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A friend of mine tweeted earlier today that he didn’t understand why the nuke summit wasn’t held at the Pentagon and my girlfriend asked me the same question maybe an hour ago. I’d submit that it would risk sending the message that 46 heads of state are subordinate to the American military. If you were the leader of Whateveristan, you wouldn’t want b-roll airing of you and your entourage dutifully marching into the Pentagon.
And with that, I’m at the Wilson Center, far from the Washington Convention Center, where Gen. Petraeus is about to speak and I’ll be here to see if he makes any news or delivers the same Centcom Powerpoint as ever. Oh, look, there’s Jane Harman and there’s Sam Donaldson.
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Interesting. But whether it’s the Pentagon or a military base or Camp David or a resort in the mountains, there are plenty of places that would have made more sense. It admittedly would probably mean no delicious Taylor sandwiches for the delegates. But the mantle of leadership is a heavy burden no matter what resort they fly you to. Besides, one less person would have gotten crushed to death, so hey, it wouldn’t be all bad.
Oh, don’t get me wrong, I’m not making a case for holding it at the Convention Center, although I’m hardpressed to think of an area in Washington that could accommodate 47 heads of state, 3 chiefs of international governance bodies and an army of aides, press people and security officers. The death of a 68 year old woman is not a trivial matter.
Yeah — sorry, I didn’t mean to imply that you were. But what are we talking about, a few hundred people? A thousand? I think there are facilities around here that can do that, and which are better-situated. Even a conference-capable hotel could’ve worked fine. It’s not like you need to get all those people in a room at once — you couldn’t get productive work done that way, anyway.
I’ll be candid with you, I missed the credentialing deadline — by, like, weeks — so I didn’t even attempt at observing the madcap antics down in your neighborhood. But we’re talking maybe between 1000 and 2000 people, I would guess. You can’t tell a head of state not to bring an entourage. 50 people with ten aides — a modest entourage — is 500 people, then all the press, security… and this is an undercount. Then factor in Camp David can’t put them all up; not everyone wanting to be squirreled out of the city — it’s tough, is what I’m saying
They couldn’t use the Pentagon. The parking is already overcrowded, and there aren’t any conference rooms big enough or available for them. It’s not the right place for a conference. Hell, even the DOD people in the Pentagon leave it for any meeting more than 10 people.