Welcome Back, Samantha Power

Among the Obama administration retreads returning for another go-round is Samantha Power. You might know that Power, when at Harvard, came up with the notion that human rights violations are always our business, no matter where they take place. Hers was a universalist humanist vision of human experience, one that conveniently ignores nationhood, boundaries and borders.

We saw it in practice in Libya. You remember Libya, where the three weird sisters, Power, Susan Rice and Hillary Clinton convinced President Obama to bomb the country, the better to rid the world of Moammar Qaddhafi.

In fairness, we can ask how that one worked out.  Dave DeCamp explains:

Power argued in favor of US intervention in Libya under the guise of protecting human rights and preventing genocide. She was joined in her crusade by then-Secretary of State Hilary Clinton and Susan Rice, who served as the UN ambassador at the time.

Reports from 2011 say the pressure from Power, Rice, and Clinton is what led Obama to intervene militarily in Libya, even though his other top advisors were against it. Then-Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates would later say that in a "51 to 49" decision, Obama decided to bomb Libya.

The US-NATO intervention in Libya that led to the brutal murder of former Libyan ruler Moammar Gaddafi was an absolute disaster. 

Destabilizing Libya turned the country into a haven for al-Qaeda-linked militants, resulted in targeted killings of black Africans, sparked a refugee crisis in North Africa, and even led to the creation of slave markets.

For advocating a policy failure, Power was promoted to the role of United Nations Ambassador, where, in a parting shot at Israel, she refused to veto a resolution that denied the legitimacy of Israel. 

So, now Samantha Power is back, as the head of the United States Agency for International Development. It shows us, yet again, that the American left has no standards of success or failure. It does not matter what results your policies produced. If you have the right sentiments, you are pronounced competent.