Trusting America, If Possible

WHEN THE UNITED STATES B52 bombed the Chinese embassy in Sarajevo back in the nineties, President Clinton apologized, and explained that it was an accident. The Chinese cooly accepted the apology - they need us, economically, as much as we need them - and ignored the "accident" explanation, understandably, perhaps realizing that once Clinton concocts a lie, he sticks with it. Allegedly, the Air Force was using outdated maps, and thought they were bombing an enemy ammo depot, or something. Thus we begin to see, perhaps, why another country might be a bit, shall we say, "uncertain" whether to trust the United States. One might not be terribly surprised that when Raul Castro shook hands with President Obama, promising better Cuban-U.S. relations in the future, big brother Fidel admonished "do not trust the Americans". As an American, the best advice I could give any non-American when dealing with Yankees is "be careful". I mean, let's face it: many's the native tribe which thought, repeat, "thought", that it had secured permanent title to its lands, by virtue of signing a treaty with the United States government. And many's the drug dealer who thought he was making a big sale to someone who suddenly turned out to be an FBI operative. And then, the biggest laugher of all: President George Bush actually told Saddam Hussein that the United States did not care if Iraq invaded Kuwait. Yeah, sure. And don't forget, before Edward Snowden spilled the beans, the U.S. government swore up and down that it was not conducting electronic surveillance spying on its own citizens. Now that was a real whopper.