detailed the latest in a too-terribly-long line of diplomatic failures<\/a> for the Bush administration. This one is with Mexico, a country that not only has been a close U.S. ally for decades, but the one country Bush visited before becoming president, a country he claimed to have a special bond with.<\/p>\nAs Krugman explains, Bush is more than a little frustrated that Mexico, which has a seat on the U.N. Security Council, has joined with many other former U.S. allies in questioning the wisdom of an American attack on Iraq. In response to Mexico’s skepticism, the White House has resorted to the same strong-armed bullying tactics that have marked nearly all of the administration’s “diplomatic” efforts.<\/p>\n
“Last week The Economist quoted an American diplomat who warned that if Mexico didn’t vote for a U.S. resolution it could ‘stir up feelings’ against Mexicans in the United States,” Krugman wrote. “He compared the situation to that of Japanese-Americans who were interned after 1941, and wondered whether Mexico ‘wants to stir the fires of jingoism during a war.'”<\/p>\n
As you’d imagine, that wasn’t particularly well received south of the border. Neither were remarks from the president himself.<\/p>\n
In an interview this week, Bush “alluded to the possibility of reprisals if Mexico didn’t vote America’s way, saying, ‘I don’t expect there to be significant retribution from the government’ — emphasizing the word ‘government.’ He then went on to suggest that there might, however, be a reaction from other quarters, citing ‘an interesting phenomena taking place here in America about the French…a backlash against the French, not stirred up by anybody except the people.'” Bush added that “if Mexico or other countries oppose the United States, ‘there will be a certain sense of discipline.'”<\/p>\n
Vague, subtle threats towards enemies is one thing, but threatening to “discipline” Mexico? Has the White House thought through the consequences of these tactics?<\/p>\n
The Bush administration has embraced a reckless and irresponsible approach to dealing with the world. It’s almost as if the president wants to destroy the alliances it has taken our country generations to build.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
There’s no kind way to say what is now painfully obvious: the Bush administration has no diplomatic skills to speak of. What’s worse, all indications are that White House officials are not unaware of this fact, they’re indifferent towards it. Paul Krugman, in yesterday’s New York Times, detailed the latest in a too-terribly-long line of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-287","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=287"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}