14 Days. More or Less

In less than a fortnight, (I love the word “fortnight.” It’s elegant. Very upstairs Downton Abbeyish), President Obama won re-election, faced the wrath of GOP Ancients McCain, McConnell, and Graham, accepted the resignation of the Supreme Spook, received notification of Texas’ wish to secede from the Union, which elicited no discernible word of protest, and cluck clucked a time or two over the season opener of Israeli target practice on Palestinians.

Peripatetic as ever, and with an old 78 recording of Lawrence Tibbett singing “On the Road to Mandalay,” Mr. Obama directed Air Force One to Myanmar, which is about as far from Washington, D.C., as you can get. Lawrence Who? Singing What? And why Myanmar? Oh, right. The President has or intends to garrison troops in the northern part of Australia. The presidential visit to Mayanmar, the first ever, was made despite the fact that Mayanmar is controlled by a tyrannical military. The visit might have been intended to win the friendship of the generals and bring democracy to the people. Or maybe Myanmar could become a buffer, sort of like Laos and Cambodia?

If so, how to you suppose China will respond to having American spies and spooks to its immediate west with American combat infantry lurking to the south. Almost sounds like something tweedy ol’ Al Dulles, the granddaddy of all U.S. spooks, might cook up. A kind of partial encirclement of China. Something like Dulles and the Pentagon emplaced in South Viet Nam. Remember how that turned out?

But perhaps these are only flights of fancy. Perhaps nothing more than flimsy figments. Surely we have learned enough about endless wars and nation building quagmires over the last ten years to avoid more of the same in Southeast Asia. Haven’t we? Perhaps all the Prez wanted to do was make southeast Asia sweatshops safe for Nike. Perhaps.

In any case, the trip must have been in the offing for some time. Probably since the patriot Aung San Suu Kyi was released from arrest and allowed certain freedoms including resumption of her seat in Mayanmar’s legislature, such as it is. But whatever it was had to be more substance than show. The President cannot have been merely the bagman bringing the ransom for Mme. Kyi’s release to the generals.

Well then. If the purpose of Mr. Obama’s visit was more than merely to see the dawn come up like thunder over China ‘cross the Bay, what more was it?

If it turns out to have been a bold initiative to shore up America’s image in the heart of the Muslim universe after generations of U.S. bungling in the Middle East and Africa, it’s good politics. If it helps cement American trade hegemony in the region, it’s good business. As it is, whoever knows what it was all about isn’t saying, so, for the moment, there’s nothing to do but stay tuned.

Okay? And not that anyone’s counting, but what do you suppose the tab for all this might be, or become?

Meanwhile, at the Tel Aviv-Jerusalem White House, Veritable President Netanyahu scored another smashing victory over Palestinians posing as clay pigeons by an impressive margin 150 to 5.

Veritable Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Netanyahu was noncommittal about the triumph. “It was only a scrimmage. True, we played under game conditions, but it was still only practice. We do much better than 150 to 5 when we’re serious.”

Veritable Anti-missile Defense Chief Netanyahu expressed guarded satisfaction at the Iron Dome’s success rate of 88%. “We did okay, but I really expected better. If those Washington schmucks hadn’t been so cheap we would have been. $50 million per installation is peanuts. So they gave us the technology. We gave them the name. It comes from the yutzes we deal with in Congress.”

Veritable Chairman of the Mossad Netanyahu chimed in, “What’s with those Washington bozos, I don’t know. Didn’t we teach them waterboarding? Didn’t we get them into political assassinations? Where did they get the idea for Guantanamo? They owe us.”

Veritable Chairman Netanyahu of the Board of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences added, “You should talk. NCIS would be on Loony Tunes TV if we hadn’t given them Ziva. But what do they know? She should be shagging Gibbs not Dinozzo, that bobo.”

In other developments, as they say on TV news, Egypt’s new president, Mohammed Morsi agreed to broker a truce between Israel and the Palestinians, ending eight days of field training for the Israeli armed forces. In return, President Morsi accepted a $4.8 billion dollar loan from the IMF, the International Monetary Fund, to which the U.S. is the principle contributor. This is in addition to the annual $3 billion dollar grant from the U.S. to Egypt. Great things are already predicted for the new Morsi administration.

That’s it for news of U.S. Foreign Policy, within the last 67 years of which, money has been no object. Rarely, in fact, even mentioned.

Here at home, the November 10th cover story of Economist.com detailed the plight of 46.2 million Americans living below the poverty line. The story contained no mention of loans or grants.



Note: An earlier reference to Texas and some of its politicians who favor secession from the U.S. was the subject of an op-ed piece in the LA Times by Paul VanDeVelder. Published November 18, 2012. Titled: “One Nation…But Maybe Not So Indivisible.” Read it. It’s Funny.