Brent Scowcroft Center Senior Adviser Harlan Ullman writes for UPI on lost opportunities for the Obama administration, particularly in regards to the Bowe Bergdahl release and the president’s recent trip to Europe:
Every president since Washington suffered from lost opportunities. Of all post-Cold War presidents, in this category Barack Obama may prove to be the biggest loser.
Part of the failing is the White House’s doing. And a large part is the pernicious and septic nature of American politics that turns small cuts into potentially fatal wounds irrespective of whether Republicans or Democrats control the White House.
The folly over the release of Army soldier Bowe Bergdahl is the latest example of costly White House incompetence that surely squandered any opportunities from the Europe visit. Why would the White House make such a public display of the soldier’s release given the ambiguities and uncertainties of how he fell into Taliban hands? And why would the administration make this announcement just prior to the president’s trip to Europe for the G-7 meeting and the 70th Anniversary of the Normandy landings ensuring that the visit would be pre-empted by controversy?