'Smart' leaders stumble badly

Secretary of Sate Hillary Clinton said during the transition period that the United States would now use “smart power” in foreign affairs.

This would be a mix of diplomacy and defense; and of course the comment insinuated the previous administration was a bunch of knuckle-draggers fumbling around the world, knocking innocents with their big sticks.

Well, we are into the third month of this “smart power” and here are a few of the highlights.

l Ms. Clinton gives the Russian foreign minister a gift. It’s supposed to be a reset button and have “reset” written on it in Russian.

Actually, it translated to “overcharged.” Nobody in our now smarter State Department could get the translation right.

Can you image if the Bush administration had made such a gaffe?

l President Obama decides to show off his smart power and give the prime minister of England a box set of DVDs for his official gift. The DVDs are American movie classics.

Besides being a ridiculous gift, the DVDs are not formatted for use in the United Kingdom. Again, the smart power staff is too lazy to do the detail work.

Not to be outdone by this inane act, Mr. Obama later showed off his smart power by giving the eighty-something queen of England an iPod. Bet she can’t wait to hit the streets jogging to the voice of Mr. Obama reading from a teleprompter.

l Then Ms. Clinton sys that those members of the Taliban who abandoned extremism must be granted an “honorable form of reconciliation.”

The Taliban response: The United States has “to go and find the moderate Taliban, their leader and speak to them. This is a lunatic idea.”

Gosh, I would have thought after being hit with the smart-power thing, the Taliban would have just thrown down their arms and embraced us.

I can’t count the number of times people told me they were voting for Mr. Obama because they wanted other countries to like us again.

Unfortunately, there will always be those that want to harm us and see the United States torn down.

I hope we learn we cannot base foreign policy on making others like us.

Also, prancing around like we are smarter than everyone else only serves to magnify the inevitable gaffes.

Perhaps a little more humility and more attention to detail will help.

Kevin B. Williams
Fluvanna County