President Addresses the UN

For John, BLUF:  President Obama talks a quiet approach at the UN.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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And a pretty good job he did, per this report at the blog, The Cable, of Foreign Policy Magazine.  The reporters were Colum Lynch and Ty McCormick.  The article headline is "Obama to World: Bad News.  The American Empire Is Dead."

Well, the Headline was way over the top.

"The United States has a hard-earned humility when it comes to our ability to determine events inside other countries," he said in his address before the 193-member General Assembly.  "The notion of American empire may be useful propaganda, but it isn't borne out by America's current policy or public opinion."

The US hasn't been doing "empire" since President Franklin D Roosevelt and the Good Neighbor Policy.

Obama said that "the recent debate within the United States over Syria clearly showed the danger for the world is not an America that is eager to immerse itself in the affairs of other countries or take on every problem in the region as its own.  The danger for the world is that the United States, after a decade of war -- rightly concerned about issues back home, aware of the hostility that our engagement in the region has engendered throughout the Muslim world -- may disengage, creating a vacuum of leadership that no other nation is ready to fill."

On the other hand, for some whiners it will always be the fault of America, even while those whiners are reloading after shooting themselves in the foot.

In addressing the conflict in Syria, Obama said U.S. aims were largely humanitarian.

"There's no 'great game' to be won, nor does America have any interest in Syria beyond the well-being of its people, the stability of its neighbors, the elimination of chemical weapons, and ensuring it does not become a safe haven for terrorists," he said.

Seems reasonable to me.  On the other hand, whose terrorists?

Obama, meanwhile, laid out a rather modest accounting of American "core interests" in the Middle East and North Africa: countering military aggression against U.S. partners in the region, protecting global energy reserves, and confronting the dual threats of terrorism and nuclear proliferation.

Approving the Keystone Pipeline would put more emphasis on the "global" part of "protecting global energy reserves".

Regards  —  Cliff