ANOTHER GREAT MOMENT IN FOREIGN POLICY – AT 8:20 A.M. ET:  You can't accuse the White House of inconsistency in foreign policy.  It is thoroughly consistent – insulting America's friends and appeasing its enemies.  One must be impressed by the intellectual rigor of such a maneuver.

Now, Jackson Diehl of the Washington Post, reveals the latest snub by President Obama.  Diehl points out that 12 of the leaders gathered in Washington for the nuclear nonproliferation summit got personal meetings with the president.  Some of the exceptions were notable:

One of those left out was Mikheil Saakashvili, president of Georgia, who got a phone call from Obama last week instead of a meeting in Washington. His exclusion must have prompted broad smiles in Moscow, where Saakashvili is considered public enemy no. 1 -- a leader whom Russia tried to topple by force in the summer of 2008. After all, Obama met with Viktor Yanukovych, the president of Ukraine and a friend of the Kremlin. And he is also meeting with the leaders of two of Georgia’s neighbors -- Armenia and Turkey, both of which enjoy excellent relations with Russia...

...Saakashvili’s exclusion from the bilateral schedule is striking considering his strong support for U.S. interests, such as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Georgia sent as many as 2,000 troops from its tiny army to Iraq. It will soon have nearly 1,000 in Afghanistan; 750 are being sent to fight under U.S. command. U.S. envoy Richard Holbrooke noted last month that Georgia’s per capita troop contribution would be the highest of any country in the world.

Ally of the United States.  That probably put him on the "bad" list at this White House.  It's tough to be a friend of America these days.  Saakashvili is in good company. 

Obama thanked Saakashvili for that help in their phone call last week. But according to a Georgian account of the call, Obama didn’t say anything about Georgia’s aspiration to join NATO, or about Georgia’s interest in buying defensive weapons from the United States, in order to deter a repeat of the 2008 Russian invasion.

COMMENT:  The chill sent out by this administration toward countries who have the guts to stand with us must eventually have its impact.  These countries have their "realists," as we do.  They may well conclude that an alliance with the United States isn't worth it.  Can we blame them?

April 14, 2010