Hal O'Brien

Drilling down at the list of US embassies recently, I was struck by the large number currently headed by Chargés d'Affaires ad interim, rather than ambassadors.

I suppose that's endemic to the large number of politically appointed ambassadorships, combined with not only a new administration, but a change of parties.

So it's mildly big news that Mr. Obama named five ambassadors on Wednesday -- to go to the UK, France, Japan, India, and The Vatican.

The new ambassador to The Vatican seems particularly in character for Mr. Obama -- he's Miguel H. Díaz, an associate professor of theology at the College of St. Benedict and St. John’s University in Collegeville, Minn. Here's the press release from his college.

So I was reading the Weekend FT today, and found their "Lunch with the FT" feature was with Henry Kissinger. Some interesting excerpts:

"When we have finished eating, I ask him to outline specifically what his policy on Iran would be. He is firm in his response: “I have advocated that the United States have comprehensive negotiations with Iran ... We need to have an open discussion of all differences.""

OK, quick show of hands... How many of you think Henry Kissinger can be realistically characterized as, "an appeaser"? Anyone? Bueller?

"(Kissinger) fears a rapid withdrawal could radicalise the vast Islamic community in India. I am fascinated by this statement – I have never heard anyone else say it so robustly – and suggest that he argued in a similar vein about the dangers of a departure from Vietnam. “Not at all,” he says, adding that the collapse in Vietnam was partly compensated for by the almost simultaneous and fortuitous disintegration of the Soviet Union."

Saigon fell in 1975. The Berlin Wall fell in 1989, or 14 years later. The Soviet Union dissolved in 1991, or two years after that, or 16 years after Vietnam collapsed.

{blink}

I guess Edward Gibbon would call that, "almost simultaneous."

"He believes the military “surge” is working and says the next question is when to start to move away from an exclusively military option. “This is not a war of states,” Kissinger says. “If we withdraw from Iraq, the radical elements in all the neighbouring Arab countries will be greatly encouraged.”"

Unless, of course, the whole point of 9/11 was to draw us into the quagmire. Thus, the single greatest way we can encourage the radical elements is to stay engaged. The radical elements want us to spend our blood, want us to spend our treasure, and want us to recruit on their behalf by being odious to the populations on the ground.

So.

So, while I was in LA for my legal sojourn, I tried to change the address to as many recurring mailed items as possible, to our new PO box in Bellevue. You know, bills, magazines, etc.

Foreign Affairs was kind of far down my list. So I already had a patter ready to go...

"Hello, Foreign Affairs, may I help you?"

"Yes... I'd like to request a change of address, please."

"Yes, sir, of course. Is this a permanent, or a seasonal change of address?"

{beat}

A... seasonal... change of address? Oh, yeah, sure, I'm going to summer in the Hamptons, along with Rather and Kissinger and Rose, you schmuck, whaddaya think?

"Umm... Permanent, I think."

*^*^*

Still, it must be said that being a subscriber to the magazine with probably the most haute snoote list in Amurrica has its bennies. I keep getting offers from other magazines to subscribe at "Professional Rates". I have no idea what profession Time and the New Yorker think I practice that make $.50/issue a good idea to them... But I'm willing to take them up on it. (For the New Yorker, at least. Time just showed up the other day, and being unemployed I'm trying to manage cash flow...)