Oh No: Biden Kicks Off Balkan Tour
Oh no, couldn’t Obama have sent someone else?
Vice President Joe Biden began a landmark Balkans tour Tuesday to show US engagement in a region still wracked by the tensions that triggered Yugoslavia’s bloody break-up almost two decades ago.Biden landed on board US Air Force Two plane at Sarajevo airport at dawn under heavy security measures.
He was spending Tuesday in Bosnia-Hercegovina — accompanied there by the European Union’s foreign policy chief Javier Solana — meeting with political leaders and delivering a speech in the Bosnian parliament.
The Balkans are one the least stable part of Europe. Many experts believe it’s not a question of whether but when the different peoples living there will have another go at each other.
Read my entire post at Hot Air’s GreenRoom.
This website uses IntenseDebate comments, but they are not currently loaded because either your browser doesn't support JavaScript, or they didn't load fast enough.
Comments are closed.
PoliGazette Comments Policy
PoliGazette encourages comments from all viewpoints, especially those that disagree.
Comments submitted must, however, adhere to the following standards. Comments that violate
these standards may be edited or deleted without notice at the sole discretion of the editors.
Commenters who repeatedly or egregiously violate these standards or who attempt to argue
publicly with editors regarding the comments policy may be banned from commenting further.
(1) Comments should address the substantive content of the post. Comments that repeatedly
or blatantly misrepresent the content of the post or of others' comments are not welcome. Comments that
respond to something other than which the contributor or commenter may have said are irrelevant and should
not be posted.
(2) Comments should avoid vulgarity as well as racial, ethnic, religious, or sexual bigotry.
(3) Comments should not personally attack the character, personal integrity, or professional
reputation of any PoliGazette contributor or of other commenters.
(4) Comments should reflect the contributions of the commenters themselves and should not
include extensive cut-and-paste reproductions of others' words except insofar as necessary to supplement
the commenter's own arguments. Link spam, trackback spam, and propaganda spam will be instantly deleted.
(5) Public figures are considered open to all substantive criticism of their policies and statements.
Comments that present objectively false factual information about public figures (i.e. "Obama is a Muslim") or
that attack public figures by attacking their families are not welcome. Comments that merely repeat
slogans for or against a candidate without engaging in substantive comment are not welcome.
Questions or challenges to these policies or their application should be directed to the editors
by email only.
Oh no, couldn?t Obama have sent someone else?
“Biden’s expertise in foreign policy, national security, and arms control issues has won him considerable bipartisan respect. In 1997, he became the ranking minority member of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations and chaired the committee from June 2001 through 2003. His efforts to combat hostilities in the Balkans in the 1990s brought national attention and influenced presidential policy: traveling repeatedly to the region, he made one meeting famous by calling Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic a “war criminal.” He consistently argued for lifting the arms embargo, training Bosnian Muslims, investigating war crimes and administering NATO air strikes. Biden’s subsequent “lift and strike” resolution was instrumental in convincing President Bill Clinton to use military force in the face of systematic human rights violations.”
He obviously has no experience of the region and no reason to go there, especially considering the fact that hostilities could flare up again.
Garland, if that’s true, then I guess he can’t be Gaffemeister all the time. Shame. Maybe he’ll try harder this time…