Pawlenty: Obama ‘Entrapped’ by Arab League

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pawlentyFormer Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, who has launched an exploratory committee for a 2012 presidential run, says President Barack Obama has been “belated and timid” in his stance on Libya and is now “entrapped by the subordination of American interests and power to the Arab League and the United Nations.”

“One of the things I said on March 7 . . . is that we should have established the no-fly zone – I supported it,” Pawlenty said Tuesday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” “I believe the humanitarian mission, and the avoidance of slaughter in Libya, was important.

“But keep in mind back then the rebels had substantial momentum – in my view they had [Moammar] Gadhafi on the ropes – he was talking openly, according to news reports, about leaving voluntarily,” Pawlenty said. “And I think the threat of, or the implementation of, the no-fly zone back then would have given the rebels a quick and easy – or relatively easier – window of opportunity to get rid of Gadhafi.

“Now we’re in this position of having the president of the United States saying ‘Gadhafi must go,’ but we are not going to necessarily make him go,” he continued. “And that’s untenable.”

Pawlenty was asked whether the president wasn’t limited to what he can do because he has ceded efforts to a broader coalition. Pawlenty said Obama indeed is now beholden to other authorities.

“You have a leader of the Free World – the president of the United States – who says ‘Gadhafi must go,’ but he can’t realize that goal through his own means, or our own means, because he is now entrapped by the subordination of American interests and power to the Arab League and the United Nations, ” he said. “And that has already put him in an untenable position.”

Pawlenty acknowledged although the situation that will unfold in a post-Gadhafi era is unclear, there are several countries in the Middle East in a state of unrest, and it’s inappropriate for the president “to be sitting on the sidelines and just watch history unfold without exerting some leadership.”

“This president, I thought, was belated and timid in that regard,” Pawlenty said, adding that reaction to strife in each country in the Middle East should be different. “You can’t just make a blanket statement about what we’re going to do; they each have different backgrounds, cultures, histories, contexts.

“Take for example Syria – you got [President] Bashar Assad . . . this is an individual who many in the United States mistakenly were duped into believing was a reformer – a change agent – he is a terrorist, he is a killer,” he said. “If I was the president of the United States, I wouldn’t recognize and legitimize Syria and this [Syrian] administration – one of the most sinister in the world – by sending an ambassador to Syria, as President Obama did.

“I would start by recalling the ambassador, I would denounce Syria publicly, and I would speak to the Syrian people about how the United States stands with their hopes and dreams,” Pawlenty said.

{Newsmax/Matzav.com Newscenter}


3 COMMENTS

  1. They are both wrong. A normal president does not have to intervene in the “unfolding”, if there was an unfolding. Obama is fulfilling his personal ambition to help the arab world erase non-religious leaders for religious leaders who want to institute their sharia law throughout that land.

    Any other excuse is just that; an excuse. There is MORE reason to intervene to help Israel, to help black muslims in the Sudan, to help Chinese who are forced to donate body parts, to fight against child trafficking and slavery within the arab muslim world.

    Again, the America people have been hijacked by yet another personally vindictive president.

  2. It is harder to listen to a potential candidate for a 2012 presidential run, when just days ago, tried to play down Trumps insistence in revealing the truth about Obama. What do you MEAN Mr Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, you THINK Obama was born in the USA. The House speaker also THINKS that. Who asked you to THINK? Either Obama was born in the USA or NOT. That issue will hit FULL FORCE, if Obama seeks re election. The people of the USA may & regrettable put Obama into Power, but are not Stupid to make the same mistake twice. Carter was a fly by, but the severe damage Obama has brought on us is grave.

  3. Reply to comment number 1-
    I did not at any time feel that Mr. Obama was aloof in his choices regarding middle eastern affairs. There are a number of fires and one can not put the entire forest fire out in one clean sweep. Foreign policy takes time and must be acheived in piecemeal fasion.
    That said, Mr. Pawlenty is again a sad case of Obama sneering but limiting his own “recommendations” as to what really could be effective in controling the actions and agression of the entire population of the Middle East today.
    Obama was wise and just in his no fly zone and if I read Mr. Pawlenty correct, Mr. Obama did not act as fast to get the planes in the air as Mr. Pawlenty necessitates? That said, I do not anticipate that there is a fix for every problem over night. To refuse to send an ambassador, sure you made a statement. But a statement is a stale mate. I think that the idea of an ambassador to tell them that the Americans mean business and want to make sure that the Syrians can communicate is a good way to do business. So, Mr. Pawlenty, again from my learning of your thought processes, you fail to produce any reasonable recommendations or results. I dare think you might be the commander in cheif at some time to come.

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