It’s an indication of what a waste of time this year’s Summit of the Americas was that the only newsworthy items were:
- the threat by ALBA countries (most notably Venezuela, Bolivia, and Ecuador) to boycott future summits if the United States and Canada veto an invitation to Cuba … again;
- the ” wheels-up, rings-off” shenanigans of U.S. Secret Service agents being exposed after one of them caused an international incident by bickering with a local prostitute over a measly $47 charge;
- and an embarrassing gaffe by President Obama.
In fact the countries of the Americas have become so polarized along pro-American and anti-American/pro-Chinese lines that the 31 heads of state could not even bring themselves to issue the customary, pro-forma joint communique on charting the future of the hemisphere. (For more on this burgeoning Cold War II polarization, and on what it portends, I refer you to my April 12 commentary China Invading U.S. Sphere of Influence….)
Indeed, according to a report in today’s edition of the Globe and Mail, they agreed on one thing:
The U.S.-led war on drugs has been a dismal failure.
Which of course is rather like agreeing that the Sun rises in the east. This is why, among the few newsworthy items listed above, the one most worthy of comment is the gaffe.
President Obama’s undisputed intelligence and reputation for giving awe-inspiring speeches have enabled him to get away with gaffes that made his predecessor, George W. Bush, seem like a glorified dunce. Imagine the ridicule, for example, if it were Bush who wrote the wrong date in the Westminster Abbey guest book, or continued toasting the Queen after the British national anthem started playing during his state visit to the UK last year….
Well, Obama committed a truly Bush-worthy malapropism yesterday during his keynote speech at this summit in Cartagena, Columbia. Specifically, in attempting to impress his Spanish-speaking audience by referring to the disputed Falkland Islands by their Spanish name, he said Maldives instead of Malvinas.
Malvinas of course is the archipelago that lies off the east coast of South America; Maldives is an archipelago that lies off the south coast of India.
But what made this such a diplomatic blunder is that Obama was actually trying to pander in an even more brazen fashion. For reports are that in private discussions almost all of the Latin American leaders were as unified in their opposition to the United States continuing its embargo against Cuba as they were in their opposition to the United States continuing its support of Britain in its ongoing dispute with Argentina over the Falklands — notwithstanding protestations of neutrality by every U.S. president from Reagan to Obama.
Therefore, Obama was clearly hoping for a triumph of charm over substance by using the Latin American name for the islands in this context. Never mind that, even if he got it right, most leaders would probably have been as charmed as cold fish….
Meanwhile:
The Falklands are little more than a bleak and desolate cluster of rocks dotting the South Atlantic Ocean some 8,000 miles from Britain. Therefore, when British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher dispatched the Royal Navy there in 1982 to oust Argentine forces, I thought she was acting pursuant to some quixotic, neocolonial notion of extraterritorial sovereignty.
It never occurred to me that she went to war in the Falklands for the same reason U.S. President George W. Bush went to war in Iraq two decades later; namely, oil.
(“Argentina vs. Britain over Falklands … Still?” The iPINIONS Journal, February 26, 2010. For more on this dispute, I refer you to this 2010 commentary linked to below.)
That said, it would be remiss of me not to at least share this pithy comment on the U.S. Secret Service Agents who were caught being serviced not so secretly:
All of the agents and military personnel who enlisted the services of Columbian prostitutes (21 of them at last count) were relieved of duty and sent home in disgrace within hours after the hotel called local police to settle the pay dispute. The potential they created to compromise the president’s safety is beyond measure. This is why they are now facing an ignominious end to their careers.
But surely the greater worry for each of them will be trying to convince his wife that, even though the entire unit is being disciplined, he was not personally involved with any prostitute…. Yeah, good luck with that.
Related commentaries:
China invading U.S…
Argentina vs. Britain…