There have been three incidents of note in the past week apotheosizing the delicate position President Barack Obama inhabits on the international stage. The first was his Justice Department’s release of the memos detailing the CIA’s methods of torture applied to prisoners; the second, his State Department’s decision to boycott the United Nations’ World Conference against Racism; and the third — the one that has received the most attention over the weekend — his brief interactions at the Summit of the Americas with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.
Taken together, these events depict a young president struggling to find his course in a storm of global crises.
The release of the memos, containing the legal rationales for harsh interrogation techniques, prompted criticisms from many on both sides of the partisan aisle as mishandled, for very different reasons — the right arguing that the memos were only part of the story, and the left because, at the same time as the release, Attorney General Eric Holder announced there would be no legal action taken toward the authors of the memos or those who followed their direction. And President Obama, acknowledging the negative effect the release of these memos may have on the morale of the intelligence community, has done his best to call for moving forward, not looking backward.
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