August 27 – New Age report by Brian Cloughley states that to the despair of state department professionals (who are very professional indeed), the art and craft of US diplomacy have taken a very nasty knock since the appearance of Donald Trump on the world stage. To be sure, the practice of sending rich political donors to prime ambassadorial posts such as Berlin, Tokyo and London has been the norm for decades, but some of Trump’s appointees have stretched the bubble of amateurism a little too far. The man in Germany, for example, was only in the job for a day, in May this year, before he gave orders that ‘German companies doing business in Iran should wind down operations immediately,’ which début debacle was met with derision by the German people.
Pakistan should ditch Washington
