Bush Leverage With Russia, Iran, China Falls as Oil Prices Rise

[UpInArms]

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000087&sid=ar4D7HVGikXo&refer=top_world_news

May 1 (Bloomberg) -- President George W. Bush, already weakened at home by the soaring cost of oil, is finding that it's also eroding his ability to achieve his foreign-policy goals.

``It's a geopolitical nightmare,'' says William Cohen, a former Republican senator from Maine and defense secretary under President Bill Clinton who is now chairman of the Cohen Group, a Washington-based consulting firm. Such nations as Iran, Russia and China ``don't see us as the colossus that can cause them any harm, either by our economy or by our prestige.''

Record-high energy prices are weakening Bush's prospects of assembling an international coalition to counter Iran's nuclear ambitions. They are diminishing his chances of influencing energy-rich nations such as Russia and isolating troublesome ones including Venezuela and Sudan. And they are straining U.S. economic and diplomatic ties with China, whose oil needs are skyrocketing.

<snip>

It isn't only oil producers that are ignoring U.S. wishes. China, the world's second-largest consumer of petroleum products behind the U.S., is seeking energy resources wherever it can find them. That includes negotiating for investments in nations such as Iran, Nigeria and Sudan, where Bush is seeking to improve human rights and push democracy.

<snip>

The Bush administration is having difficulty with Russia even though the U.S. buys little oil or natural gas from the country, says Jim Goldgeier, a professor of international affairs at George Washington University in Washington.

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[KansDem]

1. Quick, George, turn on that "charm offensive!"

Make yourself someone that Russia, Iran, and China want to have a beer with!

Give them nicknames, perhaps?

Just do it NOW!!!

[Junkdrawer]

2. Typo: "where Bush is seeking to improve human rights and push democracy."

s/b "where Bush is seeking to gain hegemony and crush democracy."

Aside from that...

[elehhhhna]

3. Mexico to legalize some drugs. NOBODY listens to him anymore.

lol

[madrchsod]

4. why would any one think otherwise

our army is ruined,our country is in debt,and we have lost our industrial base. the only thing we have not lost is the the ability to change this government in november.

[endarkenment]

5. "Venezuela and Sudan"?

How the heck did Venezuela get lumped together with Sudan as troublesome? Is there a humanitarian crisis in Venezuela that the damned librul media is covering up?

"Such nations as Iran, Russia and China". Suddenly Iran is elevated to global power status level alongside Russia and China. Right.

Just more drum beating as far as I can tell. More disinformatation, more obfuscation and confusion and conflation. Keep us reeling from the noise. Thanks William Cohen for being another PNAC asshat.

[Acadia Blue]

6. The Iraq war has turned the USA into a paper tiger and other

nations now know how really weak we are. We have NO MANUFACTURING BASE and we even have some of our weapons manufactured in other countries. This moron and the NAFTA (bush 1 Clinton disaster) has made us even weaker. Super power? LOL what a joke.