Is “Fogh” Danish for Kabuki?
Anders Fogh Rasmussen
Spencer Ackerman has more on NATO chief and former Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen’s surprisingly definitive statements on Afghanistan policy:
Krasnik has been doing some reporting into Rasmussen’s already-controversial tenure as NATO secretary general, which is barely a year old. “He has bypassed NATO ambassadors on several occasions, discussing budget and Afghanistan strategy with defense ministers and not diplomats,” Krasnik said. “NATO ambassadors accuse him of being ‘out of control’ and ‘over confident’ — that is: not an empty suit looking for the middle ground between the members. ‘He will last 1 to 1.5 years tops,’ as one NATO diplomat told me the other day.”
Interestingly, one of the only NATO ambassadors to support Rasmussen is Ivo Daalder, Obama’s man in Brussels and a Hillary Rodham Clinton ally. “‘Fogh does what he is supposed to do. He is leading the alliance,” Dalder told a Danish newspaper this Saturday,” Krasnik said. That has led to speculation in Copenhagen that Rasmussen’s position comes with at least the tacit approval of the Obama administration. “My feeling is that he wouldn’t take a public stand like this just before the Bratislava meeting without clearing it with the U.S.,” Krasnik said. “One argument here is that Obama needs others than the GOP and army generals to ask for more troops, so why not the NATO-chief?”
Of course if this is kabuki, it’s hard to know what the point would be. It’s not as if Rasmussen is going to move the dial on American public opinion. This may just be a case of a hard-charging, confrontational, ambitious guy who happened to land in what’s normally a very low-key post.
10 Responses to “Is “Fogh” Danish for Kabuki?”
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October 26th, 2009 at 1:50 pm
Maybe he’s trying to lead from the front instead of sicking his finger into the wind from inside the privy.
October 26th, 2009 at 2:21 pm
That has led to speculation in Copenhagen that Rasmussen’s position comes with at least the tacit approval of the Obama administration. “My feeling is that he wouldn’t take a public stand like this just before the Bratislava meeting without clearing it with the U.S.,”
Gee, ya think? I said the same thing in the last thread, and it should be obvious by now: Obama has already made the decision to send more troops, he just forgot to tell the American public.
The real kabuki is DC journalists pretending there is a robust debate still going on inside the administration.
October 26th, 2009 at 2:54 pm
Why oh why:
Gee, ya think? I said the same thing in the last thread, and it should be obvious by now: Obama has already made the decision to send more troops, he just forgot to tell the American public.
Ummm … well … uh … Obama DID campaign in the Presidential election on the issue of Afghanistan as the necessary war. And he did win the Demcratic primary and the general election. And he did just win the Noble Peace Prize. Why are you guys so fucking dense? You sure learned that lesson well from rightwing conservatives where if you lie about something often enough stupid people forget its a lie.
October 26th, 2009 at 3:09 pm
You’re projecting. Obama has already kept that promise. We’re talking about an ADDITIONAL increase over and above that, as you well know but choose to lie about.
October 26th, 2009 at 3:13 pm
Ivo Daalder, Obama’s man in Brussels and a Hillary Rodham Clinton ally
Forgot to mention, Ivo Daalder was one of the geniuses behind the concept of “Concert of democracies” (that would somehow convince western countries to join in America’s never-ending wars), supported by McCain during the campaign; along with Anne-Marie Slaughter, another Clintonite now in charge of policy at the State Department.
Needless to say, all those good people cheered on the Iraq war, so with their man now at NATO what could go wrong?
October 26th, 2009 at 4:04 pm
The Fogh of War
October 26th, 2009 at 5:07 pm
Let us not forget that AFR was one of Bush’s chief Neoquislings in Europe back in 2002.
Bearing this in mind his enthusiasm for more war is not at all surprising.
It strikes me as a kind of imperialist pyramid scheme, once people stop investing resources in the war the illusory gains disappear and the emptiness of the whole endeavor is revealed. What is left of Rasmussen’s reputation rests on the scheme continuing. Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace and all that.
October 27th, 2009 at 12:12 am
Enough with the Kabuki. I’m going to sue you for metaphor abuse, you keep using the word “Kabuki” in vain. Think of the Japanese, all of them distraught that in America “Kabuki theater” refers to political grandstanding instead of…you know, Kabuki theater!
October 27th, 2009 at 4:38 am
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October 27th, 2009 at 5:58 am
@ Shay
You should quote what he said in its entirety. Not suprisingly leftists always leaves out the second part of that quote:
“Irak har selv indrømmet, at det har haft sennepsgas, nervegas, miltbrand, men Saddam vil ikke afregne. Han vil ikke fortælle os, hvor og hvordan de våben er blevet destrueret. Det ved vi fra FN’s inspektører, så der er ingen tvivl i mit sind.”
Danish participation was based on Iraqi noncompliance with sucessive UN resolutions and Saddams inability to explain what happened to the existing stockpiles og biological and chemichal armaments.
/Limagolf