Writes the Washington Post editorial board, in "In the Middle East, Biden’s policy bumps into U.S. principles."
July 18, 2022
"Mr. Biden’s face-to-face meeting with MBS — preceded by a cordial, and ill-advised, televised fist bump — conferred a much-coveted legitimacy on the crown prince."
"On a visit calculated to secure increases in the Saudi oil supply, this moment crystallized the damaging appearance of trading U.S. human rights principles — indeed the Saudi people’s legitimate aspirations for greater freedom — for help curing the president’s domestic political problems caused by expensive gasoline.... ... Mr. Biden gave more than he got. He made no wider critique of Saudi Arabia’s repressive policies in public; there were no releases of political prisoners or clemency for other regime opponents — including dual U.S. citizens — who have been denied freedom to travel.... And when it was all over, MBS had made no public commitment to pump more oil.... A presidency that began with bold talk of a new, human-rights-centered approach to the Arab world has reverted to a policy not much less indulgent of dictators than those of previous administrations, including that of President Donald Trump."
Writes the Washington Post editorial board, in "In the Middle East, Biden’s policy bumps into U.S. principles."
Writes the Washington Post editorial board, in "In the Middle East, Biden’s policy bumps into U.S. principles."
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
73 comments:
More importantly Biden’s actions severely undermined the PGA’s efforts to undermine the LIV Tour…
for help curing the president’s domestic political problems caused by expensive gasoline..
And when it was all over, MBS had made no public commitment to pump more oil.
WOW! you know what Jo Biden could do? That would be a two for one win?
Drill Baby Drill! Switching to a pro drilling domestic stance would
a) reduce gas prices
b) enable us to stop kowtowing to the Saudis!
and
c) STICK to the russians
see? a win win win, win (i threw in another win, just to sweeten the deal).
…adopting a domestic energy strategy equivalent to Drill Baby, Drill would have been easier and more effective both economically and politically.
These people really did believe their own BS.
Shocking that a culture of power and alpha males detected the beta weakness of Joe. MBS humiliated our frail and impotent leader.
Mr. Biden gave more than he got
That's standard Democratic negotiating when dealing with other countries (compare his old boss lifting the Cuban embargo in exchange for...nothing, or giving Iran the benefits up front in exchange for promises to act later).
What's note worthy is that the way the Washington Post is writing about Biden. As Matt Taibbi pointed out recently, we have to read the mainstream media the way Soviets had to read Pravda. The purported story is meaningless, the value comes from the topic, but from analyzing what is being signaled about the official storyline. In this case, The Post is signaling that the Democratic Party is ready to enact it's longstanding plan to put Harris in the Oval Office without regard to the wishes of Democratic primary voters.
In 2020, they stole the White House from Republicans. In 2022, they will steal it from the Democrats.
I heard Trump told Vlad he'd have more flexibility after he was re-elected, in that secret Alfa Bank chat room ... or maybe I'm getting him confused with somebody else.
So, the WaPo notes the Biden is in over his muddled head. I guess that's progress.
At least they can still snipe at Trump. Boy does he live in their heads.
Waddya gonna do? At least he didn't dance with him. Still, it's unseemly as fuck. Personally, I blame Jane Fonda, the China Syndrome and the No Nukes movement for the ascension of this greasy shit stain leader of a Kingdom.
Did you really expect anything different?? BIDEN is to blame for our energy problems. WE WERE energy independent. HE fucked that up. The fraudulent president is destroying America from the inside, and the left is applauding him.
It was always just a political weapon in the presidential campaign. None of his promises ever meant a thing.
Imagine if Trump had fist bumped?
Joe Biden and his administration are completely inept? No way.
Two observations: 1) It is impossible for a leftist publication to write an editorial that does not mention Donald Trump; 2) We had a "presidency that began with bold talk of a new, human-rights-centered approach" in 1976. And energy shortages. Everything old is new again.
An illegitimate President confers legitimacy on a murdering Muslim dictator of a country that sent the 9-11 terrorists to the US. Got it.
Yesterday, nobody knew who this guy was, and today he has his own acronym (and yes, I know it's actually not an acronym but an initialism, but it will take a few years for that word to get any traction).
Yesterday, a fist bump was disrespectful, and today it confers a much needed legitimacy. Was the fist bump some twentysomething staffer's nutty idea? Or was Joe just trying really hard not to shake hands and not to bow down to the prince?
A presidency that began with bold talk of a new, human-rights-centered approach to the Arab world has reverted to a policy not much less indulgent of dictators than those of previous administrations, including that of President Donald Trump.
Why bring Trump in? Surely he wasn't the worst offender by any means.
We tried to "democratize" the Middle East, and only made things worse. It didn't work. It's not going to work now.
in today's WSJ The West’s Climate Policy Debacle
Utopian energy dreams are doing great economic and security damage.
oaring oil and natural gas prices. Electricity grids on the brink of failure. Energy shortages in Europe, with worse to come. The free world’s growing strategic vulnerability to Vladimir Putin and other dictators.
These are some of the unfolding results in the last year caused by the West’s utopian dream to punish fossil fuels and sprint to a world driven solely by renewable energy. It’s time for political leaders to recognize this manifest debacle and admit that, short of a technological breakthrough, the world will need an ample supply of carbon fuel for decades to remain prosperous and free.
America's woe begotten leaders continue to learn the hard way that it is not possible to fix something that has been profoundly broken, no matter how many well-intentioned policy changes or laws are passed.
In this case, it's energy policy. Biden and his handlers took aim at domestic energy production and fired. They cancelled previously approved drilling leases and pipelines, and production decreases. Prices go up, so they blather on about other leases that they have approved in areas that nobody can make work, and think they have accomplished something. Then they have to humiliate themselves before the world begging Saudis to make up for their terrible decisions.
More tragically (and only slightly OT), they spend a half century destroying the American family, resulting in a generation of drug addicts, single parent homes, moms dependent on government aid, and not a few school-, church-, and mall-shooters.
Then they pass a gun control law, a drug control law, and fiddle with the AFDC and food stamps so they can call it by a new improved name (SNAP, anyone?) and think that they have solved the problem that they created.
Better by far to pay attention to the past and not screw it up in the first place, but there is no power and no graft in that approach.
"A presidency that began with bold talk of a new, human-rights-centered approach to the Arab world"
In view of the coddling of Iran, and the approval for Nord Stream II, the Arabs knew from the outset it was all tactical BS.
Plus everyone knows the Bidens have no principles and can be bought. Joe is all bluster. No joke.
It is not an officially approved WP Editorial unless there is at least one critical reference to Trump.
Shocker. Who could have ever imagined Joe Biden's positions shifting like the wind?
Do I need a sarcasm tag?
Joe, or his handlers are politicians first, second and third. They can not see a problem until they read a headline. They can not think beyond tomorrow when they identify a problem.
Need certain votes? MBS/the Sauds will be pariahs.
Gas prices hurting my party? Fist bump. To be fair I have to admit it's hard to accurately bump fists from a kneeling position.
Conferred a much-coveted legitimacy to the president, to the general secretary.
No oil for you, bro!
The Wash Post pretends to be concerned that the Saudi’s knocked off Jamal Khashoggi, but they ignore that powerful people in our Gov’t used Jeffrey Epstein’s services, and then had him killed.
We’re different from the Saudi’s how??? At least they’re smart enough to drill for oil.
Funny thing about the uproar is we are still supposed to believe the Saudi’s are worse than our current totalitarian Liberal Gov’t? They locked us down. Shut the schools and screwed up the kids. Made the general population a medical experiment with dangerous mRNA shots. They promote transgender strip shows for little kids, and stock grade school libraries with “It’s OK to give a blow job” books. And then our Justice Department calls parents who protest this crap “terrorists”. We have frothing feminists wanting the right to abort an eight- to nine-month-old baby. And our senile fist bump President was installed via fraud.
We’ve become the hypocrites of the world and losing ground quickly to countries that no longer care what we think (China, India, Russia, Saudi Arabia). All so Western Europe and Justin Trudeau will give us a fist bump, as long as we keep paying the bills.
It’s over people. We’re in the part of the movie where you don’t know how it’s going to end, but you know it’s not going end well.
Thanks Madison!!!!!
“Personally, I blame Jane Fonda, the China Syndrome and the No Nukes movement for the ascension of this greasy shit stain leader of a Kingdom.”
Now do mbs.
there were no releases of political prisoners or clemency for other regime opponents — including dual U.S. citizens
The Washington Post could write that exact same sentence referring the the US Federal Gov't as well.
Maybe our Federal Government should release the political prisoners being held to cover the voter fraud and prop up the J6 kangaroo committee. We are sending Indiana Grandmothers to prison for J6 for what?? We're no better than the Saudi's.
We are the hypocrites of the world.
Does the Post know that Saudi Arabia is a US ally?
Imagine if Trump had fist bumped?
Trump would have rocked a fist bump much better than Biden did.
Normal negotiations between nations are conducted by teams of specialists who work out the details and craft a deal before the leaders meet. It was childish for Biden to suppose he could just hop on a plane and negotiate a deal by himself. Apparently, Joe thinks international negotiations are like buying a used car in Scranton.
If only he would’ve put his hands on the magical orb.
Americans, take a knee, beg. Russian oil sanctions. Chinese Green deals. OPEC, fool me once, fool me twice... India, we're just not that into you. If we could just abort and sequester our burdens, then they wouldn't harsh our mellow, our quality of life. Pass the fentanyl,
The real losers are the American press.
“Not much less indulgent than the Trump administration “
Ok then.
Writer is caught up with State Department delusion that the U.S. can only deal with regimes that meet a woke sensibility. This is what has led to failure after failure in foreign affairs. After all, the morality criteria gets waived for Iran and China because they are needed to contain America in the glorious new world order of the post-American world.
Biden and Obama before him conduct foreign affairs as if they were still Senators, believing that gasbaggery is all the effort required in an opaque situation.
An oldie but a goodie. The cabal that bragged of foisting Joe Biden on us must answer for his Presidency
Howard: "Waddya gonna do? At least he didn't dance with him. Still, it's unseemly as fuck. Personally, I blame Jane Fonda, the China Syndrome and the No Nukes movement for the ascension of this greasy shit stain leader of a Kingdom."
LOL
What a wiffle-waffle little comment that is!
Trump delivered US energy independence, which you opposed, so yes, Trump danced with the Saudi's...who gave Trump everything he asked for...because the US under Trump had leverage.
Now, with Team Howard/Biden in charge, what do we have? The Saudi's buying massive quantities of cheap russian oil, benefiting Putin greatly (as was planned by the Biden Crime Family backed by an army of Howards), using that cheap oil for Saudi domestic use while selling Saudi oil on the world market at current high market rates (massively high rates that the Biden Crime Family backed by an army of Howards fully supported).
So congrats Howard. Your team has crippled the US and rewarded ALL, but only ALL, of America's top geo-political competitors.
"Kudos".
For the Biden Crime Family and their army of cannon fodder Howards, it will always be America Last.
Oh, btw, the ChiComs (another of Biden's masters and against whom Biden just decreased sanctions AGAIN!) are now purchasing the largest quantities of gas and oil from Russia that they've ever received.
Which is in addition to India massively increasing their purchases of Russian oil, amongst others as Biden continues to ensure future expansion of the BRICS coalition.
Well Howard, I guess Putin has alot of you democraticals/nevertrump (but I repeat myself) to thank for his now quite solvent financial position. The Kremlin says "Thank you very much comrade!".
You can warm your house by burning Washington Post print edition rather than buying Saudi oil. When Trump was President, you could just buy American.
Which qatari tool wrote this
"A presidency that began with bold talk of a new, human-rights-centered approach to the Arab world has reverted to a policy not much less indulgent of dictators than those of previous administrations..."
Reverted to a policy not much less indulgent. The WaPo editorial board wrote that.
Blogger Another old lawyer said...
Does the Post know that Saudi Arabia is a US ally?
I'm not so sure since the Biden cabal took over. They have stumbled around alienating friends like Israel and the Sunnis who signed the Abraham Accords. KSA is about to join BRICS, the new Russian alliance Biden helped create.
And now the Russians have officially notified Germany "no more gas for you!".
The official notice went out today but is retroactive to June 14. Reason "force majeure"
Germany still plans to shut their nukes in December.
20mm Russians smile from the graves of wwii
John LGBTQBNY Henry
It is impossible for a leftist publication to write an editorial that does not mention Donald Trump
Hell, I'm so old I remember when no leftist publication could avoid mentioning Ronald Reagan.
Blaming Biden for all these screwups is like blaming Charlie McCarthy if the jokes fall flat.
I believe every bad thing written about the Saudis. I think that their real offense, however, is being insufficiently hostile to the United States....I'd be grateful if someone here could point to an Arab regime that governs with the consent of governed. Remember the Arab spring or our invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan? How is it even possible to replace Saddam with a worse regime? I see no happy ending if the Saudi regime is overturned....Muslim regimes are differentiated between the bad and the really, really bad. I don't blame Biden for trying to make nice with the Saudis, but I wish he did it with more finesse. The fist bump was a clumsy gesture that enhanced the underlying tensions.
At least Biden didn't bow from the waist like Trump did.
Oh wait ... that was some other President. Can't remember his name.
I would really, really appreciate honest press reflecting that the President's stance and actions has been to limit domestic oil production and refining while asking (begging?) foreign countries with human rights, environmental, and strategic alignment issues to produce and send us more.
You want more war in the middle east, this is how you get it: by making critical commodities reliant upon middle east supply so you have to align your defense strategy to ensuring that supply stays stable.
I would really, really appreciate honest press reflecting that the President's stance and actions has been to limit domestic oil production and refining while asking (begging?) foreign countries with human rights, environmental, and strategic alignment issues to produce and send us more.
You want more war in the middle east, this is how you get it: by making critical commodities reliant upon middle east supply so you have to align your defense strategy to ensuring that supply stays stable.
Biden and his awful handlers want US reliant on Saudi oil.
touching an orb is an impeachable offense.
Taking money from a corrupt Ukrainian energy company - using your dad's power? No problem!
Prince salman put the leading figures of the golden chain in prison al quedas funding circle some of the leading recruiters for jihadists like odah and hawali thats the real story
So, Jeff Bezos and his gang don't like Saudi Arabia. So what?
In any case, its absurd the way the US Foreign Policy elite's "Morality" flips and flops from one year to another and from one country to another based on absolutely nothing. This dictator is Good, this one is Bad. This dictator was good, now he's bad, and vice-versa. Castro seems OK, Franco not. Hitler must be wiped out. Stalin is "Uncle Joe". Mao kills Americans during the Korean war and is the devil. Nixon goes to China twenty years later, and he's a great man.
Unlike Assad or Ghaddfhi the Saudi Royal Family sells us lots of oil, buys our weapons, and helps us police the Gulf. Their war in Yeman is ignored as is all their other faux-pauxs.
It'd be nice if we had a foreign policy elite which simply looked out for America's interests, but that seems impossible.
Has Mitt Romney weighed in? He seems to have a lot of Opinions.
April: Until we decarbonize, Saudi Arabia literally and figuratively has the world economy over a barrel. Because geology.
The policies "of previous administrations, including that of President Donald Trump" actually made sense. This crew, not so much. International relations, like politics, is the art of the possible.
Blogger Howard said...
April: Until we decarbonize, Saudi Arabia literally and figuratively has the world economy over a barrel. Because geology.
By all means, Howard, we need to cancel the laws of Physics. Biology is also in trouble because we are made up of stuff called "organic chemistry" and that is mostly carbon. The insanity currently running this country may be the result of failing to teach children math and chemistry. Everyone in office seems to be a lawyer and we all know they avoided math.
What a waste of Biden's time, given his agenda:
He wanted support for his stupid Iran deal; instead he found himself signing a declaration we would help Israel attack Iran's nascent nuclear program.
He wanted more dirty Saudi oil; instead he got even less than Macron warned him he would get, when the French friend tried to tell Biden this was going to turn out poorly.
He wanted to talk tough and honor the memory of Kashoggi; instead he mumbled something weakly and had to lie about it in his most recent update to the Cornpop Tales, In Which Old Joe's Always the Hero and which are always told outside earshot of any living characters from the tale.
Prince salman put the leading figures of the golden chain in prison al quedas funding circle some of the leading recruiters for jihadists like odah and hawali thats the real story
Qadhdhāfī shared intelligence about terrorist activities, and led a national reform for the benefit of the Libyan people. Watch your back, dear prince.
Howard: "April: Until we decarbonize, Saudi Arabia literally and figuratively has the world economy over a barrel. Because geology."
This is so hopelessly stupid I thought Inga or gadfly had penned it.
Blogger Howard said...
April: Until we decarbonize, Saudi Arabia literally and figuratively has the world economy over a barrel. Because geology.
1) this is completely untrue, we have the ability to be energy independent and efficient on our own. The entire state of Illinois is one big coal mine, and decarbonization is propaganda.
2) In the process of, and after decarbonization, millions and possibly billions of people would starve to death because we feed the world via fossil fuels. They're a gift from God.
Howard said...
"April: Until we decarbonize, Saudi Arabia literally and figuratively has the world economy over a barrel. Because geology."
You really can't get out of your own way, can you.
It is impossible for a leftist publication to write an editorial that does not mention Donald Trump
Hell, I'm so old I remember when no leftist publication could avoid mentioning Ronald Reagan.
I'm so old I remember when it was Richard Nixon.
"Blogger Howard said...
April: Until we decarbonize, Saudi Arabia literally and figuratively has the world economy over a barrel. Because geology."
To paraphrase a famous statement made during the Vietnam war: we have to destroy the country to save the country.
so called 'green' or alternative energy might or might not be great in the future. We don't know what might be discovered, invented, or re invented that will help solve our energy needs.
what we do know, with certainty, is that alternative(non fossil fuel) energy can not be depended upon to fuel our needs.
We may someday move away from gas, oil etc. But until then, why is it that leftists prefer to buy oil, rather than produce it ourselves.
We have plenty of oil, natural gas, and coal. Using it removes us from the cesspool of the middle east, and allows us to focus on other things.
Clearly we were way less dependent on foreign supplies under Trump. Gas was cheaper, electricity was cheaper.
why do leftists have such a difficult time dealing with this.
Saudi citizen killed in Saudi consulate by Saudi agents in Turkey...and US foreign policy should be slaved to this? WTF?
Howard never took organic chemistry. Too much math.
Biden could have come into office and done absolutely nothing while leaving Trump's policies in place. Then, by this time in his presidency, the media could have been declaring him the greatest president ever as he presided over a time of great economic gains for the country. The left wouldn't let him do that, instead insisting that he have congress provide money for every special interest, and pet project while pushing for their "green new deal" and "build back bitter" bamboozle. Inflation was almost guaranteed after printing more and more money as each group demanded their portion.
(Of course, the media is still declaring him a great president--but if he had done as above, they would at least have had a small bit of truth to base their headlines on since the economy would be in a lot better shape than it is).
Howard: "April: Until we decarbonize, Saudi Arabia literally and figuratively has the world economy over a barrel. Because geology."
Until we decarbonize organic chemistry it will be opaque to most of the US population.
Howard and his pals are having quite the difficult time with basic biology. It goes without saying Organic Chemistry is far outside his sphere of understanding.
If only he would’ve put his hands on the magical orb.
A Magic Eight Ball would have better returns than the idiot you voted for.
Things that, taken together, don’t make sense.
Last March Canada’s Alberta Province offered to sell us lots of oil, claiming they had the pipeline capacity and railcar capacity to transport it to us. I never saw anyone from the Biden administration claim that the price was too high or claim that they couldn’t make good on contracts. They just ignored the Alberta premier.
The Biden administration took almost ONE MILLION barrels of oil out of our Strategic Petroleum Reserve and sold it to China. Why does this make sense?
Joe Biden went out of his way to offend the leadership of Saudi Arabia, is cozying up to asadi Arabia’s enemy Iran, did the above actions, and still goes begging and pleading to the Saudis for them to go against their own national interest to pump more oil.
Why?
Howard the world is never going to decarbonize. reality might be unpleasant but it is reality. What amazes me is the WaPo and the Democrats moaning about Saudi Arabia. Apparently the conveniently forget that the Great God Of The Democratic Party Franklin Delano Roosevelt personally went to the Middle East to sign a treaty that the US will guarantee the House Of Saud will rule Saudi Arabia. What should do is resume our domestic oil and gas production like we had when Trump was president and stat researching building safer nuclear power plants that are more moron proof and highly unlikely to melt down under any reasonably likely disaster situation. That's too easy for a prog brain to digest.
The real problem here is that there are a lot of people in the world that are dumber than a demented Joe Biden.
All of Joe Biden's supporters and voters are just idiots.
The editorial board (why do they need a whole board?) thinks killing Kashoggi was a bigger deal than the 3000 New Yorkers they murdered on 9/11.
Post a Comment