ON THE ROAD TO EREWHON
Yesterday, Condileeza Rice returned from a "grueling" week-long tour of the Middle East, running a last minute errand for her Man in the White House and leaving bootprints for Canada’s Peter MacKay to follow in.
At first glance it seemed a noble effort- Condi’s chit-chat with regional leaders- but as they chatted there was a lot of sniggering up sleeves. After all, who could really take either her or her Canadian puppy very seriously?
In the end- as far as Rice was concerned- it was a truly pathetic sight. Still, it was all in keeping with the history of her tenure in Bush’s Washington. (She did say that she’d invite some of the boys to Washington for more "talks" next month). But the fact is- Rice had never really wanted to talk with anyone.
She certainly didn’t want to talk to Iran for fear of appearing to be a "supplicant"; so it’s all the more mystifying as to why she went on bended knee to the Emirs and Princes of the Gulf looking ever so much like a "supplicant".
When she first arrived in Washington 7 years ago she was all concerned about intercontinental ballistic missiles and not at all concerned about the Middle East. Now- with just a few months left in Washington, she is all concerned about the Middle East and not at all about ballistic missiles.
Incredibly, Condi insisted that the Israel-Hezbollah conflict in Lebanon made a Middle East peace deal more promising; but polls say that the Israeli public think the conflict with the Hezbollah was a boondoggle. The Israeli Prime Minister may even be forced to resign over it. If that happens who will she meet with next month in Washington? (Maybe just Peter).
Whatever happens next, this past trip just shows how utterly irrelevant Ms. Rice is to any future peace in the region, even though she never expected any "breakthrough". "I’m not coming with a propsal", she said. "I’m not coming with a plan."
No proposal.
No plan.
No impact.
Just 6 days of round-the-clock travel, some talks & maybe some tentative appointments for next month…and nothing at all accomplished.
American taxpayers ought to be outraged.
As for the Canadian puppet Minister, whose strings are pulled by an unseen American bureaucrat in Washington…he wasted slightly less money than Condi. (That’s because he flies a smaller plane and has one helper instead of 60). But he accomplished about the same as his American Idol: nada as they say in Venezuela.
"This was very much an opportunity for me to listen", he said. "And that again is behind my visit to the region. What I’m going to do, throughout my time here in the region, is meet with other important players here, that’s my intention, and to listen carefully."
Nothing at all.
Perhaps Mr. Khan will do better.
Apart from his dad being a Mulroney rollover bumboy, what qualified Peter for public life other than his sly genes?
Lost in cyberspace is my contibution for Reed, Sam and I to become fantastically rich in a global search for “Saddamian Idol” but
we clever ones will survive.
I offer Reedwrites another golden copyright, a bestselling trash-tv retro high-school drama featuring Pete the Sneak, Belinda Disasta, “American cousin” Bambi Rice and don’t forget the terminally vacuous Ben Mulroney who no doubt struggled so hard and alone to become a frontline compere in Canadian entertainment-with-no-meaning, although history will probably judge him as more honorable than his phony-irish da.
Seriously though…if this is the student-cast…. who would the teachers be?
We old farts already know that, it’s why the nightmare continues.
L.A. The fact that you acknowledge the Mulroney family “irishness” is interesting. I would have thoought that they were part of that genetically impure strain of barbarians who infected the irish in those dark days during the advent of “christianity”.
Genetically impure, aren’t we all. Now I’ll have to go look up the polluting of Irish Christianity.
Now if Martin Mulroney (isn’t that interesting, his real name, wonder if is parents considered Paul….) had remained on the other side of the ocean, he would have become a “barrow-boy” a “spiv”, a “chancer”, a “corner-boy”, or if he had a more working-class sartorial dedication, a “teddy-boy”…..
Instead he grew up here and became a successful fake-Rolex salesman.
It occurred to me later…. in response to your penetrating fulminations on our new breed of leadership, I mentioned “Mulroney” two or three times.
Significant in that he was a previous architect-in-residence who cleverly presided over the biggest dumbing-down in Canadian history (no-one ever suggested he was an airhead like his son….)
I don’t blame Mulroney, I blame dumb Canadian voters.
But we’re still ‘way ahead of USA.
Poor buggers.
ps…Oh my God…would Canadians vote for Ben Mulroney…?
the nightmare continues