RESPONSE TO A COLUMN IN THE NEW YORK TIMES
Clinton in action always reminds me of a not particularly pleasant child having a tantrum.
This is not diplomacy.
It is phony posing on the international stage for the sake of a constituency back home.
It does seem American policy abroad is almost never in the U.S.'s own enlightened, long-term interests.
It always has its roots in playing up to domestic constituencies. That might not be so bad were American politics themselves something of substance, but they are decidedly not.
Name-calling, ranting, puffery, ideologue thick-headedness – it truly is a sad spectacle for a supposedly great nation.
This juvenile approach to world affairs is not new. There have been countless iterations since World War II.
The more than forty years of stupid behavior towards Cuba is exactly the same completely childish nonsense. The occasional, tiresome name-calling towards China is more of the same.
Ahmadinejad may not rank high as a diplomat, but one cannot help appreciating his sense of humor and readiness to prick the balloons of the pretentious and phony.
And few near the top of American politics have proved him- or herself a more embarrassing phony than Clinton.
