I spent 6 weeks in Togo in 1995. If you are white it doesn't matter what faux pas you commit as long as you keep spending money. sorry to get off topic
I was told by a scooter-taxi driver there that he couldn't tell I was American b/c "I spoke French like a Brit". I wasn't sure if that was a compliment or an insult. I've heard the same sentiment you expressed, bluefrog, but I think it's changed in the last 15 years. With China basically spending money while simultaneously pissing off people, the French and Brits changing their strategies from post-colonialism to more "strategic partnerships", and ECOWAS trying to bring some semblance of the 21st century to business practices, security and law enforcement...I think the days of having an "in" through just putting cash in the right hands are dying. Regardless, we don't have much training for cultural issues. State usually takes care of that, but there aren't a lot of those guys to go around.
Com'on Denny, this is a PapaG level thread. I expect more. Here's one of the most damning photos against George Bush: What does this say about the man & his foreign policy? What "backdoor" deals were going down here?
Yes, as a matter of fact they all did, with the possible exception of Bush 41 ("Stay the course. A thousand points of light."). If you are trying to say that Obama promised not to be photographed with foreign heads of state, I require a link. barfo
LOL OBAMA PROMISED CHANGE AND LOL LOOK HE IS STILL AN INDUSTRIALIST ASSHOLE LOL ELL TO THE OH TO THE ELL
International diplomacy is dirty business. You have to play nice with scumbags you'd rather choke. On the flip side, you also have to make tough decisions in the interest of your country against the interests of the citizens of another. When you have those rare instances where you both do what's right and politically expedient, you jump on it. It's why I have no problem with Rumsfeld meeting with Hussein; the goal was to contain Iran and weaken the Mullahs. I do have a problem with President Obama sitting and taking a tongue-lashing about our role in the world from tinpot dictators like Castro and Chavez, then smiling afterward. It makes us look weak. Albright meeting with Kim Jong-Il? Ridiculous. He's shown over and over he can't be negotiated with. Our best move is to ignore him, stregthen South Korea, Japan and use China to pressure the North. You don't make a nuclear deal with a madman. In that photo, Condi Rice, conversely was telling Quaddafi what the score was; continue supporting terrorism and you're done. If you play ball, we'll take some pressure off. It's a far cry from what was done with North Korea or what we've taken from Venezuela. On the flip side, you have to support dictators that keep the peace in their countries, even if you despise them. That means it's a necessary evil to coddle monsters like Mubarak and Musharraf, because as Jeane Kirkpatrick outlined in "Dictatorships & Double Standards", at least there's a chance for real democracy down the road. With totalitarian societies, they have to go through another dictator, revolution or some other massively destabilizing period. And oftentimes the goal of managing foreign policy is that the climate is stable.
Q: It's amazing how all Republicans who meet foreign leaders give them a tonguelashing, and all Democrats who meet them kiss their asses. How has our great nation survived this to be the best in the world at everything? A: God is on our side.
The Democratic Party has drifted a long way from President Kennedy and Scoop Jackson. Fuck, it took a Labour PM to push Bill Clinton into intervening in a genocide. It's a damn shame, too.
If only a few thousand deaths comprise a genocide, what is Bush's (and Obama contributed a little, too) massacre of a million Iraqis, plus half a million before that from sanctions. History books may note this as the 3rd biggest non-war, non-provocation massacre in history, after the 6 million Jews and 4 million Armenians. As the US justification for not obeying the Geneva Conventions admits, this is no war, it's a police action against a civilian population. President Kennedy was so conservative that the conservative newspapers in Texas were calling for his head the day they killed him. He called off the Bay of Pigs, he was going to smash the CIA into a thousand pieces, and he was planning to wind down in Vietnam.
