Pirate's Cove

That’s the question that the Christian Science Monitor wants to know (story at MSNBC), though they call it

Has Obama’s ‘let’s talk’ approach worked with US adversaries? A report card…

They take a look at what they call the “five countries at the top of America’s adversaries list”

Iran: The administration insists it is still on the dual-track approach of dialogue and pressure when it comes to perhaps America’s No. 1 adversary, Iran. But the halting stabs at dialogue the US made with Iran in Obama’s first year have ceased, and these days key officials seem loath to utter the D word as they discuss toughened financial sanctions, oil-products embargoes, and other punitive measures aimed at halting Iran’s nuclear program.

Syria: Obama publicly called for Assad to “step aside” in August, and since then the tenor of the administration’s statements on Syria has only hardened. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton held a high-profile meeting in November with a group of Syrian opposition leaders, but the door to dialogue with Assad appears to be closed shut.

So, there has been no movement, nothing has happened, the wishy washy “let’s talk with brutal dictators and scumbags” has failed.

North Korea: The two adversaries appeared to be on the verge of some agreement when North Korean dictator Kim Jong-il died suddenly Dec. 17, suspending if not outright scuttling any accord. As US officials and North Asia experts say, it will be at least several months before we know if there’s any chance of dialogue blooming again, and this time bearing fruit.

The Obama admin. was on the verge of the same type of deal that previous US presidents made, namely, giving Kim Jong-il “stuff” in order to be a good little boy for a little while. Fail.

Venezuela: President Chavez has rarely been at a loss for words in his 13-year rule over his oil-producing South American country, and he remained true to form this week after Obama told a Caracas newspaper that the US is “deeply concerned” about restrictions on personal freedoms and the erosion in the separation of powers in Venezuela.

“Leave us alone,” Mr. Chavez shot back on state television. Calling Obama a “clown,” the Latin leftist then advised the US president to “focus on governing your country, which you’ve turned into a disaster.”

When a progressive dictator like Chavez tells the truth about Obama, it’s not good. (PS: Obama was wasting his time, really nothing he can do with Chavez.)

Burma: Ask an administration official if Obama’s policy of dialogue with America’s adversaries is dead, and the top piece of evidence offered to prove that it’s not is likely to be Burma – or Myanmar, as the Southeast Asian country is also called.

Um, Burma? Seriously? A “top 5 adversary”? Since when? But, considering how impotent the Obama admin’s foreign policy is, and how impotent Obama has made the US on the international stage, I guess Obama has to take his victories where he can get them. But, through all this talk with Burma, nothing has changed.

What of China and Russia? Nothing. Relations still stink. Of course, since China owns so much of the American government’s debt, thanks to Democrat/Obama spending policies, its kind of difficult to smack them around.

Crossed at Right Wing News and Stop The ACLU.