It’s coming for Christmas, but nobody would know it, given the somewhat miserable circumstances we are all enduring at the moment.
First off is the coronavirus vaccine. Many Americans are wondering if “their” vaccine will ever turn up and whether they will somehow qualify for early vaccination. I am asking myself whether having a son who is a physician’s assistant in three hospital emergency rooms gets me an early jab. I suspect not.
There is also the changing of administrations, very much on time but still being contested by the incumbent president on no grounds whatsoever. He obviously thinks he is still in the New York real estate hustle.
There is the fact that the Senate may well still be under the direction of Sen. “Moscow Mitch” McConnell after the Georgia Jan. 5 senatorial elections. There is even the possibility that the current president may refuse to move out of the White House, even though he lost the elections, drawing on some racist state militia activities to keep him at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. in spite of the American people having voted on Nov. 3 to send him back to Trump Tower.
So, little town of Washington, so still we don’t see thee lie.
And, absent serious leadership there, in Moscow, and in Beijing, we see gurglings of unrest in lesser capitals. Developments in Minsk, the capital of Belarus, and the reaction in Moscow, suggest that Russian President Vladimir V. Putin is not viewing with good humor the protests from Belarusians over the disputed re-election of their aspiring president-for-life, Alexander Lukashenko, Mr. Putin’s favorite friend.
Nor are matters in Ukraine, another Moscow ex-satrapy, going as they should from Moscow’s point of view. Rudy Giuliani, former Kiev operator, is, at the moment, down with the coronavirus.
China and its intrepid leader, Xi Jinping, are being tormented by both Hong Kong and the Uighurs in Xinjiang. Hong Kongers are taking badly Bejing’s efforts to take away their democratic heritage fostered by the British. The Uighurs are pushing the other direction, seeking rights they feel are due them in the face of the majority Han Chinese, who run the show in most of China.
The United States’ shortfalls, which are better chronicled than Russia’s or China’s because its people are better able and willing to travel in spite of the coronavirus restrictions, are nonetheless numerous.
Venezuela, among the least of the Almighty’s children, is nonetheless resisting coming to terms.
One of Donald Trump’s last acts is apparently to withdraw the last American troops from Somalia, where they went to prevent widespread starvation in 1992. Somali-style mischief will undoubtedly spread to neighboring Ethiopia, Kenya and Djibouti absent the 28 years of U.S.-imposed peace there.
I served as U.S. ambassador and special envoy to Somalia 1993-94. In my eyes I failed miserably in that my mission was to end the fighting and stitch together a national government. They haven’t had one for decades. Washington lost its nerve midstream while I was still drinking tea with the Somali warlords.
It would have been embarrassing for the Clinton administration, I suppose, if I had been eradicated or kidnapped. Peace-making among clans and subclans whose normal exchanges are homicidal take time. Twenty-six years later, the Somalis are still at it, with no agreed-upon government.
I guess it doesn’t really matter, although incoming Biden foreign affairs mavens will inherit a raft of problems from the Trumpites. There is no prohibition on pushing along unresolved issues to a different, rival administration, but, in principle, we are all Americans, including on the beach in Mogadishu.
The list of burning fuses includes, in addition to the above, Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen, Libya and Syria. On a lower level of involvement, the new authorities also will have to watch Nagorno-Karabakh, the United Kingdom and the European Union, Bolivia, Cuba, Greece and Turkey, and whatever other piece of world real estate decides to act up, in Washington’s eyes.
If we chose not to care, it wouldn’t matter, as long as we are ready to risk another 9/11.
Americans in general, at the moment, are most desirous, as indicated by their voting, to see our leadership concentrate on resolving some of our domestic problems, including racial and economic inequality, immigration and repair of infrastructure, while easing off the gas pedal on resolving international scraps, unless they pose a direct threat to us.
It is also the case that, as some historic football coach said, the best offense is a good defense. Or is it, the other way around?
What is clear from our history is that it is better not to have the U.S. on your case.
Dan Simpson, a former U.S. ambassador, is a columnist for the Post-Gazette (dhsimpson999@gmail.com).
First Published: December 10, 2020, 5:00 a.m.