Dirty Diplomacy

Not that this should come as a surprise to anyone but the most naive, but the revelations about how the U.S. government wanted to size up Argentinean President Cristina Fernández border on the absurd.  The State Department seems to have assumed that there was something wrong with her emotional or mental makeup, that she was unstable and on medications; in short, a crazy, hysterical Latina, out of one of those Hollywood films of the 30's and 40's in which women south of the border were stereotyped to American screenwriters' content.

The problem with the U.S. view of the rest of the world is that Americans have seen too many of their own movies, which, by and large, are full of bigotry and prejudice against everybody else.  So, they naturally assume that others are inferior, bad and stupid, because that's what they have seen on the big screen all their lives.  They are genuinely surprised to find foreigners who are capable, good and intelligent human beings, especially if they come from our part of the world.  Even supposedly enlightened and progressive people like Hillary Clinton are unable to see past the stereotypes.

That is what's truly embarrassing about this whole affair.  

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