We’ve ‘Substantially Improved the Tranquility of the Global Community’ – Josh Earnest, White House Press Secretary
Okay, so we’ve got destabilization in the Middle East, both with ISIS and the never-ending attacks on Israel; a civil war in Syria; Communist aggression in the Ukraine; territorial disputes in the South China Seas; a massive influx of Illegal Alien Children crossing our Southern Border; and countless scandals plaguing this administration, and the White House Press Secretary says with a straight face that Obama has ‘substantially improved the tranquility’ of the world????
White House press secretary Josh Earnest said Monday the Obama administration’s foreign policies in a number of areas have enhanced the world’s “tranquility” – a word that raised eyebrows as reporters pointed to situations in Gaza, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Ukraine and the South China Sea.
Even the Praetorian Media that has propped this Marxist up since 2008 is having trouble swallowing that line. They’re saying that the turmoil in the world harkens back to the days of Jimmy Carter.
More than one reporter during Monday’s press briefing referred to a front-page Wall Street Journal article highlighting some of those crises, and citing security strategists as saying “the breadth of global instability now unfolding hasn’t been seen since the late 1970s.”
The “tranquility” comment came from an exchange from Fox News’ White House correspondent, Ed Henry and the White House Press Secretary, Josh Earnest.
“How does the White House react to the notion that the president is a bystander to all these crises?” asked Fox News’ Ed Henry, citing the widening gaps between the sides in the Iranian nuclear talks, the conflict in and around Gaza, and the Syrian civil war.
“I think that there have been a number of situations in which you’ve seen this administration intervene in a meaningful way, that has substantially furthered American interests and substantially improved the, uh, you know, the – the tranquility of the global community,” Earnest replied.
ABC News’ White House Correspondent, John Karl had a big problem with the “tranquility” claim, as well.
ABC News’ Jon Karl quoted Attorney General Eric Holder’s assessment in an interview aired Sunday that the terrorist potential arising from Westerners returning home after fighting in Syria was “more frightening than anything I think I’ve seen as attorney general.”
Karl then pointed to “what’s looking like an all-out war” between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, Sunni jihadist successes in “taking over vast territory in Iraq and in Syria,” Russian aggression in Ukraine, and concerns about Chinese handling of territorial disputes in the South China Sea.
“It doesn’t seem like a time to be touting tranquility on the international scene,” he told Earnest. “Do you think the president’s foreign policy bears any responsibility for any of this, or is there anything he can do about any of this?”
Trying to defend Obama’s feckless foreign “lead from behind” policy by wrapping it in “national security interests,” Earnest touted the Syria Chemical Weapons debacle.
Earnest said President Obama’s thinking about foreign policy was guided by one core principle – “the national security interests of the United States of America.”
He raised as examples of actions that advanced American interests the negotiated removal of the Assad regime’s “declared” chemical weapons (CW) stockpile, and mediation in recent days between “two competing presidential candidates in Afghanistan, who were prepared to sort of take that process off the rails.”
The Syria chemical deal has brought fewer plaudits from outside the administration, however. The Assad regime slow-walked the process, missing multiple deadlines set by the international community in a clearly-defined program of action.
But even that “accomplishment” looks as if Obama’s “leading from behind” policy is failing yet again.
Questions also remain about the completeness of its declaration – there are suspicions it may have kept some CW back – and the regime is also accused of using chlorine gas in the fighting this year.
Moreover, one key part of the CW agreement that has not been achieved is the destruction of 12 Syrian CW production facilities, a process that was meant to have begun last December and been completed by March 15. Almost four months after that deadline the 12 facilities, five of them located underground, remain standing.
“Syria continues to drag its feet in complying with its obligation to destroy chemical weapons production facilities,” U.S. ambassador to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, Robert Mikulak, told a meeting of the body’s executive council last week.
“The international community has questions that must be adequately answered by Syria regarding the declaration of its entire chemical weapons program,” he said.
Mikulak added that the U.S. “remains deeply concerned by the reports of systematic use of chlorine gas and other chemicals in opposition areas by Syrian government forces.”
All this leads one to wonder, is there anything this President can’t screw up?
