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ASIA HAND
The case for invading Myanmar
If ever there was an opportunity for the United States to take out an "outpost
of tyranny", as Washington likes to call Myanmar, it is now. The tardy response
of the junta in allowing in foreign aid for its cyclone-devastated population
provides a strong moral case for a United Nations-approved, US-led humanitarian
intervention. Such a move would also allow President George W Bush to burnish
his legacy, which to date will be judged harshly due to his pre-emptive
military policies waged exclusively in the name of fighting terror. - Shawn
W Crispin (May 9, '08)
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'All we can do is drink whisky'
Myanmar's people have again been forced to weather a catastrophe on their own,
banding together with little help from the government. Food and water supplies
are growing scarce, disease looms and power is expected to be out for months.
The whisky, too, will soon run out. - Zao Noam
(May 9, '08)
 CHAN
AKYA
Cyclone
cowards
fear ultimate market
Curbs by cyclone-hit Myanmar on overseas help for its devastated population is
merely an extreme example of a government cowering in fear of information. At a
more prosaic level, Asian authorities concerned with improving their citizens'
well-being should let markets with their abundance of information act in their
favor. They should start with currencies, and then laugh all the way to the
bank. (May 9, '08)
An oil-addicted ex-superpower
The United States' brief reign as the world's sole superpower is over, its
status crumbling as surely as the unlamented Berlin Wall. Last month's NATO
summit is merely recent evidence of the decline. America's utter addiction to
oil, which once powered its climb to might, is its undoing, and an aid to
Russia's resumption of power. - Michael T Klare
(May 9, '08) |
US tightens its grip on Pakistan
It is no coincidence that US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte chose
the National Endowment for Democracy to deliver a key-note speech on Pakistan.
For years, the US government-funded NED has specialized as a handmaiden of US
policies by funding and supporting foreign politicians. Now it is Pakistan's
turn to get the full treatment, for as Negroponte says, US national security is
inextricably linked to the success, security and stability of that country. -
M K Bhadrakumar (May 9, '08)
Iran woos Farsi-speaking nations
Tehran has stepped up its initiative to forge closer links with the two other
Farsi-speaking nations in the region, Afghanistan and Tajikistan. Not only will
the move kick-start slow trade ties, it signals a greater degree of Iran's
integration into a region deemed important by the Shanghai Cooperation
Organization, to which Tehran is pressing its claims to join. - Kaveh L
Afrasiabi (May 9, '08)
War funding and war rhetoric
A breakdown of the US$70 billion President George W Bush requested from the US
Congress for war funding makes interesting reading, from $3 billion for
"classified activities" to $3 billion for the technology to counter
explosive devices. At the same time, the familiar Bush administration charges
of Iran sending arms into Iraq have been revived. Coincidence? - Sami
Moubayed (May 9, '08)
 SEX
IN DEPTH
The young ones
In Japan, where the age of sexual consent can be as low as 13, the practice of
an older man hiring a teenage schoolgirl for a "date" is about as firmly
established as Mt Fuji. The time-honored custom of enjo kosai has for
years caused screams of outrage about innocence gone bad, but efforts to
regulate the practice are proving difficult. - William Sparrow
(May 9, '08)
China's submarine progress
alarms India
Reports of China building a massive strategic naval base capable of housing
nuclear-powered submarines on Hainan island in the South China Sea have India
on red alert. The fear is not so much that China will launch any offensive
against India, but that India is falling far behind in the race to dominate the
region's seas. - Siddharth Srivastava (May 8,
'08)
DISPATCHES FROM AMERICA
The US: Your masters of the universe
The US Air Force's new slogan, "Air Force - Above All" conveys the basic
precept that mastery of the air means mastery of the ground. Yet the air force
seeks more than that. It wants to extend its "mastery" to space and even to
cyberspace. This is a disturbing manifestation of the military's quest for
"full spectrum dominance", achieved at debilitating cost to the American
taxpayer - and a potentially destabilizing one to the planet. - William J Astore
(retired lieutenant colonel, USAF) (May 8, '08)
Myanmar places votes before
relief
Estimates now point to a quarter of a million dead in the cyclone that hit
Myanmar, while foreign aid agencies still wait for approval to assist the
millions of homeless. For the country's military rulers, the more pressing
issue appears to be to galvanize support for Saturday's constitutional
referendum, the results of which are already a forgone conclusion in favor of
the junta. - Larry Jagan (May 8,
'08)
'My daughter, the terrorist'
A Norwegian documentary follows two elite female Tamil Tiger
soldiers as they train to join the Black Tigers - the female arm of the rebel
group known for carrying out suicide bombings. Within their ranks the women are
revered as heroes, but the film has been panned as glorifying suicide bombers.
Either way, the story is ultimately a tragic tale of loss and sacrifice in war.(May
8, '08)
THE MOGAMBO GURU
A fear of falling Fed credit
Increasing a country's money supply by raising debt is unwholesome, bizzare and
utterly discredited, but that is how it works, which means that when total Fed
credit stands still, as it has just done, that is worse than bizzare and
incredibly unwholesome. The ramifications are terrifying. This is what is meant
by "doomed". (May 8, '08)
G7 loses grip on global policy
The world's seven leading economies until recently had the power to effect
coherence to the policies of the great triumvirate of the international
economic system - the World Trade Organization, the International Monetary Fund
and the World Bank. No longer. Developing nations grouped as Outreach 5 have
taken control and are not going to return it. (May
8, '08)
SPEAKING FREELY
The Gulf's currency solution
The declining value of the US dollar, and with it the wealth of all
countries linked to it, has prompted oil states such as Kuwait, Qatar and the
United Arab Emirates to consider ending their US dollar currency pegs. The
history of the region holds the answer to their quest for an alternative. -
Nathan Lewis (May 8, '08)
US trains Pakistani killing
machine
United States Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte, drawing on his
experience in the Philippines and Nicaragua, is behind an initiative for the US
to train up special Pakistani forces to go after high-level al-Qaeda and
Taliban targets in Pakistan's tribal areas. The move is an admission that
operations by massed Pakistani troops have failed, but it gives the US further
inroads into Pakistan. - Syed Saleem Shahzad (May
7, '08)
COMMENT
US terror report misses the point
The US State Department's annual terrorism report makes no secret of the fact
that al-Qaeda is back, strong as ever. But if al-Qaeda indeed exists on such a
large and influential scale in so many countries, is it not time to question
the logic used by the George W Bush administration's "war on terror", which was
meant to weaken and destroy al-Qaeda in the first place? - Ramzy Baroud
(May 7, '08)
Myanmar courts political
disaster
Myanmar's military rulers are playing with fire through their response - or
deliberate lack of one - to the cyclone calamity that has claimed over 22,000
lives and damaged huge swathes of premier rice-growing areas. The generals fear
that diverting the military to relief operations will compromise security in a
country already on the edge of an abyss, but even then, this is a prime time
for the urban-based population to revolt and for simmering ethnic insurgencies
to explode. - Brian McCartan (May 7, '08)
Warning signs of Indian heart crisis
A new study shows that India faces a crippling attack of heart diseases on an
already overstretched health care sector. Genetic predisposition and
non-traditional lifestyles, the study finds, are pumping cases of cardiac
ailments into undermanned hospitals so rapidly that in just two years, India
will have 60% of the world's heart patients. As one doctor put it, "We're
sitting on a time bomb." - Neeta Lal (May 7,
'08)
Yes, the Pentagon did want to hit
Iran
Since soon after the September 11, 2001, terror attacks, it has been an open
secret that the George W Bush administration wanted to attack Iran. Now comes
further confirmation from a document quoted in then-under secretary of defense
for policy Douglas Feith's recently published account of Iraq war decisions. It
is confirmed, too, that this was part of a broader plan, explicitly supported
by the US's top military leaders, to also take out Syria, Libya, Sudan and
Somalia. - Gareth Porter. (May 6, '08)
THE BEAR'S LAIR
Draining
national prosperity
Relief engendered by the latest US GDP figures is misplaced, given recent
monetary and fiscal inputs. Gradually increasing output and the optimistic
stock market will sooner or later be confronted by consumer price figures. At
that point, the US will suffer a monetary and political crisis. Awkwardly, that
is more likely to occur before November's US presidential election. - Martin
Hutchinson (May 6, '08)
New offer threatens Iran's 'red
line'
The key nations negotiating over Iran's nuclear program hail their latest offer
of incentives for Tehran to give up its uranium-enrichment activities as a part
of a "twin-track strategy", the other being United Nations sanctions. There is
actually a third "war track", the drumbeat of which can be heard in Washington
and Tel Aviv. And further, the incentives directly challenge Iran's "red line".
- Kaveh Afrasiabi (May 6, '08)
China-bashing is a blind man's game
China's renaissance, arguably the most significant story of our time, offers to
the world as much as the world brings to China. Yet some fail to grasp the big
picture, and for them, China's re-emergence generates anxiety. The result is
anti-Chinese rhetoric and behavior that can only generate anti-Western
attitudes within China. Meanwhile Beijing and the West could join forces to
solve global problems. - David Gosset (May 6,
'08)
Fuel tax cut running on empty
US presidential candidates pledging to cut fuel taxes blithely ignore the fact
they are not placed to make that happen. As bad, it is not what their country
needs in response to rising prices. Worse, any such cuts would hit funding of
transport infrastructure that already lags behind its counterparts in Asia. - Julian
Delasantellis (May 6, '08)
 SUN
WUKONG
Blowing the whistle
on 'Big Brother'
Fundamental problems exist in China's railway system, not the least of which is
that the behemoth Ministry of Railways is both the monopoly operator and
industry regulator for all rail transport. If this system is not restructured,
nothing will change, and accidents such as the recent crash that claimed 70
lives will continue. - Wu Zhong (May 6, '08)
 CAMPAIGN
OUTSIDER
Democrats do have a nominee
No matter who wins this Tuesday's votes in Indiana and North Carolina, the
Democratic US presidential nomination remains a foregone conclusion. But it may
be a different foregone conclusion than the one of two weeks ago. - Muhammad
Cohen (May 5, '08)
Speculators knock OPEC off
oil-price perch
 The
bulk of price gains in oil is attributable not to supply problems but to
speculative activity by hedge funds and others with no direct use for the fuel
beyond profiting from its changing value. The door to much of this unregulated
trade was opened by the US energy futures regulator under the George W Bush
administration. - F William Engdahl (May 5, '08)
 SPENGLER
The heart has its own unreason
In one of the weirder acts of recent diplomacy, a delegation of robed and
turbaned Iranian mullahs went to Rome to declare with due solemnity they shared
the pope's view that reason and faith are compatible. The issue,
however, will not be decided by the Iranian clergy or the Holy See,
but by people such as journalist Magdi Allam. - Spengler
(May 5, '08)
How under-the-gun Iran plays it
cool
What Iranian leaders dream of is an Iran respected as a major power. To this
end, they have little choice, faced with the enmity of the globe's "sole
superpower", but to employ a sophisticated counter-encirclement foreign policy.
And given President Mahmud Ahmadinejad's place in the country's
politico-religious politics, he might be betting on the usefulness of an
American air assault. - Pepe Escobar (May 2, '08)
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MARKET RAP
Shadows
lighten
over Asia
The receding fear of an immediate downturn in the US has lightened the
shadows over Asian markets. National issues such as inflation or the attraction
of regional stocks to Chinese investors found room to assert themselves.
Confidence, however, remains in short supply.
R M Cutler runs his eye over the ups and downs in the week's
markets.
BOOK REVIEW
A new voice to Paine's
cry of rebellion
Bad Money by
Kevin Phillips
Four decades ago, author Phillips showed how a coalition
of America's new Sunbelt and the old white South would come to create a
long-term Republican majority. Two decades is long-term enough for him, and he
now declares rebellion against the entire American establishment controlling a
near bankrupt country devoid of serious financial debate and civic engagement.
- Joe Costello
A nightmare of magic tricks
The latest US version of that great statistical trick called a deflator
means we can fall asleep peacefully knowing that inflation is still less than
3% - and dream of where US banks magically and silently "disappear" US$49
billion and dream of why folk are buying Dow Industrial stock that won't pay
back in seven decades. And ... aagh!! Wake up! Wake up!!
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CREDIT BUBBLE BULLETIN
More than one step backwards
American economist Hyman Minsky warned a decade ago that evolution in the
financial world is not necessarily a progressive process. Since that insight, a
whole new financial structure appears to have evolved, one that is definitely
retrograde with its need for ever-expanding non-productive debt.
(May 5, '08)
Doug Noland reviews the previous week's events each Monday.
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Grand Theft Auto rules, OK
Fast-action, grim and gritty Grand Theft Auto has kicked Microsoft's tedious
tussle for Yahoo into the gutter of public attention. The game looks guilty of
mugging mega-movie Iron Man at the box-office and has pumped some
testosterone into the bank account of its makers, who are responding to a
takeover bid by global games muscle-man Electronic Arts. And that's all before
you shoot the game up on your console. Whew!
Martin J Young
surveys the week's developments in computing,
gaming and
gizmos. |
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[Re Democrats do
have a nominee, May 6] ... I just hope Obama is not a lamb being
fattened for slaughter - so far the media have given him a fairy tale ride (it
seems too good to be true for a Democrat), but then the real nastiness of the
real election is yet to begin - and that's where the Republicans shine! ...
Amit Sharma
Cincinnati, Ohio
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 Go
to Letters to the Editor |
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ATol Specials
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The
Gates
Inheritance
By
Roger Morris
(June '07) |
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Syed Saleem Shahzad reports on
the Afghan war from the Taliban side
(Dec '06)
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How
Hezbollah defeated Israel
By
Mark Perry and
Alastair Crooke
(Oct '06)
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Mark
Perry and
Alastair Crooke
talk to the 'terrorists'
(Mar '06)
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China:
The
Impossible
Revolution
By
Francesco Sisci
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The Coming
Trade War
By Henry C K Liu
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A series
by Henry C K Liu
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Sinoroving
Pepe Escobar in China
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Money, Power
and
Modern Art
A series by Henry C K Liu
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Andre Gunder Frank on Uncle Sam and his
shrinking dollar
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By Pepe Escobar with
photographs by Kevin Nortz
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Nir Rosen goes inside the Iraqi
resistance
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Nir Rosen rides with the US 3rd
Armored Cavalry in western Iraq
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