While we are dreaming, let's all believe the Republican Party is capable of growing another soul, resisting the NRA, treating immigrants with dignity, strongly in favor of voting rights, welcoming people of color into their organization and concerned about the federal deficit. Pompeo is a hard right soldier whose solutions on most international issues is to use the overwhelming power of the American military to fix the world's problems. He will continue the systematic dismantling of the State Department started by good ol' boy Rex Tillerson until all issues with other nations will be handled by a tweet from the President or himself. The two seem to have a lot in common, including a love of the buffet line.
2
As regards the idea that being a career Foreign Service Officer is being "an Obama holdover," you have to realize that Pres. Trump and his supporters think of the rule of law as the "deep state," an oppressive force standing in the way of absolute power.
2
The difficulty with this column is the assumption of intelligence is one of the most important factors in re the successful implementation of Mr. Pompeo's duties.
Mr. Pompeo is certainly a very intelligent man, top of his class at West Point, Mr. Tillerson was also a very intelligent man. You do not become President of ExxonMobil starting out as low level engineer unless you are smart.
Unfortunately, intelligence alone is not enough to make a positive impact in the Trump regime. As Mr. Tillerson accurately pointed out, Mr. Trump is a moron.
I have had bosses that were morons and it is almost impossible to get anything useful achieved when the boss doesn't know "come here" from "sic 'em". They say things like "make it happen" or "work smarter not harder" expecting that such pearls of wisdom are their priceless contribution to the business at hand.
I wish Mr. Pompeo well. We certainly need someone to repair the damage that Mr. Tillerson and Mr. Trump have done to the Foreign Service. But it is almost inevitable that Mr. Trump will stick his oar in and roil the waters.
2
What I think you meant to say, Ms. Power, is how Pompeo could save the state department ... while blowing up the world
Do you actually think he's going to come up with any new policies that don't mirror those of his boss ... think Iran, climate change, ad nausea? Or, that he is going to bring into the state department any policy makers with the type of evidence-based knowledge (aka, reality) that might inform said policies.
NOT a gonna happen
1
This is naive in the extreme, bordering on willful ignorance.
Quote: "Condoleezza Rice tried to build what she called an 'expeditionary foreign service' that would work with local populations and civil society, particularly in places that historically had little contact with Americans. 'The future was in hard places doing hard things,' she later wrote.”
With regard to “hard places,” was Condi referring to Iraq?
Is Samantha Power putting us on? The Bush administration is a template for the reform of the State Department and U.S. diplomacy?
How does Power's promotion of a war criminal like Rice, who in tandem with her boss, nearly destroyed Iraq and Afghanistan have any credibility?
2
Pompeo save the State Department? What have you been smoking Ms. Powers? Have you not followed this clown's career?
1
Pompeo is an old fashioned performer. He'll do much better than Obama, this author and HIlary did. Hard nosed and stick up for the American culture. I''m sorry to see Tillerson go. Trump should have fit this man in somewhere. Back to Pompeo though he'll get along with Trump and forward our interests in many ways only Obama could dream about.
This piece of fluff by Ms Powers reads more like an feeler for a job than anything else. It might just be that the mice are thinking of returning to the ship.
1
There are few people whom Trump would appoint who can have a moderating and steadying effect at this point. Trump is looking for people who agree with him, however unwisely. Competence is at best a secondary consideration. Then there are those, like Haley, who are jockeying for a presidential run in the future. This is an administration full of opportunists who do not respect the work of career diplomats and other government workers.
3
And how about a basket of brightly colored eggs from the Easter bunny. What other fantasies do you have to offer. And how on earth did you get to be UN Ambassador.
1
Having lived and worked overseas for 10 years total over the years, I can say pretty confidently that diplomats do little to help "promote investment, protect Americans abroad and combat terrorism". Particularly ambassadors, who are in many countries figureheads (think Caroline Kennedy in Japan) and even when not, do little.
Sure, they think they do a lot. But I agree with Donald Trump that the government could do a lot better if it slimmed down to its essential purposes, and diplomacy is not one of those purposes.
Samantha Power credits diplomats in general and the United Nations in particular with ending the Ebola epidemic and concluding the Iran deal and the Paris climate agreement. But I don't credit either diplomats or the UN with making things better. A lot of patting themselves on the back, in my opinion, for things that were not their doing.
Samantha Power and her husband Cass Sunstein are among writers and academics who think they know how the world works. But they just know theory. They have never been successful in the real world. Just in ivory towers.
Donald Trump knows better how the world works. He doesn't worry about theory. He worries about what works. Now with Mike Pompeo he might really be able to accomplish something. In North Korea. In Syria. In Russia. In the West Bank and Gaza.
Of course success is not guaranteed. In the real world it never is. But failure is acceptable. Not trying isn't.
3
Amazingly bizarre - Pompeo would restore the State Department to its former glory! How could anyone possibly make this desperate claim?
President Trump and wing man Pompeo do not want facts - their minds are made up. Anyone who could possibly propose a fact contrary to their preconceptions will be disemPOWERed. Cast out into the cold. If the USA had gulags, they would be filling up rapidly with people suspected of having fact based mental processes.
MS Power appears to no longer be within reach distance of reality.
3
Another step in the ladder of autocracy by Trump. Pompeo is a sycophant, just like other members of the cabinet and executive branch.
2
These ideas would make sense for a normal administration. The Trump presidency is not a normal administration. We will have a dysfunctional government as long as we have a president who doesn't care to do the work to make and keep it functional.
3
If only it was a matter of diplomacy and competent diplomats. However, the rot starts at the top with a President who shows no tendency to back away from a lifetime of prevarication, bullying, and failure to honor agreements. Ms. Power correctly notes the insults and falsehoods that characterize the current administration, but does not go so far as to ask the question: "Who in their right mind would ever trust or make a deal with anyone representing this outfit?" Beyond this is the substance of their agendas on climate / environment, trade, immigration, and nuclear threats, which not only make the US an extreme outlier among nations but are not even shared by a majority of Americans.
2
This is rich! Samantha Power was part of Mr. Obama’s politicized and weaponized State Department. (Familiar with her 'unmasking'-record?) Getting rid of Ms. Power was a major step in the right direction of “saving” DOS.
2
Speculating on how Mike Pompeo can save the State Department is like speculating on how Scott Pruit can protect the environment, or Ben Carson can protect housing for the poor, or Besty Vos can protect public schools, or Ryan Zinke can protect national parks, or Devin Nunes can protect the American election system.
Is it safe to speculate that this op-ed was intended for The Onion, and mailed to NYT in error?
5
Our Dear Leader wants the Secretary of State to be a total yes man. If Mr. Pompeo turns out to have any mind of his own, he will be booted out just like Rex Tillerson. Donald Trump does not want to hear any opinions that do not agree with his own.
Dear Mike, word of advice. Ignore anything Samatha Powers says. She’s a walking disaster. Her idiotic “responsibility to protect” was just an excuse to topple regimes without actually accepting responsibility for the mess. Thinking Libya here. And then lie about it. She will go down in the annals of diplomacy as the most disasterous, virtue signaling incompetent the swamp has ever produced.
'No' Samantha... there is no Santa Claus.
Expecting the State Department to be fixed while the vile, incompetent Trump is President is laughable. Pompeo is nothing more than a sniveling apparatchik anxious to please his despicable master.
2
I continue to wonder why anyone, and in particular the NYT, would pay attention to anything this person writes or speaks.
1
Rex Tillerson was undoubtedly doing Donald Trump's bidding in dismantling the State Department. Will Mike Pompeo defy his boss & rebuild State?
Hilarious headline. Pompeo is on board with the man owned by Putin. He is signed up to diminish America and will not be deterred.
I'll believe it when I see it. Talk is cheap.
With Mr. Pompeo as a secretary of state who seems keener to be a secretary of war, we may not have to worry about recruiting diplomats.
The big worry will be recruiting to the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines. How anyone could encourage their child to join our military forces under this ignorant and tyrannical "great leader" is beyond me. Have we ever had a president with less respect for the individuals who he "commands" both in the military and in the civilian population? Doubt it. He will be making strategic decisions on military activities based on what he had for breakfast and what the "hotties" on Fox News said about how great he is that morning.
1
I served with you in pride at the Department, Amb. Power, but this op-ed piece is jaw-dropping. This darling of the far-right, an avowed Islamophobe and provocateur, is the LAST thing the Department of State needs. His close affiliation with the president, who has succeeded in hollowing out this esteemed institution, is exactly why he should NOT be the new secretary.
1
I think Ms Powers wrote this piece for two reasons; to irritate people she does not agree with and her quota of responding letters to the editor has been dropping. Yes, liberals as myself are experiencing a little ennui as far as constantly responding to the daily Trump barrage, but really, can't we have a little discretion in GOP propaganda when it appears outside the FOX network. I really liked the reader's comment about Trump being unable to manage his own hair.
Pompeo will make at least two Secretaries of State not to sell their position and offer U.S. gov't decisions to the highest bidder.
What a refreshing change!
Oh, I wish. As does Ms. powers. There are people, lots of them, who could make happen what's proposed here. But not Mike Pompeo. He was chosen to replace Rex Tillerson precisely because he opposes everything Powers promotes. To expect him to reverse the damage the president is causing the nation throughout the world is illusionary. He's not wired to do that.
What's wished for here is what we expected Tillerson, Mattis, Kelly and others to accomplish, to somehow contain the damage we did to ourselves on last November 8th. The president is whittling away at these elements, one-by-one, replacing them with people who think like him (What an oxymoron that it!). Ross Douthat's column elsewhere in today's Times lays this out pretty clear. Trump's now in control. He's getting rid of the talent, replacing it with sycophants. And Mike Pompeo is one of the first he's enlisted. More and more, Robert Mueller's loom as much more important than "the Russia thing."
I very much want State to return to prominence as a leading part of American influence abroad. Secretary Tillerson seemed to feel that his department should be cut to pay for more bullets and that the subtleties of diplomacy were essentially irrelevant. This was one reason why Trump hired him.
I hardly think that Trump has changed what he looks for in a potential Secretary of State.
In the Trump era, hoping for a good and suitable candidate that will improve government for the better in any appointed office is like hoping that Beetlebomb will win at the races. Only Spike Jones could pull that off--and Trump, for all of his performance chops, is no Spike Jones.
Good grief, Mike Pompeo is a terrifying choice for Secretary of State. As usual I am sorely disappointed in Ms. Power who seems not to value diplomacy and peace despite her background.
2
No way. Not with previous interrogation techniques and torture in the Bush Administration. Mike Pompeo claimed "these men and women are not torturers, they are patriots..."
Pompeo says he + President Trump are on the same wavelength.
Pompeo's already done some sabre rattling with Iran and N. Korea. And lied about the intelligence community, misquoting them, when it clearly stated it did not assess impact of Russian activities on outcomes of the 2016 election.
We learned in 2009 Dick Cheney and Condoleezza Rice signed off on harsh, deadly torture techniques. Findings were contained in a Senate report.
The direction to torture came from top administration officials. It's chilling.
Now another man---Mike Pompeo-- has shown he is willing to lie in support of a president. And potentially justify torture/rendition. We need a truth commission. Torture is a war crime. Wake up Republicans. Where are you, anyway???
2
If Sam Power thinks she's going to set any part of the agenda for a bloody-minded reactionary like Mike Pompeo, she's more deluded than Trump himself.
2
The headline to this piece calls on the reader to believe that hope is at hand, nut "can" and "should" tell a far different story.
Samantha Power would have us believe Pompeo would 'save' the State Department. The State Department doesn't need 'saving.' Her first four paragraphs are devoid of any smidgen of gravitas. Without the president's support, Pompeo will join Tillerson, Cohn, and the rest of the intelligent right-wingers who thought they could paper train a disturbed, second-rate entertainer. Pompeo cannot save State nor can he save himself from the humiliation of being informed by some sycophant that he is fired.
What will save state is a knowledgeable, experienced President who cares about the American people, who understands the history of our country, and who knows the difference between the truth and a lie. Until this grifter and his incompetent cabinet, aides, cartoon family and staff fade away we should be worried.
Power's last three paragraphs should be a memo to the human resources department.
1
Sorry Samantha, your credibility on diplomacy is zero: your lack of leadership and results @ UN especially your passivity in the UN's obsession with beating up on Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East, diminishes my interest in your opinion.
2
so I understand that the times is trying to give a more balanced, less left-leaning political viewpoint but this article is not the least bit convincing. you guys need to come up with better material and or writers if you are going to make a concerted effort at representing right wing viewpoints without embarrassing intelligent right wingers, though they may be few of them.
Samantha, fine for this. BUT I expect you and all principled, strong women to stand up right now, this day, against the confirmation of the Torture Queen Gina Haspel. You need to write about this - right away - if you truly care anything about human rights. If you don’t, you are no moral leader.
Samantha Powers is delusional.
1
Does Samantha have any idea who this toady is? Does she have any idea who this toady is working for? Does she have any idea that you can't reason with sociopaths?
And lastly, does she realize that no one in the White House watches only Fox News, and does not read The Times?
1
Are you kidding me?
Ms. Power, this is a very diplomatic op-ed: praise the incoming secretary and challenge him with the task of rebuilding the State Department. I hope Mr. Pompeo will be successful. Hope, but doubt. Thank you for continuing to care about American diplomacy.
1
Samantha Power laid out the case and importance of a truly productive State Department as an ideal of what should be strived for. She did this as a realistic goal to be achieved and hoped for, not that Pompeo is likely to achieve it.
2
I love an optimist, but to agree with you, I would have to ignore Trump's public statements regarding the role of the cabinet. Remember only he is smart enough to know what must be done to MAGA. The deep state must be obliterated and replaced with robots who carry out his will even when he has no idea what the hell he is doing.
2
All of this nonsense is so sinister that it makes one cringe. Let's ask the leaders of Congress to volunteer just one of their own to undergo waterboarding -- while their family watches.
This is the worst generation in American History, and if you -- Samantha Power -- believe that any of these people will help set us back on track, we are all screwed. This is THE Problem from Hell!
2
Makes no sense that we would want a more muscular, active State Dept led by a secretary that seeks to undo the fledgling attempts to reduce potentially explosive crises, e.g. a break with European allies who support the Iran deal and prospects for mutually beneficial dialogue with North Korea. The idea that 'at least now, State will regain influence' totally disregards 'influence for what.'
1
As with Obama,Ms Powers attempts to define US values "who we are" though a leftist lens.
Last week Netanyahu comes to Trump and denounces the Iran Nuke Deal. Next we have Trump appointing Pompeo to the State Department. Is there a connection and what are we getting into here?
4
Pompeo comes from Koch world, so the chance of him thinking for himself is not likely. I like the hopefulness of the column, though.
1
These are all high-minded sentiments and Mr. Pompeo will do our country a great service if he heeds the best of them. But isn't he full of sneering contempt for the nuclear bargain with Iran, a truly significant U.S. achievement in diplomacy? Is he really opposed to an isane war with Iran, sponsored by Israel, covertly or otherwise?Moreover, why in the world did he order CIA assassins to kill Taliban leaders at a time when the Afghanis themselves are working in tandem with international diplomats to assimilate the Taliban into Afghani politics? These aren't peripheral problems. They are central to the question whether this is the right person to represent the American people before the whole world community. I doubt it.
2
Well, after the exit of Tillerson, Pompeo looks like the he is now the smartest man in the room---that never ends well in Trump's office.
1
Many pundits fail to read Trump's character and then anticipate his actions. Trump is an insecure, spoiled, ignorant, contentious man. He wants to be commander-in-chief, with his own war, which he considers ultimate power. Trump's military parade, and "his generals" is an indication of his intentions. Placing a hawk like Pompeo in the State Department is another indicator.
Trump is flattered by Israel and Saudi Arabia in the hopes that America will use American lives and treasure to fight their proxy war with Iran.
The Republican party doesn't appear to have learned a thing from two un-winnable wars, and an epic financial meltdown (2003 to 2008). Haven't people noticed that Republicans never talk about this time period? It is as if nothing happened. The dark period was Obama, not Bush. When facts and historical knowledge don't play a part in decision making, we are destined to repeat our mistakes. In this case, the people making the decisions are more extreme and inexperienced than Bush/Cheney. God help us.
5
Ask the average American what the State Department does and they'll tell you. The ambassadors and other department personnel get held as hostages (Iran) and get shot (Libya). This is the energy that gave us Trump and Pompeo. Don't expect any miracles now.
3
It seems Pompeo may indeed be a more hopeful player in terms of energy, shrewdness. To be hoped for, and there is room for improvement perhaps, even with Pompeo's right-wing views. This isn't the first time the Secretary has been ignored. No point in insulting and sneering at Ms. Powers, there are more important things going on. Oh, and wasn't Dag Hammerskjold the first Secretary General at the UN?
As long as Trump is president, what Pompeo believes is irrelevant.
1
Why should Pompeo be any different from any member of Trump's administration who along with the President have been destroying all things good in our Country?
2
I had not realized that Ambassador Powers was delusional. There is no grace, no class, no caring about what the American people or our allies want until these unethical, self-absorbed liars are out of power. I'm not sure what this article is about -- the only thing that works (and it will take time) is resistance and never, ever letting them off the hook for their despicable policies!
1
Ms. Power, you are dreaming in technicolor. There is a principal in spying circles of having as few people involved as possible, so there are fewer tracks to cover.
Only non-beholden judges from all parties, the presumed loyalty of the military men in the Administration to Country (at least some of them) and maybe some of those 2nd Amendment State Militias standing between we the people and attempted coup by Trump. I do not include the press because these foul people, starting from the top, have already made sure to divide and conquer it at all levels of media.
The Trump government doesn’t seem to understand what the State Department does any more than they understand the missions of other departments. This article tries to explain it to them.
1
I agree with most of the comments that I find it unlikely Pompeo will bring any sort of honor or positive influence on the State Department.
That said these comments are acting like we are in the middle of a world war. As of now, North Korea may finally be in a position to lose its existential power, ISIS has been on the decline, and the world continues to be in a period of unprecedented peace.
Lets always strive to get better, but we also cannot allow hyperbole and partisanship to make us think the world is on fire. It isn't. Despite an unstable president, the world is very stable relative to recent history.
Samantha Power’s op-ed today gives us a good example of fuzzy thinking.
She recommends Mike Pompeo for Secretary of State because, although he espouses a number of outrageous views, he’ll fill vacancies in the State Department faster than Rex Tillerson did. What will be Pompeo’s criteria for selection?
Ms. Power also seems impressed that Pompeo is likely to agree with Donald Trump more often than Tillerson did. And, how is that a good thing?
Left unsaid in the column is that Pompeo’s biggest asset is that he is not Nikki Haley.
2
He won't. In fact, it's the last thing I expect. We need to focus on what we can do now, get control of Congress, and thus our government. It is our best hope to make it to 2020 when we can fix this.
Having Congress is the paramount concern right now. Not only will it check trump, but should things progress investigation wise, check a temporary president Pence.
1
Pompeo was a highly partisan Republican representative who rudely attacked Secretary Clinton and who was the biggest recipient of cash from the Kochs. He ingratiated himself with Trump by watering down the PDB; catering to Trump's views on topics such as NK, Russia, Iran, trade deals, and climate change; personally supervising Russian ops so that reporting on Trump henchmen could be quashed; and standing idly by while Trump insulted CIA fallen by lying about the size of his inauguration crowd. I initially fell for the argument that in Tillerson we had an experienced international businessmen who could strengthen the leadership of the State Department and Foreign Service, but I can't fall for a similar argument that Pompeo will use his influence, which is really sycophancy, with Trump to reconstitute the personnel, budget, and policy relevance of State.
3
I very much hope he continues to do what President Trump started doing. Namely, draining the Swamp that is the State Department.
The latter is chuck-full of entrenched unelected bureaucrats whose sole preoccupation seems to be fomenting trouble abroad: Toppling governments, whipping up "Color Revolutions" that invariably end in chaos, ratcheting up dangerous unnecessary confrontation with Russia. Libya, Syria, and Ukraine are some of the disasters these Machiavellis engineered during the Obama years.
The Trump/Putin State Department won't be "saved" or even improved by Mr. Pompeo. The best explanation for Trump's precipitous firing of Tillerson, is the latter's harsh condemnation of Putin's egregious attacks on the former spy and his daughter in the UK. Criticizing Russian meddling, violent or otherwise, is an obvious no go area in the Trump administration.
If Putin had enough sway over Trump to veto Romney's nomination to State and hire Tillerson, the ostensibly Russian-friendly Exxon CEO with multi-billion dollar contracts awaiting the lifting of sanctions, and a medal pinned on his lapel by Putin himself, he likely has the power to oust Rex as well.
Apparently, even Tillerson's abolishing the State Department's Office of Sanctions, and generally weakening and demoralizing our diplomatic corps by leaving so many key posts unfilled, couldn't offset the offense of publicly chastising Putin.
What does Trump's perfidy mean for American sovereignty? What's the significance of Republican (and Fox News) complicity with Trump's selling out our national interest to the Russians? Can Mueller prevent Trump's consolidation of power over the DOJ and FBI before our venal narcissist-in-chief eviscerates the very agencies charged with protecting us from foreign (and organized crime) influence?
Weakening our State Department and disrupting our relations with Europe have been two seminal accomplishments of Trump's first year. Pompeo will push that agenda, not thwart it.
3
It is pretty simple what do the Kochs want ..
Though in terms of foreign relations that is a bit hard to figure out.
I guess its the never ending articles about this administration being saved by some super normal human re: reasonable, measured, thoughtful and not full of hate, and of course, adult like, that gives me the greatest anxiety. Of course, you can't yell the sky is falling, but you don't have to engage in fantasies. The president is going to surround himself with images of himself. You can judge a person by the people around them, and by the people drawn to a person. Opinions have become meaningless regarding this administration. Hard investigative journalism and a few national leaders will be needed to rebuild America in the image of America not the image of Trump
The frightening parts of this situation concerns Trump's admission that the cabinet shakeup is giving him the people he wants (thinks like he does and will kiss the ring or something) in positions of authority and he and Pompeo are of like mind. Come on, Bob, pick up the pace!
This article is valuable not because it is intelligent or well-reasoned, but because it shows how little difference there is between "liberal" establishment Democrats, like Power - who entered politics condemning Kissinger and then a few short years later counted herself as a close friend - and the hard right neo-neo-Con wing, represented in this case by Pompeo. Of course she thinks he can "save" the State Department when you view it in that light.
Two other things worth mentioning:
1. She opposes Obama administration policies (nonintervention in Syria, keeping Guantanamo Bay open) yet supported them while in office. She also, of course, supported rampant civilian-killing drone strikes across the globe and the US-backed, Saudi-led war in Yemen.
2. She doesn't care about human rights (no surprise for a Kissinger acolyte) - the only American interests she names are promoting investment, protecting Americans, and combating terrorism. That and a vague idea, paragraphs later, to "do some good."
You might think from this piece that American diplomacy's sorry state began under Trump. But it's been bad for a long long time, and Power helped maintain the hypocrisy in American foreign policy and accelerate the decline of American moral legitimacy. In her own words (New Yorker profile of her in 2014) "Principles and positions only take you so far." I don't think Donald Trump - or his numerous corrupt lackeys - would disagree. You can see the rot goes deep.
3
Before Pompeo is confirmed, he needs to answer a few questions:
How did Sergey Naryshkin, the head of Russia’s foreign intelligence agency get into the USA for meetings with Pompeo? Sergey is under U.S. sanctions barring him from the country.
Why was the visit by Sergey and others announce on Russian news outlets and by the Russian ambassador via tweet and not reported by the US government?
Why did Pompeo promote Gina Haspel, who as Sen Rand Paul said "My opposition to her is over her direct participation in interrogation and her gleeful enjoyment of someone being tortured."?
3
There are some government agencies that would do well with one of their own to be the head.
One such Agency is the State Department. It is far better to have a strong career diplomat to be appointed as Secretary of State. Someone who understands the organization, the countries around the world, the culture and the politics. Importantly, to do what is best for our country.
3
Ms. Powers is on a rant that died in the 1960s-1970s. The US Peace Corps stands for all that went right in American foreign policy and then failed as the “spooks”—CIA, DOD—subverted development projects to accomplish military purposes. Then, volunteers were not to become agents of the military. Today, volunteers are highly experienced retired people providing low wage service to the US government. It is the number of wells dug, not the number hearts won, which drives the organization.
Our new Secretary of State seems to think of winning hearts and minds is accomplished through water boarding. How wrong!
3
The article is unbelievable. Pompeo is a hard line true believer in Trump. It is absolutely delusional to consider for one single second that this man will do anything other than continue the demolition of the State Department that Tillerson has so ably begun, and that he will pursue an extreme agenda of denying Russian interference in the US elections, providing cover for Putin's nefarious activities, seeking to unravel that Iran deal, and taking a bellicose approach to North Korea. In short he will be an enabler of Trump's worst instincts. One has ot wonder when Democrats will get the message: Trump and his crew of sycophantic enablers are reactionary and are ste to destroy all that is good and noble about American democracy unless they are opposed at every turn. Yes Trump holds diplomacy in contempt, just as he holds democracy and the rule of law in contempt.
40
Michael Arch:
But you gotta try, right? Kudos to Ms. Power, whom I have admired for a long time, for speaking truth to the power on both sides of the political spectrum. Better a pollyanna than a cynic.
The most immediately relevant question is not, “when will the Democrats get this message?” It’s “when will the Republicans” (who presently control Congress) “get this message?”
2
With Pompeo, Trump can finish the task of dismantling the State Department. Both Pompeo and Trump think alike and they fully intend to rid this country of useless Ambassadors and supporting staff. Trump has taken another step toward Kingship.
4
Wishful thinking, state department appointments will require political loyalty, we will return to the pre WW2 antiSemtic, isolationists- Pompeo is an ideologue committed to a Trumpean world view - can get worse, much worse
6
This is a surprisingly shallow analysis from an experienced diplomat. Trump's (and the US) biggest foreign challenge is Nort Korea. Now that we are going to talk, Trump wants to take a bulldog with him rather than a quire boy. Tillerson was hired for his business accumen, with the task of trimming down the state department which was larger than the state departments of the rest of the world combined. Now the priorities changed, and N. Korea is more pressing.
When someone gives you advice, you should check out the prior performance of said adviser. In the case of Ms. Power... she left a mess in all matters related to security. So I suggest that Mr. Pompedo could safely do the opposite of what she recommends. He should especially continue Tillerson's good work in trimming down the state department.
3
Samantha Power is trying to embrace the Power of Wishful Thinking.
Not.
Going.
To.
Happen.
1
Given the volcano in the White House, coming soon to a theater near you: "The Last Days of Pompeo!" :-)
2
Pigs flying could also improve the State Department. I’m stunned that you would think a Trump enabler like Pompeo - whose motivation puzzles me - would rebuild a bureaucracy with the potential of independent thought and action. If he does rebuild State, it will become clear that he is building a support organization for either Trump or himself. Not the Constitution.
3
Every time there is a rearranging of the Trump-Titanic deck chairs; out pops another rushed op-ed about "how" This one-or that-one can/could "save" this (or that) department or program. Why Waste pixels on another futile exercise? I realize the NYT has decided to present more experts in its op-ed section, but rushing this out a few hours after the newest iteration of an Administration- is ridiculous. Samantha Power states the obvious about Mike Pompeo:
"Many of Mr. Pompeo’s positions — his opposition to the Iran nuclear deal, his skepticism on global warming, and his support for torture and the prison at Guantánamo — are antithetical to American security and will diminish his pull with valuable allies."
Why Ms. Power believes (hopes) he will adhere to anything remotely instructive, is a mystery.
2
The UnMasking of Mike Pompeo. Thanks, Samantha.
Both the President and Mr. Pompeo are supporters of waterboarding.
I think Pompeo was brought on so that at some future date he will be able to convince Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto one way or the other to pay for the ridiculous border wall.
Ms. Power, you have done a terrific job at the U.N., and your exhortations here are admirable. But I cant conceive of Pompeo doing anything besides kowtowing to #45's ignorance-based commands, wrecking the Iran Treaty, botching the NK meeting with military confrontations to follow that, bringing his own special brand of extreme right-wing vindictiveness to the job of Sec'y. of State. Pompeo is a horrible choice for this position, as anybody sane in Washington knows only too well. Alas, we're in for a deeper fall into the maelstrom-cum-nightmare of the Trump presidency with this Pompeo whack-job appointment.
2
One appreciates Ambassador Power's hope that Pompeo might believe that his primary duty is to the United States, rather than to Trump. Nothing, however, inspires any faith that Pompeo will be better than Tillerson.
1
Mike Pompeo is a West Point trained military man whose politics reflect that of the Koch brothers (big supporters of his) and of course President Trump. Don't think that bodes well for being our country's chief diplomat.
Given the current Trump administration, which is continually mired in scandals and policies not in line with the majority of Americans, it will be difficult to attract people to join the State Department.
I hope Mr. Pompeo will rise to the occasion but my expectations are not high given he's an accolade of Donald Trump.
18
Girl, I hope you're right!
But the fact that he is willing to take the job makes me worry that he has already been co-opted. When Tillerson was appointed we all felt with his oil industry ties, that he would be a Trump/Putin supporter. He wasn't and now he's been fired.
Why would Trump appoint Pompeo? There has to be some sort of indication that Pompeo will follow Trump's pro-Russia stance. Otherwise it will just be another episode of The Apprentice-White House Edition with its continual firings.
9
Mr. Pompeo should remember what General Mattis, now Secretary of Defence said in the past. He said that every cuts in the budget of the Secretariat of State forces the military to buy more ammunitions.
3
How amazing it would be if - in November's Midterm elections - the Democrats gained the majority in the Senate and the House - leaving only the moderate Republicans to actually work together - FREEZE Trump and Pence.
And - Samantha Powers would be the US Secretary of State.
Thank you, Ms Powers for always speaking Truth to Power.
This article is dangerously naive. You are imagining a Mike Pompeo and a President Trump who does not exist. By giving them the benefit of a doubt they long since proved unworthy of, you create a false hope and a complacency we cannot afford. If Tillerson hollowed out the diplomatic corps, Pompeo and Trump will fill it with torturers and corruption in their own mold. To expect or even hope otherwise is to be complicit. The only honorable option is to fight.
2
The point is to completely dismantle the State Department. Tillerson started the job, Pompeo is going to finish it. Why? Because that's what "Daddy" aka Putin wants.
2
I am actually offended by what seems to me an entirely disingenuous display of some kind of weird and inexplicable naiveté. I don't buy it. I would almost rather believe Ms. Power is scamming us than that she actually believes this nonsense. This country cannot afford this sort of foolishness. Trump and his minions are monsters. To write something like this is to turn away from that fact and I do question the wisdom of the Times in publishing it. We need to be doing everything we can to protest what is happening. This article suggests that perhaps we don't need to, perhaps everything can turn out fine. Dangerous and dishonest.
2
Please do recall that Mr. Tillerson has stonewalled State's giving up information on the Clinton email scandal. He has even refused to let there be a review of secrets exposed which is SUPPOSED to happen whenever a spy's working name ends up on, say, an aide's husband's computer. Which happened.
Remember Mission Impossible's ''NOC list?'' Do you even remember Hillary as Sec State?
You lost me at 'end the ghastly war in Syria'. Tell me again how American intervention helped Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya.
CIA and State are no bedfellows, totally different characters......
1
If I recall, the President's budget included substantial cuts to the Department of State. That would be consistent with his views that diplomacy is of limited value.
It appears unlikely that the current shortages of personnel and the exodus of experienced staff will cease any time soon, making any substantive recovery a tall order for Mr. Pompeo.
Short of changing the President's opinion of engaging our adversaries and allies alike at the table of diplomatic dining, we are likely to see a further degradation of American leadership around the world.
"Short of changing the President's opinion of engaging our adversaries and allies alike at the table of diplomatic dining, we are likely to see a further degradation of American leadership around the world. "
That's the plan, isn't it?
We the people have to ask the republicans why they want to do this.
1
Not a chance. This climate-change denier and Trump yes-man sock puppet, coming from a military-first background, will do nothing to restore our diplomatic standing in the world.
3
Nothing good will come out of pompous pompeo's nomination and likely appointment. The us image will continue to be dragged through the mud, and rightly so since the American people will be held responsible for Trump. The trouble with Trump stems from the terrible with Americans.
1
I note the trumpeting of Pompeo as a graduate of Harvard Law and Editor of the Harvard Law Review. Hmmm. Seems that djt refused even to acknowledge that President Obama had attended Harvard and served as Editor of the Harvard Law review.
5
This is a really worthwhile column with the best of intentions, but is the equivalent of a "hail Mary" pass in football.
4
I suppose that the key thing that will define whether or not Pompeo rebuilds the State Department is whether or not he believes he needs to. Does Pompeo believe in diplomacy? I get the notion he is another who sees the world as a giant Risk board, and he has a lot of little plastic armies.
Maybe he has more nuance than that - we can always hope. But mostly Pompeo is a hard right, black and white America Firster who believes we can get what we want by demanding it, and not by negotiating. For him, we can demand Iran act the way we want; we don't have to give anything in return. That is a fantastic way to accelerate the arms program in a country with a lot of people, who like the USA run moderate in cities and hard line rural.
I don't have much hope for this Administration really, because the only policy I have seen consists of -1 X Obama, and "everybody should do what America wants." Neither seems well thought out.
But hey, maybe I am wrong and Pompeo will be marvel. I am willing to drink the Kool-Ade for a bit - it will get me through the day.
19
Nice thoughts, but impossibly naive. Trump-and Trumpism-exist only to flip over the table. Rational, thoughtful policy has no place in their agenda, which is to destroy our institutions and replace them with whatever passes for normal in their world. Americans are just now waking up to this reality, and none too soon.
2
Trump selected Mike Pompeo precisely because he reflects the brutish and highly partisan world view of the President. The obvious problem is that Trump holds diplomacy, our allies and the Foreign Service in contempt. Pompeo is a syncophant who will reinforce Trump's worst policies and tendencies.
If the State Department is to be rebuilt and rational foreign policies executed, Trump must be removed or impeached.
6
After reading this delusionary article, all I can say is, thank God we don't have to contend with Samantha Power anymore.
3
His first role will be to turn America against Iran on behalf of Israel . We have many "important international issues" that our last sec of state stood committed to from our past administration. That will change now and Trump will execute his donors and son in laws issues through Pompeo.
Samantha and her colleagues were responsible for the worst foreign policy since the Clinton era. We should be very careful in accepting any advice from them.
CIA and State are no bedfellows, completely different species.
Pompeo will never be a good Diplomat, besides he is a
sycophant of the President.
2
The NYT clearly has a sense of humor. An Obama administration appointee and stalwart telling the Trump appointee what to do.
Whether her advice is good or bad, sound or not, does Ms. Power or the NYT really expect that Mr Pompeo will take advice from her?
An op-ed from a conservative columnist might have made more sense.
1
Th satirical title of this article would be worth many a chuckle if the tragedy facing our nation at the hands of a confessed torture advocate and Trump fellow-traveler were not so appalling.
4
We can only hope!
Remember the first Pompeiio, good luck.
Someone please give this remarkably articulate, intelligent, knowledgeable and compassionate woman a larger role! Secretary of State! President Power would be amazing. I have admired her for years.
1
Sensible and reasonable suggestions made by Ms Power for Mr Pompeo. Though I have less faith in him than she does, Power is right to recognize that "It may be that no Trump appointee can attract diplomats to serve under a commander-in-chief who seems to hold diplomacy in contempt" yet also right to suggest that Pompeo must nevertheless make an effort by at least attempting to recruit diplomats who will be committed to nonpartisan support for diplomacy. Yes, he must--but will he? I very much doubt it.
2
The contingency of legacy donors behind Pence and Pompeo is ripe of US focused industrial and carbon kings who are jumping for joy today. Indiana and Kansas are quite the melting pot. Koch is the big one but there are many smaller players. The exit of Tillerson signals strength among these donors and their related enterprises, far more US focused than the Exxon's of the world. I spent the last year researching these donors and their businesses, building a trading logic around their related investments. As Exxon's value has diminished, these carbon kings, their entities collective valuations and credit profiles, are on the rise. If you want to know how Koch funded Pompeo will do, look no further than this group of transparent profit seekers. Trying to find some deeper meaning to Pompeo is a waste of good editorial.
4
Unfortunately Ms.Power, if you didn't like Tillerson at State, Pompeo will lower the bar further, actually, we're about to move from the fire to the frying pan.
At least Tillerson showed some capacity to stand-up to POTUS, Pompeo will stand down.
7
Standing up is something else.........
1
However one may perceive Rex Tillerson’s foreign policy bona fides, he unquestionably possessed qualities sorely lacking in the White House - common sense, a commitment to the truth, and integrity.
As we watch the impact of the President to reducing the group those around him to incompetent sycophants, we will come to appreciate Tillerson’s short tenure more and more.
5
Hopefully, he won't follow Ms. Power's example by spending his time making "unmasking" requests to spy on the opposition party, and when caught, claim that others did it in his name, like she did.
2
This man is a fan of torture and war. If that's the State Department Ms. Power wants (and judging from her actions and words it is), then she may very well get what she hopes for....and then some. I can only hope that Pompeo and the rest of the Trumpists represent the end of the US Empire.......
3
Dream on. The number 1 threat to us all is climate change and Mr. Pompeo does not accept what 97% of US scientists have agreed upon.
Besides. he wears a permanent sneer on his face that would not do well for him as a diplomat, the chief diplomat of the United States.
4
Anyone who thinks Pompeo will be an improvement over Tillerson is deluded. Our only hope is the unfortunately very slim chance is that a few Republican senators will have the guts to oppose his confirmation. Tillerson at least had a teeny-tiny modicum of gumption and made an occasional attempt to actually do the of Secretary of State. That's why he was fired.
4
What fantasy world is Ms. Power living in? Admitting that "Pompeo's positions... are antithetical to American security and will diminish his pull with valuable allies," she then offers her laundry list of what he could do to improve things. Does she really believe he will stop being the Trump loyalist, Tea Party hard-liner, and bought and paid for Koch acolyte that he is and take her advice? That would be magical thinking at a whole new level.
10
The goals of POTUS and the GOP have nothing to do with diplomacy. They are openly engaged in looting our democracy. Their envy and admiration of Russian oligarchs is palpable. They live in a world where big decisions are made behind closed doors with only one goal...how does this fatten my bank account? Pompeo will concern himself with only two things, his personal finances and keeping his odious boss flattered. Sorry Ms Powers, this administration cares not a whit for the reputation of our country, nor the well being of our citizens. They are in it for the money. And they are willing to destroy us to get it.
9
A positive note how very much needed.
2
Unhappy? Don't sit at home this November. Get out and Vote along with all people over the age of 18 years.
Voting is the only way for change!
5
Yes, Pompeo could do all these things, but he probably won't.
5
Everything begins with a vision from the top. The new man at State inherits the sorry state of affairs put in place by the President. Trump's wavelength statement, that he found Tillerson to be out of sync with his ideas leaves Pompeo few options, get in sync or keep quiet. Trump may grant him the latitude and authority to reshape and rebuild the diplomatic corps. That is the question, will he or will he cut him off at the knees for an indiscretion?
1
Ms.Power, I believe there is a term for your position on Pompeo: you are sticking your head deeply in the sand. Pompeo is a mirror image of Trump. And Trump feels he alone can fix the world. Diplomatic corps are no longer needed. Wasteful bureaucracy is all they are. Use the saved money to create an invincible army. That is the Trump doctrine Pompeo will implement. And closing your eyes and whispering to yourself and the world "I hope they embrace diplomacy, I hope they embrace diplomacy" while tapping your heels together isn't going to change the fact these are very, very scary people. Who aren't at all interested in your point of view.
5
Ms Power has a rather idealistic view of this situation and seems to ignore the main criticism of Pompeo and that is that is not going to be willing to confront Trump and apply any real principles to decisions, that he is a "yes" man. Also, the State Department she envisions could only happen in a liberal administration and not an "America first" group. Pompeo is also a "t party" holdover and no one in that group is opposed to Trump in the least. They were borderline traitors starting with Palin and her mouth.
6
The Trump administration's "new"state department team has an stellar opportunity to shine ahead at the Summit of The Americas meeting this April 13th. The heads of state and government of the Western Hemisphere will convene for two days at Lima-Peru addressing main common regional topics as (trade-drug trafficking and mainly the VENEZUELA problem). Here POTUS and Mike Pompeo -can and should- help to disentangle the Venezuelan critical situation along with the right wing head of states of Brazil, Argentina, Peru, Colombia and the newly elected president of Chile. The out of control political, economic and humanitarian crisis of this country, fueled by Russia, China and Cuba, is creating a major threat to the whole hemisphere and to the Venezuelan people who are simply fleeing the country as "refugees" by millions, and for those who can't get out they are witnessing the perish of a nation by dying themselves. Venezuela needs an immediate intervention (not necessarily militarily) but its needs it now, and POTUS & Pompeo can definitely lead the way to finally put an end to the communist regime who is bulldozing this neighbor country of ours; it will be the humanitarian thing to do and it's in the interest of the US of America.
3
"The future is in hard places doing hard things." Great quote from Condi Rice.
Here's what Donald Trump's equivalent quote would be: "The future is a weak, ineffective State Department with few qualified people and me tweeting typo-riddled insults from my bedroom and calling that foreign policy."
Who is going to excitedly rush in to join (or rejoin) this State Department with Trump as president and Pompeo running it?
Crickets.
4
I have had great respect for Samantha Power. Her service to our country has made the world a better place. But this opinion piece is pure piffle. Mike Pompeo will do nothing she recommends. We must recognize him for the clear and present danger he represents...WAR.
See his actions on Iran. Pompeo worked to undermine the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action nuclear deal with Iran that was supported by the Obama administration. Referring to the agreement, Pompeo stated, "I look forward to rolling back this disastrous deal with the world's largest state sponsor of terrorism." Pompeo also stated that a better option than negotiating with Iran would be to use "under 2,000 sorties to destroy the Iranian nuclear capacity. This is not an insurmountable task for the coalition forces."
29
If wishes were horses, Samantha Power would ride.
I came in the Foreign Service when not long after McCarthy began to decline. The wreckage was everywhere (the Department stopped hiring young Foreign Service officers for an entire year) but my colleagues and I were too young and insignificant to draw Scott McLeod's attention.
It was only when Cbristian Herter, a believer in non-partisan public service, replaced the dying John Foster Dulles, that the Eisenhower administration raised expectations for the Foreign Service and the State Department. Herter's family endowed the Foreign Service Association's award which bears his name, given to senior officers for "intellectual courage" and "creative accomplishment". The legendary John Paul Vann, killed in Vietnam. received the first one.
I doubt Mike Pompeo will seek to emulate Herter but bless him if he does. A intelligent man, I expect he will push the White House to fill vacancies at the top but his partisan record in Congress suggests he will not give priority to restoring the Department's non-partisan expertise, decimated by outgoing Secretary Tillerson's aborted "reforms".
The Foreign Service Act of 1980, ignored by Tillerson, requires the Secretary to bring young people into the Foreign Service and to provide for regular promotions to keep the "up or out" personnel system, nearly identical to that of our military, running smoothly. The Senate should ask Pompeo if he intends to comply with the Act.
31
So the Foreign Service practices age discrimination. No one over 59 is allowed to take the exam. And this is an ethic you want to teach the world? How illiberal.
1
Frank McNeil:
Thanks for a practical analysis.
This column is way more optimistic than the facts of the matter would suggest. Based on both Trump/Pompeo relationship history, Pompeo is much more likely to follow Trump's bullying philosophy, and with N Korea and Iran being pushed into more bellicose positions despite Tillerson's attempt to put out the flames and prevent an explosion, I fear that the Hawk Pompeo, urged on by Trump, will push us into confrontations that will jeopardize the already uneasy relationships we have with these countries. Netenyahu will be happy, N Korea will be able to flex their nuclear muscle, and many people worldwide will be introduced to what it is like to be an Iraq or a Syria, or a Quwait. Buckle your seatbelts...we are in for a bumpy ride! The the new director of the CIA can dust off her history of torture interrogation skills honed in a secret prison in Thailand and further threaten the morality of this nation.
9
Say, what? Pompeo will not disabuse Trump of his notion to scrap the Iran nuclear deal and it will be the diplomatic blunder of the century.
6
Mr. Pompeo will never rise to meet Mrs. Power's lofty expectations. He is first and foremost a Trump loyalist; a man who shares his master's distorted opinions regarding vital issues like global warming and the role of diplomacy. I believe that Pompeo, just like Devos and Zinke, is being promoted simply to undermine and possible destroy the institution he'll lead.
7
The writer has spent too much time in the optimistic republican circles. This president doesn't believe in the greater good of the nation, only being on the front page of the next story. In the real world, the problem will never be whether Mr. Pompeo can change trump, it will be whether trump ever supports Mr. Pompeo.
2
Mike Pompeo has a constituency of one, the President of the Umited States. Don't ecpect him to be channeling the spirit of Otto von Bismarck to recreate a nuclear-tipped version of the Pax Americana that coalesced around the United States between 1945 and 1965. Pompeo may be smart and well educated, but so was Jimmy Carter; and while Carter was justifiably regarded as a self-righteous prig, Pompeo has the trappings of an obnoxious bully, just like the man who appointed him. Diplomacy requires a defter touch, a willingness to bargain, a focus on the long term national interest rather than giving this President the emotional high that he craves on what seems to be an hourly basis, and an ability to work with others behind the scenes to forge a united front when needed. Trump talking trash defines the man, and how is Mike Pompeo planning on doing that, reigning in the man for whom outrageousness is like a second skin to him. Will he threaten to resign, as White House Counsel Donald McGahn reportedly threatened to do if Trump moved to fire Special Counsel Robert Mueller? Resignations and terminations are exiting the Trump Administration like grain through a goose. The 'Ship of State' that Pompeo will inherit is already manned by a skeleton crew of browbeaten and demoralized career civil servants, the most capable of whom will be greatly ovrrtaxed by the enormity of the task ahead of them. The bloodletting at State will require a generation to fully recover. Good luck with that.
5
This article contains almost no information specific to Pompeo save for a description of him as forceful and a comment on his relationship with generals. It provides insight into the direction of American diplomacy, but I didn't learn anything about how the nominee will affect the department or effect change in the world. Waste of time.
1
As a Kansas resident I can say without doubt that Pompeo is in over his head and will mess this up this job. He doesn't have the vision of what we as Americans are all about. Sorry. Truth matters.
9
To judge how Pompeo might affect the State Dept., just look at his record as a Congressman from Kansas. I doubt he has the restraint to do a delicate job like State. His former constituents are happy he's gone from the state.
7
Unfortunately, Samantha Powers' sound and rational advice will be discarded immediately by all things Trump, which includes Mr. Pompeo. Had she (and the NYT) understood better how Trump works, she would have remained silent on the topic of fixing State. Think about it: Tillerson pursued Trump's directive to weaken State. Pompeo is even more aligned with Trump. And anyone with real talent shouldn't have any interest in working in the State Dept. until Trump & Co. are GONE. Why besmirch one's professional reputation by having a "under the Trump Administration" on one's CV?
2
Dictators, and wannabe dictators, are isolationists. While I applaud Ms. Power's wishful thinking, the state department's course seem set toward oblivion, not resuscitation. In Pompeo, Trump just found a better man to do his bidding than Tillerson was.
1
The sad truth about the State Department and people like Ms. Power is that they believe that only their view is the correct one. Mr. Pompeo should seek to hire people who offer a fresh and different worldview, one that enters diplomacy from a position of power, rather than weakness. One example of that weakness was in the negotiations over allowing Iran to go nuclear. Caving in to the demands of Iran was diplomacy - at its worst. As Teddy Roosevelt said: Speak softly, and carry a big stick.
4
Do you really think that we "allowed" Iran to go nuclear? If memory serves, they were already nuclear, and if this deal goes south, they will only go more nuclear.
2
True but this Administration "Lies Boldly and Retracts Regularly"
Don't think I'll mistake Trump for Roosevelt.
Also, "Speak softly and carry a big stick" is a term of art that applied to another time. So unless y'all have a time machine, the analogy is pointless.
2
Older: and do YOU accept the possibility that that Ms. Power's view is the correct one?
1
Accepting a position in this Trump administration pretty well signifies an unfitness for office.
5
While I admire the Ambassador’s optimism, it is difficult for me to believe that Pompeo got the nod because of his statesmanship. He is a Trump toady and a tea party darling from the liberal bastion of Kansas. Me expectations are very low.
6
Probably the only expansion in foreign service will be soldiers for starting a war with Iran leading to WWIII. But you are correct he should do those things, but he won't.
2
Mike Pompeo has exactly the same contempt for diplomacy as Donald Trump, he probably agrees with cutting a third of the State Department's budget and I don't see him luring back any of the experts fired or encouraged to quit in the past year. In short, he's not the "fixer" we need at State. Our allies and enemies abroad are well aware that Pompeo is "on the same page" as Trump and are acting accordingly.
6
The firing of Tillerson and replacement with Pompeo is the latest example of someone who was not "Trump enough" being shown the door, as though what the President wants is an ideal and not everyone is up to his esteem in this regard. But, on the other hand, if you rank President Trump and his staff as the lowest form of America's Executive Branch in living memory, why would anyone with a good future hope to be linked to this administration? And what will history have to say about the odd bunch of misfits who currently comprise the President's cabinet and his west wing? Which begs another question: who is this "everyone (who) wants to work in the White House" where they will be recalled with those who are the least and the dimmest?
3
Written with the thoughtfulness, elegance, and hopefulness of a true diplomat. Thank you for your service.
4
The military is a tool of diplomacy, not the other way around. On e hopes that Mr. Pompeo, a former Army officer, fully understands that as does General Mattis. One hopes that Mr. Pompeo also understands that all those empty slots should be filled with people who know and understand the facts of various regions, so that we have the intellectual power to match our hardware.
I think much less of Samantha Power for writing this. I had suspected her R2P was a thin excuse for neocon adventures, but this confirms that.
8
The key of a great public servant is pragmatism and optimism. Thank you for your stellar service. I so wish I shared your optimistic viewpoint that Pompeo might even try for peace and diplomacy
but I am increasingly alarmed we are heading into WWIII.
12
Rex Tillerson was a bright, accomplished business leader. Many of the skills and character traits that Mr. Tillerson acquired and demonstrated as a business leader should have made him an outstanding leader in the State Department.
Surprisingly, Mr. Tillerson never even tried to conceal his contempt for the State Department and for the men and women who staffed the State Department. That's tragic. He has set a low bar for Mr. Pompeo.
10
Pompeo is too close to Trump to inspire trust.
The CIA he led didn't show independence from Trump's meddling. Shouldn't he have initiated investigation to Russian's intervention to our election? No. He didn't.
At this point, I don't trust this guy for he has proven to be a yes man who is willing to bow to Trump whom I don't respect and trust at all.
8
It would be pretty to think that a man who believes in torture--a war crime--is going to improve our relations with the world, when his boss wants to smite Iran who supports the rebels in Yemen. I fear that Pompeo's method of "addressing the underlying sources of conflict" in those countries and the Middle East will be to throw gasoline and high explosives on them. Let US hope Ms. Powers' vision is true--let US pray her vision is true.
6
"Yet our military commanders are adamant that their troops cannot achieve their mission if diplomats aren’t addressing the underlying sources of conflict."
The underlying sources of conflict are too often US foreign policy.
I never knew US diplomats were so capable, ending the Ebola epidemic and all.
The reality is we could cut the State department's (and most government departments) headcount by 50% and nobody would notice.
3
The only thing that will bring America to its senses is a war where *it* suffers grievous and spectacular losses: e.g. an aircraft carrier sunk by kamikazes, etc. That could lead to escalation ("doubling down"), but it could also lead to a cathartic resolution ("the fever breaks"). I don't think Pompeo has much interest in "strengthening" State, a la Samantha's pleas, to avoid such an outcome.
3
Wishful thinking piece by Ms. Samantha Powers.
Foreign observers -- not affected by the inside the beltway thinking -- have long come to the following conclusion about Trump's foreign policy.
President Trump is determined to remove (important) foreign policy decision-making process from Foggy Bottom to the White House.
The exceptionally well prepared American diplomatic corps is now out of the loop on important foreign policy decisions. Foggy Bottom's Ice Age will be extended if Trump is reelected in 2020.
23
A diplomat cannot be starry-eyed about her situation and the people she works with. I fear Samantha Powers' wishes and hopes for Mr. Pompeo are in denial of who he is and what he stands for.
6
This is why elections have consequences. I suspect that many people who voted for Trump did so because they truly believed that he would shake things up; but they also had no idea what that really meant. He's shaking things up alright, but he and many of his supporters have never understood that there are some things in government that need to be outside the zone of shaking up. One of them is the State Dept. where career professionals, until now, served regardless of who the president was because the basic tenets of American foreign policy would not change. This shake up will cost us, it will take years to rebuild the career foreign service and we have lost so much expertise in the resignations of those who have decided they just can't work for this administration. Add to that the rollback of environment laws, the stacking of the courts with conservative judges (some of whom do not have the credentials to be in that position) and the US will be a very different place in 20 years. And I think even those who voted for him will one day rue that vote.
62
Ms Powers, that 83% to 33% statistic against diplomacy is pretty frightening. Could you break that down a little. Who responded and what was the context of the questions? And the timing? (Could it have been in error?)
The main problem is Trump, and including his inner circle by design, seem to be against diplomacy, perhaps in the same way that someone might be against skiing--because they don't know how. This also apparently extends to science.
Another possibility is that the Russians have ordered the dismantling of the State Dept. Pleasing the Russians is why Tillerson was appointed in the first place.
18
rebuild the state department and attempt to resolve conflict through diplomacy?
not happening with this guy--ever.
dream of a new regime in 2020, our next best hope.
43
If Pompeo has a sense of humanity, he has kept it pretty well hidden from public view. But if he takes Ms Powers advice seriously he will have to expose these inner feelings. Unfortunately once exposes his desire to be a healer, marked with broad empathy for those in need, he will be fired.
I just wonder who will take Gina Haspel's place at the CIA when she moves up to State.
12
Why does the State dept need to be "saved"? Can't it do what the rest of us are, just wait out this disaster of an administration then return to normalcy?
I certainly hope there is no permanence in the damage being wrought on a daily basis by these people. We'll fix the air, the water, the Paris agreement...basically erase T and company.
13
The Democrats had better get to work and establish a real programme that will trump whatever Trump has done, offer the American people and I mean the entire population, a true alternative to the G.O.P. disaster. Just sitting out the present term will see the same situation the next time around, so, Democrats, finally get to work and stop whining about what DJT is doing.
3
NONSENSE! Caljn's advice to "wait out this disaster" is pitiful, flabby thinking because the damage that Trump and his administration can wreak on America is truly scary.
No, we must attack Trumpism at the local level and stop the Bannon-fired wish to destroy our democratic system - as Mr Lamb is doing in Pennsylvania!
After our war for independence was won from the British it was our diplomats who had spent the war abroad in Europe who negotiated the terms of our independence and ensured that we were recognized as a new country and not just a collections of colonies. John Adams stood before King George and began our special relationship as allies that endures to this day. We wouldn't be the country we are today without our state department.
Ms Power's has done a great job of explaining why we need the state department. I doubt Mr Pompeo will head her advice but at least going forward voters will know what to expect from our state department and why its employees are so important.
42
..."he can make it his mission to revitalize America’s diplomatic corps."
Powers thinking, that Trump wants, or would allow Pompeo, to revitalize any government agency, is grasping at straws.
Trump wants no differing views. That's why he is so dangerous.
55
Dr. Pangloss himself could give no better advice.
14
Thanks Joe and Viva Voltaire! We need his savage wit right now! Where is the passion and purpose of our citizens who passively "accept" Donald Trump's idea of how to run our Democracy? His goal is to destroy it. He's a dictator-in- waiting!
Yes, really!!
yeah right - the next republican war(s) are on the way - all hail the military industrial complex.
28
Ms. Power writes very well and lists the important things to get done, even as she steers clear of things that made her time as Obama's UN Ambassador some of the worst-managed times in the history of the State Department.
Luckily, her testimony in her unmasking of around 400 hundred names of innocent Americans overheard on Obama's spying on Americans will probably not be televised.
I am sure there was a good reason for her assisting the KGB-style surveillance of people simply working for their own political side. Pretty sure, anyway.
8
The New York Times, in its news section, describes Mike Pompeo as a true believer in Donald Trump's worldview. How that could possibly "save" the State Department seems like an extreme case of wishful thinking.
58
Pompeo is simply not the diplomatic type.
26
Sad sad times. There is no silver lining here and the intention of the president is clear. The state department is gone in all but name. Deconstruction of the administrative state continues.
29
Stop this passive acceptance of the actions of the Worst President ever!
Pompeo is a certified smart guy and no chicken hawk. Though it may be important to remember that no plan survives contact with the enemy, or even partners as in the case of the State Dept. Please don't be a zero-sum guy. That really doesn't work in diplomacy.
4
Pompeo is probably the worst choice for Secretary of State - racist, Tea Party, pro- Guantanamo, anti-science, and a yes man. And a proponent of torture. Difficult to be proud of this administration.
94
So! Now what? Please vote at your next opportunity and stop whining.
Pompeo at State is a brilliant move. The swamp at State is notorious. The stench emanating from the career democrats at State needs to be purged forthwith.
6
Pompeo despises everything you stood for and everything you did, Ms. Power. I guess what you're trying to do is a hope-for-the-best act, knowing that the other side of that coin is expect-the-worst. I think this administration has pretty well defined itself already, don't you? And Pompeo? Of whom that fake president said "we’re always on the same wavelength?" That Pompeo? The Islamophobe? Who's been on the Koch payroll for years? Who thinks waterboarding is just a day at the beach? Whose deputy oversaw the torture of a man - 83 waterboardings, his head slammed into concrete walls repeatedly - who his torturers found knew nothing of any value about terrorists? That Pompeo?
Ms. Power, you're normalizing this abnormal man. Shame on you.
87
Samantha, he’s a Tea Party Republican. No chance he will turn out to be a diplomat.
58
Ms. Power is debating herself, while forgetting something highly relevant - the best predictor of the future is to examine the past. The Trump we see today is the same Trump of his entire, sad, sordid, narcissistic life. So, let's start with the truth - if Pompeo follows trump's disastrous ideas, he will survive...but will we?
"the president-elect had pledged to undo much of what we had helped achieve internationally". (check)
"He can’t change the president, but he can make it his mission to revitalize America’s diplomatic corps and get back to trying to solve problems in the real world.". And, knowing trump, really????
"only 33 percent of Republicans — compared to 83 percent of Democrats — now agree with the statement that “good diplomacy is the best way to ensure peace." Gee, Pompeo is a republican! So, good luck with that.
"Many of Mr. Pompeo’s positions — his opposition to the Iran nuclear deal, his skepticism on global warming, and his support for torture and the prison at Guantánamo — are antithetical to American security and will diminish his pull with valuable allies." Why doesn't this alone spell doom and failure to Ms Power? Particularly skepticism on global warming. FAIL!
" The partisan investigation into what happened there, which Mr. Pompeo helped politicize, served only to distract from the State Department’s real work and deter the kind of activist diplomacy needed in a rapidly changing global landscape.". Fox - henhouse!
17
I don't understand the headline: "How Mike Pompeo could save the State Department." Ms. Power has enumerated a virtual litany of malgovernance by the Executive(cough) Branch at the highest levels and the essentially abusive treatment of the perhaps 10,000 individuals who work for the Dept. of State. That the Tea Party hero(cough) of the Benghazi hearings is in anyway suited to MAGA in the regard and respect of governments and individuals around this scary world is in no way clear. When individuals are willfully ignorant of history, culture, economics, even language whatever could good policy be made of? Little golden Easter Eggs brought to you by Trump Universal coming soon to a lawn near you.
20
I imagine that Mike Pompeo has pledged his loyalty to Donald Trump above all others including the Constitution. Trump and his cabinet appear to be decimating our government and critical departments like the State department.
It would be great if Pompeo could repair the apparent damage that Rex has done to the State department. This damage has been done on Trump’s watch and he seems to be heavily involved in State department decisions.
1
People think the gutting of the State Department was a Tillerson thing I suspect he was following orders of Trump. The State Department is a centerpiece of alt-right deep state nonsense. I am not sure Pompeo will be the savior they are expecting,
7
Ms. Powers is part of the American exceptionalism crowd, which sees U.S. meddling in the affairs of other nations (in pursuit of its interests, of course) as a virtue. I'm not so sure the rest of the world considers it a virtue any longer. A lot of the present pain in the world has been caused by exceptional Americans doing some pretty miserable things.
10
And unexceptional Americans doing miserable things
If dreams were only reality! Pompeo, of course, would be a perfect candidate for Secretary of State if this were only a dream. Wake up, folks, this is reality. We are witnessing the breakdown of Government on behalf of specific selfish desires! Trump only believes in "feel good" not achievement, not honesty and certainly no fairness! God save us from find out what Pompeo really believes!
9
He’s going to be too busy pushing for war with Iran and maybe NK for this other stuff.
8
Pompeo as head of State will be exactly the same as Trump as Head of State - a disaster.
Diplomacy will be the continuation of War by other means.
15
Nothing in Pompeo's DNA, his legislative record, or his public musings even scantly suggests that Power's imaginary musings and waste of time in a distracted view whose hopes are dashed by the reality she ignores, are probable. This is denial by fantasy, lies by false promise. It is utterly useless as opinion, and a distraction from the hard truth it fails to address.
64
This article is analogous to telling how to grow organic vegetables in a field hit by a nuclear attack! Powers ignores the basic tenent of diplomacy: begin with a realistic baseline, based on best evidence, and work through the real series of problems--ideology, partisan resistance, impulsive decision making, the obivous fact that Pompeo can be replaced (as Bannon was). Once diplomacy is untethered from facts and evidence, it loses its potency.
Why not address the real problems of the new appointment, rather than the ones Tillerson left? Diplomacy once provided battle plans!
6
I’m reminded of the contempt some show for the motto some local police forces display on their radio cars – “To Serve and Protect”, when the only manageable and legitimate missions we ever can give our police forces are: 1) to enforce the law; and 2) to maintain the peace. “Serve and Protect” would require that every third American be a cop.
Similarly, what Ambassador Power argues would require a vastly larger diplomatic pool to essay – 9400 people would be a small fraction of the army of pin-stripes we would need to deploy to achieve the objectives globally that Condi Rice once flogged selectively and that Ms. Power seems to support more generally. Perhaps far better would be the practice of the CIA of co-opting the efforts of private citizens who come into regular contact with key people within societies we wish to better understand, and debrief them?
The argument needs to be better supported as well that there is a direct correlation between profound intimacy with other cultures and U.S. interests – because when stated like that it kinda seems that it’s all in aid of manipulating those other societies in ways that someone, today, believes benefits us in ways more direct than “a more peaceful world is a nice thing to have”. Ms. Power begs the question of that direct correlation, and doesn’t really bother to draw the linkages.
1
Her one attempt along these lines was to excuse, yet again, our failure to anticipate Arab Spring, and our woefully inept moves to support it through poor preparation; yet, I and others believe that this lapse was due more to those 9400 (or whatever number then) under HRC consumed with triangulating on an individual basis, careerism and innumerable poorly-aligned individual agendas at Foggy Bottom, impenetrable bureaucracy, focus on the wrong priorities and inattention to complex implications arising from fairly easily observable cultural phenomena. That was a failure of effective analysis – not just of State but of our intelligence desks, as well.
And her argument is patently moot. Pompeo as SecState is entirely unlikely to create (or re-create) a touchy-feely infrastructure and approach to understanding the intestinal groans and big-toe-quivers of the men and women on foreign streets – certainly not by diplomats assigned to go there and get in the weeds with the masses. He will build an organization that will support Trump’s views of direct American interests, in defense and bilateral trade and commerce, not in the interests of a Pax Americana that seeks global stability but for which we ask little of our allies to help pay for it.
5
What we learned in those awful eight years is that progressives have no idea what America's role in the world needs to be or how we must protect our interests.
Never pick leaders whose main idea is taking the country down a few notches. Our enemies exult and our allies hide.
2
Mr. Pompeo denies climate science. That's really all you need to know about this man.
139
The nytimes just did a story a bout Veitnam withdrawing a request for a loan to build a coal fired power plant. The article was a bit muddy to me. It tried to portray it as a victory for climate change but because the opportunity to deny the loan wouldnt materialize it might not be so.
If he is a "denier" it might be a good thing. I don't believe this country should be standing in the way of cheap energy for the, developing world. If Vietnam or any country wants to build a coal plant or purchase coal it should be able to do so without interference from the United States or the EU who may exploit the situation for profit
1
Maybe the author could write an honest article about her role in the Libya's tragedy (not to mention Syria), before giving unsolicited "diplomatic" advice to others.
14
Pompeo is Trump-like in his aggressivity, no good material for diplomacy, but given he is Trump's buddy, they may go along...provided Pompeo does the reading and instructs himself on the facts, and then act (or not) in consequence. Just do not expect Trump to want to learn the evidence before he commits to his ongoing lies and insults, screwing world diplomacy to smithereens...and confusing American's allies. Aren't we foolish asking these misfits for something they lack, decency?
7
Pompeo lacks the intellect, temperament, insight, incentive or inducement "to revitalize America’s diplomatic corps and get back to trying to solve problems in the real world."
Why else would Trump select him?
48
Perhaps there is more to this country than drilling a deep hole and see what spews out of it. Let’s hope so. Diversity is a marvel if allowed to be.
3
Has Samantha Power lost her mind? Is a cognitive assessment for possible dementia in order?
Pompeo is the scary kind of Republican. A tea partier who denies climate change. A lackey for the Koch brothers and their ilk. Bring peace in Yemen? He's pro-Saudi and anti-Iran, good luck with him doing the mediation. About as likely to happen as Jared will bring peace between the Israelis and Palestinians.
Watch as his supposedly hard line stance on Russia evaporates once he realizes the boss likes firing his apprentices. Tillerson was incompetent on many levels. Pompeo is malevolent. I'm guessing stocks of arms manufacturers might have gone up today.
This ridiculous Opinion piece had no business seeing the light of day in the NYT. Actually I'm beginning to think the editorial board of the NYT is also in need of a neurological exam.
57
You are only just beginning to believe this? Many of us have seen this for years.....
1
She knows Pompeo will be appointed. He's what we've got to work with, and she knows we are in the most dangerous time in history yet. (i.e. crazy people with nukes + climate change) And
Samantha knows of what she speaks--she's a brilliant realist, a liberal with a heart of gold, and one tough woman.
And though Pompeo and Trump have chemistry, Pompeo has also stood up to or disagreed with Trump several times. She is sensing Pompeo has the ability to listen to and learn from other experienced, high-level diplomats.
6
Mike Pompeo will quickly realize that foreign nations have taken note of the fact that the State Department, together with its leader, is a useless organization in the Trump administration. So unlike when he visited as the head of CIA, he'll find himself routinely ignored or politely listened to then the countries will move on.
It may make sense to be belligerent as a Trump employee in the US but outside its borders, nothing but mutual respect, which Trump and his administration lack, is the only thing that will get countries to return the same.
24
Then what better way to enhance your stature and get yourself listened to than by starting another war in the Middle East with Iran?
This op-ed is beyond naive. Where has Ms. Powers been since the 2016 election? Pompeo is being nominated because he's a toady who will tell the incompetent narcissist at 1600 Pa. Avenue exactly what he wants to hear.
99
To Sanderling1 (Maryland)
"Where has Ms. Power been since the 2016 election?"
Samantha Power was US Ambassador to the United Nations from 2013 to 2017. Diplomats are by nature optimistic but she worked in the most difficult of areas--atrocity prevention: human trafficking, genocide, war atrocities, war crimes, etc.
She has a family--I hope she gets a break from dealing with the horrors of war on a daily basis to be with them--but she's far from naive.
A realist, she knows who Pompeo is, and what his limitations are but wants to attempt to draw him from the muck of the war/spy world into the world of experienced diplomats.
At this point, we are not going to be getting any great or qualified people from Trump. Since we are on the brink of apocalypse she is offering support and advice, for a good reason.
Samantha is considered one of the most powerful women in the world (by Forbes and by the international community) please don't ignore the strategy she employs.
At least she's doing great good in the world instead of just complaining.
11
A schoolyard bully and his counterpart, the spoiled brat, have zero interest in diplomacy. Trump seems to "hold diplomacy in contempt." Samantha Power has the utmost interest in diplomacy. Her intelligence is riveting. She knows diplomacy is the route to World Peace.
13
You are whistling past the graveyard, Ms. Power. If you thought Tillerson shunned diplomacy, the professional, non-political Foreign Service in favor of Trumpian unilateral isolationism, military saber rattling, jingoism, disdain for human rights and cozying up to strongman dictators, I'm betting with Pompeo you ain't seen nothing yet. Every official in the Trump administration is a feckless know nothing who is a lickspittle pom pom waiver for Trump.
On the other hand, if some policy by happenstance is congruent with Koch Brothers interests, something good may accidentally come of it. But I'll bet we'll look back wistfully at Tillerson's tenure as the apogee of integrity in this Administration. Pompeo isn't going to improve the State Department or diplomacy.
16
Ms. Powers has a lot of effective experience and has matured quite a bit into a talented political analyst. She knows up close and personal how gritty and tough and often insane dealing with international politics is.
She is deeply sensitive and she may sound naive but she is not. She has dealt with brutal dictators and the challenges of trying to save families from the cruelest of wars and raging climate change.
She is also a liberal.
Look closely at what she is saying--she is a strategist. She doesn't adore Mike Pompeo, but she knows he'll be appointed.
She knows we are on the brink, and she knows the talented diplomats will have a least some influence with him.
She's one of the brightest stars on the planet. Don't underestimate her.
13
It is obvious that Tea Party Pompeo will do none of the things Ms Powers would like to see happen. She proved it! The article should be entitled: “How Mike Pompeo will destroy what is left of the State Department and American foreign policy”.
10
Wow -- Pompeo graduated first in his West Point class. We should all genuflect! By the way, Robert E. Lee graduated second in his class. The "best and brightest" have given us Vietnam and Iraq. What's next -- North Korea, Iran?
Trump famously stated that he could shoot someone on 5th Avenue and he wouldn't lose any supporters. I'm beginning to think he would be shooting at me or people I love. So, Trump supporters are a direct physical threat to my safety and I am very concerned. Where's my AR-15?
22
Mr. Pompeo should start by putting forward nominations for dozens of open foreign ambassadorships (including key posts like Egypt, Jordan, South Korea, Turkey and South Africa).
********
Trump cannot even keep his immediate executive contingent staffed. Even now he is talking about *shifting* his Energy Secretary so he can get rid of his Veteran's Affairs Secretary. How in the world is he supposed to fill ambassador positions and other key posts when he can't even keep his Cabinet staffed?
21
While acknowledging Ms. Power’s hopes that Pompeo can get his act together and possibly get Trump to go along, the reality seems to be just the opposite as the president wants obedience to his penchant for one-man rule.
Trump wants subservience from the cabinet and the concept of “a team of rivals”is completely alien to Trump’s preference for authoritarian rule.
It’s really disheartening to see the State Department in such decline along with fewer young people wanting to take the test to become diplomats. why should they in this era of Trumpism?
134
Trump likes Pompeo because he is a yes man. I doubt that the man Ms. Powers is hoping for will ever turn up. Rather, whatever idiotic course Trump wants, Pompeo will act upon.
1
when i was graduating from Dartmouth in 1952 I thought about a career at State....but it was the height of the McCarthy era and i took another path. Drafted into the Army I learned much. Eventually I became a television journalist and professor at Berkeley. Because of my French I was often asked to travel abroad and lecture about journalism. French speaking Africa and later the former Soviet Union. During that time I often our embassy people who were uniformly hard working, well informed, helpful, and loving their jobs even in the most difficult posts (ie Burkina Faso)......now to Ambassador Power's point.....will Mike Pompeo be able to attract as you suggest competent young people.....the answer is obviously no.....another McCarthy.....but nice thought
44
Pompeo was first in his class at West Point. He is bright enough to do get the job done, and Ms Powers knows it. Instead, of buying into the accusations of others, why not see if Pompeo can deliver?
4
He was picked by Trump because they share ideas. Maybe he'll change the president's mind, but on the other hand, if he tries he also will probably get fired. I'm not at all optimistic that Pompeo or the State Department will be able to make things better. What is more likely is that the Department will continue to lose its best people, and it will take years, maybe decades, to replace them.
9
why not see if he can deliver??same was said about our buffoon in chief. how's that working out?
9
I can understand why the State Department can be disbanded all together. Trump is not running the country but a one man Reality Show. He alone can do whatever other than actual, real, fighting. So why would he need a group of people to do diplomacy?
Remember the comment "Rex you are wasting your time" when his Sec of States wanted to negotiate with "the Rocket Man"? Now he is going to do it - unless he changes his mind as I am writing - by himself and perhaps his cronies in the WH. This Show, or just an Episode, will be call "The Dotard Goes to The Rocket Man".
5
I love your optimism, Samantha. Sorry to say, nobody in this administration is going to save anything.
65
Is this the same Samantha Power that unleashed liberation wars in Syria and elsewhere in Middle East, resulting in countless deaths? Advice from bokish theoreticians can be dangerous; give peace a chance!
15
Give peace a chance? With this nomination, we are a lot closer to nuclear war than we were yesterday!
2
If the UN and multilateralism is to save us from hell, and the Constitution offers only weak and political remedies for executive incompetence, not impeachment, we have reached greater danger than imagined. But we are weary. Samantha Powers thank you for your optimism, however unwarranted.
Americans, another sign of how the Tea Party movement had bankrupted our political system. Young readers and nonvoters in 2016, you must vote and vote for excellent. To everyone who wanted to blow the system up you’ve left us this carnival and danger to your children.
4
Yeah, like this is going to happen. Power, incidentally, might have more credibility if she and fellow "liberal" internationalists like Anne Marie Slaughter hadn't either cheered it on or sat on their hands when the current cycle of insanity started with Bush's neo-con cranks using 9/11 to gin up the reckless invasion of Iraq. I'm sick of the whole foreign policy "establishment" - their own hubris and incompetence has allowed a total moron like 45 and his gang of idiots to seem even remotely plausible to a segment of the cynical electorate in contrast.
15
do you imagine all these positions he will manage to get filled will be filled with fine, upstanding, reasonable people? appointed by a rightwing hawk? i just am hoping we'll survive the next three years.
10
This all sounds wonderful, Ms Power but I haven't read anywhere that the president has changed his views on appointments to the State Department. Only those people who supported him were endorsed by him. Once you have those people. then the rest of your recommendations become moot. Those people, mirroring the president's views, would have no appetite for such actions.
President Trump isn't looking for a Team of Rivals here. He wants a group of order-takers. The military is no better in that regard. After all, he reminded us that he knew more than the generals did.
11
He *could* but it's a long shot. Vastly more likely that he will make it all much much worse. His record speaks volumes. I'm sick and tired of people trying to import good motiles and give the benefit of the doubt to a bunch of people who fit the classical definitions of evil.
https://www.vox.com/world/2017/11/30/16719690/mike-pompeo-tillerson-fire...
"Not only was Pompeo’s statement a lie, but it also mirrored Trump’s public position."
"Pompeo’s false claim about the assessment wasn’t the only time he put loyalty to Trump above his CIA responsibilities. Late last year, Trump told Pompeo to meet with a conspiracy theorist who believes Russia’s hack and release of Democratic National Committee emails last summer was instead an inside job — and Pompeo took the meeting."
"burgeoning rapport between Pompeo and the president. In his former role, Pompeo counseled the president nearly every day. He personally delivered the Presidential Daily Brief — the highly classified intelligence report created specifically for the commander in chief.
"That means Pompeo was one of the few people with whom Trump discussed important national security issues on a consistent basis."
And on the premier issue of our day ("Trumped" by lies and cheating on elections), climate change, he is as bad (evil) as it is possible to be.
Lies do not trump reality. We will all find this out. If we want to collapse sooner rather than later, this sure does the job!
11
Wow. What an exceptionally naive argument. Fool me once, shame on you; fool me hundreds of times, shame on me. We fiddle with arguments of this sort while the democracy burns.
17
Oh, my, Ms. Powers, although you served at the UN, your comments about “hundreds of years” of diplomacy at the top that did not address aspects of civil society is so off base. I spent 20 years as a foreign service officer in seven countries doing exactly that. It’s now called “public diplomacy,” and even though Condi Rice touted it as the new diplomacy, it had been around for years. In fact, even in the 1980s, ambassadors recognized the importance of reaching out to those foreign audiences that comprised civic society. And USAID, shifting its funding for development from governments to non-governmental organizations, directed some of its resources to the bolstering of civic society, including women’s and nascent democratic groups.
Your article also suggested that somehow, prior to when you were at the UN and addressed the serious issue of Ebola, etc., diplomats had no success stories. What???
8
You’re naive, even delusional, to think this could happen. Get real. America & democracy are under attack by a gang of bandits. The time has come to take back the country. By your own examples you show that the time for wishful thinking is over.
16
With all due respect, Ms. Powers, you are whistling past the graveyard in a teenage slasher movie. The current occupant of the White House has a very strange understanding of what "the best people" means. If David Halberstam were still with us—or as the "moron" sees it, doin' a great job—he could write a sequel and call it "The Worst and the Dimmest." The shameful end of the Weimar Republic ain't gonna have anything on us—our end is gonna be YUGE.
5
"... his opposition to the Iran nuclear deal, his skepticism on global warming, and his support for torture and the prison at Guantánamo ..."
"... But his forceful personality should at least make the United States more visible ..."
How on earth can ANYBODY be skeptical about climate change? This skepticism by itself renders Pompeo a fact and reality challenged person, thus completely unfit for any position.
Personality simply does not cut it, nobody is fooled by this. America is in decline, a country that is led by a village idiot, a president who is preoccupied trying to fend off a hooker, one that tries to win congressional elections by imposing an idiotic tariff, one that makes America the laughing stock of the world. I know Xi is completely fooled by all of this, not. Putin is of course is not fooled as he plays our dear leader like a fiddle.
6
" could ". Sure, and I COULD win the Powerball Lottery tomorrow night, and buy the largest Condo in downtown Seattle. Let's get Real : Pompeo was anointed precisely because He is a true believer. In himself. He was the Rep for my district, swept in on the " tea party " wave, the precursor to the Trump contagion. He will polish Trumps " boots " at every opportunity, and He WILL be the next Vice President, unless we Democrats take control of the house or Senate. This is absolutely setting the stage for military action, before the Midterms. What better way to rally the base, and declare all those with objections to be unpatriotic??? When even questions get you labeled as un-American, there are foul deeds being plotted. Pence, you're Fired, it's just a matter of time. Seriously.
18
But why would we think that Mike Pompeo would try to reverse the initiatives set forth by Donald Trump? With all due respect to Ms. Powers, why are we pretending that Mr. Pompeo would restore the Department of State to a legitimate and functioning department, if the boss says no?
It should be abundantly clear to everyone by now that Trump’s objective is and has been to ”deconstruct the administrative state”. Why else would he have named unqualified nincompoops like Ben Carson, Betsy DeVos, Rick Perry, Ryan Zinke, Sonny Perdue, Scott Pruitt, and the rest, to dismantle the very departments that they head?
While we go through the Kabuki Theater of looking at the bright side and imploring Trump’s enablers to act like decent citizens, Trump continues to employ his wrecking ball on all institutions of government and is about to take the show on the road to North Korea. What could possibly go wrong there?
How can we wait until November to rid ourselves of this dangerous man? The party that backed his candidacy continues to feed this crocodile, hoping he will eat them last – and we watch in horror as our government is dismantled by Doctor Evil.
6
Pompeo may be a Tea Party Koch toady, but at least we know that his replacement won't be blowing the budget traveling https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/prosecutors-reviewing-request-to...’s-new-cia-director/ar-BBKbawG?li=BBmkt5R&ocid=spartanntp
1
I'm sure the international community will welcome the top spy at the CIA as America's main diplomat.
2
I read through your laundry list Ms. Power and could find no justification for any degree of optimism. You hit the nail on the head, trump has contempt for diplomacy foreign or domestic. He views diplomacy as a weakness not a strength. Pompeo is doomed to fail as a diplomat for the US but he may succeed as a lackey "yes" man for trump. After 14 months it appears that the only ones who succeed in the trump WH avoid him, lay low and let trump have the spotlight and his twitter feed, think Betsy Devos, Herman Cain. Anyone with a spine, original thoughts in their heads or a desire to do what is best for their country does not last. The only way to improve those things you spoke of is to get rid the problem, donalld trump. He is like a massive tumor on the brain and heart of America.
6
He could, but he won’t
Tillerson was the most competent cabinet member and he dismantled T.H. state department. We have a president and republican congress that are clearly aligned more with a foreign government than with the American people.
6
America has met its worst enemy, Republican fascism and tyranny spearheaded by Trump Know Nothingism and Mike Pompeo belligerence.
The only thing that will save us is massive voter turnout on November 6 2018.
Trump hates diplomacy; he can’t even make peace with the hair on his head.
254
As a Trump appointee, he knows where loyalties lie. Yes, he could get the State Department back on track, but guaranteed he won't.
5
Oh for those good old days of the Obama administration. They got SO much done on the world stage.
8
At least the world is still here.
5
We should start having monthly National Day of Mourning parades. The basic idea would be to mourn the disappearance (even demise) of the old USA. (Old meaning pre-Trump.)
Surely Trump wouldn't object. As everyone knows, he's long called for the demolition of the country that preceded his ascendancy (and, therefore, should take pride in our mourning it's passing), and he really likes parades.
1
Let’s hope that Mr Pompeo has better institutional instincts than did Tillerson. He needs to fill all the important diplomatic slots in short order. Without a strong diplomatic corps, we will never be great in the eyes of the world...
5
Nice thoughts and wishful thinking, but that will not happen. He is not a leader and he is not an American - he is a Trump stooge! DJM
8
Is Pompeo a Nunes-style Trump stooge?
1
Samantha Power asks; How Mike Pompeo Could Save the State Department?
That seems akin to asking; How can Donald Trump Make America Great Again?
I personally fear their combined efforts will not be filed in the "USA victories 2018" folder.
6
With the changing of the guard at the State Department, Samantha Power found the right moment to present to us the argument for the important work of the United Nations and the diplomatic corps. Focus on her insights, not on Pompeo.
2
The title of Ambassador Power's piece is more than slightly disingenuous. The meanings of "could save" vs. "is likely to save" or "will save" are quite divergent. Pompeo is a horse of a different color, but not a diplomatic one!
4
It's remarkable that Samantha Power, a self-declared defender of human rights, promoter of democracy and scourge of genocide, lists first among the duties of our ambassadors "to promote investment", in the context of Egypt Jordan and Turkey.
Who knew that even the Democratic party virtue classes regard the State Department as, first and foremost, a lobbyist for corporate America?
7
LOL - How many more times will I read and article trying to install hope on a poor choice to run a government position. Let us keep it clear: 1) This man does not believe in global warming 2) This man believes water boarding is not torture (ignoring the fact that several Japanese officer were sentenced to death post World War 2 for water boarding US servicemen) 3) Does not believe in the Iran nuclear deal (because the alternative is war or a nuclear arm Iran). 4) Works for man that makes anything Hillary may have done look like child play (yet he participated in the Clinton bashing). Yeah their is a lot of hope their. Perhaps as much as the US ambassador to Holland, who could not mention which Dutch politician was burned alive after claiming this jewel multiple times when campaigning for office or promoting his world view.
24
It's Trump's grossly ignorant sycophants that cheer him that worry me. After a year of chaos, failure and corruption anyone that can go to rallies and cheer this disgrace of a man must be off their nut. I really think his supporters truly would not mind living under a dictatorship of Trump under Putin. They would set him up as some kind of feudal lord in a heartbeat. Either that or Trump is still paying actors to cheer for him.
1
Dear Ms Power:
This administration is a failure of epic proportions. They cannot be influenced. They will not listen. They will not think. They will only obey Mad King Donald as he leads the nation to ruin.
Ta Ta
41
Re: "...Mr. Pompeo should start by putting forward nominations for dozens of open foreign ambassadorships (including key posts like Egypt, Jordan, South Korea, Turkey and South Africa). This would give us the means of engaging officials in those countries — to promote investment, protect Americans abroad and combat terrorism. It would also send a signal that diplomats matter...." {U.S. Amb.To.The.U.N. S. Power}
As usual...
Amb. Power sounds very sensible...unlike the tools, occupying the White House!
1
Samantha Power says that Mr. Pompeo could help reverse the drop the United States has under Trump experienced in standing and influence. He could do that. She concludes, "Mr. Pompeo has to try." But why would Mr. Pompeo WANT to try? He has built a consistent reputation of politically opposing such work for the common good.
When Trump was elected, commentators spun and believed fantasies of how he could become presidential. Trump did not want to be presidential. Similarly, Pompeo has repeatedly shown he would not wish to rescue either the diplomatic corps or America's place in the world. Power should deal with what is possible on THIS plane of reality.
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Marvant: We could also stay open to the slim possibility that Pompeo might spend some time in his office in the Truman Building; might, occasionally, speak with State Department personnel; might communicate with the diplomats of other nations; and just might learn a bit about the benefits diplomacy has to offer.
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"common good"......no it's best to think of what's best for America. Your phrase is poorly defined but I'm thinking your idea is across borders and for everyone. Obama tried that. Failed miserable and will never work. We need to think soley of America's good. Russia runs rampant and Putin is an old style KGB thug. That must be managed head on.
Sorry, Ms Power, but expecting a polarizer like Pompeo to put diplomacy back in the diplomatic corps is like expecting Trump to "act presidential" - it is not going to happen. There is no evidence that Pompeo is anything but a willfully ignorant Tea Party hard-liner and Christian crusader. I know we are all clutching at straws here, hoping against hope that this Republican administration will not destroy America and the world, but this wildly optimist projection is not worth taking the time to read. Because before you are done reading, Trump and his sycophants will have thrown another bomb on the fire.
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I had scarcely finished reading Ms. Powers' piece and made my own reply before I saw the CNN report that the Justice Dep't is thinking about the gratuitous cruelty of firing Mr. McCabe before he achieves his entitlement to full retirement pay. It's just exactly this kind of vicious retaliation against anybody with the courage to stand up to Trump which suggests so strongly that Mr. Pompeo's own gratuities in this respect outline a perfect congruence of attitude and approach. This isn't good for America, folks.
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wcdevins:
Yeah, but Ms. Power is in there pitching. Kudos for at least trying.
Humanitarian interventionist Samantha Power , the Queen of regime change, favors, Mike Pompano , the new CIA chief. Both are hawks , Pompano a Koch Brothers product, Power , a Clinton product. Sad.
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Pompeo will not save the world. He is a pompous dishonest right wing ideologue hawk who is much more likely to implode the Iran nuclear deal and start a major war. He has no diplomatic skill and the highlight of his career was his absurd Benghazi hearings and his malevolent and dishonest crucifixion of Hillary Clinton.
He is a political hack, a deplorable! He is the perfect sycophant for Trump! He makes me ashamed about my country's current role in the world.
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He is no diplomat but he is going to be the chief diplomat for America.
These are some comments from a coalition of progressive foreign policy groups on Tuesday :
"Throughout his career, he has been a proponent of torture, denied climate science, promoted anti-Muslim views, and opposed diplomacy with Iran"
"With impending, high-level diplomatic needs — from North Korea to trade negotiations — Mike Pompeo is a dangerous choice for Secretary of State."
I am sure America's closest allies are watching with horror.
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Then why didn't President Donald Trump nominate you, Samantha Power, as Secretary of State? And why Gina Haspel as CIA Director even if she would be the first woman nominated and confirmed by the Senate?
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Because Samantha Powers wouldn't have run a secret prison against the express wish of intelligence or military and overseen torture and worse. Trump seems to like his women into porn or into pain( we'd count being married to him as the latter). Take your pick.
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I imagine President Donald Trump feels the same way about men.
I hope our new Secretary of State reads this Op-Ed!
If he took even part of the advice of Ms. Powers he could
help repair some of the damage done during the first year of
Trump's administration.
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POMPEO IS A TEA PARTY KOCH INDUSTRY EX-MILITARY NOT A HERO KIND OF GUY. YOUNGER TRUMP WITH A WEST POINT RESUME. BFD. KOCH INDUSTRY SUPPORTED SECURITY THEN OIL FIELD THEN POLITICAL POSITIONS IN THE NAME OF SMALL TO DISAPPEARING GOV'T UNLESS IT UNDERWRITES EVERY BILLIONAIRE CORPORATIST FRIEND OF AN OLIGARCH. KOCHS. HOLD THAT THOUGHT. MS. POWERS APPARENTLY CANNOT. STOP PLAYING NICE, SAMANTHA DEAR. THESE ARE NOT NICE PEOPLE.
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Samantha Powers is the Dr. Pangloss of foreign affairs.
Be realistic. You can't influence the Trump Administration with reason. He's going to do a lot of damage, and you can't stop him.
The only hope is a Democratic takeover of Congress as soon as possible.
And the way to do it is to get rid of the centerists and give working class people a reason to vote for them again.
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As with Obama, the closely leashed Pompeo will do the opposite to what you were doing and are recommending, because Trump wants him to. 'Better to erase whatever good you and Obama might have done, so that Trump can claim that he alone can make American great (which really means diminished) again.
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I hold Samantha Power in the highest respect. She writes "It may be that no Trump appointee can remedy that or attract diplomats to serve under a commander in chief who seems to hold diplomacy in contempt." No, not "may be," although her rare commodity of diplomatic discourse is much appreciated. The only hopeful recourse will be the end of the Trump presidency, and Mike Pompeo going with it.
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Failure to acknowledge that Pompeo is a Tea Party twit managed by Koch industries is a 'rare commodity of diplomatic discourse'? Wow.
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Because nothing says Save America like a Koch Industry flunky who has bopped from Private Security to Oil Field Equipment to Tea Party to Humping Legislation to Keep Polluters and Extractors Healthy, Wealthy, and Immune from prosecution for the stuff they ooze into our acquifers, lakes, dirt and air. Hooray for Mike. Not a billionaire big-time like his mentors the Koch crew, but on his way. What is it about private security guys with chicken little military backgrounds that Donald loves so much? Tough guy. Phooey. Someone tell Sam to stop drooling.
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