As you read yesterday, Obama’s letter to Chirac stated,

“we look forward to working together over the next four years in the spirit of peace and friendship to build a safer world.”

Well, it looks like the fax machine at the White House was working overtime:

I was reading Michael Ledeen’s post when I came across this,

He also sent a letter to Italian President Giorgio Napolitano (a member of the now defunct Communist Party), expressing confidence that the United States and Italy would work together “to overcome the current global political and economic hardships and build a safer world.”

Say, again?

So I did a quick google search, and found these articles:
Obama a Napolitano, rapporto Italia-Usa fondamentale

Obama si dice convinto che i due Paesi sapranno lavorare insieme “in spirito di pace e di amicizia, per costruire un mondo più sicuro”.

Roughly translated that means,

Obama says he’s certain that both countries can work together “in the spirit of peace and friendship, to build a safer world.”

La Repubblica, Reuters Italia, Julie News, Iris news:

Ho fiducia che sapremo lavorare in uno spirito di pace e di amicizia per costruire, nei prossimi quattro anni, un mondo pi sicuro.

Again,

I am confident that over the next four years we can work in the spirit of peace and friendship to build a safer world.”

As you can all see, the same exact wording went to Napolitano as it did to Chirac.

Ledeen speculates whether Obama

writes only to his peers, and thus instead of addressing himself to Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, President Obama wrote to a man who holds an almost entirely ceremonial position.

At least Napolitano is still in office. Chirac is not.

Whatever the reason, the folks running foreign policy are incompetent.

Unless, of course, you believe that diplomacy-by-form-letter is a good idea.

UPDATE
Blue Star Chronicles has a theory.