Foreign-policy experts: "Tillerson will go down as one of the worst US Secretaries of State ever."

[DetlefK]

http://www.rawstory.com/2017/09/he-will-go-down-as-the-worst-secretary-of-state-rex-tillerson-quickly-cementing-his-place-in-history/

“Tillerson would be at or near the bottom of the list of secretaries of state, not just in the post-Second World War world but in the record of US secretaries of state,” said Paul Musgrave, a foreign policy scholar at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

...

His efforts at “reform” will likely weaken the State Department for a generation, according to George Washington University’s Elizabeth Saunders.

...

“I think he really will go down as one of the worst secretaries of State we’ve had,” said Eliot Cohen, counselor to the State Department under President George W. Bush.

Ilan Goldenberg, who specialized in Israel-Palestine issues for the State Department under President Barack Obama, said Tillerson has already cemented his place in history.

“He will go down as the worst secretary of state in history,” Goldenberg said.

[CatMor]

1. Appointed by the worst President in our history.

[bronxiteforever]

24. This!

[LonePirate]

2. Sadly, that can also be said of every single Cabinet Secretary in this administration.

I hope Pence is pleased with all of his selections.

[Tanuki]

11. Exactly what I thought as well. You can go down the list....

Pruitt is the worst EPA head, DeVos the worst Secretary of Education....and so on. Each one is shockingly incompetent and hostile to the mission to which their department is dedicated.

[Scarsdale]

17. These incompetents were

placed into these jobs to make tRump look better than he is in comparison. Worst administration EVER. Historically unqualified.

[tblue37]

31. They were placed there to dismantle their respective departments, so incompetence is a feature,

not a bug.

[uponit7771]

3. Putin hates the US state department, picked the right person to dismantle it

[delisen]

5. Kompromat on Tillerson? He surely can't be as ignorant

as he is projecting.

Before accepting Secretary of State position his wife reportedly said that god wasn't finished with him yet--maybe she meant Putin.

[uponit7771]

7. Oh yeah, the guy with the trillion dollar deal with Putin ... No doubt

[Martin Eden]

13. Well, Putie did give Tillerson the Russian medal of friendship

Rex from Exxon wanted big Russian oil contracts but sanctions over Ukraine prevented those profits.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

4. The Trump administration will be setting a lot of "worst ever" records.

Worst President, no contest; James Buchanan's ghost can finally rest. Worst Vice-President (Spiro Agnew was just crooked; Dick Cheney was just evil). Worst Attorney General (Mitchell and Meese are strong competitors, but Sessions is at least as corrupt and a vicious racist as well). Worst Energy Secretary, Rick Perry, nothing more to say. Worst Interior Secretary (James Watt is a tough act to follow but Zinke is likely to be even worse). HUD? Ben Carson.

An entire administration of assholes who are actively trying to destroy the federal government.

[SusanaMontana41]

19. Check. Check. Check. Check. Check. Check.

Minor quibble: Alberto Gonzales was horrible, too.

[SusanaMontana41]

21. And the worst Education secretary is ...

Yup.

[chelsea0011]

6. Rex who?

[Docreed2003]

8. This entire cabinet is an absolute joke

Why the press insnt screaming to high heaven and pointing out the fact on a daily basis that every one of these cabinet parasites have experience that is diametrically opposed to their cabinet posts and motivated by the sole purpose of complete dismantling of their departments is beyond me. Our country is in the hands of oligarchs who have succeeded in creating a society that I'd argue is more Huxley than Orwell...we're not protesting more because our society is too dumb and too preoccupied to care

[Scarsdale]

18. The only explanation

is that they all have (R) behind their names, which protects them from being exposed for the unqualified boobs that they are. Had any democratic president done this, the press would have been screaming. Democratic presidents care more about this country, and want the best qualified people in office. Since most of the Sunday political shows depend on repub. politicians as guests, the press treads lightly with them. McCain has been on so many times, I think he has his own, personal chair at each network.

[Wounded Bear]

9. I'll settle for him just going down...

along with every other Trump stain on our country.

[Hortensis]

10. Well, some good people will sacrifice to return to rebuild State because they know

there's no one else with their backgrounds. And I've read that embassy services overseas haven't been so badly impacted, at least weren't at that point. The big hit has been to top management and diplomatic and strategic operations.

It's far from doable, of course, but many always fantasize about requiring bureaucracies to dismantle at intervals and rebuild. Well, it's happening.

[VaBchTgerLily]

12. just a warm body filling a seat and not getting anything worth while done!

[Hekate]

15. That is a seriously wrong underestimation of Tillerson in his post. Rick Perry is a warm body...

Tillerson, otoh, is highly skilled at seeing the entire planet in terms of oil and cash flow, and he is a friend of Putin. Afaict, America is just the place he keeps his primary residence, but his sworn loyalty is to Exxon and those who enable it. Not for nothing did Putin award him the medal formerly known as the Lenin Prize, now Friend of Russia or some such.

No one is sure who in hell put Tillerson up for his current post, but his actions are purposeful: he is destroying the State Department.

[saidsimplesimon]

14. Guten Abend, DetlefK

Last edited Wed Sep 20, 2017, 01:45 PM - Edit history (1)

The current administration is like a rotting fish. We can paint them all with the same broad brush of incompetence, criminal behaviour, cruelty and bigotry.

[Scarsdale]

20. Wonderful representatives

of the republican party. Incompetent not too bright, money grubbing.

[saidsimplesimon]

23. thanks, also edited my post for typo,

or dyslexia on my part.

[Autumn]

16. He was chosen by the worst US president ever so of course

he would be the worst US Secretary of State ever.

[onetexan]

30. that's correct, and not just him

anyone whose hitched their wagon to this pony will go down in the history books in infamy with him.

[davsand]

22. Tillerson sucks, but how well could anybody do with trump flapping his gums?

I will not disagree that Tillerson is a mess. I just honestly think that if you are the Sec of State for any asshole that manages to go to the UN and threaten to bomb a nation into rubble, invade another nation on a completely different continent, and then insult an entire school of social/economic thought, you are probably not handed a great hand to play in that office...

Is America great again yet?


Laura

[world wide wally]

25. We are living through the nightmare our ancestors couldn't even imagine

[Eliot Rosewater]

26. That is the whole point, dont you see!

Destroying America and her government is what they are trying to do.

Corporations are what these guys respect and worship, not country or patriotism.

This is intentional.

[BarbD]

28. Absolutely agree.

Greed knows no bounds.

[Turbineguy]

27. Considering that he's quite possibly

the most qualified person in the trump administration.....

At least it's what trump's base wanted. Buffoons to run the U.S.

[DFW]

29. This was intentional, and not just with State.

The powers that backed Trump knew full well, that if they managed to get him into office that he would pick loyal, unqualified cronies for all cabinet posts. The only qualifications they needed to being to the table were loyalty and an inclination to do whatever would benefit Trump's personal business interests, or, if in a field where he had none, then the business interests of those who financed his campaign. That is exactly what happened. Conspiracy theorists and their opponents can debate the how and why and who, but they can't dispute the identities of the people Trump picked for his cabinet. They and their qualifications (or lack of them) are a matter of public record.

[democratisphere]

32. Uniquely unqualified to hold the office of Secretary of State.

Wish he had retired. The world would have been better off.