Secretary of State Mike Pompeo went to Cairo to make a political speech calling the 44th President of the United States a weak, faithless coward.
In the process, in three sentences summarizing what he said the world learned from his boss’s predecessor, Secretary Pompeo encapsulated the foreign policy failures of the Extemporaneous President:
We learned that when America retreats, chaos often follows. When we neglect our friends, resentment builds. And when we partner with enemies, they advance [Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, speech at The American University, Cairo, Egypt, 2019.01.10].
Oh, the willful self-obliviousness!
Just last month, Donald Trump sounded a retreat that his most hawkish corporals have been contorting themselves to walk back:
“We have won against ISIS,” Mr. Trumpdeclared in a video posted Wednesday evening on Twitter, adding, “Our boys, our young women, our men — they’re all coming back, and they’re coming back now” [Mark Landler. Helene Cooper, and Eric Schmitt, “Trump Withdraws U.S. Forces From Syria, Declaring ‘We Have Won Against ISIS’,” New York Times, 2018.12.].
After two years, our allies would find neglect an improvement in relations with Trumpistan:
The most immediate theater of Western disarray is today’s G7 meeting in Canada. Trump has been fomenting a trade war, hurling wild and largely groundless accusations at America’s allies. “Why isn’t the European Union and Canada informing the public that for years they have used massive Trade Tariffs and non-monetary Trade Barriers against the U.S. Totally unfair to our farmers, workers & companies,” he demands. “Take down your tariffs & barriers or we will more than match you!” [Jonathan Chait, “Trump Is Fulfilling Russia’s Dream of Splitting the Western Alliance,” New York Magazine: Intelligencer, 2018.06.08]
And partnering with enemies? Trump loves them:
President Trump told a crowd of supporters in West Virginia on Saturday night that he and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un “fell in love” after overcoming early hostilities. “He wrote me beautiful letters and they’re great letters. We fell in love,” he said, joking that he knew he’d get flak from the press for such “unpresidential” comments. Even as North Korea cast fresh doubt on denuclearization negotiations on Saturday and lamented a lack of trust in Washington, Trump insisted, “We’re doing great with North Korea” [“Trump: Kim Jong Un and I ‘Fell in Love’,” AP via The Daily Beast, 2018.09.30].
Even if Pompeo’s assertions about the Obama Administration were true, the Trump Administration acts as if those “lessons” Pompeo offers were not warnings of what not to do but a saboteur’s guide to tearing down a superpower.
The Trump administration’s foreign policy is based wholly on its Obama Derangement Syndrome. The Washington Post editorial board notes it: “. Mr. Trump’s priorities seem clear, if unfounded: to reverse any policy pursued by Mr. Obama and to withdraw all U.S. forces from the Middle East as quickly as possible. The president’s advisers have more hawkish intentions but lack either a coherent strategy or Mr. Trump’s full backing. None of them seem to understand that while denouncing Mr. Obama’s mistakes, they are, in Syria, about to repeat them.”
The Arabs know he is full of hot air just like his boss. They also know how many Arabs have been brutally killed by associations with the United States. “The wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan have taken a tremendous human toll on those countries. As of March 2015, approximately 210,000 civilians have died violent deaths as a result of the wars. Civilian deaths have also resulted from the US military operations in Yemen that began in 2002.”
Yes, Yemen “Civilian casualties in Yemen are high. As of March 26, 2018, at least 10,000 Yemenis had been killed by the fighting, with more than 40,000 casualties overall. Getting accurate information on the death toll is difficult, but Save The Children estimated at least 50,000 children died in 2017, an average of 130 every day.”
Last year alone in Afghanistan “A total of 10,453 civilian casualties – 3,438 people killed and 7,015 injured – were documented in the 2017 Annual Report released today by the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) and the UN Human Rights Office.Feb 15, 2018”
Add them all up and that is a great victory for our military industrial complex and the investments of Wall Street. Nothing says profits more than blood in the sand, innocent blood in the sand is even better for the margins. Pompeo is just another pompous arse that is not being taken seriously. Everyone at the table knows full well that the United States, under trump and his accomplices, cannot be trusted. What Pompeo said at the meeting, will be rescinded by trump before the contrails disappear in Pompeo’s flight to the next Mid-East road show.
“We learned that when America retreats, chaos often follows. When we neglect our friends, resentment builds. And when we partner with enemies, they advance.”
What Pompeo said is exactly what Insane Idiot is doing. Exactly. As Cory said, “willful self-obliviousness!” I think everyone in that deministration is dumber and denser than a box of rocks.
Lastly, there is no version of diplomacy, statecraft or patriotism that supports an official representative going to a foreign country and attempting to denigrate a duly elected predecessor. None. It’s another version of Toddler’s Tantrums.
Wow Cory excellent work on highlighting these Chait and Kaplan articles.
Pompeo and Trump — dangerous, inexplicable. I am speechless of the depth facing the nation and the world.
Wingnut’s response, “HRC had emails.”
Between Trump, Pompeo and Bolton, it is like watching Abbott and Costello… Who, What and I Don’t Know. We go in circles. We are pulling out. (Trump) We are staying! (Bolton) It is Obama’s fault! (Pompeo) I QUIT! (James Mattis)