Obama Cozies Up to Dictators, for Unions' Sake

The writer of this article does nothing more than show his lack of historical knowledge of US foreign relations. It was our support of dictators that lead to our problems with both Iran and Iraq. He also sounds like a conservative who wants to pretend that Bush's strategies of ignoring problems until they explode and picking unjustified fights in places like Iraq while before he's finished the fight started by 9-11. Daniel Henninger should be ashamed to demonstrate his lack of knowledge and understanding in public, but since his boss is a billionaire with an agenda he is instead paid, and paid well to keep US citizens voting against their own interests and to the benefit of pseudo-American Murdoch. Reply

WSJ sucks Reply

Well after reading the posts so far it seems that the point of the article were missed. One is that we talk to the dictator, and we know that they are dictator's but we don't talk to the opposition in those countries. We hailed Ahmdenjhad as the president of Iran and know that the election was rigged, the same thing in Afghanistan, we know that election was rigged too but we still recognize that person as in the leader of the country. Reply

Again, guys, many of you have no idea of the history of our interventions to uphold dictators. Iran? Chile? Cuba? I don't have room to list them all. In fact, Republican secretaries of state under Reagan attempted to explain that the dictators the USA upheld were the GOOD dictators. And, does anyone remember that NIXON went to CHINA? As a columnist (and I'm sorry I can't remember who it was) said, "Diplomacy is a stick and a carrot. W's was all stick no carrot." I prefer diplomacy and communication to war. Silly me. Reply

Cozying up to Dictators?! Is the term dictator mean now a leader with a political identity that differs from that of our own? Half the countries listed in the article chose their leaders through elections. Only Egypt, Cuba, and Burma don't (i just read the Newser summary). Funny no mention of Saudi Arabia. Reply

It may be that bringing them into the fold will moderate their behavior more than supporting failed revolutions as we have in the past in Latin America and the middle-east. Our efforts to "de-communize" have been most notably successful in China, where there is now a healthier economy and middle class than we have-- and in the USSR where we just about buried them. All of this happened with engagement. Our relations with Cuba have been ruled by the old rich tyrannical upper class who fled to Miami and had enough money and clout to make us behave irrationally toward Cuba rather than engage them. As far as I'm concerned, Chavez has been good for the indiginous and poor people in Venuzuela. He has used oil money for the people. Latin America has been ruled by it's Spanish conquerers since Spain invaded. Now there are some indiginous leaders who are creating serious alliances and we might at one day have neighbors to the South with ideas of their own and the clout to carry them out. Good, let them right some of the injustices in their world. Of course, they are brutal ;sometimes. SO ARE WE, I'm a afriad that's human nature. If you want to look at problem actors in Latin America, look at the presidents of Columbia and Mexico, our "friends." They take our money and run it through their drug cartels and stand up and say they are helping us fight the "war on drugs" and CRUSH the poor and indiginous people in their country. As for Iran, those green clad protesters are not going to win. Better to engage, soften opposition and wait until more reasonable people get in office (let them change their own regimes, we have seen how disasterous Bush's attempts have been in that area). Anyhow, don't we believe in Democracy? Wouldn't it be nice if we practiced it--to include not invading other countries who are no threat to us? To include going through diplomatic channels to express our concern about rigged elections (at least the ones we didn't rig, unlike Afghanistan). And our president will not "catch" the virus of dictatorship or the virus of communism (does it still really exist?) by engaging. And he won't become a Jew or a Palestinian or a terrorist by talking to Israel, Hamas, Hezbullah or the PLO. What has been happening for the past 8 years in our foreign policy has been brutal, unAmerican, unsuccessful and has left a big mess for us to correct. Let him reach out. I doubt this has anything to do with the unions which are weaker than they have ever been. Reply

You know, because of Nixon's visit to China we're not trade partners with the country. It's only through dialogue action can take place. Sure, you can put a country in time out as long as you want, but what happens then? They just go through other channels, like Russia. Long story short, I think talking's fine. The end. Reply

Showing his true pinko colors. The American left are treasonous scum. Reply