Mr. President: If India scares you so much, why go at all?

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Communications set-up, nuclear button, a fleet of limousines and majority of the White House staff will be in India accompanying the President on this three-day visit that will cover Mumbai and Delhi.

He will also be protected by a fleet of 34 warships, including an aircraft carrier, which will patrol the sea lanes off the Mumbai coast during his two-day stay there beginning Saturday. The measure has been taken as Mumbai attack in 2008 took place from the sea.

Arrangements have been put in place for emergency evacuation, if needed.

...

Two jets, armed with advanced communication and security systems, and a fleet of over 40 cars will be part of Obamas convoy.

Around 800 rooms have been booked for the President and his entourage in Taj Hotel and Hyatt.

The President will have a security ring of American elite Secret Service, which are tasked to guard the President, along with National Security Guards (NSG) and personnel from central paramilitary forces and local police in Mumbai and Delhi.

...

Sources said 13 heavy-lift aircraft with high-tech equipment, three helicopters and 500 US security personnel have arrived in India ahead of Obama's visit.

The US security has also brought interception and obstruction device, sniffer dogs, rescue gadgets.

http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/34-warships-sent-from-us-for-obama-visit-64459

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

If the mountain won't come to Mohammed,.....

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If the mountain won't come to Mohammed,.....

?

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

?

Mohammed will go to the Mountain.

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Mohammed will go to the Mountain.

I don't get the reference. Explain?

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

I don't get the reference. Explain?

Meaning

If one's will does not prevail, one must submit to an alternative.

Origin

The full phrase 'If the mountain will not come to Muhammad, then Muhammad must go to the mountain' arises from the story of Muhammad, as retold by Francis Bacon, in Essays, 1625:

Mahomet cald the Hill to come to him. And when the Hill stood still, he was neuer a whit abashed, but said; If the Hill will not come to Mahomet, Mahomet wil go to the hil.

Present uses of the phrase usually use the word 'mountain' rather than 'hill' and this version appeared soon after Bacon's Essays, in a work by John Owen, 1643:

If the mountaine will not come to Mahomet, Mahomet will goe to the mountaine.

The early citations use various forms of the spelling of the name of the founder of the Islamic religion - Muhammad, Mahomet, Mohammed, Muhammed etc.

http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/if-the-mountain-will-not-come-to-muhammad.html

[one...two...tree 2,762]

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

I like the way the straps frame his package.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

I like the way the straps frame his package.

His make-up crew must have spent hours getting that just right for the photo op.

[^_^ 5,021]

Ok. I had no idea.

So what are you implying? What is the alternative the President is submitting to by going to India?

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All coconuts around the city's Gandhi museum, one of Mr Obama's stops in the city, are being taken down.

Mani Bhavan, where Mahatma Gandhi stayed during his freedom struggle against the British, is among five places the US president is visiting in Mumbai.

"We told the authorities to remove the dry coconuts from trees near the building. Why take a chance?" Mani Bhavan's executive secretary, Meghshyam Ajgaonkar, told the BBC.

Last week American security officers inspected Mani Bhavan and its surroundings along with other places the president is likely to visit.

Every year in India people are injured or even killed by falling coconuts.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/barackobama/8109295/Coconuts-removed-from-trees-in-preparation-for-Barack-Obamas-India-trip.html

[one...two...tree 2,762]

All coconuts around the city's Gandhi museum, one of Mr Obama's stops in the city, are being taken down.

Mani Bhavan, where Mahatma Gandhi stayed during his freedom struggle against the British, is among five places the US president is visiting in Mumbai.

"We told the authorities to remove the dry coconuts from trees near the building. Why take a chance?" Mani Bhavan's executive secretary, Meghshyam Ajgaonkar, told the BBC.

Last week American security officers inspected Mani Bhavan and its surroundings along with other places the president is likely to visit.

Every year in India people are injured or even killed by falling coconuts.

http://www.telegraph...India-trip.html

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

Ok. I had no idea.

So what are you implying? What is the alternative the President is submitting to by going to India?

Better question, "What would have been his first choice?"

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I wonder if the Secret Service has any training in jumping up to take an incoming coconut in the chest. I know they are trained to protect the President from a bullet, but this threat may well be beyond their expertise.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Better question, "What would have been his first choice?"

Pakistan?