want us to bomb randomly for some reason they haven't explained, possibly because they hope to weaken a Russian ally".

Can't we go back to the good old days when the UK prime minister told the US president what US foreign policy should be?

Electro-Kevin said...

I reckon it started with in Sochi (spelling ?)

Putin was cornered by the BBC over his view on homosexuality - it didn't like it and he's been in the shit with Europe ever since. That bearded-girly winning Eurovision was like a "This is what we are, Putin !" moment.

It could be that WW3 starts over a difference of opinion on bum sex.

I've nothing against bum sex myself - each to their own, but I'm a bit of a nimby this issue.

Electro-Kevin said...

I think the Americans are probably a bit more prudish about bum sex but see the opportunity to expand Nato through European outrage. (Outrage ! Being a homosexual movement, I believe)

Nick Drew said...

you're not going to tell us about the stunt(ed) double again are you Kev?

Electro-Kevin said...

http://outrage.org.uk/

Tatchell had been to Moscow and got beaten up (respect to him.)

When they thought Putin was just a communist KGB man he was OK with them. Then he went and showed himself to be a homophobe. Oh dear.

Whatever.

Russia has done nothing on the scale of badness as Blair/Bush.

Budgie said...

I know who Putin is, but who is Alex Salmond?

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