Mike Pompeo Visited My Country. It Was A Farce
The Secretary of State is the last American tourist. Not even Kim Kardashian can go where she wants. An American passport is worthless now, but you can still ram your corrupt officials through.
When he travels, however, Mike Pompeo is no diplomat. A diplomat is an institutional role, and Trump has eviscerated all institutions. There’s nothing for a Secretary of State to do. Pompeo is really just a political influencer, and looking tough on China is part of the Trump campaign.
For the Sri Lankan people, caught in the middle, our worry is that he was political influenza as well. We worried that your Secretary of State would personally make us sick. How embarrassing for America. You used to be the world’s leading diplomats (still mostly for ill). Now only diplomats can travel at all. What a farce.
Butthead Diplomacy
Pompeo recently visited Sri Lanka, the Maldives, Indonesia, India and now Vietnam. Normally a diplomatic visit like this is the last step of long negotiations, with something to announce. But no. It was really just a campaign stop.
When Pompeo came to Sri Lanka he just trolled China. Our President had to push back. So did Indonesia. This is not normal, and does fuck all to help us. It just plays to the US audience at home. Pompeo showed up for 12-hours, shitposted about our neighbors and left. Meanwhile everyone that met him has to get a swab to the brain.
This is not diplomacy. It’s a sick joke. Literally.
COVID-19
While everyone was breathing nervously through their KN95s, Pompeo kept talking about a “post-pandemic recovery”. Wait, did I miss it? Is the pandemic over? As far as I know America is having its worst outbreak right now. WTF is he talking about?
