our new allies

after WWII, the marshall plan proposed to do something rarely tried in the history of the world, which was for the winner in a war to spend its own money in an effort to restore the vanquished. arguments of economic colonialization aside, in the end it proved a very positive piece of geopolitical jiu jitsu, and it succeeded in helping to make germany into one of our most stalwart and dependable allies. (i'm betting that no other european country, save ireland and great britain, has an higher incidence of english-speaking citizens, for one coincident factoid). japan didn't get the handouts, of course, but it got all the coincident encouragement and cooperation (our investment there during the korean war certainly didn't hurt) and they're another big turn-around success story for the ages. (it could be argued that the cars alone make the friendships worthwhile, but maybe i'm being selfish).

so it is today that we find cuba and iran making positive noises about closer communication, and i wonder if the people in power are able to see both the irony as well as the historic opportunity in that. imagine a middle east where the two largest muslim powers (turkey and iran) are reliably on our side... imagine major league baseball opening franchises in havana and elsewhere in the carribean and other areas of latin america, and all the economic ties that would undoubtedly evolve from sox (and other) fans travelling there the same way we take over ballparks in toronto, baltimore, and even oakland... (did you hear the cheering last night?)

i'd say we do best when we export friendship. folks see how we live, (which would be, up until recently, very well), and they can't help but want some of it for themselves. i'm thinking we ought to rationalize tehran as being no worse today than it was when we were propping up the shah, and havana no more oppressive than it was under batista, and simply start moving forward on the presumption that things always keep getting better, if we let them. (south africa is certainly continuing its progress, as are we, just 150 years since abolishing slavery, and 50 since actually ensuring everybody has the right to vote). sure there will be setbacks, and our own "patriot" act has to be counted among those, but we are always optimistic about ourselves, so there's no reason not to be about others. (who, via immigration, are all the same as you and me, too, right?)