Obama's New Diplomacy: Good For Him, Not So Good For America

I have just watched a TV report on the French mainstream channel TF1 which was indirectly dealing with the Guantanamo issue. Briefly, the report compared Guantanamo, a summum of horror and shame, to some Saudi "secret reeducation camp" where ex al-Qaeda operatives are gently re-civilized through drawings and with the helping hand of an imam who explains to them how badly they misinterpreted Islam. As far as I can remember, I have seen very stupid things on French TV during the Bush presidency, but nothing as surrealistic as this report. TF1 is not a good channel, but it is a mainstream one. When they broadcast something stupid, insulting and insane like that, it means that the public is, at least to a certain extent, ready to believe it.

Indeed, the report was introduced by the announcement of President Obama's release of the so-called "torture memos", along with the possibility that some officials from the Bush administration could be prosecuted. People from TF1 probably figured out that this particular piece of news would provide the perfect context for the bizarre report which followed, and that was probably a good professional judgment.

One thing seems perfectly clear when seen from outside America: this kind of announcement will only make these kinds of reports more frequent. Aside from the fact that it does not make a lot of sense to apologize on behalf of other people while prosecuting them at the same time, Obama's current attitude will not make the United States look any better. It might make Obama look good, but that will come at the expense of his country. If Obama is Mandela, then the United States is South Africa.

Besides, a country where the newly elected President uses judicial procedures against the administration preceding him can get a bad press. When the opposition manages to score hits against the presidency, as happened in 1973 or 1998, it may still look like a healthy political system where the chief of the executive is not all-powerful. When it is the other way around, it gets a bit closer to a purge, and I fail to see how that sort of thing could do any good to America's standing. Maybe the Obama administration has a few things to learn about "soft power".