The New Devil Wears Diplomacy
by Jeff Swenson, Art Editor
April 20, 2009
Obama is taking heat for politely conversing with Venezuela dictator Hugo Chavez and accepting a gift book. I’m not sure what people want Obama do? Throw the gift back at Chavez and start an argument?
So, what exactly did Chavez give to Obama? An influential leftist track from 1971 entitled “Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent,” which is about mineral extraction and Spanish colonial legacies. The book rose to number two on the Amazon best-sellers list, giving the publisher better publicity than the best astroturf viral campaign ever could hope for.
The art of diplomacy has to do with taking on your enemies and getting them to do what you want. You can’t use the “Bush” doctrine as a guidepost forever. I don’t care for Hugo Chavez or Fidel Castro or Iran either, but diplomacy is needed because we can’t go to war with everyone.
Obama is going to make his mistakes, but at least he is sizing up America’s opponents without idle threats. Time will tell, but a new approach to diplomacy may actually make progress.
Birds of a feather will flock together. What these two lefties have in common is astonishing–both are without a doubt socialist, both are consolidating power to gain total control of existing governmental groups (Obama using DHS and EPA and converting them into political organs instead of what they were intented for, both are nationalizing means of production and distribution. An old story played out many times in history. Your cartoon is cute and expresses your view very well . I use them on my site also, although my views are definately to the right of your, I do however respect civil discourse and opposing views. I do tire of the many on the left playing the race card at every turn. Many who come to my site have nothing to offer but that and I quickly tire of that old line. Visit me some time at TOTUS.