Fellowshiping With the Devil

PRESIDENT BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA is in South Africa, shaking hands with all the wrong people! For the third time in the past five billion years, an American President shook hands with a Cuban President, and nobody got hurt. Neither did the god of corporate imperial capitalism turn over in his grave. Obama also shook hands with the President of Brazil, who recently got really really angry at the United States, and Obama in particular, understandably, when it was revealed by our friend Ed Snowden that the NSA has the phone number, address, and shoe size of everyone in Brazil. Well, what do they expect, santiy? Get real. This is the United States of America we're talking about. Obama shook hands at Nelson Mandela's memorial in South Africa with several other dictators and heads of states who hate Obama, and again, nobody got hurt. Maybe this is a good omen for the future of human diplomacy in general. One can hope. That little thirty year old punk dictator from North Korea was not in South Africa for Nelson Mandela's memorial service, which is probably for the best. Obama might not shake his hand, he might cold cock the little bastard, pardon the French. Especially after holding an eighty five year old American hostage, for no reason. But the facts is, the true test of diplomacy is in how one deals with one's enemies, not one's friends. Machiavelli was dead right: keep your friends close, and your enemies closer. When Obama gets back to the United States, our conservative republican brethren and sistern are likley to give him hell for shaking hands with dictators, especially Castro, but, what the hell? Screw 'em! They'd give Obama hell no matter what he does. So, he might as well take the high road, and do the right thing.