BY MICHAEL S. JOHNSON

“President Obama does a disservice to Norwegians, to himself and, above all, to the people of the United States by sending such an unqualified person to represent him and us in the capital of a long-standing NATO ally.”

Lehigh University professional Henri Barkey on the appointment of campaign bundler George Tsunis as Ambassador to Norway. Tsunis joins about 40 other political ambassadorial appointees, some of whom can’t speak the language, or know a great deal about the government, or ever visited the country to which they are being posted.

“I’m no real expert on China.”

Senator Max Baucus during his confirmation hearing as Ambassador to China

“F___ the E.U.”

Ambassador to the European Union Victoria Nuland, who was rewarded with this new posting after being embroiled in controversy surrounding the doctoring of Benghazi talking points.

“President Obama and I both believe we don’t have time for a meeting anywhere of the Flat Earth Society.”

Secretary of State John Kerry speaking in Indonesia on climate change, which he lifted above nuclear arms, chemical weapons, and international terrorism as the most fearsome weapon of mass destruction.

That is the picture you get of American  foreign policy and our ambassadorial corpse while around the world.

• The United Nations has given up counting the deaths in the Syrian civil war after 100,000, including nearly 10,000 women and children, to say nothing of 1 million refugees in Lebanon, Turkey, and Jordan and thousands more displaced humans starving to death inside Syria.
• Syria failed to keep its commitment to turn over chemical weapons.
• The United Nations has concluded that North Korea has committed crimes against humanity so vile that it recommends taking the North Koreans to the International Criminal Court.
• Our neighboring country of Haiti continues to suffer the aftermath of a hurricane nearly three years ago that has left thousands of people homeless, deplorable sanitary conditions, and continued flooding.
• There are renewed threats of a new wave of violence and civil war in the newest country on earth, South Sudan, despite a recent cease fire in that wore ravaged region, which provides a constant reminder of man’s inhumanity to man.
• Violence and the death of innocent civilians continue to reflect our helplessness in the face of disintegrating civil order and the resurgence of terrorist movements everywhere from Egypt to Iraq and Afghanistan.
• Iran continues to teeter on the edge of nuclear power.
• Our relations with China, Russia and India are on edge, foreign hackers are invading our privacy and stealing our secrets and our astronauts have to ride Russian rockets to get into space.

Not a picture that inspires confidence.

Editor’s Note: Mike Johnson is a former journalist, who worked on the Ford White House staff and served as press secretary and chief of staff to House Republican Leader Bob Michel, prior to entering the private sector. He is co-author of a book, Surviving Congress, a guide for congressional staff. He is currently a principal with the OB-C Group.