The downfall of the Gaddafi regime in Libya is a huge success for Irish-born Samantha Power, a key member of the president's foreign policy inner circle and the leading advocate of the NATO intervention in Libya.
With Hillary Clinton's almost certain retirement after one term,I predict if Obama is re-elected Power will now be in with a real shot at becoming Secretary of State.
She is currently Senior Director of Multilateral Affairs on the Staff of the National Security Council.
With the Gadaffi regime crumbling, Power's insistence five months ago that the president order the American intervention and set up the NATO support for the rebels makes her a big winner in the White House.
The Libyan intervention fell into her insistence that American foreign policy have a major human rights dimension and that dictators can not be allowed free rein.
The New York Times identified Power as the key figure in the White House behind the Libyan intervention.
“She is clearly the foremost voice for human rights within the White House,” Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, told The New York Times “and she has Obama’s ear.”
She has had that ear since Obama, then a freshman senator sought her out in 2005 after he read her book on genocide and persuaded her to come and work for him.
The relationship had its ups and downs.
After Power made several insulting remarks about Hillary Clinton during the 2008 campaign Obama was forced to demote her. However, she has not fully regained his trust
Power was born in Dublin, Ireland in 1970 but emigrated to the US with her family in 1979, settling in Georgia. She later became a journalist and covered the Bosnian conflict.
She won a Pulitzer Prize for her 2002 book on genocide, entitled “A Problem from Hell,” which examined the U.S. foreign policy response to genocide.
The book argues that the Armenia, Nazi Germany, Cambodia and Rwanda genocides occurred because of government authorities averted their eyes and individuals made the choice not to intervene.
“The most common response,” Ms. Power wrote, “is, ‘We didn’t know.’ This is not true.”
In the case of Libya, the foreign policy realists in the Obama administration saw little strategic value in intervening there.
Power persuaded Hillary Clinton, who she now enjoys a warm relationship with, to insist on American intervention.
The quick payoff of the policy has now arrived, creating a clear perception that Power got it right and other foreign policy strategists got it wrong.
Now she my well be on the way to a top job if there is a second Obama administration.
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Switch to the desktop site to post a comment.zyxwvutsrqponml | Sep 12, 2011, 09:24 PM EDT
Proven right? What an asinine, premature observation. The other commenters have already made my case so I'll spare you the repetition. Niall O'Dowd - wow, you have got a real judgement deficiency. Read a few more books or take some vitamins or, better yet, just step away from the keyboard.
kaydog1 | Aug 27, 2011, 12:25 AM EDT
How on earth has she been "proven right"? I guess if her premise was that with SIX MONTHS OF BOMBING and almost a BILLION DOLLARS IN US SPENDING the USA would be able to depose a third-world dictator, then yes, she was "right". Isn't the BETTER question, "Why are we fighting this war?" Is the Left so bloodthirsty that Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan drone attacks are not enough to sate your appetite for blood and gore? I have actually seen old peacenik hippies rubbing their hands with glee over this "Obama Triumph", but none of them can justify why we are killing these people. Why, PRECISELY, is Obama murdering Libyans?....And who is next on our little murder parade?
maryosullivan | Aug 25, 2011, 08:38 PM EDT
" Now is your hour of pleasure, bask ye in the world's caress;..." Who would have thought Obama [for whom I worked and voted] would prove to be a greated criminal than Bush.
eiriamach | Aug 23, 2011, 05:21 PM EDT
He's working from the Macbeth Cliff Notes, themurphia.
GeorgeDillon | Aug 23, 2011, 03:35 PM EDT
All this woman has proved is that Cruise missiles and Bombing can overcome any Third World nation. That's a weird kind of "human rights" that's born out of a bomb bay and a Cruise missile! The topography of Arab nations makes them sitting ducks for bombing by foreign air forces. Without NATO (why does this outfit still exist, by the way?) this thing would have been over six months ago, just like the Bahreini revolution that started about the same time. Of course no bombing for Bahrein, because the local Sheikh is one of our goons.
butlerreport | Aug 23, 2011, 12:16 PM EDT
Er, no. Won't happen.
DeirmuidMcART | Aug 23, 2011, 11:31 AM EDT
I think its too soon to tell. The so called Arab Spring may yet turn into the Arab nightmare. The two things that are backing uo the shallow money that we are printing are foreign loans principally the Chinese renmen and our hegemony over oil production in the middleeast.If one of then goes we may go. The human rights that Miss Power really may be talking about is our rights over Libyan oil. Incidentally Lostgold the reason that people like Miss Power will mever bring up all the young Irish that have to immigrate is that in no way does a proud and pompous person like her wish to be associated with an economic basketcase like Ireland .Its a source of big embarassment to her amd incidentally its Bono not bone
themurphia | Aug 23, 2011, 05:13 AM EDT
Turdgate really likes his vile/nt imagery...guess they must be producing laminated wipe clean versions of MacBeth if he's quoting fom it...!
kevinhayes | Aug 23, 2011, 12:32 AM EDT
First OBL, now Libya. The right wing is having a tough time absorbing yet another Obama foreign policy success - vide the begrudging, grumpy McCain/Graham reaction. Makes the Irish soccer press reaction to Keano's move to LA Galaxy look big by comparison.
lostgold | Aug 22, 2011, 09:19 PM EDT
Is she as strong on human rights for all of the young Irish that have to immigrate to find work as she is for Libyans or other Africans. No she is another glitzy pile of feces whose arse should be 3 times bigger than is is so we know what we are dealing with.Why is Ireland producing so many A-holes first Bone now Samantha Power.
themurphia | Aug 22, 2011, 04:39 PM EDT
Ahh trying to pretend he is educated..bless...!
Towngate | Aug 22, 2011, 04:09 PM EDT
Niall a Chara: Sorry - another of your bad judgements,I'm afraid. The best we can hope for is that she is still attached to Obama's ear when he is thrown out on it! ~~~ The Photo Caption should read: " All that blood we've spilt in those oil-producing countries and my hands are still white!" She will find - like Shakespeares villianous and murderous Lady Macbeth, that her deadly urgings will return to trouble her mind! :- "What! Will these hands never be clean? ~ Here's a 'smell of the blood still! All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand!" Niall; Indeed they will not! Slainte!
maloney | Aug 22, 2011, 03:04 PM EDT
fear not, Power will NOT be SoS. Figure it out.
kevinhayes | Aug 22, 2011, 02:38 PM EDT
cilllowen - come again? Power/Hubby/bro/ME?
hollabackgurl | Aug 22, 2011, 01:23 PM EDT
President Obama has done what Reagan and W Bush could not: end Gadhafi's reign and kill Bin Laden.
GeorgeDillon | Aug 22, 2011, 12:12 PM EDT
pilib04: So you want us to start bombing Syria and launching Cruise missiles against it? You're a bloodthirsty nut. And you should be aware that unlike Libya or Iraq, Syria actually has pretty competent air defenses.
pilib04 | Aug 22, 2011, 11:37 AM EDT
oh, I left out, Assad is NEXT!
pilib04 | Aug 22, 2011, 11:36 AM EDT
Funny how President Obama can get rid of terror leaders Bin Laden and Khaddafy, when the Republicans had eight years and were impotent. Shows who the real leader is! Way to go Obama!!!
cillowen | Aug 22, 2011, 10:51 AM EDT
bush's attack on iraq was a diverted but well planned move - imagine him not going after daddy's friends - their son Usama that shudda been his primary responsibility. Now - this Power her hubby's brilliance has shone thru - as for the ME problem he being a bro he will do diddly.
cillowen | Aug 22, 2011, 10:46 AM EDT
her hubby's brilliance has shone thru - as for the ME problem he being a bro he will do diddly.
Taho1221 | Aug 22, 2011, 10:33 AM EDT
Let her take on Israel/Palestine and lets see what she can really do.
Taho1221 | Aug 22, 2011, 10:28 AM EDT
Niall, dont be ridiculous with your predictions. Since when does a Senior Director staffer "insist" on anything to the President of the United States? She will certainly not become Secretary of State but perhaps a senior staffer.
johhnyb | Aug 22, 2011, 10:27 AM EDT
Just so I've got it straight - Bush was a warmonger for attacking Saddam but attacking Libya is a 'huge success', no matter what comes next! Please confirm.
GeorgeDillon | Aug 22, 2011, 09:59 AM EDT
Will O'Dowd tell us which country is next for bombs and cruise missiles? Oops, sorry, all the other dictators in the Middle East are our stool pigeons. The crooks who run places like Bahrein, Morocco etc. have nothing to fear from us--they're bastards, but they're OUR bastards. Obama has lost my vote, that's for sure. If I wanted stupid foreign military adventures and a huge defense budget I'd have voted for McCain. Ron Paul is the only guy who represents sanity on this.
wjb1tex | Aug 22, 2011, 09:43 AM EDT
The final chapter on Libya is not yet written. We will see who the new leader is and how democratic Libya becomes. In Iran we helped depose the Dictation and got Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as well as the current president. In Egypt we all cheered when Mubarak was overthrown. The first thing that happened after that was an attack on Israel. Many years ago Batista was overthrown in Cuba. Not much good has happened there since.
thumpdrum | Aug 22, 2011, 09:37 AM EDT
In regards to Ms. Powers being right, well that remains to be seen. The people taking control are still unknown to us and their reactions to their neighbors could very well do more harm than good to the region. I remain skeptical.
antoman | Aug 22, 2011, 08:42 AM EDT
The picture accompanying the article pretty much says it all, the way her hands are like. She's going to the reporter "I have balls this big son".
eiriamach | Aug 22, 2011, 08:35 AM EDT
Maybe Samantha Power is the reason why Hilary thinks she can leave the administration at this point. She has done well as Sec. of State and won't be an easy act to follow. The two women would agree on the need for a human rights justification and multilateral strategies for military intervention. Americans need to know, however, whether Power can help get the US out of our long wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and help keep us out of that kind of quagmire in the future.