Now The Eagle

Obama – The Reckless Caesar – 1:33 A.M. Monday November 8^th 2010

For Jimmy it was like old home week. Nearly the entire Secret Service was with the President in Mumbai and it gave him a chance to catch up with some friends. He had met all of them while attending the Basic Criminal Investigation Training Course at Glynco, Georgia. He had never seen so many of his fellow guards together in one place and at one time. After speaking to many of his old buddies, it was agreed by all that they had never seen such a show of power and strength put together and all wondered why.


Needless to say, the President’s trip could only be compared historically to Teddy Roosevelt and Mark Anthony’s visits to Japan and Egypt. The U.S. battleships sitting just outside the mouth of Mahim Bay stood symbolically as Obama’s big-stick, a technique used by both historical figures to get their way. But, Jimmy after working with Dave at the C.I.A., knew that the show of force wasn’t for the Indians, it was for their neighbors to the west, Pakistan.

The whole trip had messages on multiple levels and could be considered by many as reckless and by some as brilliant. It was clear that the President was attempting to look Nixionian by opening up the soon-to-be most populous country in the world. By 2030 China would be the second most populous country, leaving India with the most people.

Most economists had anticipated this move by the U.S. but were puzzled by the President’s timing. Politically he had just destroyed his party back home in the midterm elections and was desperately searching for some achievement he could claim for his 2012 re-election bid. The naysayers claimed that this move was too soon and too bold. They felt that it would jeopardize the cozy relationship with Beijing that had been around for nearly forty years. It also put pressure on the U.S. debt that China now held. Piss them off, and they might foreclose, that was something the President wasn’t prepared for. At first blush many wondered if in his desperation to save his own political hide he was jeopardizing a well oiled trading partner in China.

This move also put more unneeded pressure on Muslim Pakistan, who has been battling India for decades over Cashmere. By his announcement today that the U.S. would back India being a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, it sent ripples through the embattled neighbor to the west and to the north, China. A trade war with China would not sit well with the American people since everything they used is made there. If China wanted, they could, and rightfully so, increase the cost of living for the average American overnight, something the Administration would be blamed for.

It was as though the President had divided Asia in one fell swoop. This was leaving Iran to control Pakistan and Afghanistan while the U.S. allied with India, alienating China and setting up possible conflicts with Japan.

What was remarkable about all of this was that it was possible that this President hadn’t even considered all that had been mentioned and that he was doing this only to have a single talking point for his re-election campaign in 2012. That was the narcissistic brilliance of it all as the 647th day of the Obama Presidency took an extra moment to admire himself in the mirror as clocks in the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel momentarily stopped.