In 1958 a “political novel”, The Ugly American, debuted. “John F. Kennedy was so impressed with the book that he sent a copy to each of his colleagues in the United States Senate.” The book dealt with U.S. foreign policy as implemented in a fictional nation called Sarkhan. Today, the term “ugly American” has become a cliché meaning “evil Americans”. But in fact the “ugly American” in the book refers to a plain-looking engineer, Homer Atkins, who lives with the local people, comes to understand their needs, and offers genuinely useful assistance with small-scale projects, such as the development of a simple bicycle-powered water pump. [1]
Homer Atkins is physically “ugly”, yet he is one of the few persons actually doing some good for foreign relations. In contrast to Atkins, the “handsome” emissaries of U.S. foreign policy, the U.S. diplomatic corps, are shown to be innately arrogant bunglers. These “handsome” people in the foreign land isolate themselves socially, live pretentiously and are loud and ostentatious. [1]
In the book, the American Ambassador “Lucky” Lou Sears confines himself to his comfortable diplomatic compound in the capital. There he is preoccupied with meetings, social events, and greeting and briefing senators, congressmen, generals, admirals, and under secretaries of state and defense who come pouring through on “whirlwind tours” to “see for themselves.” Outside of this ivory tower, the “ugly” Homer Atkins rubs shoulders with and gets to know the ordinary people. [1]
So in fact the “ugly American” was not really so ugly. According to an article published in Newsweek in May, 1959, the “real” “Ugly American” was identified as an International Cooperation Agency technician named Otto Hunerwadel, who, with his wife Helen, served in Burma from 1949 until his death in 1952. They lived in the villages, where they taught farming techniques, and helped to start home canning industries. [1]
Americans are notorious for not being much interested in foreign policy. Maybe it’s due to the “news” we get, which keeps showing smiles and handshakes between men in suits, shuffling of papers, and the outsides of “important conferences.” John Kerry met with Sergey Lavrov… Smiles and handshakes all around… Both promised to continue the dialogue. But where is the real story, about the ice pick found stabbed into the brain of the pretty attaché of the assistant under-Secretary? And how the cash had gone missing while the Embassy guard was distracted by a female enchantress? And what of that “little deal” between the playboy king and the warlord of the impoverished nation, soon to become an international hot spot? We get nothing of this in our “news.” Instead we just get a bunch of smiles and handshakes. No wonder Americans aren’t much interested in foreign policy. [2]
In 2009, President Barack Obama started his presidency with a speech in Cairo, Egypt, where he apologized for America’s past arrogance in playing its role as the world’s only super power. Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton and her State Department were busy with their world youth movement and training young people from Tunisia and other north African countries how to use social media like Facebook and Twitter to organize protests against their governments. Hillary Clinton used to tell us that Bashar Assad, President of Syria, was someone we could work with, that he was different from his father, Hafez Assad. [3] But then, Bashar Assad contracted with Russian oil interests to exploit oil reserves located off Syria’s coast, instead of favoring a rival pipeline bringing gas from Qatar, and Assad was transformed into The Henchman of Cthulhu by the American “news.” [4] (Cthulhu is a fictional cosmic entity created by writer H. P. Lovecraft. Part octopus, part man, and part dragon, Cthulhu is utter evil personified. [5])
So “Arab Spring” got stirred up with help from the U.S. State Department, and Hillary Clinton, Secretary of State, conveyed to Bashar Assad that he had to go. But Assad preferred to stay, so “dissidents” in Syria mutated into The Blob, my name for the changing nomenclature of ISIS/ISIL/IS. Instead of “Arab Spring” in Syria it became “Arab Azazel”. (In Islam, Azazel is one of the Jinn (“Genies”). Out of his pride, Azazel denied Allah’s command to bow down before Adam and Azazel later tempted Adam to eat from the forbidden tree. Azazel made a promise to tempt mankind into sin and lead them all astray. [6])
In Syria, the “Arab Spring” turned into “Arab Azazel” and The Blob spread across the land. The nation was devastated and ordinary Syrians began to flee from the wrath of Azazel. Many tens of thousands sought refuge in Europe, which briefly performed a compassion act, then did an about-face and began to crack down. There was “no room at the inn,” so Mr. and Mrs. Refugee have found precarious lodging in “the stable” – tents and rude camps. Winter is coming. Europe is overrun with refugees not just from Syria, but from other “Arab Spring” blowbacks such as Libya. And it all goes back to the “handsome” ivy leaguers who decide U.S. foreign policy.
Soon enough it will be time to call forth the U.S. military. Already Syria is being constantly bombed, but with Russia ramping up involvement there, U.S. “boots on the ground” will be the next step. And then the U.S. military will get blamed! They are not ivy leaguers like at the U.S. State Department, so after initial flag waving, cheers, and hurrahs there will begin to appear troubling reports about “military atrocities.” But the real “ugly American” is not the U.S. military. The real ugliness dwells amongst some nice little boys and girls at the U.S. State Department.
——- Sources ——-
[1] “The Ugly American”, Wikipedia, September 16, 2015.
[2] Conjecture only about “pretty attaché stabbed with ice pick”, etc.
[3] “Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton Own the ‘Arab Spring'”, by Conservatives on Fire. September 14, 2012. https://conservativesonfire.wordpress.com/2012/09/14/barack-obama-and-hillary-clinton-own-the-arab-spring/
[4] “Washington threatens confrontation with Russia over Syria”, by Bill Van Auken. World Socialist Web Site, September 9, 2015. http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2015/09/09/syri-s09.html
[5] “Cthulhu”, Wikipedia, September 16, 2015.
[6] “Azazel: Azazel in Islam”, Wikipedia, September 16, 2015. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azazel#Azazel_in_Islam
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