Pompeo and Pence send a poor message with their bumbling tour of Europe - WaPo Edit Board

[DonViejo]

By Editorial Board February 16 at 7:00 PM

MANY EUROPEANS suspect that the Trump administration has little regard for the close alliances with Britain, France and Germany that have shaped U.S. foreign policy since World War II, preferring the autocratic ethnonationalism that has emerged in the nations of Central Europe. A bumbling series of appearances across the continent last week by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Vice President Pence will surely reinforce those conclusions.

Mr. Pompeo began the week by paying court to the Hungarian regime of Viktor Orban, who has become a virtual pariah in European capitals because of his embrace of “illiberal democracy.” As practiced in Budapest, that includes the suppression of independent media and civil society groups, corrupt cronyism, and demagoguery that drips with xenophobia and anti-Semitism. The Obama administration reacted to this toxic mix by holding Mr. Orban at arms length; Mr. Pompeo boasted of a new era of engagement.

The secretary of state extended his goodwill tour to Slovakia — where a leading journalist who exposed government corruption was murdered last year — before meeting up in Poland with Mr. Pence for a U.S.-organized conference on the Middle East. The poorly conceived forum was intended to rally European and Middle Eastern nations against Iran; when most Europeans balked at that, sessions on Syria, Yemen and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict were hastily added.

The U.S. delegation did its best to resuscitate the anti-Iran theme, culminating with a speech by Mr. Pence that ripped Britain, France and Germany for refusing to follow Mr. Trump’s ill-advised decision to abrogate an accord limiting Iran’s nuclear weapons. The creation of a payment mechanism to circumvent new U.S. sanctions on Iran, Mr. Pence said, will “create still more distance between Europe and the United States.”

Mr. Pence is no doubt right about the growing rift, but its source is not the Europeans but Mr. Trump. Last year, he brushed off good faith efforts by Britain, France and Germany to answer U.S. concerns about the Iran deal, which they had helped to negotiate, in order to unilaterally withdraw. Since then the administration has failed to articulate a coherent alternative strategy for Iran other than seeking what amounts to regime change — a goal the United States already pursued for decades without success.

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-opinions/pompeo-and-pence-send-a-poor-message-with-their-bumbling-tour-of-europe/2019/02/16/35c74e08-314a-11e9-813a-0ab2f17e305b_story.html

[magicarpet]

1. The target experts who shot themselves in the foot and became a laughing stock for the world to...

..... smirk, sneer, and giggle at.

Warped Fascist Christians spreading their demonic gospels around the world.

[Wellstone ruled]

3. Sad to say,

our Foreign Policy is being run by End Timers . After listening to Pompeo's recent remakes,he is a true End Timer much like Pence.

[Firestorm49]

2. "The administration has failed to articulate a coherent alternative strategy"

That’s because thus administration has become a well oiled vehicle to do Putin’s work. It is sadly on display every day. You have to be fricking blind not to see it.

Mueller and inner circles of the intelligence communities are aware of the true danger that we are in, as is evidenced by leaks emanating from numerous officials who have been using the term “red flags”.

This is a scary and precarious time in America. One can only hope, as I have said numerous times, that some organization or intelligence agency(s) can bring a halt (or change) the rampant destruction now happening in once proud America.

With tRumps lowly base of maybe 34% to 39%, there are sure as shit many more of us out here who don’t want to witness or accept the total destruction of our Democratic principles both at home and around the world. If you think that this really can’t be happening, you’re not alone.