UNBELIEVABLE, JUST UNBELIEVABLE – AT 9:32 A.M. ET:  India is the world's largest democracy.  At one time, especially in the 50s and 60s, it was openly anti-American, identifying us with the colonial powers.  Indian diplomat V.K. Krishna Menon, the country's ambassador to the UN, regularly appeared on American television to denounce, in the most hateful way, the U.S.

But in recent decades American presidents have reversed the tide, turning India into an American ally.  Now, under Obama, that progress seems to be in grave jeopardy.  Once again, we are faced with catastrophic failure.  Surprisingly, this is from the usually in-the-tank-for-Obama Newsweek:

Barack Obama is in danger of reversing all the progress his predecessors, including George W. Bush, made in forging closer U.S. ties with India. Preoccupied with China and the Middle East, the Obama administration has allotted little room on its schedule for India, and failed to get much done in the short time it did make. Hosting Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at the November state visit, the administration managed to produce cordial photo ops, but the agreements reached on education, energy cooperation, and the like dealt with trivia.

Have you ever seen an administration like this?  Abuse our friends, respect our enemies.  That is the apparent slogan.

Indian diplomats close to Singh say the lackluster results show how far the relationship has fallen since Bill Clinton and the two Bushes transformed a strained Cold War rivalry into a close strategic partnership between the world's largest democracies. Obama's predecessors built a relationship around trade negotiations, joint military exercises, and ad hoc coalitions for humanitarian assistance in the aftermath of the Indonesia tsunami. Despite his reputation for uniquely pushy diplomacy, it was George W. Bush who concluded the landmark deal that recognized India as a legitimate nuclear power and opened the door to the sale of civilian nuclear technology to India. No single American move has done more to demonstrate Washington's respect for New Delhi as a rising and equal power. Now Obama, who came to office promising to respect U.S. allies, is backpedaling on that deal, to the growing chagrin of the Indians.

Obama appears largely oblivious to India's concerns. When the U.S. gathered its allies in the Afghan war at a London summit in January, Indian officials felt they were marginalized because their views were not sought or paid heed to in any fashion.

COMMENT:  Bush was gentle compared to Obama.  But Obama affects the persona of an intellectual with a third-world pedigree, so he gets little criticism from the wine-and-Brei crowd in the United States. 

The damage Obama is doing!  Day by day.

April 7, 2010