Obama's Foreign Policy Incompetence -- Latin American Version

Few things illustrate the foreign policy incompetence of the Obama administration better than its handling of the situation in Honduras. I've written about this before, but there's a new article up at the Washington Post called, "Honduran election puts U.S. in a spot," that further lays out just how badly Obama screwed up. Not only did he bully an ally and attempt to intimidate it into restoring a president hostile to American interests, but he's managed to put the U.S. in a situation where pretty much everyone is dissatisfied with our behavior. It's one thing to incur the anger of other countries because you acted in the U.S. interest. But Obama acted against our interests, and still made everyone unhappy. As the article states,

The Obama administration finds itself accused by regional allies and others of abandoning its commitment to democracy for a more pragmatic solution.

Never mind that it had little to do with "democracy," or that most of the countries complaining couldn't care less about it.

"This will leave a bad aftertaste in people's mouths, the way the U.S., rightly or wrongly, rushed to condemn the coup, then for its own reasons, tried to backpedal," said Chris Sabatini, policy director at the business group Council of the Americas. "It will make the U.S. less of a trustworthy partner diplomatically."

Countries are generally expected to act in their own best interests. But countries that are fumbling, indecisive and led by clueless incompetents are clearly not trustworthy diplomatic partners. States that stab allies in the back to curry favor with others generally don't engender a great deal of trust either. In his actions toward Honduras, Obama projected weakness, indecision and stupidity, and acted against the best interests of the U.S. And in return, he got nothing but irritation, dislike or outright contempt. Great job.

Between a Rock and a Hard Place

Honduras is caught in an unenviable situation. Despite at least arguably replacing its president in accord with its own laws, its actions were labelled as a "coup" by the rest of the world. The new government is completely isolated and under tremendous pressure. Even though it did the U.S. a favor by removing a Chavez ally, the incompetent Obama administration turned on Honduras, removing the one source of support that the country probably thought it could count on.

After the ex-president snuck back into Honduras, the Brazilian government committed an open act of aggression by hosting him in its embassy, and allowing him to incite insurrection -- a situation that is still ongoing. Yesterday the Honduran president overreacted by declaring a state of emergency, and suspending civil liberties. Although his actions were understandable, taking those measures just lent credence to those who want to pretend that his assumption of power was the equivalent of a military coup. But late yesterday, those measures were reversed.

In an extraordinary televised news conference Monday evening, Mr. Micheletti asked for “forgiveness from the Honduran people” and said he would ask the Supreme Court to lift the decree “as quickly as possible.”

This is yet more evidence that the Micheletti government presides over a functioning democracy that the U.S. should be supporting, not undermining. Honduras is planning to hold elections, but the U.S. and others are threatening to reject the results in advance. It's unclear how the situation will play out. The Honduran government has very few options. 

Pandering to our Enemies, Punishing our Friends

The Obama administration continues to demonstrate its foreign policy incompetence today, by cutting off aid to Honduras in support of ex-president Zelaya, a friend of every leftist enemy of the U.S. in Latin America. Rather than congratulate Honduras for ousting him, the Obama administration has steadfastly sided with our enemies in the region, using the ridiculous pretext that Honduras has failed "to restore democratic, constitutional rule."

The removal of Zelaya, a would-be Chavez-like strongman, was at least arguably in accord with Honduras' "democratic, constitutional rule," as if that should be any concern of the U.S. at all. What should concern us is whether or not the Honduran government pursues policies favorable to U.S. interests -- something that is (or was until we aligned ourselves against them) much more likely with the current regime than an ally of Chavez such as Zelaya. And since when do we predicate aid on "democratic, constitutional rule"? If that was a significant criteria for foreign aid we'd be giving out a whole lot less of it.

Rather than standing up for U.S. interests and backing the new government of Honduras, or at the very least staying out of Honduran internal affairs, the Obama administration has yet again revealed its willingness to pander to our enemies while taking a tough line against our friends. Obama (and Hillary Clinton) probably think that currying favor with the leftist leaders of Latin America will pay some sort of dividends. It won't. They are no doubt just laughing at American weakness, and our unwillingness to recognize our own interests. 

What Real Angry Mobs Look Like

In the wake of pitiful, failed attempts by Democrats to portray legitimate healthcare protests as angry, threatening mobs, reports from Honduras demonstrate what actual violent protests look like -- and naturally they are being carried-out by leftists on behalf of former President Manuel Zelaya.

protesters, many of whom arrived by foot from outside Tegucigalpa in their largest organizing effort yet, broke windows, looted a Dunkin' Donuts franchise and set fire to a municipal bus.

They also attacked a Burger King, a Popeyes, and other businesses. I'm not sure what looting and destroying private property have to do with making a political statement, but I guess we shouldn't expect too much logical reasoning from people that support a lightweight version of Chavez.

Supporting our Enemies

After repeatedly emphasizing Iranian "sovereignty" as a reason for non-interference in Iran, our enemy, the Obama administration has thrown that principle out the window when it comes to our friend, Honduras. Rather than arguing that the U.S. should stay out of its political situation, respect its sovereignty and let the Hondurans manage their own internal affairs, the administration is apparently taking sides with former President Zelaya, the ally of Hugo Chavez, a clear enemy of the U.S.

The United States stood firmly by Zelaya, however, with State Department spokesman Ian Kelly saying Washington sees no acceptable solution other than Zelaya's return to power. He said the United States is considering cutting off its aid to Honduras, which includes $215 million over four years from the U.S.-funded Millennium Challenge Corporation.

Chavez, the Organization of American States, and the UN are all putting massive pressure on Honduras to restore Zelaya to power. And Chavez has been making threatening noises about military action. Instead of supporting Honduras, a state long friendly to the U.S., the spineless and incompetent Obama administration is siding with our enemies, in violation of what were supposedly its own foreign policy principles, and against U.S. interests.