New U.S. Ambassador to United Nations: "We Are Taking Names"

The New York Times reports today:

The American ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki R. Haley [former Governor of South Carolina], issued a stark warning on Friday to allies and rivals abroad, saying in her first remarks at the headquarters of the world body that the Trump administration would hold to account those who do not back the United States.

“You’re going to see a change in the way we do business,” Ms. Haley said. “Our goal with the administration is to show value at the U.N., and the way we’ll show value is to show our strength, show our voice, have the backs of our allies and make sure our allies have our back as well.”

“For those who don’t have our back,” she added, “we’re taking names; we will make points to respond to that accordingly.”

These kind of arrogant threats to other nations are just the sort of things I have been saying will further cause the fading US imperial project to unravel even faster.  People don't like being threatened and they won't enjoy being bullied by the former South Carolina conservative governor who has no real foreign policy experience.  The US does not run the world - even though Washington thinks it does.

The Trump team, already blustering around like a drunken sailor, is off to a bad start.  It is still proving hard to get a full reading of where Trump is going on many international issues but this statement today by Haley gives us a further indication that Washington will being doing much to undermine the trust of people around the world.

If the global community is smart they will quickly determine that blindly following the US is no longer a smart strategy if one is interested in a cooperative world at peace. Developing a fair international economic policy and dealing with climate change during the next four years will be a great challenge to say the least.

Bruce