Hey bro. Welcome back from "hajj." My compliments on the hajjin.

To the issue at hand. WTF makes you think that American strategic interests can change with a piece of useless paper?

The Saudis and the Israelis are pillars of American policy in the Middle East and will remain so until we can find a viable alternative source of energy to run our cars on.

AIPAC and the Saudis are entrenched in the Washington establishment and beyond. The Iranians are as influential as Guyana is in Washington. Which is to say not very.

The West have a way of controlling, gaming and confusing Third World Leaders.

Because Third World leaders are all prima donnas. They confuse protocol for power.

This is why wan PPP President thinks he can cuss out the Ambassador of the President of the United States because "me ah wan President too" forgetting of course that the President of the US is the most powerful sovereign on Earth while the President of Guyana has a smaller army and budget than a poor sparsely inhabited Southern county.

I remember wan Caribbean Chief Minister of a Crown Dependency complaining bitterly that he was not greeted by any formal ceremony when he arrived in London to parlay with the Queen's Ministers. Dis chap was really really upset that he had to take a taxi from the airport and had no 20-gun salute.

This is a major legacy achievement for Obama.  Obama basically stopped the tail from wagging the dog, good for him.  Israel and Saudi have the US as their security guarantor, so what are they complaining about.

Shaits, greetings from the land of coffee shops - I'm at the L'opera cafe in Rembrandt Square, Amsterdam.

Your understanding of US foreign policy interests in the Middle East lie somewhere south of the Equator - that is, in the space of the PPP brain trust - an oxymoron if ever there was one.

With the deal oil price dropped. Iran can influence events in Yemen, Syria, Iraq and Gaza more than Israel and Saudi Arabia can. Netanyahu disrespects US policies under Obama. The Saudis are duplicitous. Obama is keeping them both honest. That now have to play ball and guard the power forward on the elbow and free throw line.

Obama smartly bringing Cuba and now Iran from the cold; ended debilitating US military engagements, shepherded the nation through social changes - all through the last 2 years of  a Presidency that lost 2 mid-terms; after guiding the nation through a financial crisis and being an architect in landmark medical insurance.

Iman jealous, Tim Hortons coffee spots are rather boring.

Take a good long haul for me Kari, tell me how it taste.

Cainsta, I gave up smoking 11 years ago. No smoking for me - not even ganja 

I had a nice meal and video-taped a naked chick prancing on the sidewalk doing theater. Amsterdam is free-wheeling.

Fracking has been a game changer in the US, Saudi oil is no longer needed. The idea that Iran Shiites are radicals is nonsense. Apart from the Ayatollahs rhetoric most young Iranians are quite liberal and Westernized, more so than many Pakis I know born in the UK.

Whtderass, two big men talkin bout smoke an nakid women and dis one come in and start talk about frackin.

Well, true, but it's a Western born Paki slashing the throats the of Westerners for ISIS.  But I agree, Iranian civilization is much more Western tan most in the ME.

Obama made it clear in his 2008 campaign that he will speak to America's enemies with no preconditions. He made it clear in those early days that a more perfect Union should not be the enemy of the good, meaning that any measure (think Obama care for instance), while flawed should not be abandoned once it leads to somewhere. 

That, combined with his quote of the use of the power of American example rather than the example of American power make him an ardent disciple of diplomacy.

He was brilliant in bringing Iran to its knees with getting allies with much to lose to enforce crippling sanctions.

He unleashed Stuxnet which set back Iran's nuclear program. He got the Saudis to keep pumping oil while got lucky with US gas that kept oil prices low. 

So you see no military action, and Iran's nuclear ambitions are put on hold. 

With the Iranian population seeing possibilities the Mullahs could change.

Heck Obama could even start a Saudi-lranian Sunni-Shiite rapprochement.

Israeli-Palestinian peace next?

Morning Crackhead

Sunil as usual you are on the money.

Kari,

Enjoy my country Holland.

Now do not get too excited, members of Congress are whores they are up to who can give them the most money. The last time I check they were happily in bed with NRA & Israel.

Chief, Holland is yo country? Oh rass!  

Ball, Chief has roots in Holland, as he has in Suriname. As a Guyanese he's using a figure of speech, while not an aphorism is a euphemism for a country that you can only love. 

Chief, I'm back in NYC tomorrow. 

You will be back in time for Eid salaat on Friday.

Doan worry he'll sober up by then like a true fullahman. As lang as yuh wipe de haag juice off yuh beard, everything arrite

You sure is not the Grandcafe l'Opera by Rembrandtplein?

Same thing. Plain is "square" and the eating place is a cafe called L'opera and yes it is Grand Cafe. 

Cafe, brasserie, bistro - they all have specific meaning in Europe. Grand cafe simply is a cafe with indoor as well as "terrace" seating with a wider variety of food than a simple cafe.

There is a different quality to life in Europe. I lived on London for a few years and it's like half-way US and Europe. 

I'm not the bearded type

Do what my religious and beardless uncle used to do. Wipe de haag juice on your kerchief or when yuh forget to carry a kerchief, the inside of a pants pocket will do just as good

Shaits, Haag juice is as alien to me as cranium juice is to you 

I man has Dutch connection and I am also Dutch educated. So I know the place. It's however incorrect to call a plein a square, although the English translation would lead one to believe so.

Must be more of that superior QC education i keep hearing about. Tell me more about this "cranium juice"

A historic trade promotion treaty is up next. When you look at generational achievements under Obama his "transformational" characterization of Reagan would seem tame compared to his own transformational Presidency.

I believe you mean "rounded" education and not superior, Shaits; but your understated insecurity around QC alumni may not enable you to discern the difference

T,  the Dutch would call Trafalgar Square Trafalgarpliein.Your  exercise in semantics is quite simply humorous and bordering on the sophomoric. You see T, Surinamese may not have "squares" like we have Union Square in Manhattan and so when they have "fairs" like you know, with Ferris wheel, etc. They refer to it as a plein. But a plein is a plain square as a square like you would not imagine.

On the contrary, I have great respect for QC, its storied history, and its many accomplished grads.

Occasionally, I just see the Alunatics of the world with their stupidity and now you with your "cranium juice" so I start to wonder

HAHAHA  YUh Rass Prapa wicked.

Cranium juice is jus like spence  

Shaits has KneeRoooo as a peer  

nuff said 

Nehru has some stupid political opinions but he's not a bad guy.

Similarly you and I are not enemies because I don't support Moses or your worldview or you mine. Let's agree to disagree. Even if you disagree with me vigorously as is your right, I do not believe your difference in opinion is rooted in some intellectual deficiency. Nor do I consider you less of a friend.

We should start a separate thread about juices. First we had the correct juice "Haag" juice. Then with my superior QC leanings I introduced the provocative cranium juice that elicited hilarity for KneeRoooo with the "Alunatics" comment. Now ball you've sprung on us what we in the 70s called sperm - spence.