Obama to restore UN ambassador's post to Cabinet rank

[Manedwolf]

Lovely. Just what we need. Oh, and of course, she's a recycled Clintoid as well.

Obama pick for UN ambassador known for tough stance on genocide
By Peter Baker
Monday, December 1, 2008

CHICAGO: President-elect Barack Obama has chosen his foreign policy adviser, Susan Rice, to be ambassador to the United Nations, picking an advocate of "dramatic action" against genocide as he rounds out his national security team, Democrats close to the transition said.

Obama was to announce Rice's selection at a news conference here Monday along with his previously reported decisions to nominate Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton for secretary of state, keep Robert Gates as defense secretary and appoint General James Jones, a retired Marine commandant, his national security adviser, the Democrats said Sunday.

The choice of Rice to represent the United States before the United Nations will make her one of the most visible faces of the Obama administration to the outside world aside from Clinton. It will also send to the world organization a prominent and forceful advocate of stronger action, including military force if necessary, to stop mass killings like those in the Darfur region of Sudan in recent years.

To reinforce his intention to work more closely with the United Nations after the tensions of President George W. Bush's tenure, Obama plans to restore the ambassador's post to cabinet rank, as it was under President Bill Clinton, according to Democrats close to the transition.

While the cabinet consists of 15 department heads, a president can give other positions the same rank for the duration of his administration.

"She's obviously one of Obama's closest advisers, so it underscores how much of a priority he's making the position," said Nancy Soderberg, a senior U.S. diplomat at the United Nations under Bill Clinton. "If you look at the last eight years, we obviously need to be more engaged at the UN and realistic about what the UN can do."

At the announcement Monday, the president-elect was to also formally unveil his nominations of Eric Holder Jr. to be attorney general and Governor Janet Napolitano of Arizona to be secretary of homeland security, the Democrats said. He will not announce any of the top intelligence appointments on Monday, but the Democrats said they expected him soon to name Admiral Dennis Blair, a retired Pacific Fleet commander, as director of national intelligence.

If confirmed, Rice, 44, would be the second-youngest U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. A Rhodes scholar who earned a doctorate in international relations at Oxford University, she joined Bill Clinton's National Security Council staff in 1993 before rising to assistant secretary of state for African affairs at age 32. When Obama decided to run for president, she signed on as one of his top advisers, much to the consternation of the Clinton camp, which resented what it saw as a defection.

As the ambassador at the United Nations, Rice will have to coordinate with Hillary Clinton but will not be in the White House or State Department headquarters on a daily basis as major policies are formulated. One person close to Clinton said the senator did not object to Rice serving at the United Nations.

Some colleagues from her Clinton and Obama days said Rice could be blunt and unafraid to "mix it up," as one put it, on behalf of issues she cares about. Rice herself acknowledges a certain impatience at times.

Admirers said she was a good listener and able to stand up to strong personalities, including foreign autocrats and militants in volatile regions of the world.

"Susan certainly is tough, and she's tough in exactly the right way," said Strobe Talbott, president of the Brookings Institution, where Rice worked in recent years. "She's intellectually tough," said Talbott, a former deputy secretary of state. "She's tough in her approach to how the policy-making process should work, and she will be very effective as a diplomat."

John Bolton, one of Bush's ambassadors at the United Nations, would not discuss Rice's selection but said it was unwise to elevate the position to the cabinet again. "One, it overstates the role and importance the UN should have in U.S. foreign policy," Bolton said.

"Second, you shouldn't have two secretaries in the same department."

During her first run at the State Department, Rice was a point person in responding to the 1998 bombing of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania by Al Qaeda. But her most searing experience was visiting Rwanda after the 1994 genocide when she was still on the NSC staff.

As she later described the scene, the hundreds, if not thousands, of decomposing, hacked-up bodies that she saw haunted her and fueled a desire to never let it happen again.

"I swore to myself that if I ever faced such a crisis again, I would come down on the side of dramatic action, going down in flames if that was required," she told the Atlantic Monthly in 2001. She eventually became a sharp critic of the Bush administration's handling of the Darfur killings and last year testified before Congress on behalf of a U.S.-led bombing campaign or naval blockade to force a recalcitrant Sudanese government to stop the slaughter.

Jerry Fowler, president of the Save Darfur Coalition, praised the pending Rice nomination on Sunday, calling it a powerful sign of the new president's interest in the issue. The coalition is urging Obama to begin a "peace surge" of sustained diplomacy to address the continuing problems in Sudan.

"It sends a very strong signal about his approach to the issue of Sudan and Africa in general," Fowler said.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/12/01/america/rice.php

[dogmush]

The mid-east is no fun, But I really hope we don't get deployed to Africa to "Peacekeep".

[longeyes]

I think a special draft is in order, with all the vegan kids who volunteer on organic farms and work tirelessly in "sanctuary cities" and lick envelopes for the Obama Crusade learning how to master the arts of war in genocide-torn Third World hellholes.  If they really hate the world's horrors they should go and end them with arms, dying for the cause if necessary far from suburbia.  Me, I'm trying to figure out how to deploy my investments before we run off the cliff.

[longeyes]

I've said it before & I'll say it again:

This new President's real agenda is about one thing: helping "people of color," the minority underclass in America and the oppressed masses "of color" abroad.

We'll see how well America loves fighting not "for oil" but to stop tribal (and religious) conflicts in far-off places.  I suspect the idealism of the fighting demographic will evaporate rather quickly.

[buzz_knox]

So, we are going to race to pull out of a civil war in an area we have vital strategic interests, in order to race to get into an even worse civil war in an area where we have no strategic interests?

This should be interesting.  I wonder how low retention/enlistment levels will sink now, especially when the military get tossed into a meat grinder while getting 25% of their budget cut.

[Don't care]

Does anyone know if she's just another gun grabber?

[Tallpine]

Darn!    Wrong "Rice" 

During her first run at the State Department, Rice was a point person in responding to the 1998 bombing of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania by Al Qaeda.

Oh yeah - that worked well.  :rolleyes:  "From the people who brought you the collapse of the twin towers, ......"

Sounds like we are going to have a redeaux of the Clinton Balkan mis-adventure only this time in Africa. 

[longeyes]

Yeah, she's intellectually tough and righteous to boot.

I suggest she enlist in the Marines and walk the walk.

[Jeff B.]

So, we are going to race to pull out of a civil war in an area we have vital strategic interests, in order to race to get into an even worse civil war in an area where we have no strategic interests?

This should be interesting.  I wonder how low retention/enlistment levels will sink now, especially when the military get tossed into a meat grinder while getting 25% of their budget cut.

Very good points!  You only left out the part about the new rules of engagement where we can't actually shoot anybody, or they take away the M16's & M4's and issue "non-lethal" weapons to demonstrate our moral superiority.

Jeff B.

[Lennyjoe]

The mid-east is no fun, But I really hope we don't get deployed to Africa to "Peacekeep

You can pretty much plan on it.  This statement can be used for pre-deployment preparation;

It will also send to the world organization a prominent and forceful advocate of stronger action, including military force if necessary, to stop mass killings like those in the Darfur region of Sudan in recent years.

[longeyes]

If Rice II is concerned about tribal warfare I suggest she just stay home.  We have plenty of that going on right here and will likely have much, much more ahead thanks to the wonders of multiculturalism.

[Waitone]

Internationalism coming to a country near you.

Keep an eye peeled for a new cabinet post--"Secretary of North American Affairs"

[buzz_knox]

Tom Kratman's books are looking less like science fiction and more like prophecy each day this administration forms.

[longeyes]

First you intervene, then you bring them all here as refugees.

It's good for the economy, especially the social welfare establishment.

[Manedwolf]

First you intervene, then you bring them all here as refugees.

It's good for the economy, especially the social welfare establishment.

Oh, yes, the Somalis brought into New Hampshire as refugees starting after Clinton's little adventure there (WHY) have adapted so well, in general.

Not really...they just don't have skills needed in New England (!), they are not used to the cold, and we just had our first interdiction of khat this year.

Somali family can't afford to live in New Hampshire

Besides his meager income as a landscaper, a Somali man has relied on food stamps to support his seven children and his pregnant wife. But there's little left for things like soap, diapers, utilities -- and rent.

Next week, against his family's wishes, Mohamed Mohamed plans to move everyone to Maine, where he's heard that life is cheaper and easier for Somali immigrants. They've been in Concord for 10 months.

His is not an isolated case, said Nasir Arush, a Somali translator who assists the family and other members of the Bantu communities in Concord and Manchester.

The Bantus are having a harder time than other refugees at achieving self-sufficiency because their learning curve is steeper, Arush said.

"You have to teach everything," he said, from how to cross a street safely to how to use a toilet.

More and more Bantu refugees are telling Arush they dream of life in Lewiston, Maine -- a Somali destination that, they have heard, offers cheaper living, more public immigrant aid and shorter waiting lists for Section 8 rental assistance.

I still can't figure out how, exactly, this was supposed to help them. Or the taxpayers here, either.

[longeyes]

A conservative is a liberal who has just dodged a machete.