FILE PHOTO: Craig Roberts Stapleton, former U.S. ambassador to France and the Czech Republic before that under President George W. Bush, in his Greenwich, Conn., office in 2007.
Likening the scourge of terrorism in France to 9/11, the former top U.S. envoy to “America’s oldest ally” under President George W. Bush blasted the Obama administration for its no-show at a solidarity march Sunday in Paris.
Craig Roberts Stapleton, a Greenwich resident who served as ambassador to France to from 2005 to 2009, said glaring absence of President Barack Obama or his top emissaries at the rally will severely harm diplomatic relations between the two friendly nations.
“It’s inexplicable,” Stapleton told Hearst Connecticut Media. “This really damages our standing. This thing is a total diplomatic faux pas. The French won’t forget this for a long time.”
Stapleton said that had Bush, to whom he is related through marriage, had been president, Bush would have joined the 40 other world leaders in the march.
“Absolutely, he would have gone over,” said Stapleton, who served as ambassador to the Czech Republic during Bush’s first term. “There’s no picture of an American. Where’s the United States in that?”
Stapleton predicted that Jane Hartley, who has been Obama’s ambassador to France since just October, will have a yeoman’ task ahead of her in the diplomatic post he once held.
“I think it makes the job of the new U.S. ambassador in Paris very difficult,” Stapleton said.
At a minimum, Stapleton said, Obama should have sent Secretary of State John Kerry to the solidarity march in his place.
“Kerry would have been acceptable,” Stapleton said. “Kerry spends more time in France than he does in Washington.”