Wow. How bad is our reputation that the foreign minister of a NATO ally stiffs us like this when we ask them if we can ship Assad's chemical weapons to Norway for destruction?
Boerge Brende on Friday said Norway doesn't have the capabilities to handle the request by the deadlines given so there was no point in continuing the discussions.
I guess we are trying to avoid destroying stuff in place during a rebellion.
But you have to just shudder that the Norwegians don't even want to talk to us about the issue. What's the point? It's pointless. There is no point.
They don't even see the need to pretend to want to work with us. Just "No thank you. My assistant will see you to the door since I have another meeting in 5 minutes. Thank you for your interest in Norway. Good day."
What really scares me is that now that a NATO ally has stiffed us (But what about the Czechs? Aren't they NATO's niche capability for all things chemical warfare detection and coping?), will we propose that Iran take the stuff? You know, as a show of their good faith?
The outreach writes itself, no? Iran "helps" us by ridding Syria of chemical weapons (while people remind us of how Iran was the victim of chemical weapons used by Saddam--but ridding the world of Saddam was wrong and based on lies, they'll quickly add) which will also build confidence in how Iran can honestly deal with us directly about their own more ambitious nuclear aims.
See? Iran has grasped our outreached extended hand! A friend we just haven't tried hard enough to make is born!
It's freaking nuanced, baby!
Oh sure, I'm not being serious. Nobody could be that stupid. Right?
RIGHT?!!
