The poetry of State Department briefings

Posted By Blake Hounshell Tuesday, September 1, 2009 - 6:34 PM Share

This summary from the transcript of today's State Department briefing reads like some kind of horrifying nuclear-diplomacy poem written by William Carlos Williams:

Not Expecting an Iranian Representative / Would Review Any Proposal Seriously If One Given / P5+1 Proposal is for Engagement / US Prepared to Respond to Some Kind of Meaningful Response / IAEA Report Shows that Iran is Noncompliant / Iran Have Been Provided a Path / Would Like a Response That Certain Obligations Must Be Met and they Welcome Engagement

Still Waiting for an Official Response / All Iranians Need to Do is Response to Proposal

 

Not Certain if Iranian Leader Will Come

I suggest reading it out loud to your friends.

EXPLORE:IRAN, NUKES, STATE DEPARTMENT
 

MARIA

12:59 AM ET

September 2, 2009

Re: The poetry of State Department briefings

More than 50% of workers took on new projects and gained more responsibility during the recession, according to an April survey by staffing-service company Accountemps. One problem in all this is that many people honestly believe that the U.S. government and “the USA” are one and the same thing. In their minds they conflate the government and the country. Thus, to them if you criticize the government, you are criticizing the United States. In a society in which many American citizens are criticizing the federal government for the bad things it has done with the economy, Social Security, Medicare, the drug war, bailouts, immigration, the dollar, and so much more, why do some Americans still consider it inappropriate to criticize what the federal government has done to foreigners? Isn’t it the responsibility of an enlightened citizenry to criticize the wrongdoing of its own government, both foreign and domestic, with the aim of keeping it on the right course? Isn’t that what genuine patriotism is all about? Let's hope that if there is my cash now used to make our economy recover from its slow down.

 

MARIK7

1:31 AM ET

September 2, 2009

Heool?

It doesn't seem that you've ever read any William Carlos Williams--at least with any understanding.

 

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