More Afghanistan Speech Reactions
As promised, “Obama’s Afghanistan Speech: Reactions From Around the World” is up at New Atlanticist.
The focus is on European reactions which are rather mixed. The key players are, with the glaring exception of Germany’s Angela Merkel, all saying the right things. But there are few indications that the president changed anyone’s mind last night.
German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle was especially sharp: “Obama also took his time to work out the speech and his strategy and we will take our own time to assess what he said and discuss this with our allies.” He did offer, however, “we Germans are ready to do more in the area of police training, because that is the only route to self-sufficient security, to a handover of responsibilities.”
Much, much more at the “link.
About James Joyner
A lot of people are vary upset about Obama’s policies in this area, but what else is he supposed to do?
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OT: Will OTB editorialists take a pro-or-con position on Bernanke before confirmation?
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We need a foreign policy guy named Guido.
Steve
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Maybe Steve Verdon will. I’m not a big fan of Bernanke but not sure that others of his ilk would have made significantly different calls under the circumstances. There seemed to be massive groupthink on the bailouts and related issues.
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That seems a fair analysis. At the same time, if anyone faults those same bailouts, this would seem the time to raise heck.
I mean, the alternative would be to complain again after he’s reconfirmed?
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