Dumplomacy
By Paul Edwards
April 07, 2023:
Information Clearing House
-- Diplomacy, that high
and elegant art, the refined, polished form in
which solemn, elevated matters of state are
conducted by grand viziers deemed the wisest
wardens of nations’ fates, has always carried
with it a subtle, vaguely unpleasant aroma of
chicanery.
Since the era of the Congress of Vienna the
ruling class of the world has known that hidden
motives guide the manipulations of such
consummate wizards as sly Talleyrand who, with
infinite guile, had his way by the uncanny
splendor of his deceptions. So beguiling was he
in his intrigue that when he died, Metternich
was moved to ask, “What do you suppose was his
motive”?
The aristocratic style is dead, replaced by the
straightforward, hard-nosed joust of the Big
Three at Yalta, the “who’s tougher?” Kitchen
brawl of Kennedy and Khrushchev, and the
plodding tedium of Kissinger and Tho, but though
the tone is now that of bourgeois business, it
had not become less devious and tricky.
That is, until Trump and Biden. These demented
nincompoops, both clinically diseased, and
convinced of the dominion of The Exceptional
Nation boasting the longest string of lost wars
since Carthage and all in for bluster and
braggadocio, hired repulsive, incompetent
buffoons, let them eschew all restraint in a
rough, insulting, ex cathedra style with no
persuasion in it, and no prospect of success,
that is better described as dumplomacy.
Trump’s Pompeo had all the charm of a Poland
China Hog and the finesse of a Cape Buffalo.
Biden’s Blinken is a Men’s Wear Mannikin, a
Tailor’s Dummy, the embodiment of
insignificance. Their encounters with skilled
diplomats from Russia and China have ranged from
futile to disastrous, and their humiliations
have charted the slo-mo descent of this arrogant
country into its new status as the world’s
laughing stock and a universal joke butt.
But better was to come. Our impaired
President, in the depth of his debility, is now
blurting out high policy himself, upstaging his
house nebbish. To witness Biden’s flights of
rhetoric is disturbing even when he’s coherent,
but he has plumbed a startling new low in what
passes now for statecraft. Historically, it was
understood that what was said diplomatically
concealed hard truth. You lied first, and lived
with truth that leaked out later. Biden’s method
is to blather the truth first and lie about it
later, when it’s no use. This, of course,
defeats the whole purpose of diplomacy.
Case in point: the Nordstream 2 pipeline
bombing. Months ago, when asked what would
happen when the second pipeline was installed,
Biden smirked, saying the U.S. would stop it.
When asked how, he said, “I promise you…we’ll
stop it.” That’s pretty clear. One presumes
there was some policy basis for it. Yet after
the pipeline was blown he flatly denied
responsibility. His two statements are
irreconcilable, as any intelligent child could
see, but that didn’t seem to bother him. Not
until Sy Hersh blew the whistle, called
bullshit, and cited chapter and verse in the
deceit.
Someone with some acuity in an administration
notable for want of same, cried alarm, and Biden
tardily discovered that a sailboat of skindiving
“Ukrainian patriots” had done the noble deed.
And America eagerly swallows this hogwash. There
is not even a whimper of protest at so egregious
and infantile an act of official moral seppuku.
Further, Hersh’s revelations were debunked and
suppressed, and at the U.N., America’s valet
vetoed investigation of a massive criminal
sabotage that was an act of war.
That the ethically rotten, rabidly warmongering,
xenophobic Democratic Congressional coven is
matched with the morally diseased, dishonest,
genetically corrupt, racist, sexist Republican
whores for Capitalism, makes one despair for the
nation. And the American people—who, it used to
be said, was not stupid, until that was clearly
shown to be untrue—who vote for these
monsters—can it be they are not so much stupid
as actually evil?
Views expressed in this article are
solely those of the author and do not necessarily
reflect the opinions of Information Clearing House.
in this article are
solely those of the author and do not necessarily
reflect the opinions of Information Clearing House.
Reader financed- No
Advertising - No Government Grants -
No Algorithm - This
Is Independent
Registration is not necessary to post comments.
We ask only that you do not use obscene or offensive
language. Please be respectful of others.
|