Exultant Days

*

There wasn't anywhere else he wanted to be; and although he fretted about the cost the truth was he had spent the equivalent of a months rent in an upmarket apartment in a matter of days, during those lost days, lost time, when anyone who saw him later expressed concern and would say: oh my God, I didn't realise, I didn't know that about you. You seem so normal, so happy, most of the time. So he sat in the cafe down the road having his one morning coffee, now his only chemical extravagance, where Thai pop blared out its catchy melodies and the swishy boy with diamonds in his ears served him with a pleasure that made all the customers laugh; and walk away beaming, while the handsome boys making the coffee also looked entirely adapted, entirely a part of their own world, and he, as always, was the only falang. The only foreigner.

He met up with James from the Epoch Times in Sydney, who had met an American Thai woman and was now living in Bangkok with their two year old son, and it was strange to be suddenly talking to a native English speaker, as if everything was normal and as if they were just two strange tourists sharing a pineapple shake at the Bug and Bee near Salen Dang; but in fact the only thing strange about this place was how much they loved life; how clairvoyant they were as part of their daily practice, the emphasis on fun, on the day, on life in the moment, exultant moments that shimmered through his glacial heart and shattered everything, changed everything for the better. You have a cool heart, the Thais would say, making a gesture that indicated his head was somewhere out beyond Mars. But they didn't seem to say that anymore.

The advantage of picking one out of the crowd, just as he would always pick one tuk tuk driver or one boy out of the crowd in Tangiers or Calcutta or New Delhi or wherever he was, was that they fought off all the others; and paying one a fair days pay was a damn sight easier than fighting off dozens of touts wherever you went. He would watch the backpackers fighting with the ceaseless crowds of beggars and hustlers and shake his head; the solution was just so easy, and ultimately so cheap. And so it was, he thought, with the boys of Bangkok. There were many bad boys who could take him for wild rides around the country and through the night clubs, through extreme binging on everything known to man and thorugh wild sexual escapades the like of which he had never even dreamed.

But then God sent him the healing heart; a boy who put 50 bahts worth of credit on his phone with the same sense of guilty extravagance that the previous one had ordered up bottles of Black Label and spreads of the most expensive dishes on offer in whatever club they happened to be in. A boy who was not entirely nocturnal, as the others had been. They had looked so out of place if ever caught in daylight, and even if awake before night fall lay indolently around the hotel room watching TV and getting in a few early drinks before the evening well and truly set in; plotting the extravagant adventures of the night. This one slept eight hours a night and was keen to get off to his university classes in the morning. And so when he read the love letter which must have taken quite some time to write, and when he commented Aek mimed himself looking up the dictionary at every word, and so when he read it he thought: why not?

There are many bad boys in Bangkok, swishy boys and yabba disoriented crazies, and so, because he did not like to sleep alone and because he liked this one, he thought: it's the same principle. Pick one. He'll fight off all the rest. He'll take care and make sure no one else moves on to his patch, and fight off all the others with the ferocity of a tiger protecting its cubs if he had to. Sometimes you had to surrender to fate. Sometimes he was determined to make things work. Sometimes every day, every moment, seemed extraordinary; and he would be pleased or embarrassed by the nasty displays of temper; and everything would be crowded in and he would chat cheerfully, he had learnt so much; icebreaker, heart breaker, surrender to obsession, make do make do, and common sequence, common fall, time immemorial and time out of mind, consequence, collapse, crowds coming and going. They were going shopping that afternoon to buy things for the apartment, just like a newly married couple. He laughed in his heart.

THE BIGGER STORY:

BARACK Obama says his top military commander in Afghanistan "showed poor judgment" in a magazine interview highly critical of the White House.

But the US President said he would wait until he speaks to General Stanley McChrystal in person before making a decision whether to fire the man he put in charge of US and NATO operations in Afghanistan.

“I also want to make sure that I talk to him directly before I make any final decisions,” Mr Obama said in comments in Washington after a cabinet meeting.

General McChrystal has already issued a public apology for an interview he gave to Rolling Stone magazine that detailed friction between himself and the White House in the lead-up to President Obama's decision in December to send an additional 30,000 troops to Afghanistan.

In the interview, the general said he felt “betrayed” by Mr Obama's ambassador to Afghanistan, Karl Eikenberry, for sending a diplomatic cable to Washington that warned about the unreliability of Afghan president Hamid Karzai.

But General McChrystal also made derogatory remarks that showed his contempt for Vice President Joe Biden and top White House envoy to Afghanistan Richard Holbrooke. An aide to the general dismissed national security adviser James Jines as a “clown”.

Mr Obama was told about General McChrystal's interview overnight and reacted angrily, according to White House press secretary Robert Gibbs.

The President's immediate response was to summon General McChrystal to personally attend a White House planned meeting on Afghanistan and Pakistan tomorrow to explain himself, rather than appearing via a teleconference from Kabul.

Mr Gibbs said that all options were on the table when it came to General McChrystal's future.

“I gave him the article last night and he was angry,” he said of Mr Obama's reaction.

The White House spokesman said the President was most concerned about how the comments distracted from the main purpose of the “extremely important” military operation in Afghanistan.

The scathing article brought to the surface lingering tensions between General McChrystal and the White House, just as the US deploys 30,000 more troops to the bloody war now in its ninth year.

Mr Gibbs refused to rule out that the commander-in-chief would sack the general.

“General McChrystal has fought bravely on behalf of this country for a long time. Nobody could or should take that away from him, and nobody will,” Mr Gibbs said.

“But there has clearly been an enormous mistake in judgment to which he's going to have to answer to.”

While General McChrystal has apologised for his remarks and one of his media officers, a civilian, has already resigned over the episode, the fallout is unlikely to stop there.

“The magnitude and graveness of this mistake are profound,” said Mr Gibbs.

General McChrystal's comments were widely perceived as insubordination and a bizarre lapse for a four-star general with a long military record who has given other interviews to journalists in the past and showed more discretion.

But sacking the top commander now could present Mr Obama with potentially more difficulties than keeping him.

The President would be forced to find an alternative with the experience to lead US and allied troops at a crucial phase of the military operation in Afghanistan, as troops try to win control of Kandahar, the past spiritual home of the Taliban.

Mr Obama is caught in a political bind after saying he will keep a promise to start a military withdrawal from Afghanistan by mid-next year.

In recent weeks, the progress of a military surge has slowed considerably in Kandahar and General McChrystal is among those readily admitting the operation will take longer than planned.

General McChrystal had already received a dressing down from Mr Obama last year over his remarks at a London conference in which he appeared to reject Mr Biden's argument in favour of fewer troops in Afghanistan.

In one passage in the Rolling Stone interview that caused dismay at the White House and the Pentagon, an unnamed McChrystal adviser says the general came away unimpressed after meeting with Mr Obama in the Oval Office a year ago.

“It was a 10-minute photo op,” the general's adviser says. “Obama clearly didn't know anything about him, who he was... he didn't seem very engaged.”

Lawmakers in Congress condemned the general's remarks, though some key Democrats stopped short of calling for General McChrystal's removal, saying too much was at stake in Afghanistan.

The chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Carl Levin, said the article pointed to personality differences and “do not reflect differences in policy on prosecuting the war.”

Afghan President Hamid Karzai endorsed the embattled commander and voiced hope the general would not be sacked, while NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen also backed General McChrystal.

“The Rolling Stone article is rather unfortunate, but it is just an article,” Mr Rasmussen's spokesman said.

“We are in the middle of a very real conflict, and the Secretary General has full confidence in General McChrystal as the NATO commander, and in his strategy.”

Additional reporting: AFP/AP

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/06/23/2934590.htm

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd says there is nothing unusual about his chief of staff sounding out Labor MPs over a "whole range of things", amid continuing speculation over his leadership.

It is believed Mr Rudd's chief of staff Alistair Jordan has been speaking to a number of MPs in an effort to gauge the mood of the electorate and get their opinion on how the Government is faring.

The move comes after a series of bad poll results which have seen the ALP's primary vote tracking as low as 33 per cent.

Mr Rudd says Mr Jordan's actions are just "situation normal".

"There's nothing particularly knew in what 'AJ' would be doing," he said.

"Alistair's job, I think since I became Leader of the Opposition, is to be in constant contact with members of the party and with ministers.

"I don't think anything's really changed much in the last four years."

When asked by reporters to detail what feedback had been received Mr Rudd replied: "Frankly I don't know much of the content of his most recent conversations. They usually cover a whole range of things."

Senior ministers have today rallied behind Mr Rudd and are voicing their full support for his leadership.

The Opposition has seized on the revelation to attack the Government, but its MPs are facing their own questions over what exactly Opposition Leader Tony Abbott told his own party room about their chances of electoral victory yesterday.

Some Labor MPs are remaining tightlipped over whether they were contacted by Mr Jordan, but all are maintaining Mr Rudd has their full support.