Saturday, August 23, 2008

Bankrupt

OK, it's the weekend, which means another visit to Watching America to see what the rest of the world is seeing and saying. The translations and reports were obviously put before the momentous news of Sen. Barack Obama's selection for his running mate (I'm still not sure that under our present primary/caucus system the nominee should get to pick the Vice President, but I'll put that aside for the time being), so that narrowed the subjects down for me somewhat.

The Russian incursion into Georgia is still big news, especially in Europe, and for good reason. What I found surprising is that other regions of the world also felt the sting of that whole disaster keenly and correctly analysed the situation. Perhaps the most poignant was this article in Lebanon's Ya Lignan (which, by the way, is a nifty web site).

In this op-ed piece, the author did a good job in providing some of the back-story to the whole tragedy, and, when he compared what he found to what he knew, he drew the right conclusions:

What is intriguing is that once again the US stood idle while one of its allies was ripped to pieces by another nation. Doesn’t this sound familiar? It should, a few months ago; the 14th of March Movement often rattled the sword, threatening that America would intervene if Hizbollah was to cause trouble in Lebanon or try to overthrow the Lebanese government. Well, the US never came to the rescue when Hizbollah and their allies pounded pro-government parties in Beirut, as they never came to the rescue when Russia pounded Georgian Forces in South Ossetia.

It is however of importance to mention that Secretary Rice called on Russian Forces to immediately stop their progression into Georgia. How hypocritical coming from a country that traveled across the World to invade another sovereign Nation and propagate the Neoconservative agenda throughout the Middle East. With scores of dead civilians and a devastated Iraq, with a growing insurgence and terrorism becoming as popular as YouTube videos of George Bush’s illiteracy, how can the US regain it's composure?


The US will not "regain it's [sic] composure" under this administration, and perhaps even the next or any time soon. The effect of our foreign policy for the last nearly 8 years is so fully entrenched that it may take decades to weed out the influences of the neocons and their bastards. We will continue to talk tall in terms of "let's you and him fight" and then we will take our seats on the sideline while hundreds, thousands, and hundreds of thousands die.

And our response will be ... wait, let me recall the phrase ... yes, that's it:

"You screwed up. You trusted us."

Kyrie eleison.

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1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

I don't believe it will take us a long term to regain our former respect provided we have a Bill Clinton type president. Since Obama is essentially a total unknown, it difficult is, therefore, to foresee whether he'll regain the world's respect. Furthermore, he seem to be a mediocre fighter so far.

It is still a very dueable task. Most of the world still looks up to us.

8:24 PM  

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