Dr. Devyani Khobragade - The Pentagon Finally Weighs In
After months of indecisive dithering by the White House the Pentagon has taken the initiative expressing it's disgust at the treatment of former Indian Deputy Counsel, Dr Devyani Khobragade.
It seems also likely that the Obama administration has finally woken up to what is at stake if relations with India go down the toilet.
As I said earlier, what is incredible is the ignorant petty bureaucracy and pseudo-principled stances which have shattered normalcy in U.S.-India diplomatic relations-most especially for U.S. diplomats based in India who had a status equaled by no other foreign representatives.
U.S. staff have in the past, gotten away with, dare I say it, crimes which would have landed individuals in special detention facilities, such as Fort Leavenworth, had they occurred in the U.S. but much has been overlooked by Indian authorities, in the interests of good bilateral relations, so individuals have been, in the past, quietly shipped back home to avoid public humiliation. This will not be the case henceforth.
It is likely that the India media will go to town on the more serious past violations of Indian laws as this row continues to evoke passions like no other on the Indian sub-continent.
The question always is will the U.S. learn anything. The answer is that it will not. It's not the fate of superpowers of the past, the present nor the future to take lessons from their clients. However, as a onetime student of history, I appreciate that it is the fate of empires to fall when all the Barbarians decide they have had enough of 'Rome rule', bury their vast differences just to overwhelm the empire. Such was the case when the Helvetians (Swiss), Germanic and Gallic Tribes all overwhelmed the Empire's defenses in the 5th century A.D. (I used to know all of their names off by heart but time and age have taken their toll - so I must now refer you to historical records to verify these facts.)
But history lessons aside, it's taken an incredibly long time for the Obama administration to weigh in on this debacle-and even with it's involvement the President is still taking the high ground in the mistaken belief that, being above the fray, by not commenting, he is doing a service to U.S. and allied interests.
I remember the childhood story, 'The Emperor's New Clothes' ("Keiserens nye Klæder") by Hans Christian Andersen. President Obama would not waste time to read it - and start to think outside the box on this particular diplomatic incident.
Patrick Emek
http://www.firstpost.com/world/pentagon-expresses-dismay-over-handling-of-khobragade-case-1315531.html?fb_action_ids=700562916621999&fb_action_types=og.likes&fb_source=feed_opengraph&action_object_map={%22700562916621999%22%3A786360744713079}&action_type_map={%22700562916621999%22%3A%22og.likes%22}&action_ref_map=[]
http://www.financialsense.com/contributors/ugo-bardi/peak-civilization
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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/8438599/What-led-to-the-fall-of-the-Roman-Empire.html
//www.andersen.sdu.dk/vaerk/hersholt/TheEmperorsNewClothes_e.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/End_of_Roman_rule_in_Britain