Make Them Love Us

Mr. Obama has given the Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, a new mandate. Make the world love us.

Hillary Rodham Clinton is taking control of the State Department with a mandate from President Barack Obama to step up diplomatic efforts and restore the nation's tattered image abroad.

Her appointment, confirmed by the Senate and sealed in a private ceremony in her Senate office on Wednesday, came as Obama moved quickly in his first day in office to shore up a team of seasoned advisers and take the nation's foreign policy in a new direction.

Obama prepared to name former Senate Democratic leader George J. Mitchell as Clinton's special envoy to the Middle East, and he placed telephone calls to regional presidents.

The Middle East has confounded every President since Jefferson. Although I must admit Jefferson did get some results by sending in the Marines. Too bad there were no pollsters back then to determine the effect the Marines had on our image in the Muslim world.

So what can Hillary do to buff up our image abroad? I'm sure she will think of something. I can't wait to find out what it is.

I keep getting the impression that the Obama Presidency is going to end badly. And here we are only into the second day.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Diplomacy By Other Means

I was visiting Althouse and came across this comment by a guy bashing Republicans:

They prefer war to diplomacy

Just anther instance of the left not getting it.

War is diplomacy by other means - Clauzwitz.

See, it works like this - if you have a carrot and a stick you can accomplish more than if you have a carrot alone.

And if all you have is a carrot and the other guy has a stick you are at a serious disadvantage. Such a situation is referred to as appeasement.

H/T Instapundit

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Jules Is On Fire

Jules Crittenden of course. I'm going to do some commentary on this later (probably) but for now just links:

King's Shilling

Democracy

Dental Journalism

And some links Jules provides:

Disgrace At State

The US State Dept. Is Revolting

HT commenter linearthinker

Peaceful Settlement

From Retief's War by Keith Laumer:

"I is a great believer in peaceful settlements," Jik-Jik assured him. "Ain't nobody as peaceful as a dead troublemaker."

via Instapundit. Insty has links to more free Laumer. The link above is to some free Laumer.

Educating Diplomats

Michael Ledeen has a few complaints about American Diplomats. What I would like to do is suggest a remedy.

They really need to read some Retief novels.

Our military reads Starship Troopers and used to read the Dorsai Novels. The official reading list. Evidently it changes from time to time.

Maybe Foggy Bottom needs a Book of the Month Club.

Cross Posted at Classical Values