Bob Dylan sang "The Times They Are A Changin' at the White House a while back.The fact that he was invited is self evident that something has changed.
In the days he wrote that song the establishment considered him persona non grata.
He was as likely to be invited to the White House back then as Fidel Castro was.
Anyway, a while back we mentioned that the 4th Fleet had been resurrected from a mothball death to be sent to "purtek Amurka" down south where the oil is.
Brazil and neighbors have come into an oil boom of sorts, so MOMCOM thinks they need some "protection".
What has changed is that those nations, facing the business end of the barrels of the 4th Fleet boomers, are not dancing to MOMCOM songs right now.
In fact, Brazil even after being threatened with MOMCOM might has stood up:
Brazil rebuffed a U.S. appeal for new sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program, vowing during a visit from U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton not to "bow down" to gathering international pressure.(Huffington Post). Other South American nations, now of more interest to MOMCOM due to their oil holdings, are also outspoken against her.
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva pre-empted Clinton even before she could make the case for new United Nations Security Council penalties. Silva is an outspoken opponent of sanctions, and his country currently sits on the Security Council, which will be asked to approve its toughest-ever penalties on Iran later this year.
The cards are all on the table, then, so now we watch to see who has the poker hand and who has the bluff.
Looks like even the mighty MOMCOM has over played her hand this time. Only so many countries we can bully with the current force structure and I think we're tapped out already. It's gonnna be a hard row to hoe when we begin our serious decline and the nations we bullied for the last century decide they've had enough of our crap. Looks like we're seeing signs of that already.
ReplyDeletedisaffected,
ReplyDeleteWe are seeing signs of that being spoken around the globe, as the post points out.
One wonders if the domestic attitude toward Joe Slack (Austin, TX IRS bldg. destroyer) has a foreign counterpart which is growing from the same frustration and perception of having been wronged by MOMCOM?
Looks like Brazil is all in. I am wondering what tell allowed them to be so bold? let's look at the recent developments from their point of view. Hondouras has a regime change, curtosy of the US. US builds another military base smack dab on the Columbia-Venezuala border, UK sweeps into Falklands, stirring memories of colonialism, US military in Haiti earthquake response, Iran talks about the danger of the US dollar due to US friends of the government speculators, Soros caught talking about hedge fund manipulation of the Euro, on the heels of the Greece robbery or perhaps it was the French opinion piece explaining why the Europeans saw Obama's foreign policy as a confused no direction known flounder?...I am too weary looking at all these clues, and I just bet the rest of the world is too. Who could have seen this coming? No more endless war?
ReplyDeleteI am also a big fan of Bob Dylan.