I’m awarding the award of the day for chutzpah to Leonardo Agate, writing at tp24 Rubriche, Italy:
Obama, who has dragged European countries along, some unwillingly and to the detriment of themselves, suffers due to a remoteness from the European situation, and cannot overcome the obstacle of his lack of historical experience. The president of the most powerful nation on the planet supposes he can condition the development of international crisis by applying criteria that are too recent to be concretely actionable.
Pop quiz. What was the proximate cause of the Euromaidan demonstrations that began in November 2013 and ultimately lead to the present crisis?
From the linked article:
… and the U.S. president, whose American origins are more recent than those of the Mayflower pioneers who reached the shores of the New World in the 17th century, understands even less than presidents of more ancient lineage.
What a dickhead. I guess he needs to see President Obama’s birth certificate also.
The Europeans lead in Libya, and they got their asses handed to them. President Obama had to keep from losing to Gaddafi. Militarily Europe could be overrun by Mexican drug lords in about two weeks.
Let the Europeans have Europe. They can decide if they want to pay for their defense or not. It will be interesting to see what they do without.
That’s barely the tip of the iceberg. The present Italian state has only existed since 1946. You gain experience and understanding by doing things not by being things. What’s the source of this vast repository of experience for Europeans? Immaculate conception?
He’s just making the same complaint that Europeans have been making about Americans for 250 years with little more basis than it had two centuries ago.
Most of his complaint seemed more rightly directed at the EU since he is saying that Italy’s interests don’t coincide with other EU nations. It’s like he went on in that vein for a while and then decided he’d better throw in a little anti-Americanism for good measure.
I noted the comment that Tastybits highlighted too. That’s much more openly racist than most anything I’ve heard from domestic critics of Obama.
The proximate cause cam last year when then-President Yankovich decided not to purse an association and free trade agreement with the EU.
The distal cause is economics, specifically economic competition over Ukraine (though not only Ukraine) between the EU and Russia. One aspect of that agreement Yanukovich dropped (that isn’t widely reported) is that had Ukraine adopted that agreement, then it would have prevented Ukraine from also joining the Eurasian Customs Union. In short, EU and Russian assistance to Ukraine was predicated on exclusion.
The key point here is that we had nothing to do with it. The Europeans, on the other hand, have left their fingerprints all over it.
Dave, what makes you think we had nothing to do with it? We certainly left some fingerprints too (the leaked recording of Nuland.) I don’t know why we decided to help EU woo Ukraine, or at what point we became involved, but we certainly didn’t stay out of it.
The Europeans don’t require our permission or support to expand the EU.
And yet it does appear that we were involved. As uncomfortable as it makes me to say it, I think the accusation of chutzpah applies to the US as well.