Travel Only Broadens One’s Backside, It Doesn't a Foreign Policy Expert Make

by Sandy Sand

Frankly, I don’t get Katie Couric’s question to Sarah Palin about what took her so long to get a passport (last year), or that people who wrote CBS before that painfully embarrassingly interview, wondered if that indicated a lack of interest and curiosity about the world.

Actually, I believe that really wasn’t a viewer-induced question; it sounded more like a question conjured up by Couric’s producers.

I’m no fan of Palin, but she was correct when she said a person can learned about other countries and cultures through books and other media, but honestly, I don’t really believe that she’s spent that much time in that endeavor. Her world view seems to be quite narrow.

Some, if not most, of her worldly knowledge appears to be force-fed by McCain’s campaign handlers and their infamous 3 x 5 flash cards.

What is this? Kindergarten?

The card Palin showed Couric with the heading “Iran,” was followed by three sub-heads: Bad guys, building nukes and invade if necessary," which are no more than three McCain/Bush talking points that she couldn’t follow up on any of them with a coherent paragraph.

One can probably learn more about a particular place through a half-hour Travel Channel video than spending a week in a country.

World travel and having a passport does not a foreign policy expert make.

Not traveling doesn’t indicate a lack of curiosity about the world. More than likely it’s indicative of lack of funds or time to travel.

Think about it. Most cruise ships and air tours are packed with elderly people. So much so that younger folks are often discouraged from taking cruises.
Most people have neither the time nor the money to travel and put it off as something to do in their dotage.

Condoleezza Rice has racked up more frequent flier miles than Santa Clause, and has made innumerable trips were to the middle-East. She’s sat in on a million meetings, and had a zillion one-on-one conversations with various middle-East leaders, yet she still doesn’t have an inkling of understanding into their mind-set.
She didn’t before her two secretary ships, and she doesn’t now. Her supposed expertise is on Russia, and I doubt she gets them either.

(Did anyone catch that Palin referred to Russia as the USSR? They haven’t been that for quite a while.)

But that aside, taking a 12-country tour in 21 days only broadens one’s backside from sitting on planes and buses, and leaves you with blurred memories of where you went, backed up by photos to jog your memory.

I’ve been to Las Vegas many times. That doesn’t make me an expert, or give me any insights into Las Vegan politics. I’ve sat in casinos and couldn’t begin to tell you why people will gamble away the baby’s milk money.

Let’s suppose that Michigan were another country. A while back I lived there for 10 years, yet I know very little about Michigan politics and less about the people who live there, except that like everyone else, Michiganders are frequently full of mishigas.

San Francisco is about 450 miles north of Los Angeles, and I’ve been there several times. Can I tell you why it’s a center for the most liberal politics in the country? No, I can’t. Nor can I tell you why Orange County, home of Disneyland, and about 60 miles east of L.A. is a bastion of conservative and ultra-conservative politics.

No, travel does not a foreign policy expert make. Years of study helps, but it doesn’t make one a complete expert either. Just look at Bush’s so-called experts who haven’t made on correct call yet.

And while a country’s history doesn’t change, the mindset of its people can have nuanced changes and their politics can change with time. The California of today where I live, isn’t the California of 30 years ago.

Like the desert sands of Southern California, our political philosophies are constantly shifting.

Even living here, we don’t know from one day to the next what they’ll be.