A funny thing happens as you drive around Washington D.C., and not far from the Pentagon, you suddenly come eyeball-to-eyeball with Northrop Grumman's poster championing the intimidation that lies behind their aircraft carrier.
One of the sad facts about U.S. foreign policy is that it has become dominated by the military. The Northrop Grumman billboard tells the story well, for those who are listening and thinking about cultural artifacts. Under Bush-Cheney the State Dept weighed in at Bantam weight while the military towered in the political ring like a 500 lbs. gorilla (or should we say Godzilla). In our Macho-testosterone driven Yang dominated culture diplomacy is derided as "effeminate," something secondary and looked down upon (remember the "Americans are from Mars; Europeans are from Venus" chest pounding?). The billboard tells us that effective diplomacy comes, not through negotiation and persuasion, but through intimidation, backed up by bombs and saber rattling. This is unfortunate and has blow back consequences, which we will continue to tease out in other posts.
Now - the problem with the 90,000 tons of diplomacy is that it has been checked by China's new missile (the Dong Feng 21D). In order for the logic of Command and Control diplomacy to work, the Dong Feng 21D will have to be checked with even greater firepower, which, of course, will have to be checked by the other side.
The other, and obvious, point the billboard raises is who stands to gain in the great game of war? Who is making the money by pursuing costly tons of diplomacy rather than "suits" on the ground? BTW: Where's your money? - watch here
Learn about Corporate soldiers on Pandora and Earth.
Consider conflict on Pandora - here
Learn about Peace and Reconciliation on Earth - here
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