U.S. Foreign Policy

[Mr. Perfect]

During the Bush administration, the outcry was proportional to the offense committed -- not one, but two enormously costly and lethal ground wars.

Yeah, i know you're new to politics but there is was this little event called 9-11 where there was an attempted murder on 50,000 people. If you take a walk around your city you may find where that happened.

Speaking of proportion, at the least the Republican response was muted in comparison to the bloodthirsty FDR. Compare casualties some time.

And we're still in a costly and lethal ground war 2 terms now into AFG, where obama has spent more lives than GWB in the process of surrendering to the Taliban. And what for Zack Morris. And why are you completely ignorant of these facts. I have answers if you can't figure any out.

You'll never have a strong case because Obama does not have a record of starting large-scale wars. Pakistan, Yemen, Libya, Central Africa, Syria... nothing has erupted into a full-scale war and US occupation.

You guys made your position clear that these kinds of actions actually created 9-11. So your President is creating terrorism and actually already responsible for another 9-11 as we speak with your sanction by your own standards.

My case is airtight and incredibly damning to you and people like you.

It's been almost two terms already. Bush wasn't two years into his presidency before turning into Dr. Strangelove.

obama extended the Iraq War to Bush McCain timelines after campaigning on immediate withdrawal and of course we are still in AFG (2 obama terms), and we are getting reinvolved in Iraq again.

Get in touch with reality sometime Zack Morris.

[manolo]

During the Bush administration, the outcry was proportional to the offense committed -- not one, but two enormously costly and lethal ground wars. You'll never have a strong case because Obama does not have a record of starting large-scale wars. Pakistan, Yemen, Libya, Central Africa, Syria... nothing has erupted into a full-scale war and US occupation. It's been almost two terms already. Bush wasn't two years into his presidency before turning into Dr. Strangelove.

Zack,

Yes, you are pretty much on the money with this analysis. Obama has played a bad hand wisely and to best effect. Neither the peacenik nor the warmonger, he has done what is required without the hubris and ideology of the preceding administration.

Alex

[Mr. Perfect]

Other than violating everything he ran on. Other than that. If you discount every single thing he ran on and judge him be neoconservative standards he is doing a great job. A very neoconservative administration.

[Alexis]

That 2009 piece from strategist William Lind remains a good read:

O = W

“O=W” is a bumper sticker beginning to show up on liberals’ cars. After the President’s speech Tuesday night at West Point, I suspect it will spread rapidly.

For eight years, conservatives endured the agony of watching President George W. Bush attach the label “conservative” to a host of policies that were anti-conservative: Wilsonian wars, American empire, vast budget and trade deficits, increased entitlements, and the subordination of America’s interests to those of foreign powers. Now the shoe is on the other foot, and liberals are bidden to hold their tongues as President Obama makes Bush’s wars his own. The usual Washington sell-out is in gear.

It should not come as a surprise. America is now a one-party state. The one party is the Establishment party, which is also the war party. Unless you are willing to cheer permanent war for permanent peace, you cannot be a member of the Establishment.

(...)

The real choice Obama faced was not how many troops to send. We do not have enough troops to commit a militarily meaningful number. The real choice was to get out now or get out later. His duty as Chief Executive, the state of America’s treasury (empty), concern for the well-being of our troops and their families, and the hopelessness of the situation all dictated he get out now. By punting the decision, he showed America and the world what he is made of. December 1, 2009, was the date the Obama Presidency failed.

Only thing to say: Lind's hopes about bumper stickers seem to have been disappointed.

[Doc]

During the Bush administration, the outcry was proportional to the offense committed -- not one, but two enormously costly and lethal ground wars. You'll never have a strong case because Obama does not have a record of starting large-scale wars. Pakistan, Yemen, Libya, Central Africa, Syria... nothing has erupted into a full-scale war and US occupation. It's been almost two terms already. Bush wasn't two years into his presidency before turning into Dr. Strangelove.

Zack,

Yes, you are pretty much on the money with this analysis. Obama has played a bad hand wisely and to best effect. Neither the peacenik nor the warmonger, he has done what is required without the hubris and ideology of the preceding administration.

Alex

Obama is a bigger ass on foriegn policy than he is on domestic policy.

Of course the left hated W but loves Obama. Lybia Pakistan and Yemen not large scale wars? Who are you trying to kid Zack?

Iraqi is up to the Iraqis now not some highly aggressive monster of a dictator. But as has been shown here recently the left loves to look away at the evil of left wing dictators and presidents.

[noddy]

War, whoa, Lord
What is it good for
Industrial Stimulation
Listen to me


War, it ain't nothing
But a profitmaker
War, friend only to the factory worker
Ooooh, war
It's a job for all mankind
The benefits of war blows my mind

etc.

[Mr. Perfect]

74% of US casualties in AFG came under obama, who is there for no reason anyone can figure out, other than to surrender to the Taliban. Zack Morris, Tinker, berzer etc silent.

http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/ali ... -increased

Seventy-four percent of the U.S. military personnel who have given their lives serving in the Afghan War died after Feb. 17, 2009, when President Barack Obama announced his first increase in the number of U.S. troops deployed in Afghanistan, according to CNSNews.com’s database of U.S. casualties in the war. - See more at: http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/ali ... 6CEqH.dpuf

[Heracleum Persicum]

.


European papers reporting the new 9/11 report will have dramatic effect on Saudi/US relation

seems, America (west) preparing to freeze, USURP, all Arab oil producing Amirs, Kings, princes money .. excuse is support of terrorism

anybody ready to bet this coming ? ? ?

Monster, Doc, believe on not, now the Iranian are the good guys


Admition of guilt .. applology in the mail


Mosche, relaaaax


.

[Doc]

.


European papers reporting the new 9/11 report will have dramatic effect on Saudi/US relation

seems, America (west) preparing to freeze, USURP, all Arab oil producing Amirs, Kings, princes money .. excuse is support of terrorism

anybody ready to bet this coming ? ? ?

Monster, Doc, believe on not, now the Iranian are the good guys


Admition of guilt .. applology in the mail


Mosche, relaaaax


.

Like I said before AZ We'll see.

[Endovelico]

White House Dares Democratic Senators Pushing Iran Sanctions To Admit They Want War
Posted: 01/09/2014 9:41 pm EST | Updated: 01/10/2014 11:10 am EST

WASHINGTON -- The White House on Thursday challenged a group of senators to admit they are working to push the country toward war with Iran, upping the tension between the administration and Senate advocates of tough new sanctions amid nuclear negotiations.

"If certain members of Congress want the United States to take military action, they should be up front with the American public and say so," Bernadette Meehan, National Security Council spokeswoman, said in a statement. "Otherwise, it’s not clear why any member of Congress would support a bill that possibly closes the door on diplomacy and makes it more likely that the United States will have to choose between military options or allowing Iran’s nuclear program to proceed."

The "certain members" the White House is referring to are led by Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), who is pushing legislation, backed by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, that would tighten sanctions on the Iranian regime despite the ongoing negotiations.

Advocates of a peace deal with Iran warn that toughening sanctions now strengthens the hand of hard-liners in Iran who can argue the U.S. is not negotiating in good faith.

The White House has consistently signaled its opposition to the bill, warning that it could unravel the delicate talks underway, and has promised a veto if it passes. But Thursday's statement is the first public accusation that the senators pushing the bill may have motivations they are not "up front with."

The bill is backed by a majority of the Senate. A Democratic leadership aide told HuffPost Thursday there were no plans to bring the bill to the floor soon.

After Menendez introduced his bill, 10 Democratic committee chairs released a joint letter warning his action could move the nation closer to war. At least 14 other Democrats have so far joined Menendez in bucking the administration.

"It's important to remember that it was sanctions that brought the Iranians to the negotiating table in the first place," Adam Sharon, Menendez's spokesperson, told HuffPost. "The preferred outcome is successful negotiations conducted by the Obama Administration and our allies that results in a peaceful and verifiable termination of Iran's nuclear weapons program."

"Prospective sanctions reinforce this objective should the Iranians fail to negotiate in good faith," he continued. "This legislation endorses the Obama administration's efforts, supports continued negotiations, gives the administration a year of flexibility to secure an agreement, respects the sanctions relief Iran is set to receive, and prevents any new sanctions from taking effect while good-faith negotiations are underway."

Below is Meehan's statement in full:

This bill is in direct contradiction to the Administration’s work to peacefully resolve the international community’s concerns with Iran’s nuclear program. We know that this proposed legislation would divide the international community, drive the Iranians to take a harder line, and possibly end negotiations. This bill would have a negative bearing on the sanctions regime too. Let us not forget: sanctions work because we convinced our partners to take the steps that we seek. If our partners no longer believe that we are serious about finding a negotiated solution, then our sanctions regime would suffer.

If Congress passes this bill, it will be proactively taking an action that will make diplomacy less likely to succeed. The American people have been clear that they prefer a peaceful resolution to this issue. If certain members of Congress want the United States to take military action, they should be up front with the American public and say so. Otherwise, it’s not clear why any member of Congress would support a bill that possibly closes the door on diplomacy and makes it more likely that the United States will have to choose between military options or allowing Iran’s nuclear program to proceed.

The President has been clear that he has a responsibility to fully test whether we can achieve a comprehensive solution through diplomatic means, before he pursues alternatives. Passing new sanctions legislation right now will undermine our efforts to achieve a peaceful resolution.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/0 ... 72003.html

Warmongers pushed Japan into attacking the US back in 1941, and now they are pushing for another war, against Iran. Who knows, maybe the results of a war against Iran will be similar to those of the famous Vietnam war...

[Doc]

Devyani case: Row shows India fell off Obama's map
Rajeev Deshpande,TNN | Jan 12, 2014, 02.52 AM IST

Top US leadership feels row was 'most stupid'
US could have avoided 'mini crisis' in Devyani case: India

NEW DELHI: The bitterness in India-US ties over the Devyani Khobragade case is likely to linger as India squares up to the Obama administration's indifference to a rusting "strategic partnership", glaringly exposed by the diplomat's humiliation.

Khobragade's on street arrest, the indignities she was subjected to in custody and her return amid heightened acrimony strongly point to the much-hailed partnership's decline with US not caring to mask its disinterest.

The vehemence of India's response possibly surprised US, but India could hardly have done otherwise as the deliberation with which the US diplomatic security service acted almost suggests she was being made an example of.

Claims that authorities merely followed the book seem unconvincing as the view grows that US increasingly sees ties with India in transactional terms, with a crib list over market access and stalled reforms obscuring a larger confluence of interests.

US prosecutor Preet Bharara's suggestion that a "legal process was started in India against the victim, attempting to silence her, and attempts were made to compel her to return to India" revealed a view of the Indian system otherwise hailed as a democratic marvel. His wonderment at why outrage in India ignored the "victim" in the case only made matters worse.

The disdain, bordering on insolence, with which US not only shunned subtler ways of dealing with the case filed by Khobragade's former maid but spirited away her family - all Indian citizens - point to a high degree of premeditation.

Despite the quibbling over the scope of consular immunity as against diplomatic immunity, US manuals themselves make it quite plain that handcuffing, leave alone a strip search, is usually precluded in such cases.

The drift in ties has seen the very American business interests like Westinghouse and General Electric that rooted for India bemoaning restricted access and ensuring their woes figure on the agenda of US leaders meeting Indian counterparts.

A deadening of sensitivities has meant that mid-level officers dealing with a case like Khobragade did not think that a higher call is needed as the events could impact relations with an important partner in south Asia.

The all too visible downgrade in priority accorded to India can only expose New Delhi to ridicule in Islamabad and Beijing, given the top billing accorded to the perceived synergy between the two large democracies.

Despite the congealing ties, the nonchalance with which US treated the fallout of the case has not been fully explained, though some quarters see it as a reflection of just how far off India has fallen off the map for the Obama White House.

The audacious disregard of India's legal system and extraction of the maid's family in order to preempt anticipated reprisals against Khobragade's impending arrest points to a return to an older, and what was till recently was felt to be an obsolete, formulation of estranged democracies.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/indi ... 694690.cms?

[Heracleum Persicum]

.


Not Good for the Jews


.

[Typhoon]

In response to a similar article . . .

chindit13 wrote:

A review of all the publicly available information surrounding this case paints a very different picture than that written by Shashi Tharoor.

[Shashi Tharoor (Malayalam: ശശി തരൂര്‍) (born 9 March 1956) is the Indian Minister of State for Human Resource Development, Member of Parliament (MP) from the Thiruvananthapuram of Kerala, an author and a columnist.]

Shashi Tharoor doesn’t speak with people outside of his caste, so his opinions should be considered only within that narrow framework of his carefully filtered existence. Despite his previous work with that 40% US-funded, useless stomping ground of the international irrelevant and accredited boondogglers (aka The United Nations), he is wrong about Ms. Khobragade’s status while posted as an observer to the General Assembly. Perhaps Mr. Tharoor should go back and read the UN bylaws, which quite clearly do not bestow upon her immunity. That privilege is reserved for fully accredited UN staff, not for those temporarily seconded while the General Assembly is in session.

What has the Indian MEA [Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India] and people like Shashi Tharoor so “outraged” is that the US periodically treats all people equally. “Periodically”, as bad as that is, is in stark contrast to Indian society, where the corresponding term is “never”. Privilege in India generally comes from birth, though in a few rare instances it can be granted even to the occasional lower caste member, such as this “diplomat” and her family. That is why her father remains free and out of jail despite a life of (alleged) corruption, which is to say engaging in business as usual in India. Shed not a tear for this woman, or for her father and his threatened hunger strike, as she already has plenty of ill-gotten gains to return to in her native land.

The Indians first tried to stop the case not by appealing to the USG, but rather by intimidating the maid’s family in India, “advising” the family to have the maid drop the charges. Apparently that is Indian-style “rule of law”. In a sidenote, the outrage over the strip search (there was no cavity search…the MEA made that up), the Indian Government itself released figures in 2010 saying that since the turn of the new century, more than 200,000 Indians died while in police custody awaiting trial. Since most all were lower caste or Moslem, the data only has value to India as a bureaucratic curiosity. Taking to task an elite person for abusing her household staff and for visa fraud, however, is an “outrage”.

The investigation was carried out over many months, and the MEA was informed all along the way. Rather than recall the woman, as happens in virtually all criminal cases in which a diplomat is involved, the MEA chose to send a message than in Indian culture, it is the prerogative of the elite to abuse lower caste individuals in any way they wish. It was that arrogance and intransigence that culminated in the eventual arrest.

A miffed Indian MEA is fighting back in the only way it knows how, which is to say with childish arrogance and vindictiveness. The reason it is trying to pretend the granting of observer status at the UN GA grants Khobragade immunity is because the MEA is well aware that according to the Vienna Convention diplomats serving in Consulates, as opposed to Embassies, have immunity only when in the course of doing their work. Outside of work, they are liable just as any private citizen. That Preet Bharara is an ethnic-Indian is just additional salt in the wound. The MEA thinks he should know better than to think the elite are part of the great unwashed masses, equal under the law and all that rubbish. Worse still, Bharara is married to a Moslem. His marriage probably was not arranged, which is yet another cultural slap in the face.

So how is the MEA behaving? It instructed the Delhi municipality to remove security barriers from around the US Embassy in Delhi, despite numerous threats. The MEA also wants to find a way to use India’s recently struck down law that had made homosexuality non-criminal to “catch” any US Consulate personnel who might have a same sex lover. Of course this would mean the Indian government would have to install recording equipment in the bedrooms of Consular staff in order to catch them in flagrante delicto, but there is no such thing as going too far when the entire concept of privilege and superiority by birth or bestowal---which has been the core of Indian social fabric for four thousand years---might be impinged. Heaven forbid the lower castes might dare to consider themselves equal with the Brahmins and other high castes, especially when there’s an upcoming election where the Brahmin-heavy BJP is expected to win and Moslem-hating Narendra Modi, who allowed a massacre of thousands of Moslems in his Gujarat state a decade ago, stands to become the new Prime Minister. Modi is to Gujarat what Bal Thackeray was to Maharastra and Mumbai.

One might give the MEA the benefit of the doubt and accept that in India crime of any nature is rarely punished. For example, in a city of 20 million (Delhi), where violent rapes and gang rapes are a daily if not hourly occurrence, a total of one rape conviction occurred in 2012. Women who report rapes to the police often have the crime ‘re-enacted’ at the police station, at least when the women are not forced to make tea and clean the station.

Of course the US could play child, too, like the MEA, and take steps to counter India’s reaction. For example, the US could announce a major arms deal with Pakistan. It could approach China and ask China to back off the Daioyou/Senkaku issue in exchange for the US completely ignoring India’s ongoing battle with China over disputed boundaries, which would allow China greater access to more dam-able rivers for badly needed power generation.

All of this is a bit of a sideshow, as the next few years will bring major changes to South Asia. With Modi’s election still pretty much assured---to rig a vote is as old as the Rig Veda in India---the likelihood of a nuclear exchange between Moslem Pakistan and the virulently pro-Hindu Modi Government is about 40% over the next decade. The Age of Kali is upon us….or them.

I’ll bet Shashi Tharoor will be quite happy to sit that war out within the borders of the US amidst those “ugly Americans”.

[Doc]

MY experience is that when someone in effect claims another does care about a group of people it is political. Though the US government is known for going off half cocked and actually not caring about lives destroyed or innocent until proven guilty in pursuit of a "perp" And not only that I am still waiting for Obama to criminally charge a bankster for mortgage securities fraud...Just one


http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/30/us/30jewell.html?_r=0

Richard Jewell, 44, Hero of Atlanta Attack, Dies
Greg Gibson/Associated Press, 1997

Richard A. Jewell

By KEVIN SACK
Published: August 30, 2007

ATLANTA, Aug. 29 — Richard A. Jewell, whose transformation from heroic security guard to Olympic bombing suspect and back again came to symbolize the excesses of law enforcement and the news media, died Wednesday at his home in Woodbury, Ga. He was 44.

The cause of death was not released, pending the results of an autopsy that will be performed Thursday by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. But the coroner in Meriwether County, about 60 miles southwest of here, said that Mr. Jewell died of natural causes and that he had battled serious medical problems since learning he had diabetes in February.

The coroner, Johnny E. Worley, said that Mr. Jewell’s wife, Dana, came home from work Wednesday morning to check on him after not being able to reach him by telephone. She found him dead on the floor of their bedroom, he said. Mr. Worley said Mr. Jewell had suffered kidney failure and had had several toes amputated since the diabetes diagnosis.

“He just started going downhill ever since,” Mr. Worley said.

The heavy-set Mr. Jewell, with a country drawl and a deferential manner, became an instant celebrity after a bomb exploded in Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta in the early hours of July 27, 1996, at the midpoint of the Summer Games. The explosion, which propelled hundreds of nails through the darkness, killed one woman, injured 111 people and changed the mood of the Olympiad.

Only minutes earlier, Mr. Jewell, who was working a temporary job as a guard, had spotted the abandoned green knapsack that contained the bomb, called it to the attention of the police, and started moving visitors away from the area. He was praised for the quick thinking that presumably saved lives.

But three days later, he found himself identified in an article in The Atlanta Journal as the focus of police attention, leading to several searches of his apartment and surveillance by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and by reporters who set upon him, he would later say, “like piranha on a bleeding cow.”

The investigation by local, state and federal law enforcement officers lasted until late October 1996 and included a number of bungled tactics, including an F.B.I. agent’s effort to question Mr. Jewell on camera under the pretense of making a training film.

In October 1996, when it became obvious that Mr. Jewell had not been involved in the bombing, the Justice Department formally cleared him.

“The tragedy was that his sense of duty and diligence made him a suspect,” said John R. Martin, one of Mr. Jewell’s lawyers. “He really prided himself on being a professional police officer, and the irony is that he became the poster child for the wrongly accused.”

In 2005, Eric R. Rudolph, a North Carolina man who became a suspect in the subsequent bombing of an abortion clinic in Birmingham, Ala., pleaded guilty to the Olympic park attack. He is serving a life sentence.

Even after being cleared, Mr. Jewell said he never felt he could outrun his notoriety. He sued several major news media outlets and won settlements from NBC and CNN. His libel case against his primary nemesis, Cox Enterprises, the Atlanta newspaper’s parent company, wound through the courts for a decade without resolution, though much of it was dismissed along the way.

After memories of the case subsided, Mr. Jewell took jobs with several small Georgia law enforcement agencies, most recently as a Meriwether County sheriff’s deputy in 2005. Col. Chuck Smith, the chief deputy, called Mr. Jewell “very, very conscientious” and said he also served as a training officer and firearms instructor.

Mr. Jewell is survived by his wife and by his mother, Barbara.

Last year, Mr. Jewell received a commendation from Gov. Sonny Perdue, who publicly thanked him on behalf of the state for saving lives at the Olympics.

[Typhoon]

Misdirection.

[YMix]

Alinskyism.

Fixed.

[Doc]

Misdirection.

Not at all. The fact that the diplomat was hauled off in handcuffs while Banksters and head of big corporations made billions in bonuses for cheating people out of money, and none were perp walked says a hell of a lot. The history backs up my narrative and there is lots of it. There is a growing "caste system" in teh US sponsored by the current occupant of the White House. Had the Indian diplomat not been perp walked, (again something that none of the Banksters were forced to do OR even criminally charged) there is a good chance that the diplomatic row would not have grown legs in India.

As for Ymix's comment The piling on is true of The Government, The Mainly Socialist Media, Hollywood, and the American left. That is who deserves the Alinski label

[YMix]

As for Ymix's comment The piling on is true of The Government, The Mainly Socialist Media, Hollywood, and the American left. That is who deserves the Alinski label

You make a thread about an Indian official blaming her predicament on Obama. When a different view of the event is posted, you start talking about bankers. When you lame attempt to change the subject fails, you double down on it with a "but this is what I meant all along!". Low-grade Alinskyism.

[Doc]

As for Ymix's comment The piling on is true of The Government, The Mainly Socialist Media, Hollywood, and the American left. That is who deserves the Alinski label

You make a thread about an Indian official blaming her predicament on Obama. When a different view of the event is posted, you start talking about bankers. When you lame attempt to change the subject fails, you double down on it with a "but this is what I meant all along!". Low-grade Alinskyism.

Nope I am talking about the context with you apparently choose to ignore. The first response I got included that many people in India are poor and die in jail. Well lets see generally the poor have much more representation in jails. Therefore I suppose it makes sense that more would die in jail The extent which that happens is another matter of course. As in anything that is done in India as this is not India.

In the article CS posted there was the claim of a bogus immunity claim. IN the article I posted there was no claim of immunity but rather:

Despite the quibbling over the scope of consular immunity as against diplomatic immunity, US manuals themselves make it quite plain that handcuffing, leave alone a strip search, is usually precluded in such cases.

The vehemence of India's response possibly surprised US, but India could hardly have done otherwise as the deliberation with which the US diplomatic security service acted almost suggests she was being made an example of.

Which is the point I am making This is a matter of the Obama admin not caring about Indian people making an example of them when he refuses to make an example of those that supported him with campaign contributions. The article submitted counter to the one I initially submitted mis-directs from the real big fat point I am making.

[Typhoon]

Let's keep this thread on topic: US foreign policy.

In this case with India.

Internal US domestic policy belongs in another thread.

[Doc]

Let's keep this thread on topic: US foreign policy.

In this case with India.

Internal US domestic policy belongs in another thread.

Sometimes things don't fit into easy classifications.

[Typhoon]

Let's keep this thread on topic: US foreign policy.

In this case with India.

Internal US domestic policy belongs in another thread.

Sometimes things don't fit into easy classifications.

Yes, but that's not the case here.

[monster_gardener]

In response to a similar article . . .

chindit13 wrote:

A review of all the publicly available information surrounding this case paints a very different picture than that written by Shashi Tharoor.

[Shashi Tharoor (Malayalam: ശശി തരൂര്‍) (born 9 March 1956) is the Indian Minister of State for Human Resource Development, Member of Parliament (MP) from the Thiruvananthapuram of Kerala, an author and a columnist.]

Shashi Tharoor doesn’t speak with people outside of his caste, so his opinions should be considered only within that narrow framework of his carefully filtered existence. Despite his previous work with that 40% US-funded, useless stomping ground of the international irrelevant and accredited boondogglers (aka The United Nations), he is wrong about Ms. Khobragade’s status while posted as an observer to the General Assembly. Perhaps Mr. Tharoor should go back and read the UN bylaws, which quite clearly do not bestow upon her immunity. That privilege is reserved for fully accredited UN staff, not for those temporarily seconded while the General Assembly is in session.

What has the Indian MEA [Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India] and people like Shashi Tharoor so “outraged” is that the US periodically treats all people equally. “Periodically”, as bad as that is, is in stark contrast to Indian society, where the corresponding term is “never”. Privilege in India generally comes from birth, though in a few rare instances it can be granted even to the occasional lower caste member, such as this “diplomat” and her family. That is why her father remains free and out of jail despite a life of (alleged) corruption, which is to say engaging in business as usual in India. Shed not a tear for this woman, or for her father and his threatened hunger strike, as she already has plenty of ill-gotten gains to return to in her native land.

The Indians first tried to stop the case not by appealing to the USG, but rather by intimidating the maid’s family in India, “advising” the family to have the maid drop the charges. Apparently that is Indian-style “rule of law”. In a sidenote, the outrage over the strip search (there was no cavity search…the MEA made that up), the Indian Government itself released figures in 2010 saying that since the turn of the new century, more than 200,000 Indians died while in police custody awaiting trial. Since most all were lower caste or Moslem, the data only has value to India as a bureaucratic curiosity. Taking to task an elite person for abusing her household staff and for visa fraud, however, is an “outrage”.

The investigation was carried out over many months, and the MEA was informed all along the way. Rather than recall the woman, as happens in virtually all criminal cases in which a diplomat is involved, the MEA chose to send a message than in Indian culture, it is the prerogative of the elite to abuse lower caste individuals in any way they wish. It was that arrogance and intransigence that culminated in the eventual arrest.

A miffed Indian MEA is fighting back in the only way it knows how, which is to say with childish arrogance and vindictiveness. The reason it is trying to pretend the granting of observer status at the UN GA grants Khobragade immunity is because the MEA is well aware that according to the Vienna Convention diplomats serving in Consulates, as opposed to Embassies, have immunity only when in the course of doing their work. Outside of work, they are liable just as any private citizen. That Preet Bharara is an ethnic-Indian is just additional salt in the wound. The MEA thinks he should know better than to think the elite are part of the great unwashed masses, equal under the law and all that rubbish. Worse still, Bharara is married to a Moslem. His marriage probably was not arranged, which is yet another cultural slap in the face.

So how is the MEA behaving? It instructed the Delhi municipality to remove security barriers from around the US Embassy in Delhi, despite numerous threats. The MEA also wants to find a way to use India’s recently struck down law that had made homosexuality non-criminal to “catch” any US Consulate personnel who might have a same sex lover. Of course this would mean the Indian government would have to install recording equipment in the bedrooms of Consular staff in order to catch them in flagrante delicto, but there is no such thing as going too far when the entire concept of privilege and superiority by birth or bestowal---which has been the core of Indian social fabric for four thousand years---might be impinged. Heaven forbid the lower castes might dare to consider themselves equal with the Brahmins and other high castes, especially when there’s an upcoming election where the Brahmin-heavy BJP is expected to win and Moslem-hating Narendra Modi, who allowed a massacre of thousands of Moslems in his Gujarat state a decade ago, stands to become the new Prime Minister. Modi is to Gujarat what Bal Thackeray was to Maharastra and Mumbai.

One might give the MEA the benefit of the doubt and accept that in India crime of any nature is rarely punished. For example, in a city of 20 million (Delhi), where violent rapes and gang rapes are a daily if not hourly occurrence, a total of one rape conviction occurred in 2012. Women who report rapes to the police often have the crime ‘re-enacted’ at the police station, at least when the women are not forced to make tea and clean the station.

Of course the US could play child, too, like the MEA, and take steps to counter India’s reaction. For example, the US could announce a major arms deal with Pakistan. It could approach China and ask China to back off the Daioyou/Senkaku issue in exchange for the US completely ignoring India’s ongoing battle with China over disputed boundaries, which would allow China greater access to more dam-able rivers for badly needed power generation.

All of this is a bit of a sideshow, as the next few years will bring major changes to South Asia. With Modi’s election still pretty much assured---to rig a vote is as old as the Rig Veda in India---the likelihood of a nuclear exchange between Moslem Pakistan and the virulently pro-Hindu Modi Government is about 40% over the next decade. The Age of Kali is upon us….or them.

I’ll bet Shashi Tharoor will be quite happy to sit that war out within the borders of the US amidst those “ugly Americans”.

Thank You VERY Much for your post, Typhoon.

Interesting....... Thanks for the explanation....

FWIW this topic has also been discussed in the India thread.....

viewtopic.php?f=29&t=560&start=50#p67518

Maybe she doesn't have full immunity but on the surface it appears odd that she got a strip search while the same Prosecutor Preet said that 49 Russian embassy staffers & family members who ripped off $1.5 million from Uz do have immunity........

Perhaps true but likely to rankle.....

And maybe get some retaliation.......

Would think that something like this should have been run by the Secy. of State first, even if he/she is going to say "What difference does it make?" or the President so he will be prepared to lie that he found out about it in the newspapers...

[Heracleum Persicum]

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Maybe she doesn't have full immunity but on the surface it appears odd that she got a strip search while the same Prosecutor Preet said that 49 Russian embassy staffers & family members who ripped off $1.5 million from Uz do have immunity........

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isn't it odd that suddenly US secretary of energy cancels India visit ? ?

Sayin and sayin, but you guys not listening

this India/US kabuki all about India not adhering to American bullying about Indian policy re future Iran/India "Oil & Gas" contracts

India sayin Iran key for future Indian energy needs, guarantying close relation with Iran .. US/Zionist want to starve Iran of energy export, to slow down Iran .. not working

I posted different articles here confirming the above .. India realized Zionist will not last


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Let's keep this thread on topic: US foreign policy.

In this case with India.

Internal US domestic policy belongs in another thread.

Sometimes things don't fit into easy classifications.

Yes, but that's not the case here.

IMHO I would disagree. Not that I don't think that laws were not broken, but that domestic laws are being selectively enforced based on who is "friends" with whom.