Saturday, November 3, 2012

Hillary's Balkan schmaltzfest

Hillary Clinton wrapped up her tour of the Balkan states in Albania yesterday, a country with the population of Chicago but with a vote at the UN and a promising route for an oil pipeline.

Clinton congratulated her hosts on a hundred years of independence, although for virtually all of that hundred years the country has been under the heel of one major power or another. She also larded on the usual baloney about democracy etc.

Clinton addressed the Albanian parliament with a speech that celebrated one hundred years of imaginary friendship and promised that America would be their imaginary best friend for the next hundred, at least so long as they strengthened their commitment to freedom and democracy and were open to American investment.

Meanwhile, among American allies on the other side of the Mediterranean, Kuwait and Bahrain are busy turning the screws on their opposition, and in the "only democracy in the Middle East" the main topic of discussion in the past week has been to what extent the Palestinian population can be further disenfranchised without giving away too much to the BDS campaign.

Bet none of them will be getting a Clinton lecture on the virtues of democracy any time soon.

No comments:

Post a Comment