Foreign Policy Experience
To stay on good terms with a wide range of neighbors, one should never make any requests of them that would exert pressure on their lifestyles, even for the briefest of periods.
--There. That's it. From all that I can see, that's all that one needs to know to be able to conduct foreign policy successfully. (This assumes, of course, that you already know all the basics of being a decent human being.)
Therefore I can't understand why high on the list of qualifications that people would like to see in candidates for U.S. President is foreign policy experience.
I would think that if a person has ever lived in a neighborhood filled with people whose interests are different from his in every way, as I have, having spent much of the first part of my life in deeply majority so-called "black" surroundings and now appearing to spend the end of my days in deeply majority so-called "white" surroundings, and yet that person knew who his neighbors were and he stayed on good terms with them all, then he already has all the foreign policy knowledge, qualifications, experience, and instincts that a good Chief Executive would ever need.
Perhaps by asking a candidate how he or she thinks they will do in foreign policy, one is really asking, "When you do have to interact with leaders of other countries, can you climb down off your normal master-slave attitudes long enough to behave with the same decency, humility, and respect for others that you would show during your neighbor's backyard barbecue -- that is, before you start tossing back a few?"
Once, when he was President -- in Japan I think it was -- the father of the man who is currently in the same guise and who is now trundling around in Africa so as to give the impression that his heart is in the right place allowed himself to get so zoned out at a high level diplomatic event that he fell out of his chair, in full view of cameras and the world. And that's the kind of thing that one has to worry about whenever this son goes abroad.
So, more important than foreign policy experience would be a candidate's promise to keep his country in at least a semblance of a good light by making sure his mind stays alert and his torso upright in all situations everywhere.
--There. That's it. From all that I can see, that's all that one needs to know to be able to conduct foreign policy successfully. (This assumes, of course, that you already know all the basics of being a decent human being.)
Therefore I can't understand why high on the list of qualifications that people would like to see in candidates for U.S. President is foreign policy experience.
I would think that if a person has ever lived in a neighborhood filled with people whose interests are different from his in every way, as I have, having spent much of the first part of my life in deeply majority so-called "black" surroundings and now appearing to spend the end of my days in deeply majority so-called "white" surroundings, and yet that person knew who his neighbors were and he stayed on good terms with them all, then he already has all the foreign policy knowledge, qualifications, experience, and instincts that a good Chief Executive would ever need.
Perhaps by asking a candidate how he or she thinks they will do in foreign policy, one is really asking, "When you do have to interact with leaders of other countries, can you climb down off your normal master-slave attitudes long enough to behave with the same decency, humility, and respect for others that you would show during your neighbor's backyard barbecue -- that is, before you start tossing back a few?"
Once, when he was President -- in Japan I think it was -- the father of the man who is currently in the same guise and who is now trundling around in Africa so as to give the impression that his heart is in the right place allowed himself to get so zoned out at a high level diplomatic event that he fell out of his chair, in full view of cameras and the world. And that's the kind of thing that one has to worry about whenever this son goes abroad.
So, more important than foreign policy experience would be a candidate's promise to keep his country in at least a semblance of a good light by making sure his mind stays alert and his torso upright in all situations everywhere.
posted by Carl (aka Sofarsogoo) | 8:13 AM
2 Comments:
"When you do have to interact with leaders of other countries, can you climb down off your normal master-slave attitudes long enough to behave with the same decency, humility, and respect for others that you would show during your neighbor's backyard barbecue -- that is, before you start tossing back a few?"
Now, there's a question I'd like to see asked in a debate or elsewhere.
All of Bush Sr.'s foreign policy experience didn't do him any good during the incidence in Japan. Nor did Junior learn a thing from his daddy's knee. Nor does it help to have experienced advisers if you don't listen to them.
In fact, I can think of a whole host of 'real life' questions I'd like to put to any candidate.
Hi, Andante. Thanks much for pursuing your line of thought in your weblog.
It made my day!
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