Europe and Benign Neglect

By ROGER COHEN
NYT

LONDON — I was in the White House a few weeks back for a pleasant chat with Denis McDonough, the National Security Council chief of staff, and was struck by the red digital clock on his wall showing times in critical spots around the globe.

Back in the 20th century, not really that long ago, you would have had the times in London, Paris, Berlin, Moscow, Beijing, Tokyo, and possibly in the capital of some regional cornerstone power, say Cairo or New Delhi.

McDonough’s list begins with Washington and Potus (the President of the United States), followed by Stillwater (the town he’s from in Minnesota), Kabul, Baghdad, the Yemeni capital of Sana, Jerusalem and Tehran.

The Stillwater reference is a joke. My ex-wife’s family was also from there and I can vouch that it’s a lovely place, but the strategic epicenter of precisely nothing. Another inside joke is the bracketed “Rahm” after Jerusalem — a reference to the White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, whose ties to Israel are strong.

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