[The Independent,
U.K.]
Estadao, Brazil
Brazil's Foolhardy Treatment of America and Embrace of Iran
"On
top of the megalomania that guides him, the president seems convinced that the
country's image in the world will be boosted as long as Brazilian foreign
policy is characterized by disputes with the United States. … The 'man' as people
say of Lula, got along better with the dim-witted Texan."
EDITORIAL
Translated By Brandi
Miller
December 16, 2009
Brazil - Estadao - Original Article
(Portuguese)
Foreign Minister Celso Amorim
left to Marco Aurélio Garcia, President Lula's foreign policy adviser, and Antônio
Patriota, the secretary general of Itamaraty [the Foreign Ministry], the
task of meeting U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemispheric Affairs
Arturo Valenzuela when he began his first official visit to the region in
Brasília. Based on the premise that a diplomat of his importance should only
speak to his peers - and those of higher rank - Foreign Minister Amorim must
have imagined that if he sat at the table with the Department of State's top
official for the Americas, it would have been a public belittlement of Brazil
by the U.S. - as if the stature of a nation on the international scene would improve by obsessing on such petty details. A skilled diplomat, U.S. Assistant
Secretary Valenzuela paid no attention to this. After two hours with presidential
adviser Garcia, he declared, "it was a great conversation. We have our differences,
which is to be expected." The response from his spokesperson was similarly
friendly and conciliatory.
Such childishness punctuates
the Lula government's policy regarding the country that counts the most in the
world. A few weeks ago, Brasília committed the impropriety of disclosing a private
message from Obama to Lula, which was faxed to the Planalto
[President's Office] not coincidentally, on the eve of Iranian President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad's visit. Viewed from Washington, the letter was a nod to
Brazil. To make matters worse, presidential adviser Garcia was permitted to say
that the conduct of the American president left a "taste of disappointment."
Ironically, when the tenant of the White House was named George W. Bush, the
Brazilian attitude toward the U.S. was much more pleasant. The "man" as
people say of Lula, got along better with the dim-witted
Texan. Lula, as we know, abhors cerebral leaders and has a compulsion to prove that
he's superior to them. This circumstance offers a glimpse of Lula's provocative diplomacy
in regard to the Americans.
On top of the megalomania that guides him, the president seems
convinced that the country's image in the world will be boosted as long as Brazilian
foreign policy is characterized by disputes with the United States over and
above the normal divergences of bilateral relations. This nonsense is inflated
by an anti-Americanism that is reminiscent of the military dictatorship under Ernesto Geisel (photo,
left). Confusing assertive diplomacy with the search for pretexts to create
waves, the Foreign Ministry only rarely, and only ostensibly, to
minimize friction with Washington. Meanwhile, emphasizing Obama's policy of
dialogue, his envoy to Latin America gave his view of these strains. "We
just have different assessments on certain types of issues," said
Valenzuela to Brazilian journalists before leaving. The first of these issues
is the nuclear policy of Iran.
More than the welcome of
Ahmadinejad, what discomfited the U.S. was Lula's endorsement of the unsettling
Iranian project. Tehran, he declared, "has the right to develop a nuclear
program for peaceful purposes." And this, after everything Tehran has done
to hide its activities in this area from international inspectors, after sanctions
were imposed by the U.N. Security Council and after it refused to send uranium
abroad for it to be enriched sufficiently for civilian applications. Lula
thinks Brazil can mediate between Iran and the U.S. This is the same sense of
self-importance that lead him to talk of promoting peace between Israelis and
Palestinians and to forget that no Foreign Ministry initiative to resolve
disagreements between neighbors has ever produced results - not between
Argentina and Uruguay over the issue of paper mills, or between Venezuela and
Colombia over the Colombian-American military agreement.
Posted by WORLDMEETS.US
Ahmadinejad and Lulu: Forging Enduring Ties?
SEE ALSO ON THIS:
Die Welt, Germany:
Ahmadinejad Announces Iran's Plan to 'Administer World'
Folha, Brazil:
Hosting Ahmadinejad Diminished Brazil's Standing in the World
Kayhan, Iran:
Brazil Welcomes Ahmadinejad; Keeps Distance from 'English-Speaking World'
El Tiempo, Colombia:
Obama Will 'Regret' Failure to 'Back Up' Colombia
Die Welt, Germany
:
'Zionist Cigarettes' and the Parlous State of Iran's Economy
Le Figaro, France:
America's Shift on Israeli Settlements Due to Iran
Le Figaro, France:
Tehran Blows a Golden Opportunity - Again
Folha, Brazil:
Iran Progress Shows Obama and Lula Made the Right Call
Brazil is indirectly falling
subordinate to Hugo Chávez, a supporter of the Union of
South American Nations, which is merely a despicable attempt to create a
regional forum without the presence of the United States. In the case of the
Honduran crisis, Washington's realism, by acknowledging that the presidential
elections zeroed out the problem of the ouster of President Manuel Zelaya, has
demonstrated the futility of Brazil's alignment with the owner of the big hat
that has adorned the embassy in Tegucigalpa for the past three months [Zelayatook refuge there after Hunduran defense forces threatened him with expulsion]. The
Foreign Ministry's anti-American fixation is just another type of Chavism.
CLICK HERE FOR PORTUGUESE VERSION
Posted by WORLDMEETS.US, Dec. 18, 8:42pm
