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Who would like (or not like) to see serve as the next Secretary of State?
A) Mitt Romney – businessman, former Governor of Massachusetts, and the 2012 Republican presidential nominee
B) Rudy Giuliani – former New York City Mayor
C) David Petraeus – retired General and former CIA Director
D) Bob Corker – Republican Senator from Tennessee and Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee
E) Jon Huntsman – former Republican Utah governor and ambassador to China
F) Other
First Choice: John Bolton
Second Choice: Mitt Romney
F) Rabbi Haskel Lookstein
John Bolton
It just doesn’t make any sense that Trump is considering Romney. Trump has said in the past that loyalty is very important to him. How could he give the job to a guy who trashed him in the worst way for a long time..its ridiculous!
Hillary, again?
Hiring Biden, would take away the opposition.
It would be ironic if Petraeus got it. He plead guilty to mishandling classified information after he knowingly gave that information to his mistress/biographer and lied to the FBI about it.
Petraeus is military/war hero.
Popa
It looks like John Bolton will be appointed to the Number 2 spot in the State Department. An excellent choice indeed. The head of Exxon Mobil is likely the next Secretary of State.
Pres. elect Trump has been making excellent cabinet appointments overall. Far better than anticipated.
G) some random person who hasn’t been considered yet.
I don’t think career politicians necessarily make better cabinet members than businessmen. The reverse is likely closer to the truth.
As far as the Russia issue, it is a contrived issue by the President-elect’s political opponents. It has no merit. As an aside, Russia behaved better, and acted in a more morally justified position, in both Ukraine and Syria compared to the Obama Administration’s activities and policies regarding the affairs in those two countries. (Again, in *comparison*.)
So it’s OK to invade a sovereign nation and take over their territory because your toady (who was incredibly corrupt) gets thrown out?
And this is OK (from The Economist, regarding Aleppo)? “Adding to the slaughter, the Russian air force is using more sophisticated weapons. Among them are the TOS-1A, a form of giant flamethrower that can also fire thermobaric missiles that suck oxygen out of the air and create huge blast waves; the BETAB-500, a massive bomb that penetrates buildings before exploding; and the RBK-500, an incendiary cluster munition.” And if you say the rebels deserve what they get, please note that half the casualties are children.
I said comparably. The Obama Administration supported and encouraged a coup d’etat in Ukraine against the sovereign democratically elected government that precipitated their civil war. As far as Crimea, it had been part of Russia for hundreds of years until a Soviet dictator decided to unilaterally give it to Ukraine as part of a “birthday gift” to himself. It is very clear, even if you don’t accept the referendum, that the vast majority of Crimeans want to be part of Russia, as they have been for hundreds of years. It was never part of Ukraine prior to that “birthday gift”.
As far as Syria, the Obama administration allowed the civil war there to fester for years and years with hundreds of thousands of deaths, mostly civilians, without helping the rebels overthrow Assad when they had the chance and the US could and should have assisted them. This was even after Assad used chemical weapons and Obama then backed down from his “red line” to bomb Assad, making a mockery of America and letting the civil war to kill hundreds of thousands more. Russian intervention appears now to bringing an end to the civil war and probably the further killing of hundreds of thousands of civilians if the war simply continued on for years and years more.
So it looks like it’s going to be Rex Tillerson, CEO of ExxonMobil, and the deputy SoS will be John Bolton, ambassador to the UN under George W. Bush. Rex appears to be an interesting pick, he is known for his deal-making prowess, which clearly fits with Trump’s vision and agenda in nominations. He also is close to Putin and Russia, which fits with Trump seemingly wanting closer relations with them (of which National Security Advisor General Mike Flynn is a major fan), but it could be risky.
Joseph, in 1994 the leaders of the US, UK, Russia, and Ukraine signed an agreement (the Budapest Memorandum) that stated that Ukraine would give up the nuclear weapons that the USSR had kept there. Here’s part of the agreement: “The Russian Federation, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the United States of America reaffirm their commitment to Ukraine, in accordance with the principles of the Final Act of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe, to respect the independence and sovereignty and the existing borders of Ukraine.”
When Russia invaded Ukraine and annexed Crimea, it broke this agreement.
BTW, Ukraine was not the first country in which Russia covertly supported a group of ethnic Russians who wanted to remake the borders of former Soviet republics. There’s also Transnistria (a breakaway from Moldova, and the only territory that still has a hammer and sickle on its flag), Abkhazia, and South Ossetia (both breakaways from Georgia).
YY, correct. And America approved and was subject to UN Security Council Resolution 1244 which recognized the territorial integrity of Serbia, yet America pushed for and supported the disputed breakaway of Kosovo from Serbia. So America has little standing to complain about the breakaway regions of Georgia and Ukraine.
Often the choice is not between good and bad but between bad and worse. Tillerson might be able to calm down relations between the US and Russia. Apparently Bolton is going to be Deputy Secretary. According to the State Dept. website the Deputy “serves as Acting Secretary of State in the Secretary’s absence; and assists the Secretary in the formulation and conduct of U.S. foreign policy and in giving general supervision and direction to all elements of the Department. Specific duties and supervisory responsibilities have varied over time.” If Tillerson defers to him on professional matters (and as a good exec he must be able to do this) things could work out well iy”H.
More specifically the Deputy SoS handles the day-to-day affairs within the State Department. Regardless, he has a major say in policy and practice, and will be a highly regarded advisor.
Joseph, if the United States had annexed Kosovo, your comparison would be valid. It’s one thing to support a breakaway or a coup, it’s another to annex the territory of a sovereign nation. It’s reminiscent of Sudetenland.
It’s obvious that Russian nationalists, including Putin, are trying to undo the breakup of the USSR. I don’t think they’ll be happy until the western former Soviet republics fall under their hegemony (I suspect they’re happy to get rid of the various Stans, since they’re predominantly Muslim).
The annexation came after Crimea declared independence from Ukraine and considered themselves an independent nation. Just like Kosovo declared independence from Serbia.
If Kosovo and Albania jointly agree that Albania should annex Kosovo, would you consider Albania to be as bad as Russia annexing Crimea?
Any country that recognized Kosovo being independent from Serbia, the US included, has no standing to complain about Crimea declaring independence from Ukraine. Once either one is independent then they have a right to join another country should they so choose. There’s little moral difference between Crimea declaring independence from Ukraine and then acting as a sovereign state, than them subsequently electing to merge into another state.
My primary underlying point is not that either of them (Kosovo or Crimea) is okay or justified. Both independence declarations (from Serbia and Ukraine respectively) were equally legally unjustified and illegitimate. But if a state recognizes one, it has no moral standing to object to the other.
huntsman
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