RSA Boss Slams Barack Obama In BP Row

Hi Everyone havent seen this letter show up on the forum yet, if it has please feel free to close this thread mods, I have searched.

Dear President Obama, Please forgive this open letter but your comments towards BP and its CEO as reported here are coming across as somewhat prejudicial and personal. There is no doubt that BP, as a UK PLC, is totally committed to do everything possible to contain the oil leak and meet all its obligations in the USA. The existing CEO is the best person to deliver that effort and has made that personal commitment and made himself available in the USA. In your words, "he has taken the heat" and not hidden in his office. The real response has been total. You could argue a poor PR performance, but BP are not alone in that. There is a sense here that these attacks are being made because BP is British. If you compare the damage inflicted on the economies of the western world by polluted securities from the irresponsible, unchecked greed and avarice of leading USA international banks, there has not been the same personalised response in or from countries beyond the US. Perhaps a case of double standards? Deep sea oil exploration was pushed forward as part of a USA oil security strategy as have a number of foreign policy initiatives in key areas in the world where we are standing shoulder to shoulder. Whilst we all recognise the seriousness of the situation there is a need to put some balance back into the situation. Many of us applauded your promise of a new approach to politics, USA foreign policy and world leadership. Both you and the CEO of BP are caught up in the resolution of issues dealing with the emerging risks of strategies that you did not necessarily determine. The immediate issues are very challenging but are best solved working together in a more Statesman like way. The leak may take time to fix, and it will be, but Afghanistan and Iraq will take much longer. We can all agree that the first and absolute priority is to stem the leak. Perhaps the second one is to ensure the reputation of the Presidency outside the USA is seen as objective, balanced, able and capable of taking the heat when under pressure. We liked the Obama we saw at your election, can we have more of it please. Yours sincerely, John Napier :: Mr Napier is chairman of insurance group RSA.

I want to wade into this debate and will probably get flamed galore however there is a major point that the rig was run by American workers, was an American Rig. I really think that BP has handled the situation terribly and this looks to be the biggest disaster of all time but no need to slam my country and make this an attack on a people rather than a company.
I think this letter highlights Obamas failure in the disaster and the fact that everything he promised in the election has not been delivered. He is a sham and a joke of a president.

[edit on 11/6/10 by On the level]

sure he is, but it is still the resbonsibility of the companys that were in charge, and i dont think anyone is blaming britian, just as no one should blame americans either, the companys in charge are responsible,


but seriously, we realy ought to shut up about blame and pointing fingers and just fix it already! we'll blame someone once its fixed im sure, but first things first lets focus on a solution

If anyone is going to slam Obama, it should be because of his ridiculously slack handling of this situation. He should have taken full control of it the day it happened. As a result of his gross incompetence the spill is still spewing, if the worst happens, this can lead to destruction on an unprecedented scale.

BP HAVE NOT DONE ENOUGH. Nowhere near. And Obama has done even less. What a complete joke of a leader America has.

And the really annoying thing? Ignoring Iran's offers of help.

I believe this spill would be plugged by now if these people were not corrupt and incompetent.