While Syria Burns, Samantha Power Was On Holiday In Ireland

24 Aug, 2013 by William Teach

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Hey, doesn’t everyone take a vacation 19 days after they get a new job while Bad Things are happening?

(Fox News) Mystery solved. America’s ambassador to the U.N. Samantha Power was in Ireland on a personal trip when she missed an emergency meeting on the alleged chemical gas attack in Syria, U.N. sources tell Fox News.

A day earlier, State Department officials were mum when asked for information on Power’s whereabouts. She had come under fire for missing Wednesday’s urgent U.N. Security Council meeting, where delegations weighed how to respond to charges that the Assad regime had just committed the deadliest chemical weapons attack in the country’s two-year civil war.

The meeting, and her absence, came just 19 days after Power assumed the U.N. leadership post.

Power also did not attend a meeting Friday afternoon on Sudan — another trouble spot that Power has focused on in the past — though it is likely that such a meeting would have been attended by a deputy anyway.

I suppose this is more of Obama’s “smart power”.

But U.S. officials are defending Power, saying she was on a preplanned trip and could not have made it back in time. Power was born in Ireland, and her family is from there. The nature of the visit to her home country is not clear; officials say that since the trip was personal, they were safe-guarding her privacy.

Why would anyone take a vacation so soon after getting a new job? It might be one thing if there was nothing of importance going on in the world, but you have Syria and Egypt. Oh, my bad, I forgot that Obama is constantly disappearing either on vacation, the golf course, or out of Washington to give a campaign style speech, often coupled with a fundraising appearance. Remember how he took off for a campaign appearances the day after Benghazi?

One U.S. Mission official told Fox News that Power was the one pushing for immediate consultations by the Security Council after reports surfaced of the attack Wednesday morning.

Granted, a few other members of the Security Council were not present, but if she was the one pushing for the meeting, the least she could have done was be there. It’s not like she was dependent on travel by sailing ship to go from Ireland to NYC.

Next time you get a new job ask your boss if you can take an almost immediate vacation. See how that goes.

Crossed at Pirate’s Cove. Follow me on Twitter @WilliamTeach.