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THE ROVING EYE
The indispensable (bombing) nation
The indispensable nation that drenched North Vietnam with napalm and agent orange, showered Fallujah with white phosphorus and large swathes of Iraq with depleted uranium is getting ready to attack Syria based on extremely dodgy evidence and the "moral high-ground". Anyone who believes the White House's pre-bombing maximum spin should rent a condo in Alice in Wonderland. - Pepe Escobar
(Sep 3, '13)
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SINOGRAPH
Bo breaks from script,
but sticks to role
By contradicting his wife and top aide's testimonies during his corruption case, former Chongqing party boss Bo Xilai succeeded in disrupting the trial - but only by a half measure. If Bo had politicized the trial he could've reawakened interest in his neo-Maoist vision and undermined the current leadership. His failure to do so suggests a likely forlorn hope of rehabilitation.
- Francesco Sisci
(Sep 3, '13)
Houses of the holy in China and Moscow
Just like the Led Zeppelin track, the song will remain the same in China after the Bo Xilai trial, as the party does whatever it takes to survive so the next generation of leaders can continue to line their pockets. Like Edward Snowden, Bo betrayed his house. But Bo did so for his own enrichment, Snowden fell for a seemingly noble but hopeless cause. - Jonny Connor
(Sep 3, '13)
Manila, Beijing, and UNCLOS: a test case?
Manila's request for international arbitration over competing territorial claims with Beijing in the South China Sea prompts the question of whether right or might will determine their fate. China's refusal to cooperate also makes it a compelling and deeply Asian test of whether the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea or diplomacy will play the lead role in securing a peaceful settlement.
- Alex Calvo
(Sep 3, '13)
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Military roots of racism in Myanmar
Defenders of Islamaphobia unleashed by "Buddhists" in Myanmar, which has manifested in mob violence, say its roots lie in the pace with which new freedoms have taken hold, or in the size of the wealth gaps in the country. The ethno-nationalism of military leaders over the past 50 years is a more likely culprit - as by stoking the flames of race and faith hatred, the regime kept its grasp on power. - Maung Zarni
(Sep 3, '13)
Pet projects put Kim on a slippery slope
A water park North Korea is building near China likely aims at boosting Kim Jong-eun's image among the common people, unlike projects such as a ski resort seemingly devised as a haven for the elites. As few North Koreans are likely to ever take to the water slides or the slopes, such projects will simply bemuse comrades on both sides of the divide. - Joon-ho Kim
(Sep 3, '13)
SPEAKING FREELY
Obama challenges pathology of power
US President Barack Obama's decision to seek congressional approval before using military force against Syria has been dismissed by his opponents as symptomatic of a lame duck presidency, even "red lines" turning to a "yellow streak". But as he veers from a gun-ho path, he is challenging the pathology of presidential power. - Dallas Darling
(Sep 3, '13)
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SYRIAN CRISIS
Iran can help Obama finesse his legacy
 Of the many lessons inherent in the US countdown to an attack on Syria, the most profound lies elsewhere: Why Syria, not North Korea? The answer is clear. There is no risk of US casualties in a missile strike on Syrian regime forces, and no risk of nuclear retaliation. If Tehran is taking notes, Barack Obama's presidential legacy will be a nuclear Iran.
- M K Bhadrakumar
(Aug 29, '13)
UN debate stalls US attack on Syria
As China and Russia walk out of an emergency United Nations Security Council meeting, guarded optimism pervades the UN that momentum is shifting from the threat of imminent war to a "wait-and-see" approach to establish the truth of allegations over last week's nerve-gas deaths in Syria. That mood is driven by the high price of more suffering and diplomatic damage that would be done should the US bypass the UN to launch a military strike.
- Kaveh L Afrasiabi
(Aug 29, '13)
THE ROVING EYE
Operation Tomahawk
with cheese
By pronouncing the use of chemical weapons in Syria a "red line", President Barack Obama effectively strangled his own options, with the forthcoming G20 summit now further limiting his room for maneuver. So Operation Tomahawk, set to unleash missiles on Syrian innocents, must go ahead - with or without added ingredients - if only to maintain his own credibility. - Pepe Escobar
(Aug 29, '13)
Visions of a democratic Vietnam
Intensifying calls for pro-democratic reform in Vietnam, which have been masked as anti-China protests, are behind piecemeal constitutional changes being proposed by the Communist Party. However, activists rightly fear that even a dismantling of the one-party system would simply see the current elite replaced by another exploitative ruling class.
- Khanh Vu Duc
(Aug 29, '13)
UN envoy in first visit to Kachin HQ
The United Nations special envoy to Myanmar, Vijay Nambiar, has visited the headquarters of Kachin ethnic rebels for the first time, meeting with officials from the group's political wing and touring camps for people who remain displaced by fighting which ended under a peace agreement signed in May. - Tin Aung Khine and Kyaw Myo Min
(Aug 29, '13)
COMMENT
Life loses value in the Middle East
The death of innocent civilians in protests and wars, from Egypt to Syria and from Palestine to Iraq, has been cheapened to the point that lives simply become political and religious fodder for opposing factions. Damascus with its gory chemical warfare allegations is now the epicenter of the blame game, with reactions to the slaughter demonstrating the diminished sanctity of human life.
- Ramzy Baroud
(Aug 29, '13)
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India's partition debate best left to artists
Historical analysis that places the blame on early Indian or Pakistani leaders for the massacres following India's 1947 partition often provokes needless controversy. A better way for the countries to purge inter-communal hatred is to explore the consequences of bloodletting through the poignant and thoughtful work of filmmakers and novelists. - Jiwan Kshetry
(Aug 29, '13)
Apple et al create new working class
Apple and its commercial ally, Taiwan's Foxconn, are facing challenges to their corporate images that require at least lip service in support of progressive labor policy reforms. The consequences could shape the future of labor and democracy in and beyond China. - Jenny Chan, Ngai Pun and Mark Selden
(Aug 29, '13)
Bernanke: Maestro of misery
The cheap money policy pursued by Barack Obama and Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke offers a perfect model of chaos and misery. Any country that follows it will suffer poverty and social disorder. Unfortunately, Europe and Japan are forced into the same model.
- Noureddine Krichene
(Aug 29, '13)
THE ROVING EYE
Obama set for holy Tomahawk war
"Responsibility to protect", invoked for the war on Libya, has transmogrified into "responsibility to attack" - just because the Obama administration says so. Forget (again) about getting the facts right about chemical or any other weaponry; the window of opportunity for war on Syria is now, before Bashar al-Assad's forces get too much into the habit of winning.
- Pepe Escobar
(Aug 27, '13)
THE BEAR'S LAIR
Egypt a preview of our future
Egypt got by for centuries in reasonable contentment. Its present chaos reflects a fast-growing, mostly young, population with dismal employment prospects. Welcome to the conditions that await much of the world. - Martin Hutchinson
(Aug 27, '13)
SPENGLER
World learns to cope
without the US
The pipe-dream of an Egyptian democracy led by a Muslim Brotherhood weaned from its wicked past has popped - but official Washington has yet to waken up to the fact or listen to old hands who recognize what is afoot. That leaves other powers - specifically a condominium of Russia, China and Saudi Arabia - to do their best to contain the mess as America blunders on.
(Aug 19, '13) |
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Populism behind rupee's free fall
Government determination to secure the popular vote rather than address fundamental economic and administrative issues is directly linked to the rupee's present freefall. With the next election in India due next spring, expect little to change.
- Kunal Kumar Kundu
CREDIT BUBBLE BULLETIN
Weak links
Fragile economic and financial systems have never been as vulnerable to a meaningful tightening of financial conditions. The leveraged speculating community is now a primary weak link and potential transmission mechanism for emerging market disorder to afflict the developed world. Syria is the lesser evil.
Doug Noland looks at the previous week's events each Monday.
CREDIT BUBBLE BULLETIN
The makings for a major top
Accurately predicting the timing of the end to bubbles is impossible, but as securities prices and worsening fundamentals diverge to extremes, fueled in part by powerful short squeezes, the environment now exists for a major top - as in 2000, 2007 and 1929.
Doug Noland looks at the previous week's events each Monday.
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China's Middle East dilemma
Does China view the Syrian question as a challenge or an opportunity? The WSJ estimates in an interesting analysis that Beijing is actually finding itself in a "dilemma." Regime change makes Chinese leaders "nervous" and that has partly got to do with their Manichean fear about the (lack of) "legitimacy" of their own political system; the turmoil in the Middle East underlines the "reality" that the US is the lone superpower.
- M K Bhadrakumar
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What Syrian in their right mind would give approval for an attack whose illegitimate "legal" justification is the same as that used by Syria's Israeli enemy to seize the Golan Heights in 1967.
Adam Albrett
Virginia, USA
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