Triangulating Brazil

OPINION: "Brazil Steers an Independent Course," by Susan Kaufman Purcell, Wall Street Journal, 4 January 2010.

The usual straw man-ing that says a rising power must exhibit interests and behavior identical to that of America's--lest we be stunningly disappointed! ("You're saying we don't see eye-to-eye! OMG!").

So we find that Brazil sometimes supports regimes we like and sometimes tries to make their existence more complicated. Ditto inconsistency re: regimes we hate.

Well, when America gets universal interests instead of our usual national ones, I'll expect the rest of the planet to do the same.

Comments

[Petrer]

Lula was a former Marxist who grew up into reality, but he is a very smart deal maker. My estimation is that he met Chavez to deal some sort of policy truce between the countries, because if Chavez had an ounce of honesty and principles, Lula is a God damned heretic for capitalism.

His smarts show very well; every policy action he takes against us really doesn't mean a damn for us in the long run. But his main goal is Brazil's interests...very rational.

There is a possibility that Lula is ripping off Chavez and any other "leftist" and we don't have the data or current evidence to figure it out.