President Dilma Rouseff cancels state visit
Canceling a state visit, President Dilma Rouseff of Brazil resisted the fading charms of President Obama as he tried to smooth things over concerning reports of the NSA spying on her and her people. Reportedly a twenty minute phone call was not enough to convince the South American leader to budge beyond a terse statement: "The illegal interception of communications data belonging to citizens, companies and members of the Brazilian government are a grave matter, an assault on national sovereignty and individual rights, and are incompatible with relations between friendly nations,".
What President Rouseff failed to understand along with most world leaders, is the fact that the United States has no friends. The United States has partners, associates and allies. These relationships only retained their value as long as the United States sees value in maintaining said relationships. When said relationships fail to yield expected outcomes, that relationship is terminated until conditions are advantages again. Nothing personal, just business.
The White House's sheepish response from Jay Carney: “broad relationship” between Brazil and the United States “should not be overshadowed by a single bilateral issue, no matter how important or challenging the issue may be.” Translation: "No matter how we screw you over, we still need to do business."
In an effort to save face, the U.S. squirmed out of the snub by agreeing to meet when conditions permit. At last look, the two nations will reportedly revisit talks about a state visit sometime in the future. Clearly, this is a don't call me I'll call you type of thing!
BTW, it should be noted the Brazilians were a bit pissed over the U.S.' tepid support for Brazil's bid for a seat on the U.N. Security Council. Hey, if they hooked up India, why not Brazil?
One has to wonder if the Obama administration really understand the depths of the world's anger and building animosity over what the United States/NSA is doing. Perhaps they just don't give a damn, as long as they can sell the "keeping the world safe from terror" argument going.
Still, the international community is finding the message of "fighting terrorism" offers little comfort when they realize the U.S. government has the ability to review, analyze, categorize and profile every aspect of anybody's life. Anybody!
Perhaps, its too late to stop the runaway intelligence gathering programs. Perhaps the world is already being held hostage by forces hell bent on keeping these intrusive programs alive and well. Perhaps those benefiting from the kick backs, cost overruns, lobby money, etc. are too ingrained to be purged without a full blown revolution. Considering Americans seem to have no stomach for something so disruptive, perhaps they've already won. If Americans can't stop them, nobody can.
In preparation for the U.N. General Assembly next week, will return Monday 09.23.2013 with a full video podcast of the week's hottest issues.
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