Monday, September 21, 2009

Bad Omens...

Were I a resident of Afghanistan who had been assisting the U.S. and NATO troops in my country, I would look at CNN.com this morning and start researching the feasibility of a new career in the shrimping industry in the Gulf of Mexico:



Combine that with Poland's latest j'accuse! and it's really starting to feel like deja vu all over again...

If there's one lesson we constantly teach the nations of the world, it's that they can always count on America, but only for about four years at a stretch. We should rightly be leery of foreign entanglements, but we should be equally leery of making promises we have no intention of honoring past the next election cycle.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

The road to recovery will take about as long as it did in the 70's too.

I hate watching history repeat itself, it really sucks to know whats going to happen next.

Gmac

Wolfwood said...

Countries on the Under the Bus List:
Britain
Israel
Honduras
Poland
Czech Republic
Afghanistan
Iraq
Colombia

Also, is Obama continuing Bush's AIDS funding to Africa? If not, is it because he's RAAAAACIST?

Borepatch said...

That's some "Smart Diplomacy" right there.

JimB said...

Obama keeps telling everyone that the world hates/distrusts us. What he and the Dem party doesn't get is this is the reason why they hate/distrust us.

Anonymous said...

The Fudgie Ghost says:

Wolfwood: I would add Georgia (the country, not the state) and Ukraine. (not THE Ukraine anymore---just Ukraine).

Feel bad for all those places. . they look to the US for inspiration and help and we turn our backs on them.

I wouldn't be surprised to see Japan, S. Korea, Singapore, Indonesia, and others in that area throw in with China at this point. They seem to have more of a future than we do and be less susceptible to being tugged back and forth by the electorate. . .

Sad state of affairs to be sure.

Word verification: "prounl"

Feel bad? Penis not hard? Breasts sagging? Worried? Upset? Ask your doctor if Prounl is right for you.

Hunsdon said...

Come on, guys, it's not like the US has always been the most steadfast of friends in any event.

We could ask the Montagnard, the Hmong, the South Vietnamese, the Hungarians, the Poles, the Iraqi Shia and Kurds . . . heck, it might be easier to make a list of peoples the US hasn't broken it's solemn vows of friendship and eternal support to.

I always get confused, but I'm pretty sure it was Gladstone, Disraeli or maybe Palmerston who said that nations have no permanent friends, nations have permanent interests.

It's not like this started with Obama.

staghounds said...

I knew we'd need this poster.

Tam (remotely) said...

Cossack In A Kilt,

"We could ask the Montagnard, the Hmong, the South Vietnamese..."

Did you not catch the "shrimping in the Gulf" and "deja vu" references?

NotClauswitz said...

Back to The Ugly American analogy - and so yeh the guy was actually the good-guy in the story, but that didn't stop the cover and the title from being used as propaganda leverage anyhow because "it fits the narrative."

Anonymous said...

StratFor has an interesting analysis of the Polish missile deal. It makes sense, to me.

As far as Georgia and Ukraine, a quick look at a map shows why it was stupid for us to consider them as NATO members.

I dunno. Folks keep acting like they think Russia oughta dance to our band, and I've noticed a wee tad of Russian disagreement about that. And Russia controls much of Europe's natural gas supply...

And even OUR on-the-ground general in Afghanistan believes we either add beaucoup more troops or fahgeddabouddit.

Art

Unknown said...

The shrimping is going to be tough - they'll have to cross Pakistan or Iran to get close enough to a coast to become boat people. I suspect neither country will approve of that prospect....

Ian Argent said...

Read RKM's Dreadnought and listen to the difficulties the frogs and krauts had in getting perfidious albion to pick a side. Though to be fair, Parliament was being honest in saying they couldn't guarantee a future parliament would follow through on the promise. Honesty of a sort - which we seem to have forgotten.