'Hard' Diplomacy

You’re walking down the street. You have two guns; a big one and a little one.

You come upon two men, one being robbed by the other, a brute with a club.

The two men turn to you and say, “Help Me!”

The brute with the club says, “Give me a hand. I’m gonna need more than this club. Sell me your gun and I’ll share what I get off this guy with you.”

You say, “Let me get this straight; you want to buy my gun in order to rob this guy more easily. And then you’ll split the spoils with me?”

The robber says, “Right. With one stipulation: I won’t have the money to buy the gun until after I rob him. Loan me the gun, I’ll pay for it afterward and share the spoils besides.”

The un-armed man is stunned and pleads for your assistance in thwarting this robber. “Please, give me a hand. This is all I have. Help me.”

What to do? What to do?

You can’t just loan the mugger a gun. That wouldn't be right.

Here’s the only thing you can do:

You keep the bigger gun, so the mugger can’t turn round and rob you.
(Hey! You’re no dummy.)

Then you loan the smaller gun to man with the club. He robs the unarmed man of everything he has, shooting him in the leg for daring to resist.

The robber pays you for the gun and, with your bigger gun trained on him, he divvies up the loot with you as he said he would.

Honor amongst thieves, after all.

You go buy two more little guns and walk the street looking for another robber with a club. Next time, you’ll sell the bullets, too.

This is what is called ‘US Foreign policy’.

http://www.democracynow.org/2008/1/28/massacre_the_story_of_east_timor

Insult to Injury

You enlist in the US Army.

You want to serve your country, learn a trade, see the world, wear fatigues.

After training, you’re sent to Iraq.

Two weeks in country, you‘re sent on a patrol.

Your vehicle is struck by an IED. It’s not adequately armored because the DoD is trying to hold down the expense of bringing Democracy to the Iraqis.

You are wounded. In the disorder resulting from the attack, you lose your helmet.

You’re medevacked to Germany. One of your limbs is amputated.

You go home. A hero. You’ve sacrificed on the altar of Democracy.

After a while, you get a bill from the government for the cost of your lost helmet.

According to the book, The Three Trillion Dollar War’ by Nobel laureate and former chief World Bank economist, Joseph Stiglitz, and co-author Linda Bilmes of Harvard University, that’s just what happens.

You defaulted on your contract with the government to serve three years by getting injured too soon, thus ending your service before the contract allowed.

Pay up you deadbeat.

http://www.democracynow.org/2008/2/29/stream

Irony

A prince of the House of Windsor enlists in the Army as a matter of duty to his country. He then insists that he see combat with his unit in a foreign war. After much ado, he is surreptitiously assigned to a front-line unit in Afghanistan to fight the Taliban.

A prince of the House of Bush, on the other hand, finagles a commission as a pilot in a back-water Air National Guard unit to avoid combat duty in Vietnam. He then spends most of his time in the Guard AWOL from his post.

Even More Ironic

‘W’, as Commander-in-chief, commits National Guardsmen to extended tours of combat duty in Iraq and Afghanistan.