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Lost Cruise fears save Obama on Syria
US President Barack Obama's unexpected reversal on bombing Syria may have followed a Pentagon appraisal that the regime had obtained - through Russian sources - enough satellite jamming devices to divert "smart" missiles. This would have quickly turned a US strike into a humiliating display of weakness, leaving Obama with no option but to send precious fighter-bombers into Damascus's well-equipped air defense system.
- Gregory Sinaisky
(Oct 3, '13)
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Korean democracy at a crossroads
The surprise resignation of a South Korean prosecutor following a media witch-hunt critics say was masterminded by the internal intelligence service highlights a revival of a notorious agency President Park Geun-hye had promised to neuter through reform. Unless Park now fulfills those commitments, the shadow of her father's dictatorship will continue to loom over her presidency. - Geoffrey Fattig
(Oct 3, '13)
Pragmatic Rouhani senses limited options
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani's measured interaction with the West, his respectable performance at the United Nations and his tweeted well-wishes to the Iranian Jewish minority have sustained expectations for change in his country, even as his actual scope to make changes is limited. Being more a pragmatist than a reformist, he is well aware of that, and of the need to keep the Supreme Leader on his side.
- Shahram Akbarzadeh
(Oct 3, '13)
Relief brings its own disasters
Children are the most vulnerable when natural disasters strike, with separation from families during the chaos of relief operations well documented in floods and cyclones in South Asia and the 2004 tsunami. Yet gathering metrics that allow relief workers to identify the most vulnerable in the aftermath of a calamity can go a long way to mitigating trauma that can last a lifetime.
- Malini Shankar
(Oct 3, '13)
Iraq denies crackdown after jailbreak
Prisoners claim torture and murder are commonplace in two Iraqi jails following mass breakouts in July and allege that authorities are punishing prisoners "as if they were part of the conspiracy". While a crackdown could reflect government anger at how the escapes gave the opposition political mileage, officials deny meting out reprisals and say claims of inhuman treatment are exaggerated.
- Rawa Haidar
(Oct 3, '13)
SPEAKING FREELY
India and Pakistan have to walk the talk
While India has said Pakistan must cease being "the epicenter of terrorism in our region" before a historic settling of differences, Delhi will face difficult decisions of its own - principally over Kashmir - along the roadmap being proposed towards peace. Viewing rapprochement as key to its plans to remain in Afghanistan, the United States can be relied upon to nudge the doubting couple together.
- Irshad Salim
(Oct 2, '13)
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Mindanao examines rebel siege scars
Using "human shields" for their rebel siege was never going to endear the Moro National Liberation Front to the people of Mindanao. But as the badly scarred Zamboanga City, with over 100,000 displaced people, regroups after last month's sustained attacks, reflection is due on the chain of events that lead to urban warfare in the southern Philippines, beginning with a 1996 peace deal. - Sergio de la Tura
(Oct 2, '13)
Netanyahu pours scorn on Rouhani
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took his turn at the UN General Assembly to dampen euphoria surrounding hopes for detente following Iranian President Hassan Rouhani's reception at the same podium last week. Netanyahu described Rouhani as a "wolf in sheep's clothing" and urged the US to keep up the sanctions pressure to "knock out Iran's nuclear weapons program".
- Jim Lobe
(Oct 2, '13)
Abe shoots blanks in New York
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's concern expressed at the United Nations over a rise in China's military budget conveniently ignored that the increase is line with the China's economic expansion. Meanwhile, Japan's defense spending is outstripping national growth as it surges to its highest since the Cold War. Little wonder Beijing responded by pointing to Tokyo's imperial past.
- Brendan P O'Reilly
(Oct 2, '13)
COMMENT
Sisi can't break Egypt-Gaza bonds
The new Egyptian ruler's orders to  destroy tunnels to Gaza and close the Rafah border are particularly painful for Palestinians who have long seen Egypt as the "mother" of Arab nations. Despite what modern regimes in Cairo such as General Abdul Fatah al-Sisi's do to please Washington and Tel Aviv, Palestinians and Egyptians share a historic bond that politics can't break.
- Ramzy Baroud
(Oct 2, '13) |
People pressure puts patronage on trial
Filipino protesters are piling pressure on President Benigno Aquino to clamp down on corruption after "the mother of all scams", a US$220 million scandal in which legislators allegedly created ghost public works to line their own pockets. While Aquino has vowed to prosecute officials, some say he should seize the chance to upend the entire political-patronage system in the Philippines.
- Richard Heydarian
(Oct 2, '13)
>Hong Kong refuses
to bank on Alibaba's
next treasure trove
Alibaba's multi-billion dollar initial public offering looks set to go to New York rather than Hong Kong. With it goes share dealing not just in China's biggest e-commerce outfit, but also what is set to be the country's future top private financial group. - Gabriele Battaglia
(Oct 2, '13)
Xi builds up power
in Central Asia
Chinese President Xi Jinping's recent sweep through Central Asia, involving billions of dollars in trade and other contracts, was treated lightly by Russia. A photograph of the region's leaders in Kyrgyzstan last month suggests a different story.
(Oct 2, '13)
THE ROVING EYE
Breaking American exceptionalism
What if the US government actually shut down to mourn the passing of Breaking Bad, arguably the most astonishing show in the history of television? It would be nothing short of poetic justice - as Breaking Bad is infinitely more pertinent for the American psyche than predictable cheap shots at Capitol Hill.
- Pepe Escobar
(Oct 1, '13)
Middle East turns
a deaf ear to the US
The United States' authority in the Greater Middle East was slumping well before Barack Obama entered the Oval Office. The process has accelerated in the wake of the Arab Spring, with Egyptian generals, Saudi princes, Iraqi Shi'ite leaders and Israeli politicians now regularly defying Washington's diktats. The role reversal is a far cry from the pacified region neoconservatives envisioned. - Dilip Hiro
(Oct 1, '13)
Obama moves on Iran, Putin keeps Syria
Russian triumphalism over the UN resolution on Syria's chemical weapons contrasts with US President Barack Obama's inaudible sigh of relief at the weekend that he can avoid military action - for the present at least - and focus on the feelgood Iran file. Yet amid celebrations that Washington and Moscow actually agree on something, a dark foreboding is simmering away. - M K Bhadrakumar
(Sep 30, '13) |
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Sanctions-lusting US gets free ride - so far
Washington feels free to sanction Russian entities for conduct legal in Russian and international law. Put the boot on the other foot, and international action against Google, Microsoft, Apple et al for illegal data interception could cost them as much a US$35 billion. - John Helmer
Bangladeshi workers
press for higher pay
Bangladeshi garment workers want to earn as much in a week as a pair of jeans costs in Europe. Employers, who are offering half that amount, say they will settle for a figure set by the government - which is dominated by apparel sector businessmen. - Robert Stefanicki
CREDIT BUBBLE BULLETIN
Z1 and the doves
An economy on firm footing would demonstrate at least a reasonable balance within the real and financial sectors. We instead see ultra-low interest-rates and inflated incomes, corporate cash flows and earnings and a Federal Reserve struggling with even the most timid reduction of monetary inflation.
Doug Noland looks at the previous week's events each Monday.
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Why Saudis are
upset with Obama
The Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal used the meeting of the Friends of Syria ministerial forum meeting at New York on Friday to launch an attack on the US-Russian initiative on chemical weapons. He said the initiative should have been followed up with a UN Security Council resolution under Chapter VII.
- M K Bhadrakumar
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[Re Netanyahu pours scorn on Rouhani, Oct 2, '13] You have to feel sorry for Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Barack Obama's brief telephone conversation with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has put Israel's Iran strategy "on the ropes".
Abraham Bin Yiju
Messina, Italy
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