THE IMPORT OF QUID PRO QUO IN FOREIGN POLICY

Every parent and even social scientists like Pavlov know how important the concept of quid pro quo or the “carrot and stick” approach is to animate and foster certain behavior patterns. Last week, Putin called and congratulated President Obama on his decision to place our missile defense, scheduled for land bases in Poland and the Czech Republic, on our submarines. I am not going to take issue with the moving of the bases from land to sea because I am not qualified…so I defer to the Secretary of Defense Robert Gates who made the change. But in making the change, we got nothing from Putin. At least, we should have had Putin act as our surrogate to implore the Russians not to sell Iran nuclear technology, or moreover, pressuring the Iranians not to pursue nuclear weapons period. Putin’s congrats were akin to the proverbial=2 0patronizing pat on Obama’s back or like the fox (Putin) congratulating the brood of chickens (Obama) for moving in next door. It is reported that the Polish Ambassador refused to take Secretary of State Clinton’s call and both newspaper of record inPoland and the Czech Republic said that they were betrayed by the United States. We do not even take the time out to study the players involved respective histories; for example, the Obama Administration made the arrangement with Russia on the 70^th anniversary of the Russia’s invasion of Poland, which resulted in the slaughter of many a Poles. I mean if we forgot our diplomatic etiquette by giving the Queen an I-Pod and the British Prime Minister tapes of Obama’s speeches, we should expect no more for such important matters like remembering our Polish ally painful, historical wounds suffered at the bloody hands of the Russians. I supposed next, we will be serving the Muslims Pork and placing the Jews and the Palestinians next to each other during the White House’s next state dinner.

-Verily Prime