Daily Alert Archives

Allies Everywhere Feeling Snubbed by President Obama

(Washington Post) Robert Kagan - Israelis shouldn't feel that they have been singled out. In Britain, people are talking about the end of the "special relationship" with America, despite their ongoing sacrifices in Afghanistan. In France, President Nicolas Sarkozy has openly criticized Obama for months. Relations with Japan are rocky, partly because of a perception that the U.S. can't be counted on for the long term. By now, a moderately self-reflective administration might be asking why so many allies, everywhere, are worried. Who has attracted attention in the Obama administration? The answer, so far, seems to be not America's allies but its competitors, and in some cases its adversaries. The president has shown seemingly limitless patience with the Russians as they stall an arms-control deal that could have been done in December. He accepted a year of Iranian insults and refusal to negotiate before hesitantly moving toward sanctions. The administration continues to woo Syria without much sign of reciprocation in Damascus. Yet Obama angrily orders a near-rupture of relations with Israel for a minor infraction like the recent settlement dispute - and after the Israeli prime minister publicly apologized. Rather than strengthening the democratic foundation of the new "international architecture" - the G-20 world - the administration's posture is increasingly one of neutrality, at best, between allies and adversaries, and between democrats and autocrats. Israel is not the only unhappy ally, therefore; it's just the most vulnerable. The writer is a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
2010-03-17 09:24:29
Full Article