A
sharp criticism of Samantha Power, but by extension of the Obama foreign policy regime.
Power’s tweets are a legitimate response to a horror that is unfolding daily. What’s so odd about them is the Twitter account they come from belongs to the American Ambassador to the United Nations, who has been a member of Obama’s inner circle since before he hit the campaign trail in 2007. Hence, Ambassador Power’s doe-eyed outrage against the policies that she helped to shape in her time in the White House and whose current public face is literally Samantha Power leaves a casual observer a bit slack-jawed. Is the real Samantha Power being held prisoner in the U.N. basement with access to Twitter, while a Davos-friendly version of Arya Stark from Game of Thrones impersonates Power in policy meetings?
John Kerry is involved in the Twitter diplomacy, too, as OpenDemocracy notes:
“Humanitarian aid to [civilians] must be allowed immediately. ‘Surrender or starve’ tactics are directly contrary to the law of war.”
Any western leader might easily use these words to scold the Turkish state, and its starvation of Kurdish towns to the south-east of the country. But it would be highly unlikely. In fact, John Kerry’s tweet was aimed at the Syrian regime, not the Turkish one.
Why do American leaders describe Assad’s strategy of ‘surrender or starve’ as a war crime, while they ignore Erdoğan’s?
Because, they decide after a lengthy analysis, nobody in the administration knows what to do about Turkey.
2 comments:
Because, they decide after a lengthy analysis, nobody in the administration knows what to do about Turkey.
That's what they said about the US and Iran in 2012.
But they knew what they were going to do, they just had to set it up properly. It takes time for the enemies of humanity to communicate with each other and setup an alliance of mutual interests, especially since their religion, culture, and political language are all different.
Frankly, my response as to what to do about Turkey is to throw them out of NATO and let them deal with the world on their own. After all, what are we currently getting out of their membership in the alliance? They flatly refused to help us in the war in Iraq. Screw them.
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