It’s time for Susan Rice to resign
By Richard Grenell
Published February 08, 2012 | FoxNews.com
One of the reasons the American public holds unelected government
officials in such low esteem is that they are never held accountable for
their failures.
Presidents and cabinet officials could send a strong message of
accountability if they held senior appointees responsible for their
performance.
President Obama should use this weekend’s UN failure to show Americans and
Arabs alike that it is unacceptable to stand idly by while some 6,500
Syrians are killed by their government. Obama should ask for U.S.
Ambassador to the U.N. Susan
Rice<
http://www.foxnews.com/topics/politics/obama-administration/susan-rice.htm#r_src=ramp>’s
resignation and replace her with someone tougher and more effective. If she
won’t voluntarily resign then she should be fired.
The case against Susan Rice has been building over the last few years.
This weekend’s embarrassing failure on a
Syria<
http://www.foxnews.com/topics/syria.htm#r_src=ramp>resolution
was the latest and last straw. Her diplomatic failures and
silence have given the United
States<
http://www.foxnews.com/topics/u.s.htm#r_src=ramp>a weak
representation at the United
Nations<
http://www.foxnews.com/topics/politics/united-nations.htm#r_src=ramp>
.
Next month marks the anniversary of the Syrian uprising. But Rice, as she
has on many issues, has ignored Syria’s growing problems for too long.
Rather than speaking out immediately when the violence started, she stayed
silent.
Rather than calling for action, she did nothing.
Russia <
http://www.foxnews.com/topics/russia.htm#r_src=ramp> and
China<
http://www.foxnews.com/topics/china.htm#r_src=ramp>saw Rice’s
passivity as a sign that Syrian President Assad’s removal wasn’t
a priority.
By the time Rice started pressuring Security
Council<
http://www.foxnews.com/topics/politics/security-council.htm#r_src=ramp>members
to confront the growing violence and death, it was too late.
Once a draft resolution condemning Syria was introduced, Rice was too quick
to negotiate changes that weakened it without insisting on a date for the
Security Council to vote. Her constant agreement to changes seemed
desperate. The frantic and late maneuvering left the United States at the
mercy of Russia and China, who vetoed even the watered down measure.
On her post-veto media tour, however, Rice sought to blame Russia for not
listening to the United States or other western governments rather than
acknowledge her failed diplomatic skills – an ironic spin given that Rice
and team Obama created this same new Russian resolve when they naively and
dramatically called for a "re-set" to our relationship with Russia.
The "reset" Rice championed and spoke affectionately about has not only
failed to deliver support for US national security policies but it has also
exposed the dangers of an inexperienced team’s strategy of personal
diplomacy.
This continues Rice’s pattern of failing at her own stated goals.
During the 2008 presidential campaign, Susan Rice talked very openly about
restoring America’s leadership at the United Nations and often derided
President George W.
Bush<
http://www.foxnews.com/topics/politics/george-bush.htm#r_src=ramp>for
acting without U.N. backing.
Rice cheerfully exclaimed that, unlike Bush, Barack
Obama<
http://www.foxnews.com/topics/politics/obama-administration/barack-obama.htm#r_src=ramp>would
engage in active diplomacy even with countries considered our
enemies.
She was very critical of the US’s reputation at the UN and vowed to build
better relationships with every country.
In her current stump speech Rice claims that her goal has been
accomplished, “We’ve repaired frayed relations with countries around the
world. We’ve ended needless American isolation on a wide range of issues.
And as a consequence, we've gotten strong cooperation on things that matter
most to our national security interest.”
This past weekend shows just how disastrous Rice’s strategy has been.
Rice has been silent on important issues and ineffective when she does
engage. She skipped Security Council meetings when
Israel<
http://www.foxnews.com/topics/israel.htm#r_src=ramp>needed
defending and even failed to show up for the emergency session on
the Gaza Flotilla incident.
Rice didn’t even show up for the first two emergency Security Council
meetings on the unfolding Arab revolution last year.
Rice stayed silent when
Iran<
http://www.foxnews.com/topics/iran.htm#r_src=ramp>was elected to
the UN women’s committee, she didn’t call out
Libya <
http://www.foxnews.com/topics/libya.htm#r_src=ramp> when it was
elected to the Human Rights Council, she was absent from the
Haiti<
http://www.foxnews.com/topics/haiti.htm#r_src=ramp>crisis
meeting and was a no-show for the last open meeting scheduled before
the planned U.N. vote to recognize Palestinian statehood. When she actually
shows up, she is a miserable failure.
Take the crucial issue of Iran. Rice spent the last several years
undermining and grumbling about the Bush administration’s increasingly
tough measures but has only been able to pass one resolution of her own –
compared with the Bush team’s five.
Rice’s one and only Iran resolution was 22 months ago. And it passed with
just 12 votes of support – the least support we have ever seen for a
Security Council sanctions resolution on Iran. In fact, Susan Rice lost
more support with her one resolution than the previous five Iran
resolutions combined.
In another example, Rice secretly negotiated with the Arabs on acceptable
language for a possible U.N. resolution to condemn Israel’s settlement
activity.
Rice’s engagement sent a strong message that making a new policy, rather
than encouraging the two sides to negotiate directly, may not garner an
automatic U.S. veto.
In February of 2011, the US abruptly changed tactics on the Arabs and
vetoed a UN resolution on Israeli settlements.
The Palestinians were justifiably furious with Rice. After all, they had
just spent weeks going back and forth with her on acceptable language to
make Israeli settlement activity a violation of international law --
something previous U.S. administrations had bluntly and immediately
threatened a veto over. Rice’s negotiations suggested the U.S. was open to
change, when in fact it was not.
Whether the issue is
Sudan<
http://www.foxnews.com/topics/sudan-darfur.htm#r_src=ramp>,
Egypt <
http://www.foxnews.com/topics/egypt.htm#r_src=ramp>, North
Korea<
http://www.foxnews.com/topics/north-korea.htm#r_src=ramp>or
Rwanda <
http://www.foxnews.com/topics/rwanda.htm#r_src=ramp>, Rice has been
either missing in action or unable to deliver a quick and effective
resolution.
Firing Rice may serve Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton<
http://www.foxnews.com/topics/politics/obama-administration/hillary-clinton.htm#r_src=ramp>too.
Clinton’s team has always viewed Susan Rice with suspicion dating back
to the 2008 Democratic presidential primaries, when Rice went on MSNBC to
slam Clinton’s ad claiming she was best equipped to take the national
security emergency call at 3 a.m.
"Clinton hasn't had to answer the phone at three o'clock in the morning and
yet she attacked Barack Obama for not being ready. They're both not ready
to have that 3 a.m. phone call," Rice said. Secretary Clinton, one State
Department<
http://www.foxnews.com/topics/politics/state-department.htm#r_src=ramp>diplomat
told me, has tried to distance herself from Rice and her
lackluster UN performance.
President Obama could show the Arab street that it is unacceptable for the
United States government to sit idly by while the United Nations Security
Council does nothing. What better way to show that things at the U.N. have
to change than to fire the woman spearheading the failed U.S. efforts
there.
Rice’s last diplomatic initiative should be putting the United States’
reputation above her own.
*Richard Grenell served as the spokesman for four US Ambassadors to the
United Nations. including John Negroponte, John Danforth, John
Bolton<
http://www.foxnews.com/topics/john-bolton.htm#r_src=ramp>and
Zalmay Khalilzad. He is currently based in Los Angeles. For more
visit
his website at www.richardgrenell.com.*
URL<
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Received on Wed Feb 15 2012 - 22:02:20 EST
