Great. Now, another despotic country run by totalitarian cutthroats can receive weapons. What an ass.
From Fox News.
Obama lifted the decades-long U.S. arms embargo against Vietnam on Monday in an apparent effort to shore up the communist country’s defenses against an increasingly aggressive China – though he faced criticism that the move takes away U.S. leverage to press for human rights freedoms.
Obama announced the full removal of the embargo at a news conference in Hanoi alongside Vietnamese President Tran Dai Quang. The president said the move was intended as a step toward normalizing relations with the former enemy and to eliminate a “lingering vestige of the Cold War.”
The embargo was imposed in 1984. The United States partially lifted the ban in 2014, but Vietnam pushed for full access as it tries to deal with China’s land reclamation and military construction in nearby seas.
Obama, in announcing the agreement Monday, said every U.S. arms sale would be reviewed on a case-by-case basis going forward. Vietnam has not bought anything, but removing the remaining restrictions shows relations are fully normalized and opens the way to deeper security cooperation.
……U.S. lawmakers and activists, though, had urged Obama to press for greater human rights freedoms in the one-party state before lifting the embargo. Vietnam holds about 100 political prisoners and there have been more detentions this year.
“In one fell swoop, President Obama has jettisoned what remained of U.S. leverage to improve human rights in Vietnam — and (has) basically gotten nothing for it,” Phil Robertson, with Human Rights Watch, said.
In Beijing, China’s Foreign Ministry outwardly praised the move, with a spokeswoman saying China hoped “normal and friendly” relations between the U.S. and Vietnam would be conducive to regional stability. China itself remains under a weapons embargo imposed by the U.S. and European Union following 1989’s bloody military crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrations centered on Beijing’s Tiananmen Square.
Obama said the United States and Vietnam had mutual concerns about maritime issues and the importance of maintaining freedom of navigation in the South China Sea. He said that although Washington doesn’t take sides on the territorial disputes, it does support a diplomatic resolution based on “international norms” and “not based on who’s the bigger party and can throw around their weight a little bit more,” a reference to China.
That’s funny, because Barky literally bowed to Chinese President Hu Jintao during the official arrivals for the Nuclear Security Summit in Washington, Monday April 12, 2010.
Barky has certainly done his part to contribute to China’s military buildup, so he has no fucking room to talk.
“We welcome China’s rise,” Obama said at a press conference at the White House with Chinese President Hu Jintao. “I absolutely believe that China’s peaceful rise is good for the world, and it’s good for America.”
……Obama also made the case for stronger commercial and economic ties, including approval of the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement that is stalled in Congress and facing strong opposition from the 2016 presidential candidates. The deal, which includes Vietnam, would tear down trade barriers and encourage investment between the countries that signed it.
Ah yes, the ‘Trans-Pacific Trade’ bill, which will screw America even more by opening the U.S. up to judgments before an international arbitration body known as the International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), and will put many U.S. industries and localities at risk, not to mention binding Congress’ ability to pass future laws without significant international consequences.
Barky’s tryst with Vietnam adds to the list of epic foreign policy fails.
He’ll give weapons to America’s enemies but he thinks law-abiding American citizens shouldn’t own firearms. Gotta love the weapons grade stupidity.
He is going to do as much damage as he can before he’s finally out. It’s up to the next (Republican) president to unfuck the damage.
Related post:
https://sfcmac.wordpress.com/2014/12/06/china-advances-as-largest-world-economy/
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