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The Utterly Immature Naïf

By Truthteller on October 28, 2008 at 8:50 PM in Ahmadinejad, Mahmoud, Barack Obama, Iran, Israel

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One wonders how Barack Obama will solidify relations of trust with our allies abroad when Nicolas Sarzoky, the French President who presided over a joint press conference with Barack Obama on the subject of Iran in July, characterized Obama’s foreign policy stances and formulations to Isreali foreign officials as “utterly immature,” “empty of content,” “very problematic,” “arrogantly” ignorant and “not crystallized.” Certainly he will not have the power to mobilize the support required to stabilize the Middle East if European leaders dismiss him as a hopeless and hapless naïf of foreign policy, and certainly he will exacerbate our already strained relations with France and other countries if the leaders of those states regard Obama, the American naïf, as not only vague but also recklessly supercilious.

Prompting Sarkozy’s scathing assessment of Obama’s foreign policy is Obama’s desire to engage with Iran without preconditions. This stance is of concern to Sarkozy and other European powers, for Germany and the countries representing the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, or the United Kingdom, the United States, the Russian Federation, China and France, presently comprise a united front whose goal is to prevent the development of nuclear arms in Iran. Unilateral action by Obama can and probably will compromise the power these countries wield over Iran, and it will certainly give Iran the impression that the sanctions already imposed by the Security Council can be flouted. This explains why Sarkozy uses the adjectives “problematic” and “immature” when he discusses Obama’s foreign policy.

Also not to be ignored is Sarkozy’s use of the adverb “arrogantly.” The United States, we recall, already ignored the United Nations once this decade with its illegal and unwarranted invasion of Iraq. Will not another unilateral act outside the agreement forged by the permanent members of United Nations Security Council and Germany rekindle all the resentment that has weakened our power and influence abroad? Obama should understand this. After all, he is the Chair of the Subcommittee of European Affairs of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. But because he chose not to convene any policy hearings as Chair of the Subcommittee of European Affairs, he fails to comprehend the importance of maintaining amicable relations with our European allies now that the United States is economically and politically vulnerable on the international stage.

According to French intelligence, Iran is already in possession of 40 percent of the enriched uranium required to create a nuclear bomb. Any breakdown of negotiations between the Big 5, Germany and Iran will have dire consequences for the Middle East, especially for the country of Isreal, a country Ahmadinejad hopes to “wipe off the map.” What if unilateral negotiations with Iran without preconditions fail? How will Obama respond? How will he seize control over a country that is well on its way to building the next nuclear bomb? Because Obama has not even entertained this possibility, Sarkozy dismisses the American naïf’s various pronouncements as “not crystallized.” And the only explanation Sarkozy can probably muster for the American naïf who believes one can contemptuously disregard the Big 5 and Germany and negotiate willy nilly with Iran is that his mind is “empty of content.” For once I agree with Nicolas Sarkozy.

Sarkozy is not the only person abroad who has concerns about Obama’s proposed foreign policy stance with Iran. According to Ynetnews, 52.5% of Isrealis believe McCain possesses the requisite skills to deal with the security threat Iran poses to Israel. Compare this number to the paltry 27.6% of Israelis who are confident that Obama is prepared.

I guess Joe Biden is correct when he warns:

Mark my words. It will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy. The world is looking.

Yes, the world is looking: France and Israel are gazing at us with worried eyes, while Iran is monitoring us with the hope that we will fumble and elect the utterly immature and naïve Barack Obama.