ANOTHER U.S. ALLY SNUBBED BY OBAMA

In the summer of 2008, Russia invaded Georgia, a pro-western ally of the United States. Obama's response was controversial and not what one might call unambiguous. It was challenged by Obama's opponent at the time, John McCain and came up during one of their debates. Many believed that Obama was less than forceful with his rhetoric because he didn't want to appear confrontational with Russia - similar behavior was observed during the uprisings in Iran.

Part II of Obama's treatment of Georgia appeared to take place this week when the U.S. president refused to meet with Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili.

Via Jackson Diehl at Washington Post:

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.

Making this snub even more peculiar - h/t to Hot Air - is the recent revelation that Georgia had uncovered a plot to sell weapons-grade uranium on the black market. Since the securing of nuclear weapons all around the world was supposed to be a central theme at the Nuclear Summit, wouldn't such a discovery put Saakashvili at the front of the line for bi-lateral talks with Obama?

VIa the Guardian:

Georgian security forces have foiled a criminal plot to sell weapons-grade uranium on the black market, the country's president told a gathering of world leaders yesterday.

The revelation brought a sense of urgency to the Washington summit on nuclear security, where Barack Obama called on the rest of the world "not simply to talk, but to act" to destroy vulnerable stockpiles of nuclear material, or to safeguard them against theft by terrorists.

It would appear in this example that Obama's domestic policy of punishing success via higher taxes for the top producers in some cases translates to foreign policy. Think about this for a second. At a Nuclear Security Summit (NSS), the intent of which is to ascertain ways to keep nuclear weapons out of the hands of terrorists, one country announces that it was successful in foiling a plot that would have led to nuclear weapons being in the hands of terrorists. Instead of the leader of that country being recognized for his country's success, he is snubbed by Barack Obama. The excuse? Too many leaders to see and schedule too limited. Uh, pardon me but I believe Georgia was the only country to announce such a huge victory on the eve of the NSS.

Here is video of an exchange between Fox's Neil Cavuto and Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili in which the former asks the latter about the snub. Saakashvili predictably took the high road but it's obvious to anyone this was a big presidential snub, presumably for the same reason Obama wasn't more forceful with Russia after the invasion - he didn't want to upset them.



One last thing on this. In an earlier post, I referenced the first paragraph of an AP story about the goals of this summit. Here is that paragraph:

In full accord on a global threat, world leaders Tuesday endorsed President Barack Obama's call for securing all nuclear materials around the globe within four years to keep them out of the grasp of terrorists. They offered few specifics for achieving that goal, but Obama declared "the American people will be safer and the world will be more secure" as a result.

Uh, maybe if more attention was given to the country that produced an ACTUAL RESULT, it would lead to MORE SPECIFICS on how to deal with the problem.

h/t to Hot Air