An American Expat in Southeast Asia

Divided We Stand, United We Fall

It is not often that I get a telephone call early on a Saturday morning and even less often when I got one last weekend from a foreign diplomat who apparently tries to make a joke about an 'overnight coup' in the United States. I didn't laugh, and neither did my friend.

Nancy Pelosi's traitorous trip to the the Middle East under the guise of "congressional oversight" has already become 'old news' throughout the United States, amounting to nothing more than a brief flash in the phyletic circuitry of the American sheeple's frontal lobes registering right between the fantastical images of Britney Spear's bald head and the 'nappy heads' of the Rutgers women's basketball team.

While much of the American public is fixated on the trials and the tribulations of Britney Spears and Don Imus however, the damage that Nancy Pelosi has done to our nation will remain and it will continue to affect us for years to come.

The subject of American's fecklessness and inconsistency is now being quietly debated in diplomatic circles over here in Southeast Asia. Some of our allies are now wondering how a deeply divided America will be able to muster the courage and resolve needed to face the challenges that we collectively face ahead. Some of these countries are now starting to reevaluate their own foreign policy positions now that America's partisan politics has spilled on to the world stage.

Emboldened, our adversaries are now wondering how the situation can be manipulated in their favour, how they can effectively play one side in America against the other while they wait patiently for America to adopt an "alternative foreign policy". We can now expect to see a "lack of motivation" in our negotiations with countries such as Iran and North Korea and a dangerous shift in momentum in countries such as Pakistan.

This is the fallout from Pelosi's trip unseen by much of America. Fallout that be clearly be seen from an outside perspective.

There are a few lessons to be learned here, the main one is that "congressional oversight" is out of control often times encroaching on executive prerogatives and powers. A congress that can't control even themselves should have no right to interfere with the other branches of our government. What business does Nancy Pelosi have in the Middle East anyway? Perhaps if her constituents paid for her overseas junkets instead the American taxpayers collectively then we might have seen a little more justification for these trips. Nancy Pelosi is a Congresswoman, she is not a diplomat.

Being on the same page and speaking with one voice is perhaps the most essential element of international diplomacy it is what gives our nation credibility and makes our negotiations and deliberations around the globe have meaning. No matter how divided our nation may be at home, our Executive branch is expected to speak with one voice.

What message are we sending to the rest of the world when Congressmen and women travel overseas to present an "alternative, Democratic foreign policy"? We send a mixed message, one that not only diminishes our credibility but creates a threat to our own safety and security.

---