The Rewards of “Smart Diplomacy” and Apology Tours

November 16, 2011 | Filed under Hillary Clinton | Posted by

What would those be, you ask?  Better to ask Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who received some of those rewards recently in the Republic of the Philippines:

Hillary Clinton’s convoy covered in paint in Philippines

BBC News Asia

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has been targeted by anti-US protesters during a visit to the Philippines.

The cavalcade she was travelling in was splattered with red paint by activists angry at US involvement in the country.

The “protesters” (which the OWSers would no doubt characterize as “peaceful”) who hurled paint at the Secretary of State’s motorcade were apparently protesting the SOFA (Status of Forces Agreement) in place with the Republic of the Phillipines for U. S. Military Forces stationed there.

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Posted by on November 16, 2011.
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  • jim_m

    Behavior that is rewards gets repeated.

    So with the new Smart Diplomacy (TM) we rewarded our enemies and crapped on our allies.  So what do you think everyone wants to be now?

    Maybe Hilary can bring another reset button out to the Philippines next time she visits.  That worked so well with the Russians they bombed our embassy in Georgia.  http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/us-intelligence-confirms-russia-bombed-us-embassy_577677.html

  • herddog505

    “We came, we saw… they threw paint at us.”

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_IZ5BM5GNLA54OADSWGSXAMA7SY Jay

    I’m very surprised about that…  She must have been in Manila where there’s a large number of Muslim Filipinos who are sympathetic to Palestinian issues.

    • herddog505

      Why are you surprised?  I say nothing against the Filipinos, but anti-Americanism has been a worldwide pasttime for decades.  It may be, as you write, that this was a group of Muslim Filipinos who are chuffed about Palestine and the fact that we’ve been helping the Filipino government against them for years.  Or it may be the local chapter of Occupy Wall Street who figured that one rich, greedy, callous American was as good a target for some “free speech” as another.  Or it could be Filipinos who watch American news broadcasts and know how detestable our country is, how guilty we are of doing bad things to everybody* in the world, and how much we deserve whatever happens to us.

      But the amusing part is that Barry was supposed to make all this go away!  By the very power of his intellect, the magnetism of his personality, by his rejection of the arrogant policies of the past, he was going to make people LOVE America and Americans again!

      And then his Secretary of State has her limo splashed with paint.  What’s Tagalog for “Yankee go home!”?

      —-

      (*) And if anybody has a historic beef with the United States, it’s the Filipinos.  I hate to think what our Army did to them during the first decade or two of the last century.  And yet, the Filipinos became our good friends and allies later, especially during World War II.

      • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_IZ5BM5GNLA54OADSWGSXAMA7SY Jay

         The fact is, I have a lot of close ties to the PI, and I’m aware of groups like the Abu Sayyaf. There’s a very close knit relationship between the two countries.  However, Manila is a VERY dangerous place outside of the main city for Americans.

        Tying in the Occupy Movement with the PI is a little naive.  They protest EVERYTHING.  I’ll admit that there are quite a few Occupy movements in the Phillippines but putting paint on Clinton’s car would run counter to their movement.  Further, they have a few other plans instead.

        Think about this.  This is the same country enamored with Justin Bieber, has the Black Eyed Peas on a ton of street corners as role models, and there are little karaoke shops for people to get together.  Why would they mess with all of that in order to protest Hillary, who is probably the most likely on their side?

        I’m more likely to believe it’s Muslim Filipinos for various political reasons than an Occupy movement.

        • herddog505

          Makes sense to me.  I merely am not surprised that this might happen in almost ANY country: as I wrote above, anti-Americanism is nothing new.

      • Anonymous

         Judging by the extraordinary  number of  filipinos who want to leave the Philipines, a more apt cry of protest would be ”Yankee go home..but take me with you!.”

      • Anonymous

        Thanks for pointing out some history, which did not start in 2009.

        The relationship between the PI and USA is long and could be described as love/hate.  First, the USA fought to kick Spain out.  The Filipinos declared their independence in 1898.  But the USA turned around and colonized the place, suppressing independence fighters.  Then we fought with Filipinos to kick the Japanese out, and gave the Philippines their independence, with basing rights, in 1946.   

        After the Marcos dictatorship, the Filipinos kicked the USA out of its bases in 1991.  

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