Thursday, January 02, 2020

Bad traveler

Two days ago, the US State Department was emphasizing the importance of Mike Pompeo's imminent visit to eastern Europe, including Ukraine, and Central Asia. Today, in the doldrums of New Year's Day, the visit was postponed with no new date, on the following grounds --

due to the need for the Secretary to be in Washington, D.C., to continue monitoring the ongoing situation in Iraq and ensure the safety and security of Americans in the Middle East.

This makes no sense. If nothing else, by traveling he would have been in a similar time zone to Iraq and actually better placed to monitor things.

Instead he appears to have found a convenient way out of a very awkward meeting with the Ukrainian President Zelensky, while parrying his fear that, however remote the possibility, he would be out of the office if something happened to a US diplomat abroad -- thus revealing his insecurity that his Benghazi antics against Hillary Clinton could be used against him. It's almost like he has his eye on a political campaign!

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