Hell, Paul, at least you didn’t have to start a guest-posting gig in the midst of it all, and try to make it interesting and fresh.
About The Author
BooMan
Martin Longman a contributing editor at the Washington Monthly. He is also the founder of Booman Tribune and Progress Pond. He has a degree in philosophy from Western Michigan University.
zizi has written another wonderful post about the President and his moves on the foreign policy chessboard.
……………………
Can Y’all smell What Pres Obama’s cooking?
By zizi2
No I’m not talking about the acrid smell of Boehner’s singeing flesh as he roasts in PBO’s Veto threats as well as the bonfire that is Congress. That is subject for another diary. No, I’m talking about PBO’s Foreign Policy chestnuts roasting beautifully.
The Burma Blueprint a Model for Iran Detente
Prez Obama really works best when there’s a melee brewing all around him. And so it was in 2011 when the GOP debt ceiling hostage taking was underway, he moved swiftly to accelerate the diplomatic thaw between the US and Burma. DC was clueless about how that happened and predictably gave PBO very little credit.
In his speech in Rangoon, PBO said:
“When I took office as President, I sent a message to those governments who ruled by fear: We will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist. So today I’ve come to keep my promise and extend the hand of friendship.”
He lived up to his promise as Times reported:
“Shortly after taking office, Obama eased American foreign policy toward greater engagement with Burma’s generals. Naysayers predicted that the clutch of xenophobic generals would not respond. But for whatever reason, Burma’s opening soon followed. For an American leader who calls himself the country’s “first Pacific President” and has pivoted U.S. foreign policy toward Asia in an effort to hedge China, the good news coming out of Burma couldn’t have occurred at a more opportune time.”
A fledgling but empowered Burmese government proceeded to enact reforms, following which President Obama quickly reinforced support by first sending then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton there, followed by his own visit 2 weeks after reelection.
“Thein Sein’s government has introduced a raft of substantive reforms, allowing opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy to participate in April polls that resulted in her becoming an elected member of parliament, hacking away at press censorship, releasing political prisoners and signing cease-fires with some of the ethnic militias that had been battling the central government for decades. In return, the U.S., like many other Western nations, has eased the economic sanctions that had further isolated an already reclusive regime and pushed it into China’s economic embrace. Just a few months ago, the Rangoon airport where Obama landed was decorated with advertisements for local instant-coffee brands and jewelry companies owned by the regime’s cronies. Now, the biggest sign in baggage claim is a Coca-Cola advertisement: “Cola Welcome to Myanmar.””
**
Burma was a blueprint for how PBO quickly seizes unexpected openings to propel stakeholders (even those with with unsavory records) otherwise paralyzed by fear, to just go for it. He showed the Burmese military junta that he was more interested in the real goal of reversing Burma’s isolation from the world and restoring democracy, than justifiably punishing them their horrendous record of repression.
So he encouraged them to reverse political repression, lift house arrest on Aung San Suu Kyi and allow her buy-in into the transforming political system. In a perverse way that action brought Suu Kyi down from her long standing perch as political martyr to the realm of mortal politician member of parliament. While these moves risked appearing to have prematurely validated the Burmese leaders’ feeble steps toward democracy. But it worked, And now Burma is no longer outcast but grappling with the mundane task of governance and succeeding or failing at it.
read the rest of this terrific piece:
http://theobamadiary.com/2013/09/19/can-yall-smell-what-pres-obamas-cooking/#comment-832876
Failing certainly in terms of its treatment of religious minorities.
Sullivan has already linked to you once.
What in the hell?
They want to continue to whitewash American history by denying the truth of the Black person in America.
As a Black person, there are three books that shook me and explained to me myself in America
Invisible Man was one of those books.
The others being The Fire Next Time and The Miseducation of the Negro.
Read them all in the same American Lit class in high school.
Here in our county, we are also dealing with the revisionist historians on the right.
This effort is going on all around the country. It is a full court press on both history and science.
What doesn’t belong in a Randolph County Public School? (Choose one)
Corporal Punishment Option Upheld in Randolph Co. Schools
Very cool that you are guesting. Break a leg. Or … whatever.