POLITICAL SKETCHBOOK                  by Rajpal Abeynayaka  

Whiter than white in the White House
Ranil Wickremesinghe will meet George W. Bush at the White House, and apart from the fact that Bush is bound to inquire after the health of one Velupillai Prabhakaran, there will also be a good deal of back slapping going on around.

Bush is now said to be taking after Arnold Schwarzenegger recently making comments about both having big biceps and both being married well etc.,
This means that Bush has crypto-Terminator tendencies. Both Schwarzenegger and Bush like oodles of unabashed cheerleading for themselves, the former being an actor being almost born to that role. Therefore, when the Sri Lankan delegation is received at the White House, Bush will have to be told that one of his most raucous cheering squads has arrived.

But old mistakes will have to be paid for. During his campaign, Bush was low on his foreign policy knowledge, and when asked where Sri Lanka was he pointed to Madagascar. Since then Bush has improved, and he now knows for instance where Iraq is.

He is also almost certain to have heard of Milinda Moragoda. Not since Tony Blair has America been gifted with such an enthusiastic one man cheering squad. He even has American citizenship, (Moragoda does being born in America) and therefore has a better chance of becoming American President than Arnold Schwarzenegger who is constitutionally disqualified because he was not born American.

So when Ranil Wickremesinghe walks in, no doubt with Moragoda in his entourage, what will Bush say? The Republican successor? After me, Moragoda? The next President of the United States? Let Schwarzenegger be damned, he has big biceps but my friend here knows about Huntington?

George. W. Bush also has the disadvantage of not having a healthy and vibrant successor. His Vice President is a man who had heart by-pass surgery, and that's not the best way to be a heartbeat away from the Presidency.

This is why he has been keen about Schwarzenegger and been comparing the fact that he married well as Schwarzenegger did. We do not want to talk about Milinda Moragoda's marriage, but he married well too from all accounts.

Besides, it makes up by way of logic where it might not in terms of distance. The fact is that Moragoda was born in America and therefore has American citizenship. So why not Moragoda as President? Huntington can't run for President anyway……right?

But George W. Bush if he wants to bestow most favoured nation status on the Sri Lankans cannot do it cheaply. He is in a spot of trouble in Iraq, and if he needs a little help in that department, Ranil Wickremesinghe will not want to say he is from Madagascar but he might say "I can send my troops to help you out, since they are not fighting in my country anymore.''

George. W. Bush will not mind having troops from Madagascar or even Timbuktu at this juncture, and what are troops for if not for going to war? Bush will additionally give Ranil a promise that he will create a war anytime anywhere soon at the drop of a hat if Ranil needs to keep the Sri Lankan troop always engaged. Eh, what are friends for? Come to think of it, he can create a war in Madagascar, oops Sri Lanka too at any hour he wants…


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