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Hun Sen meets his wannabe
OBAMA MEETS WITH CAMBODIA’S LONGTIME ‘STRONGMAN’
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — President Barack Obama arrived in Cambodia on Monday having just won four more years in office, but that is nothing compared to his host, Hun Sen. The 60-year-old Cambodian prime minister has held power since Ronald Reagan was in the White House, and says he’s not stepping down until he is 90.
Hun Sen is known as one of Asia’s most Machiavellian politicians, with a knack for making sure his rivals end up in jail or in exile. A laudatory biography is subtitled “Strongman of Cambodia,” and some would say that’s putting it mildly.
Through his country’s civil wars, a U.N. peace process and several elections, the one-time communist cadre has always managed to come out on top. Over the last decade, he has also overseen modest economic growth and stability in a country plagued by desperate poverty and nearly destroyed by the Khmer Rouge’s “killing fields.”
Obama is making the first visit ever by a U.S. president to Cambodia because it is hosting the annual East Asia Summit. He went straight from the airport to a meeting with Hun Sen that White House officials described as tense, with Obama emphasizing his concerns about Cambodia’s human rights situation.
According to U.S. Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes, Hun Sen defended his record, telling the president that Cambodia has a unique set of circumstances that influence its policies and practices, and expressed a desire to deepen his country’s ties with the U.S.
Hun Sen “is intelligent, combative, tactical, and self-absorbed,” says historian David Chandler, a Cambodia expert at Australia’s Monash University and a critic of Hun Sen’s rule.
These days, Hun Sen has styled himself as an elder statesman, and he is anxious to win international respectability to go along with the economic growth. Despite concerns over his autocratic style and human rights lapses, the canny Hun Sen has managed to keep flowing the international aid that still accounts for a major part of Cambodia’s national budget.
Rick
November 19th, 2012
What? Is Barry going to learn at the feet of the Master?
Major Mal function
November 19th, 2012
Obama’s buddies want to murder 10% of the population. Hun Sen’s actually did.
conservative cowgirl
November 19th, 2012
During the toast in that photo, what was the Marxtard saying, “Here’s to my future dictatorship!”?! Seriously, what sort of idiot would do a toast with evil, murderous bastard?
conservative cowgirl
November 19th, 2012
geez…with ‘AN’ evil, murderous bastard…
thirdtwin
November 19th, 2012
I’m guessing purple-lips has ditched bowing to oriental potentates. And mayors of Tampa.
Tony R
November 20th, 2012
And by “evil murderous bastard” you were referring to…..
conservative cowgirl
November 20th, 2012
@Tony R., I mean the one who already is, not the one in training…lol
Edith McCrotch
November 20th, 2012
10 years from now, after the 22nd Amendment is repealed….
read as followed.
Obama has styled himself as an elder statesman, and he is anxious to win international respectability to go along with the economic growth.
Despite concerns over his autocratic style and human rights lapses, the canny Obama has managed to keep flowing the international aid that still accounts for a major part of the International States in the Americas’ national budget.
thirdtwin
November 20th, 2012
Conservative cowgirl, some world leaders are more discreet and send toadies to do the toasting:
htttp://tinyurl.com/cxbysts
thirdtwin
November 20th, 2012
Oops…
http://tinyurl.com/cxbysts
hanoverfist
November 20th, 2012
Hun Sen meets Yin Sen.
BILL
November 20th, 2012
obama is picking up tips on how to stay in power and what golf courses dictators for life go to.
Stache
November 20th, 2012
It says ‘Hun Sen “is intelligent, combative, tactical, and self-absorbed,” says historian David Chandler’
If Hun seeks to emulate the Wun, he’s going to have to give up that ‘intelligent’ characteristic.