Europe's Ambassadorial Angst

I'm sorry but I have to put my foot down. We can not afford another Goldman Sachs' guy or Citigroup woman. There has to be some people in this country qualified and not doing anything that are not former members of banks that were instrumental in the destruction our economy.

Gunny has a good point, but in general this sounds a lot like Diva Diplomacy by the Brits and the Germans.

...plus preventive detention, Afghanistan troop surge, predator drones, photo suppression, not prosecuting torture, state secrets, lack of transparency, FISA...

Flownover: respectfully disagree. Am a Brit/American and saw this from the inside. London has been a dumping ground for political supporters back here at home. I see Berlin is now a Reward Post. It really pisses off people who are our allies and see this as a sign of "disrespect". The Brits and Germans have always sent top their diplomats to Washington.

Frankly I am surprised at Obama's ways of changing things. Plus ca change, plus ce la meme chose! Oh the French post was given to Pamela Harrison, Churchill's daughter in law and subsequently one of Washington's "Hostesses"..

Correction: Pamela Harrison held the Ambassadorship to France some years ago. But Paris is a similar political plum.

Cry me a river - as if ambassadors matter at all in the greater scheme of things.

Meh. We get another fundrai$er here in Denmark, and it's true that a case can be made against using plum diplomatic postings as rewards for financial backing, but....
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This post (and others about this subject) are wrong in insinuating (mostly through the headlines) that we really care here in Europe. Sure some of the tabloid press might make a few articles about it (and the British be slightly more paranoid about their "special relationship"), but 99.5% of all Europeans don't really care. Diplomatic postings to close allies don't really matter - it's not like there's going to be a lot of hard diplomatic cases to sort out.
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As such we may think it's kind of rude and tactless, but it's of ridiculously low consequence, and the only time it's even thought of is the occasional media story (more often US stories, than ours it seems).
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It seems to me it might be of some more significant relevance to the US than to Europe. It might be quite an interesting debate internally what you really think of this kind of trading of favors for $$$ and so on. At least I know I'd find it so if it was about my own country. But I can assure you that we don't really care - and it seems to me that the articles and posts would do better to focus on the domestic angle and what it says about your political system rather than play at "European Angst".

This Catherine Mayer isn't Michael Scherer's girlfriend, is she? I couldn't believe Karen would have posted such a lame piece of GOP-inspired hackery.

I'm with gunny as well. its not bad enough that they are giving the posts to campaign contributors, its downright insulting to give them to the banksters who personify the US financial meltdown that has affected the rest of the globe...

#7 @ rezpak. Quite right. This is an American story. Few Europeans care about the US ambass or, in some cases, dumbass. In this day and age communications don't depend on notes and demarches. There are enough regular diplomats to get our citizens out of local jails (except in Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia - where being caught with drugs is jail or hanging).

bitter:
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Appreciate your view, but unless the identity of an ambassador substantively affects foreign relations I'd still say walk it off and get back in the game; there are real issues requiring concerted multinational attention.

" .. Brits have been less than enthusiastic about Obama's pick of former Citigroup banker and top election fundraiser Susman for the plum London job. "

They should be grateful: They could have got a retired general of the armed forces - like the Africans get.
Q: why are the starving Africans, who really don't need any more fights, getting the people whose every reflex says "fight", "sabotage", "kill"?
A: The second and final scramble for Africa's fabulous resources, and the final curtain for indigenous Africans. Like the indigenous natives of wealthy North and South America.
Over the past few years, over a million indigenous natives have been killed in the resource-rich Congo alone. Who supplies the arms that do the deed?

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You see, our corporate-military planners see the red-hot center of the imperial bloodletting moving - within the coming decade - from the oil fields of the Middle East region to the Africa region centered around the oil-fields of Nigeria.
And our forces are in place. The AFRICOM is now in place. Our military bases (and huge embassies) are in place in most of the African countries.
And there is the base on Diego Garcia, just off the coast of Africa, which houses nuclear missiles and long-range bombers ... Why, you may ask, are nuclear missiles based in a region not known for nuclear weapons or expansionist ambition? [Hint: ..]

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[And here comes the siren song:
" .. Barack Obama dolls have hit Moscow shelves and a bar is handing out half-price cocktails to anyone who says the magic words "Yes we can" in anticipation of the American president's arrival here Monday for a summit. .. He is expected in particular to reach out to young Russians, who are generally more supportive."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090703/ap_on_re_eu/eu_obama_charm_offensive

Would Russia under Medvedev go the way of USSR under the wino Yeltsin?

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[[ Social disruption as an imperial option for conquest: Agitation. Aim for the soft spot - the impressionable young and the women ..
Remember the lady Pocahontas?
And the lady Malinche?
The amount of gold, silver, and other resources taken out of Mexico is incalculable. A nation vanished. Tenochtitlan, present day Mexico City, in 1519 was the largest city in the western world. What Montezuma and other Aztec rulers had built fell to the driving forces of Gold and God.
]]

give me a break. it's not an american story. We actually don't care at all about countries beyond our borders, unless there is direct upheaval in there that could affect us. So i betcha that only karen covers this story, but nearly all european news outlets cover it. and i guarantee you that people actually read this (nearly everyone reads the papers) and feel snubbed.
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The ebbing of the perception of change from Bush won't happen with a big bang. It will happen because of the little things that happen, like more marriages (well, relationships).
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To me, it makes a bit of sense. It's a practical and symbolic gesture that our relationship with Europe is mostly in the nitty-gritty of economic policy.

lupercal5: " .. give me a break. it's not an american story. We actually don't care at all about countries beyond our borders, .."

A mediocre high school student in USA would not write such a statement - even in jest.

cfukara, you'll be quite please: I am neither mediocre nor a high school student.
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i wasn't aware, though, that it took either stupidity or lack of education to acknowledge something so glaring in our face. In fact, one could argue that ridiculing the notion that the distressing indifference to the wider world is exactly a sign of mediocrity and mis-education.

cfukara, you'll be quite pleased: I am neither mediocre nor a high school student.
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i wasn't aware, though, that it took either stupidity or lack of education to acknowledge something so glaring in our face. In fact, one could argue that ridiculing the notion that the distressing indifference to the wider world is exactly a sign of mediocrity and mis-education.

"...its not bad enough that they are giving the posts to campaign contributors, its downright insulting to give them to the banksters who personify the US financial meltdown that has affected the rest of the globe..."
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Slightly worse that they've already been given Treasury, don't you think? Otherwise: Democrat = always having to say you're sorry.

lupercal5 2:30 pm " .. cfukara, you'll be quite please: .."
Why would I be? "Even the mediocre deserve some representation" on SWAMPLAND. ..

"as if ambassadors matter at all in the greater scheme of things"
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Roger, that. Their actual jobs are a joke--they're show ponies reading their lines. But if it were only such positions for sale, such resume polishing b-s. Cuz god knows donors/corp biggies had no say at all in banking, health care or energy reform. No pay to play access, right?

"So i betcha that only karen covers this story, but nearly all european news outlets cover it. and i guarantee you that people actually read this (nearly everyone reads the papers) and feel snubbed."Ahaha. Yeah... You keep dreaming that we really care who is appointed ambassador No - when we stop to think about it we might consider it slightly rude - on the level of not taking off your hat indoors ie. not really important. But snubbed? No - I don't think so.In this day and age - unless you are talking third world, all ambassadors really are anyway is socialites and mouthpieces. At most they might be considered lobbyists. Now some places you do want real diplomatic talent - ie. those countries where a crisis could potentially erupts from day to day (see Honduras recently) - and the diplomats on the ground may have to act fast and unsupervised for a while.

One country we should care about whether we want to or not is N. Korea, because Mr. Il is getting more and more agitated, to judge by his missile tests expansion and frequency. Perhaps, if the Chinese tiger cannot find any motivation to get involved and set limits for Jong Il, the Russian Bear might be persuaded to give a targeted 'growl' and and show of his great 'paws'....After all, Russia is in Jong Il's neighborhood, too.