and NOW, something from tango-land
this is precisely the kind of stuff that we NEVER get in u.s. media cuz, after all, who basically gives a shit about what's happening in other countries, right...? but, it's damn interesting nonetheless... here's our simian prez, schmoozing argentine president kirchner, and the Buenos Aires Herald cocks an eyebrow in their editorial... (and, btw, did anyone else know that dubya was going to be visiting argentina eight months from now...?)
boldface emphases are mine...
A Bush in the hand ...
"United States President George W. Bush’s 20-minute telephone call to President Néstor Kirchner on Tuesday morning (the first direct contact between the two men in the last 17 months) should be placed firmly in a regional rather than bilateral context. Bush’s praise of economic progress and positive view of investment prospects were so much flattery (even if a nine percent growth rate is impressive by any standards) — the bottom line is Argentina’s contribution to regional stability. The policies of the centre-left Kirchner administration may not all be to the taste of the Bush team (which would doubtless welcome a more positive attitude towards joint military exercises or Northrop radar contracts, for example) but this does not matter if Argentina is doing more to bolster than disrupt stability in the region — by maintaining peacekeepers in Haiti or defending the beleaguered Carlos Mesa government in Bolivia (enlightened self-interest for Argentina if it values this winter’s gas supplies). If Argentina alarms Washington at all as a weak link in the region, it is far more for the sloppy incompetence exposed by the Southern Winds cocaine-smuggling scandal than for any hostile intentions.
The timing of the call was perhaps significant — on the same day as the summit in Venezuela between host president Hugo Chávez, Brazil’s Luiz Inácio “Lula” da Silva, Colombia’s Alvaro Uribe and Spanish premier José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero (from which Bush may even have been trying to distract attention). Undoubtedly fears of Chávez were at the heart of Bush’s call and Washington’s concern about Venezuela’s destabilizing role in the region is legitimate if probably exaggerated. Chávez may be buying arms from Spain and Brazil among others but this could also be “toys for the boys” — for all its populist rhetoric, the Chávez régime is firmly military in both origins and staffing. And how could Uribe possibly appear at the summit if Chávez funding of Colombia’s FARC guerrillas were the proven fact Washington often implies?
With Bush due here in eight months’ time, Argentina’s relationship with the US seems in good shape even if next month’s vote on Cuba’s human rights record will be an earlier test. But within a region generally swinging to the centre-left, Bush’s conservatives are forced to choose between governments which export their mistakes and governments which do not and they would definitely place Argentina in the latter category." Submit To Propeller
Tweet
boldface emphases are mine...
A Bush in the hand ...
"United States President George W. Bush’s 20-minute telephone call to President Néstor Kirchner on Tuesday morning (the first direct contact between the two men in the last 17 months) should be placed firmly in a regional rather than bilateral context. Bush’s praise of economic progress and positive view of investment prospects were so much flattery (even if a nine percent growth rate is impressive by any standards) — the bottom line is Argentina’s contribution to regional stability. The policies of the centre-left Kirchner administration may not all be to the taste of the Bush team (which would doubtless welcome a more positive attitude towards joint military exercises or Northrop radar contracts, for example) but this does not matter if Argentina is doing more to bolster than disrupt stability in the region — by maintaining peacekeepers in Haiti or defending the beleaguered Carlos Mesa government in Bolivia (enlightened self-interest for Argentina if it values this winter’s gas supplies). If Argentina alarms Washington at all as a weak link in the region, it is far more for the sloppy incompetence exposed by the Southern Winds cocaine-smuggling scandal than for any hostile intentions.
The timing of the call was perhaps significant — on the same day as the summit in Venezuela between host president Hugo Chávez, Brazil’s Luiz Inácio “Lula” da Silva, Colombia’s Alvaro Uribe and Spanish premier José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero (from which Bush may even have been trying to distract attention). Undoubtedly fears of Chávez were at the heart of Bush’s call and Washington’s concern about Venezuela’s destabilizing role in the region is legitimate if probably exaggerated. Chávez may be buying arms from Spain and Brazil among others but this could also be “toys for the boys” — for all its populist rhetoric, the Chávez régime is firmly military in both origins and staffing. And how could Uribe possibly appear at the summit if Chávez funding of Colombia’s FARC guerrillas were the proven fact Washington often implies?
With Bush due here in eight months’ time, Argentina’s relationship with the US seems in good shape even if next month’s vote on Cuba’s human rights record will be an earlier test. But within a region generally swinging to the centre-left, Bush’s conservatives are forced to choose between governments which export their mistakes and governments which do not and they would definitely place Argentina in the latter category." Submit To Propeller
Tweet
posted by profmarcus at
4/01/2005
