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Please note: This Letters page is intended primarily for readers to comment on ATol articles or related issues. It should not be used as a forum for readers to debate with each other. The Edge is the place for that. The editors do not mind publishing one or two responses to a reader's letter, but will, at their discretion, direct debaters away from the Letters page.

March 2008

In Tibet, the 'great game' and the CIA on March 26, Richard M Bennett made an outrageous, untrue, and defamatory claim about the financing of Radio Free Asia (RFA). Mr Bennett referred to what he termed "the CIA's ... funding of the suspiciously well-informed Radio Free Asia". He is flat-out wrong. RFA is funded by the United States Congress with taxpayer dollars through a grant from the US Broadcasting Board of Governors, a government agency that I chair. No CIA money is involved - nor has it ever been. RFA has no affiliation with CIA or any other intelligence service. Since 1996, RFA's has followed its mission of broadcasting news and information to audiences in Asia that are denied access to a free press. RFA's budget and operations are a matter of public record. Mr Bennett says that RFA's Tibet broadcasts are "suspiciously well-informed." There is nothing suspicious in the least about the RFA's journalistic achievements. They have been won the hard way - mainly by cultivating reliable sources in Tibet to bring accurate, unbiased news to the people of the region. As a result of diligent journalism - not clandestine connections - RFA has repeatedly broken stories on recent events in Tibet that have been cited as fresh and accurate by major news media around the world. Mr Bennett's wildly inaccurate statement about RFA casts severe doubt on the veracity of his entire article. The first step in restoring his own journalistic integrity would be to apologize to the hard-working journalists of RFA, retract his claim about CIA funding, and set the record straight. We expect these steps to be taken immediately.
James K Glassman
Chairman, Broadcasting Board of Governors
Washington, DC, USA (Mar 31, '08)

I read with interest the complaints made by James K Glassman, chairman of the US Broadcasting Board of Governors about the following passage "... the CIA's deep involvement with the Free Tibet Movement and its funding of the suspiciously well-informed Radio Free Asia ...", contained in my recent article Tibet, the 'great game' and the CIA on March 26. So after giving this matter some consideration I would be perfectly happy to re-phrase the contested wording, but only as follows " ... the CIA's deep involvement with the Free Tibet Movement and the US Governments funding of the suspiciously well-informed Radio Free Asia in the interests of the CIA ... " Now I trust that will satisfy all concerned and of course I naturally hope that not too much distress was caused to the journalists and staff at this US Government sponsored station by my public linking of Radio Free Asia and the CIA. However, it would be very remiss of me if I failed to record that I am not the first to make this connection. The well known and much respected Indian columnist, and former senior Indian Intelligence Officer, B Raman in an article published by the South Asia Analysis Group (SAAG) on March 13, 2008, had made a very similar and thought-provoking comment about "Radio Free Asia, the CIA-funded radio station". It must also be remembered that in its original incarnation Radio Free Asia was established and funded by the CIA and run as a dedicated anti-Chinese Communist propaganda station. John A Lent sums it up nicely in the work he edited in 1978 - ,Broadcasting in Asia and the Pacific: A Continental Survey of Radio and Television (Temple University Press, Philadelphia). Lent writes: " ...Radio Free Asia, an allegedly public-supported (but in reality, CIA-financed) international broadcasting station operated out of San Francisco, but transmitting from Manila, was founded. Its dual mission was to strengthen resistance within China to the new Communist government plus prevent overseas China in Asia from 'falling victim to communist Chinese propaganda'". Other public sources have added: “Radio Free Asia was originally a radio station broadcasting propaganda for the US-American government in local languages to mostly communist countries in Asia. It was originally founded and funded in 1950 by the CIA through a front organization called "Committee for Free Asia" as an anti-communist propaganda operation, broadcasting from Manila, the Philippines, and Dacca and Karachi, Pakistan (there may be other sites) until 1961. Some offices were in Tokyo. The parent organization was given as the Asia Foundation." Now the administration and method of channelling large amounts of US Taxpayers hard-earned dollars to Radio Free Asia may have been changed in 1994-96, but these are considered by many observers to be largely cosmetic and intended to provide a degree of deniability. The real reason for the stations very existence almost certainly remains the same: the vested interests of the US Government and its Intelligence Services. RFA now operates, according an official website, "under the supervision of the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), the International Broadcasting Bureau (IBB) provides the administrative and engineering support for US government-funded non-military international broadcast services. Broadcast elements include the Voice of America (VOA), Radio Sawa, and Radio and TV Mart? (Office of Cuba Broadcasting). In addition, the IBB provides engineering and program support to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Radio Free Asia". Radio Free Europe, Radio Liberty, Radio Marti and other similar propaganda-style stations have for many years been publicly confirmed as or strongly suspected of, having a strong connection with the CIA. China certainly views Radio Free Asia as an American propaganda tool and is believed to have sought to jam its broadcasts on numerous occasions. Indeed, there appears to be an obvious bias in the station's programming and in support of this belief I can do no better than let a highly respected former US politician express her views. As long ago as the late 1990s Adjunct Professor Catharine E Dalpino, Brookings Institution Asian scholar and from 1993 to 1997 also a US deputy assistant secretary of state for human rights, said "I do think Radio Free Asia is propagandistic. It focuses on dissidents who articulate western values and democracy." Dalpino said she had reviewed scripts of Radio Free Asia's broadcasts and views the station's reporting as unbalanced. "They lean very heavily on reports by and about dissidents in exile. It doesn't sound like reporting about what's going in a country. Radio Free Asia is "a waste of money" added Dalpino "Wherever we feel there is an ideological enemy, we're going to have a Radio Free Something" (Dick Kirschten: Broadcast News, GovExec.com, May 1, 1999). So, nothing's changed there then! I don’t think I am therefore being unreasonable to suggest that, and to paraphrase the words of another famous, or infamous depending on your viewpoint, American politician, “If you quack like a duck, look like a duck and keep company with ducks, then in all likelihood you are a duck”.
Richard M Bennett (Mar 31, '08)

[Re Tibet, China and the West: Back to stereotypes, Mar 28] While the run up to the Beijing Olympics provides a convenient vehicle to spotlight China’s strengths and vulnerabilities, the aftermath of the Olympics promises to be even more influential. Will the Chinese government learn from the Olympics experience that attempting to stage-manage foreign journalists is bound to backfire, as with the most recent monk outpouring before journalists in Lhasa, and encourage more freedom of the press or clamp down even harder against this and other freedoms? Let us hope the Beijing Olympics do not provide a platform for further repression of ethnic minorities of the sort that occurred in Germany following the 1936 Games in Berlin.
William E Cooper
President Emeritus, University of Richmond
Richmond, Virginia, USA (Mar 31, '08)

[Re Tibet, China and the West: Back to stereotypes, Mar 28] I am utterly dumbfounded by the lack of tact in the diplomatic pronouncements made by the Chinese government. It is hard to imagine this is the nation that produced Zhang Qian, the great diplomat and emissary of the Han Dynasty. As the author has rightly observed the language used by the Chinese has regressed to the brutishly confrontational parlance reminiscent of the Cultural Revolution. This is most evident when China criticized Stephen Harper’s reception of the Dalai Lama as “disgusting conduct”. I am no diplomat, but it is blindingly obvious that such vulgar diction should never have been part of any official pronouncements. What this exudes is the naked hubris of a nouveau riche. Whoever wrote the speech should have been fired from the Chinese foreign ministry. The Chinese government should know better that any tit-for-tat verbal retaliation will not be effective, not least due to their own lack of credibility, but most importantly the fact that western media through Bernaysian strategies exerts control over world opinion. The best countermeasure will be to bring attention to the west’s hypocrisy. Why not ask Stephen Harper politely to instead spend the time and effort to address the disfranchisement of Canada’s aboriginals rather than seeking photo opportunities and celebrity. Why not ask Nancy Pelosi politely that she should not be concerned about the rights of rioters, but should instead look into the human rights of the estimated 100,000 dead civilian in Iraq because of US invasion. The West wields democracy and human rights as powerful weapons, but its Achilles’ heel is its own history of world conquest and bloody foreign policy.
Keith Lin
Australia (Mar 31, '08)

[Re North Korea sends a missile warning, Mar 29] North Korea should not be surprised in the least in the sharp right turn in policy that South Korea has taken after its president Lee Myung-bak was recently sworn into office. Kim Jong-il had sufficient warning from the heated campaign rhetoric of Mr Lee. On the other hand, South Korea should not be greatly unsettled by North Korea's response. A state of cold war is returning to the Korean peninsula which bodes little comfort for either side of the 38th parallel. Should Mr Lee persist in his hardline approach to North Korea, he should be prepared to share the same topsy turvy results that America's George W Bush has had. Which began with a bang and ended with a whimper by engaging tete a tete with Kim Jong-il's regime.
Mel Cooper
Singapore (Mar 31, '08)

[Re Tibet, China and the West: Back to stereotypes, Mar 28] My comment is just this. How could the Western media be that ignorant as to mistake photos taken in Nepal and India to be what had happened in Tibet? How could the Western media be that dumb to mistake an ambulance as a police vehicle? Also, only a couple of news media had come out acknowledging the "mistakes". The others just keep perpetuating the lies. There are two basic reasons why Western media have come up with these lies. The first reason is that China is still not the "democratic" country that ... the West envisions it should be. Secondly, China to the West is still being looked at as a backward country and that the rise of China has caused a lot of disbelief and envy that the West wants to bring it down by whatever means possible. To divide China is the prime objective. If Xinjiang and Tibet are split off China, the West figures that China will not be that formidable.
Wendy Cai
USA (Mar 28, '08)

[Re Tibet, China and the West: Back to stereotypes, Mar 28] Thank you Kent [Ewing]. You have expressed perfectly the feelings of many Westerners, I being one of them. In the early years of the last century, there were but few sources of news regarding current events, and they were carefully controlled by those wielding political and economic power. Even the best informed had to search out “both sides” of any story. In our 21st century, news sources are as unlimited as the Internet. No one can pursue more than a statistically insignificant fraction of the “news” available. Most search engines, oddly enough, seem to bring to our focus the culturally popular and syndicated headlines. Political and economic power still bear sway. A century later, and I still share the challenge of my 1908 counterpart. I have to “search out” both sides of any story. Your comments were clear, refreshing, and balanced. Peace and cooperation among nations, if possible, must begin somewhere. Many in the world cling to the Olympics as a beacon of that universal hope. Using the Olympics to broadcast and amplify contention, anger, and discontent - however justified, or not - is akin to torching the chapel while you daughter is being married. You may have legitimate arguments against the groom’s family, but destroying your children’s hope is never the answer. Perhaps a beautiful wedding, filled with expressions of love and promise for the future, will make the world just a little bit more the way it should be; the way it could be if we focus more on our children's’ happiness. Our real hope, after all, is our children. It may be that the Olympics, and its beacon of hope, is the only torch we pass them.
Jim Schudy
Utah, USA (Mar 28, '08)

Please tell me that Markets' weak spot is bad ad vice [Mar 28] by Robert Skidelsky was a bad joke. Saying that the elimination of advertising is the best solution to capitalism's problems is akin to saying that removing lipstick from a prostitute will cure their syphilis.
H Annen (Mar 28, '08)

[Re Markets' weak spot is bad ad vice, Mar 28] Robert Skidelsky raises a very good point, one that I believe Henry C K Liu briefly touched on earlier. Left unsaid in the article is that corporations spend millions of dollars analyzing consumer behaviors, rendering the average person largely defenseless against the onslaught of psychologically and emotionally charged advertising campaigns that seduce us to do just one thing - shop till we drop, or consume till we’re overweight and drowning in debt. To stem this destructive tide of frivolous consumerism, placing greater restrictions on advertising, as advocated by the author, would be a good starting point in engendering more prudent spending habits, while leading ultimately to a healthier society.
John Chen
USA (Mar 28, '08)

[Re September 11 was a third-rate operation, Mar 28] A third rate operation? It got the US to forestall Iraq's conversion to euros for oil sales. It got the US three large bases in Iraq, and several more in Afghanistan, to replace those lost in Saudi Arabia. But it failed in quickly setting up a compliant government the US had hoped for, and is costing a lot more than first estimated. And it wasn't masterminded by Osama bin Laden or his followers. The last was the subject of my three week lecture tour of South Africa ...
Enver Masud
Founder and CEO, The Wisdom Fund (Mar 28, '08)

[Re Will the real Ma please stand up, Mar 27] After reading this piece by Stephen A Nelson, I only have this to say to Mr Nelson: Sour grapes! What is even worse is his insinuation that the "assassination attempt" on Chen Shui-bian was committed by the KMT (as in his sentence "assassinations could backfire") when all evidence suggested the attempt was staged by Chen's own camp (just think about all the foot dragging during the lousy investigations that followed). But don't worry, Mr Nelson, you'll have at least four years of KMT rule in Taiwan which should provide you with plenty of fodder to your liking.
Ken
California (Mar 27, '08)

[Re Promises and pandas for Taiwan's Ma, Mar 26] I disagree with the opinion of James Chou [letters, Mar 26] that Ma has lost the leverage to negotiate with China regarding the reunification issue. On the contrary, I believe it is the best time for both sides to sit down and negotiate ... the conditions desirable by the Chinese on both sides of the Taiwan Strait. China is really interested [in getting] this issue out of the way so that [energy] can be concentrated regarding Xizang and Xinjiang. Taiwan can also have a win-win situation to better its economic prospects. Time is ripe for both sides and both sides should not waste time and should seize the moment to make unification a reality.
Wendy Cai
USA (Mar 27, '08)

Asia Times Online in its report Two-horse race for Pakistan's hot seat on March 19 has only unknowingly been used by some sources from the Pakistani establishment to revive the media trial and defaming campaign which had died down after the February 18 elections. Pakistan Peoples Party co-chairman Senator Asif Ali Zardari, who had been the target of mudslinging by the Pakistani establishment for around a decade and a half along with his spouse - Pakistan's most popular leader Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto - is again marked for a new media trial by the country's crumbling opposition. [The late] Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto was not allowed smooth sailing during her two governments despite having popular mandate and every time her government was dismissed on frivolous charges which [were] never proved in two decades. Her spouse Senator Asif Ali Zardari was taken from court to court and police station to police station with absurd allegations to conduct world's most expensive and worst media trial to tarnish the image of Pakistan popular politicians. Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto was forced into exile with her small children while her husband Senator Asif Ali Zardari languished in jails for more than 11 years. Eventually, the bloodthirsty anti-people forces got Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto killed and gave her no proper security upon her return when more than three million people welcomed her on October 18, 2007, at Karachi Airport. Giving her life ... for the rights of the people of Pakistan, while returning home Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto said "I know some people will think it was naive [to return despite death threats], but if you believe in a cause you have to pay the price." The anti-people elements again ran media trial of Senator Asif Ali Zardari through its political rats and once again are trying to dig unfounded and baseless allegations as the establishment is running high and dry following the democratic forces established two-thirds majority in the Parliament after the February 18, 2008, general elections. As far as Khalid Shehnshah is concerned, he started his political career with the People's Students Federation and is a colleague of Shaheed Najeeb Ahmed and Shaheed Munawar Suharwardy. Khalid Shehnshah was victimized by the most hated establishment's stooge Jam Sadiq Ali and had to flee from the country. Khalid Shehnshah had contested elections on the PPP ticket since 1993 from the home constituency of an ethnic leader Karachi [and was] made a target and been given a bad name since then. Senator Asif Ali Zardari had been saying that he has been entrusted with the Chair of Martyrs and he was ready for martyrdom for the cause for which his predecessors Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto laid down their lives. "Democracy is the best revenge," said Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto and all the allegations that have been briefed to Asia Times are mere tools for sustaining the media trial of Pakistan's democratic leaders and their struggle.
Jameel Soomro
Karachi, Pakistan (Mar 27, '08)

This is the Pakistan People's Party's point of view. I stand by my story. - Syed Saleem Shahzad (Mar 27, '08)

[Re Wall St greed to feel the squeeze, Mar 27] Looking from halfway around the world at the crisis in financial markets in which the humbling of Bear Stearns by the US Federal Reserve and the US Treasury provoked more turbulence in global financial markets, it does not look as though Wall Street has gotten the message. The sacking of Bear Stearns at $2 a share brought a sharp reaction in the markets. As a result JPMorgan Chase had to up the ante to $10 a share and the US government had to intervene more forcefully to bring some stasis back to the markets. Now, according to the Financial Times of London, JPMorgan Chase's CEO in order to close a hotly contested takeover is offering to Bear's asset manager and traders - who won't lose jobs - a bonus of a half-billion US dollars if they bring in at least that amount in sales and clients' wealth. Where's the squeeze in liquidity and ignoring reform in the way investment banks are doing business when JPMorgan Chase can dig into deep pockets to bribe Bear employees to accept a basically hostile takeover? On the other hand, Mr Hutchinson is not wrong in saying that the US government has to tighten regulations to whip such slipshod banking into shape and responsible fiscal discipline.
Mel Cooper
Singapore (Mar 27, '08)

Daphne Baker in her published letter [March 25] condemns ATol for "attaching pornographic pop-up ads and suggests that if they are not legitimate ATol should seriously consider urgent actions". [She] infers that such pop-ups detract from the intelligent and timely articles that ATol publishes and more to the point, as a female she is affronted. This long-time reader of ATol grew up in Rome, Italy, and does not believe any more need be said about the human form particularly of the opposite sex. Still Baker is due her affront. I, on the other hand, have always been affronted by ... Spengler's commentaries and if proffered a choice would opt for the pop-ups. Hard to break a habit that is pleasing to the eyes.
Armand De Laurell (Mar 27, '08)

I am writing this letter to point out the fallacies in Spengler's argument in The mustard seed in global strategy, Mar 26] and to have issue with the editor for periodically letting Spengler write about Islam vis a vis the West and Christianity. Let's cut the crap and go to the heart of conversion: Did this hateful man write an article when the foreign minister of Italy converted to Islam post September 11, 2001, after Italy's prime minister decided to join the crusade mooted by the US? Let's talk of this Pope ... who concealed the financial and scholastic benefit that he obtained from the Nazi regime. The shade of Nazism was evident when this Pope enthusiastically reconfirmed his support for the Crusadic nature of South American exploitation by Catholic Europe which was revisited in the endeavor of the Puritans who embraced a line from Psalms 2:8 - "Ask of me, and I shall give thee, the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession" - to found an American "shining city on the hill". Today, Spengler wants the same to be achieved from Indonesia to Morocco. Good luck! This dream is not something new. Charles Dickens wanted the same in India and [Jean-Jacques] Rousseau asked for the same in Russia and outlying areas when he wrote to Catherine the Great. The Pope also showed his limited and profoundly distorted knowledge on Turkish-European history when he quoted a renegade and defeated patricidal charlatan-king with unabashed glee on Islam. This same Pope has supported and enlarged the most hideous concept of "limbo" - where un-baptized kids go after their death at infancy. The Pope has not criticized, or maybe Mr Magdi Allam did not read what religious philosopher Saint Aquinas said: "that in a religious sense, executions represent mercy to the wrongdoer" and "...a secondary measure of the love of God may be said to appear for capital punishment provides the murderer with an incentive to repentance which the ordinary man does not have". St Augustine also promulgated religious diktat that forced conversion at the point of sword as more desirable than to allow the unbeliever to die in Hell. The burning of unbelievers during the Inquisition was based on the words of Jesus: "If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned" (John 15:6). [Jesus also said] "But those mine enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, bring hither, and slay them before me" (Luke 19:27) ... There is more violence, and more support for violence and hatred in the Old Testament than one would find in any other religious book. It's unfortunate a book with "more errors in it than there are words in it" (I quote a Bible scholar of University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill) continues to sway over so many otherwise intelligent persons.
Abul
USA (Mar 27, '08)

Thank you for writing. I don't proselytize for any religion. That is not my job. But I am glad that you have begun to read the Bible, and hope you learn more about it. As Benjamin Franklin put it, "A city and a maidenhead are lost once they begin to parley." - Spengler (Mar 27, '08)

The US the big beneficiary in Tibet? [Tibet, the 'great game' and the CIA, Mar 26] More likely Japan and the Panchen Lama.
Migrant Worker
Luxembourg (Mar 27, '08)

[Re The mustard seed in global strategy, Mar 26] Spengler does not perform any constructive critical analysis of the events he describes. Some Muslim has converted to Christianity and has done so in a highly provocative way by insulting his former religion and effectively accusing all remaining Muslims of being either complete idiots or accomplices in an ideology of terror. What is good about this? The fact that the Pope carried out the conversion does not add weight to the authenticity and accuracy of the ex-Muslim's charges against Islam but only makes things worse. In times when political correctness and mild opinions have become objects of pseudo-intellectual abuse by wanna-be humanists/democrats such behavior is lauded. The current Pope has constantly shown good skills when it comes to creating escalation and inter-religious conflict. Dialogue seems to be strange to him, unless it is an arrogant, self-righteous speech in which he accuses his counterparts as backward, violent people and the latter merely say "Yes. Amen". So, Mr Magdi [Allam], the new convert "has decided that Islam cannot be moderate". So what? Is this "decision" evidence for anything? Does it mean that I cannot consider myself a moderate Muslim anymore? Such assertions are not only baseless but also free of any useful lessons/implications. Magdi regards Islam as "inherently violent". He is entitled to this right, but again: So what? There are many Muslims, Jews and atheists to think the same about Christianity and find enough "evidence" for such opinions in the Bible. Such extreme views are not rational deductions as Spengler wants readers to believe. Any adherent of any religion can come to completely adverse conclusions based on the same scriptural sources. No problem if Spengler dislikes Islam, but such subjective stances are not simply proven as doubtless facts only because a pope baptizes an ex-Muslim.
Nima Rezai
Germany (Mar 26, '08)

[Re The mustard seed in global strategy, Mar 26] The only global strategy for Western Christendom that Spengler has in mind following the Easter baptism by Pope Benedict XVI of Magdi Allam, who converted from Islam, is one in which a dualistic confrontation with Islam is actually applauded by the "religion founded upon love". Spengler does concede that "one does not fight a religion with guns ... but with love". However, we get a clearer picture of the nature of this confrontation when he instructs us that "sometimes it is sadly necessary to love one's enemies only after they are dead". This certainly does not make the Pope's showcase baptism sound like some reasoned global strategy based on love. In fact, it sounds more like the language of global warfare leading all the way to Christendom's prophetic showdown with Islam at the final battle of Armageddon.
Reverend Dr Vincent Zankin
Canberra (Mar 26, '08)

I find Spengler's words from The mustard seed in global strategy [Mar 26], to be very chilling: "One does not fight a religion with guns - at least not only with guns - but with love, although sometimes it is sadly necessary to love one's enemies only after they are dead." So tell me Spengler, is it only Muslims whose hearts harbor darkness and violence?
Francis
Quebec, Canada (Mar 26, '08)

There is a long-standing assumption within US foreign policy that the teeming millions of young Middle Easterners are awaiting the opportunity to embrace Western-style democracy and all of its attendant values. It was this assumption that led many to believe that Iraqis would shower the liberators with rose petals as they entered Baghdad, and help to sweep away the corrupt old regimes. But now, with the passing of the fifth anniversary of the invasion, it's difficult to escape the palpable sense of disillusionment amongst the former believers. As a group, the neoconservatives have turned to various philosophical analyses to explain away their disappointed expectations, and, invariably, the culprit is Islam: it is anti-freedom, anti-life, promulgates a "culture of death", etc. Spengler, in his article The mustard seed in global strategy [Mar 26], practically reinvents the original assumption by suggesting that Islamists, suffering from a great spiritual emptiness, will embrace the Western Christian faith, perhaps to repopulate the demographically challenged European landscape with new converts. All we need to do, apparently, is protect the converts, and they will emerge from every nook and cranny of the Islamic world, and thus will end the "conflict of civilizations". But this is all so much turbid philosophical nonsense. Why is it that the neoconservatives cannot see the simple, obvious truth of the matter: that so-called "Islamic extremism" is sustained and feeds off of the seething anger, bitterness and frustration felt by millions of young Middle Easterners who see Israel's treatment of the Palestinians, who see the support given to Israel's policies by the Western powers, and the support given to corrupt dictators who are willing to ally themselves with the West? The conversion of Magdi Allam won't change the Islamic world; it won't start a revolution; and the Pope won't go down as a great leader on that account. The reason is simple: the underlying tension caused by Israeli and Western policies remains, just as it remained following the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime. Until that tension is resolved, nothing can change. Resolve the source of the Middle Easterners' rage, and "Islamic extremism" in all of its varied manifestations will fade away, leaving Middle Eastern society free to change. And the tension can be resolved: when Israel accepts the Palestinians as full members of society, and makes a sincere effort at recompense, and when the Western powers cease their dishonest manipulations of Middle Eastern politics, then the tension will fade, and with it the source of Islamic extremism. If there is to be a great leader in our time, it is this task that he or she must accomplish.
Andrew Langford
USA (Mar 26, '08)

[Re Tibet, the 'great game' and the CIA, Mar 26] Here we go again. Another conspiracy which has its origins at the CIA. Richard M Bennett takes a high Tory tone towards the Tibetans in Lhasa, Qinghai, Gansu, and Yunnan. A political realist, he dismisses with much condescension the thought that owing to China's long oppression of the Tibetan people, they are incapable of rising up against the Beijing tyrant. He sees the cause of the uprising as directed by the hand of the CIA, and by drawing falsely on historical analogy. In other words, he blames the victims, thereby giving much heft to China's arguments that the Dalai Lama clique instigated the revolt against the heavy Han hand in Tibet and elsewhere in China where there are sizeable Tibetan communities. He blames the victims. Had he a modicum of historical sense would he tell the Algerians who rose up against the French in 1954, or the Vietnamese who fought the French after 1946, the same thing? Stop ... playing the OSS' or the CIA's game, for you're being the string puppets of a foreign power!
Mel Cooper
Singapore (Mar 26, '08)

Thanks are due to Richard M Bennett's detailed review of international intrigue regarding Tibet in Tibet, the 'great game' and the CIA, [Mar 26]. Besides the "beneficiaries" described in that article, some Western media have had a field day in airing "repressions" in that Chinese province, even to the extent of doctoring some photographs to convey an impression of brutal suppression while the undeniable fact is that the "peaceful" demonstrating monks started the violence by beating shopkeepers and burning shops owned by Han Chinese and Tibetans alike. Among the fatalities is a baby girl burned to death. These media critics have also taken delight in describing some disruptive protests during the Olympic Torch ceremony. Fortunately, the Chinese authorities have had the foresight in building the Trans-Tibet railway by which the necessary armed reinforcements are quickly sent in to establish control. Apparently years of efforts of assimilation have not worked. Raising the standard of living, building of schools and restoration of temples, improvement of infrastructure, freedom to pray and preach, local Tibetan participation in government and party affairs have not stopped a determined few aided and abetted by outside forces. It will take many more years to achieve assimilation and Tibet will remain a Chinese province well beyond the lifetime of the present grinning critics.
Seung Li (Mar 26, '08)

I find Pallavi Aiyar's article regarding China and India [China and India: Oh to be different, Mar 19] surprisingly disconnected with reality. She says that India is held together by an idea. The fact is that India was held together by a confrontation with a dead end. When the British left, what was India to do? It was already broken up into two, with a prospect of breaking into more pieces. The only way out was to be united via democracy. Even today, northerners despise southerners and there is a movement to expel northerners from Mumbai. As for the rebelliousness of Tibetans as an example of how China is unprepared, she appears to be blissfully unaware that Tibet has been a target of the West and US in particular for at least 60 years, leaving aside the Great Game for the time being. To aid their effort in Korea, the US campaigned to invoke rebellion in Tibet and that has lasted to this day. By contrast, no one has interfered in Kashmir or Assam or Punjab or Tamil Nadu or anywhere else. In fact the West and the US have cooperated to make India work.
Frank Yeo
Halifax, UK (Mar 26, '08)

[Re Promises and pandas for Taiwan's Ma, Mar 26] Contrary to a lot of rosy expectations from Ma's landslide victory, I find it very challenging in reality for Ma to gain much from the People's Republic of China. Well, the current Taiwan stock market's positive reactions would evaporate shortly once the offshore hot money cashed in their profits, with the anticipated upward market behavior after a predictable Ma victory, and leave Taiwan. Unfortunately, Ma's conciliatory stance toward China would probably disappoint a lot of his supporters and the US China-Taiwan experts when he faces off with Mr Hu Jingtao. I predict China would stand even more firmly on their definition of "One China" policy, that is there is only one China in the world, that China is represented by the People's Republic of China in Beijing, and that Taiwan is part of China. Absolutely no ifs or buts, especially under the crisis of Tibet unrest and crackdowns. So what is Ma talking about a "1992 consensus"? Rubbish. Why? Ma's landslide victory leaving the Democratic Progressive Party to become a toothless opposition has created a bigger challenge than expected for Ma and the Kuomintang. Ma has won a decisive mandate, yet lost a powerful political leverage, namely an effective and powerful pro-independence force on the side to enhance Ma's bargaining power. The warmed receptions given to Mr Chan Lien and James Soong by Hu Jingtao and the PRC's subsequent conciliatory gesture and measures to appease the Taiwanese after 2004 presidential election which was strategically designed to check president Chen Shui-Bian's independence push, will no longer be necessary for the next eight years. In the nutshell, to deal with Beijing, the most effective and powerful bargaining position any Taiwanese leader needs is a strong pro-independence force in meaningful existence in Taiwan at least for the near future [for] democratization to take root in China. On the issue of defending Taiwan's sovereignty, Ma will prove to be a weak and ineffective negotiator, let alone the fact that the KMT has never won anything in history on the negotiation table from the Chinese Communist Party. The first test is whether Ma would ever be green-lighted by Beijing to pay a visit to Washington DC or Tokyo, even before his May 20 inauguration as a private citizen. It would be very unlikely, especially in light of the progressing Tibet crisis which alone would continue to jeopardize Hu's political fate. On the issue of "common market" removing restrictions on trade and travel, Ma's wishful thinking would also be tested soon. Take the "direct flight" for example, from the practical economic terms, I wonder how Beijing is going to compensate Hong Kong's losses in billions when [loses its] function as a necessary hub for air-traffic between Taiwan and the mainland. Finally, if I were Hu Jingtao or Wen Jiabao, I would want Ma ... to make clear ... his threat of boycotting the Beijing Olympics ... before any talk. Mr Ma, are you ready?
James Chou
Vancouver, Canada (Mar 26, '08)

Many a truth is said in jest. Why markets love dictators [Mar 21] is proof of that old saw. It speaks volumes about crony capitalism. Greed in the market place prefers dictatorships for the simple and plain truth that dictatorships concentrate money and commodities and business opportunities in the hands of the very few. Markets hate regulation and transparency, for laws and regulations require a degree of openness which bankers and corporations and the "democratic" governments which open the doors of trade for their countrymen, hate to deal with, having to divulge information which they prefer to keep under cover. Dictators can and do waive laws and level firewalls which inhibit free markets. However, the hair in this soup is that dictatorships are notoriously corrupt and for the "privileges" of markets, banks and corporations who come hat in hand begging favors, have to bribe and contravene their own laws to take advantage of expanded market opportunities. Such behavior is to easy to document; simply, open the pages of the international press. Corruption is contagious, and yes, spreads like a cancer. But wait! What about North Korea? Do not fool yourself, even American bankers and big corporations are banging on Pyongyang's doors, to have an edge on the competition when its markets are more opened.
Jakob Cambria
USA (Mar 25, '08)

[Re Why markets love dictators, Mar 21] I wonder why Mr Akya felt compelled to add a disclaimer at the end of his article - Hindu guilt? It should be common knowledge that markets prefer dictators for their stability and the greater ease with which they can be influenced, ie, no votes to buy, no multiple politicians to bribe, no PR/propaganda campaigns to wage against the general population, etc. Of course, the dictators have to be of the fascistic, non-nationalistic variety. But if we do what Confucius had advised - rectify our language - things become clearer. "The market" is a horrible spook, in the Stirnerian sense of an abstract idea with only a distorting relationship to a concrete reality. "International capitalists" would be a much more appropriate term, regardless of its Marxist connotations, as it avoids the silly democratic veil some apologists have draped over "the market". International capitalists have long had a love affair with strongman dictators who have no compunction against selling their countries out from beneath them, while clamping down on any incipient labor movement that might raise the cost of labor. The only people who would need to read Mr Akya's disclaimer are those muddleheaded fools who think "markets" and "democracy" are good, and so as a matter of principle they must never be at odds in the real world.
Josephus P Franks
New York City, USA (Mar 25, '08)

With regard to the article by John Ng, Now the Tibet blame game begins" [Mar 19], I believe Mr Ng spoke too soon because Tibetan protests against brutal Chinese oppression are far from over. The Chinese Communist Party is responding in a predictably uncreative and unintelligent manner by using its armed forces against the domestic populace once again as well as suppressing any reports of its bloody crackdown on the protestors. Does the Chinese Communist Party have no tools of persuasion other than beating, shooting or imprisoning those who are dissatisfied with the government and yet are denied any venues of redress? When this is over, I feel certain that the Chinese government will announce that the People's Liberation Army (PLA) has won a glorious victory over so-called troublemakers. Let us not forget that the PLA's last military victory occurred on June 4-5, 1989, in the streets around Tiananmen Square. Olympics or not, it is clear that fundamentally little has changed in Chinese government over the last 20 years, a cause for genuine sadness for Chinese and non-Chinese alike.
Daniel McCarthy
Salt Lake City, Utah, USA (Mar 25, '08)

Once again, Pepe Escobar [ Shocked, awed and left to rot, Mar 20] penetrates directly to the heart of the matter - what remains, or rather what does not remain of a country once known as Iraq after five years of being subject to a war of aggression on the part of those purveyors of "democracy", the United States and the UK (who must, indeed be selling off this particular political system, as less and less remains for the public to enjoy at home). One vital element missing, however, from Senor Escobar's otherwise excellent description of the course of the war and the current situation is an analysis of the discrepancy between the updated figures for the "additional deaths" caused by the war - some 1.3 millions (nota bene, additional deaths based on the mortality rates obtaining at the end of 12 years of draconian sanctions, which had greatly increased these rates compared with those obtaining previously in Iraq) and the reports of the casualties we read or hear about daily in our mainstream media - 60 killed one day, 200 the next, always as a result of the activities of the insurgency/terrorists. (One might ask what the 150,000-odd US troops and the over 100,000 contractor mercenaries are doing in Iraq, if everyone killed is a victim of the insurgents - sweeping the sidewalks?) After all, a quick calculation from the above figures - 1.3 million "additional deaths" over five years, suffices to show that these additional deaths must have been occurring at an average rate of over 700 per day, year in and year out, ie, far greater than that we hear about. The answer to this conundrum, I suspect, lies in the one aspect of the war that Escobar does not mention in the present article - the US air war on the Iraqi people. This hidden portion of the war - for some strange reason, the US Air Force does not release figures on how many raids it carries out daily, nor how many tons of munitions are dropped, has been analyzed, even if imperfectly due to the limited information available, by among others Seymour Hersh of the New Yorker and Michael Schwartz writing in Tomdispatch. Many of these latter articles have indeed been republished in Asia Times Online, but given the fact that the general public seems to be so little aware of this particular aspect of the war, one would like to request ATol to cover it still more extensively than it has in the past ...
M Henri Day, PhD, MD
Stockholm (Mar 25, '08)

The contents of the intelligent informative journalistic reporting and articles attached to your paper on your website are brought into disrepute and downgraded by the pornographic pop-up ads attached to your newspaper. Are these legitimate adverts? If not you should seriously consider urgent action. As a female I am affronted by these porno adverts.
Daphne Baker (Mar 25, '08)

[Re Pyongyang cashes in on US row, Mar 21] A quick observation: The US is not going to pull out troops from South Korea, no more than it would remove those it has in Japan. When you come down to it, South Korea will pay for the US military to remain where it is. So how much can North Korea exploit from a scenario wherein they are irrelevant? What we are witnessing is a reworking of terms of a financial contract not a challenge to geo-political realities.
Mel Cooper
Singapore (Mar 25, '08)

In response to F William Engdahl's piece on Eliot Spitzer Why Spitzer was Bushwhacked [Mar 20]: While he may be correct about Spitzer's enemies and their use of the prostitution investigation, Mr Engdahl fails to point out that Spitzer gave them the opportunity on a silver tray, much as Bill Clinton did with his behavior toward certain women he wasn't married to. I was a fraud investigator for many years, and greatly admired Spitzer. Unfortunately, he has no one to blame for his downfall but himself. Also, New York is not the second-largest state by population; it is third behind Texas.
Steve Turman (Mar 20, '08)

Regarding Why Spitzer was Bushwhacked [Mar 20] by F William Engdahl: Spitzer's $4,300 prostitution fee for one hour sounds like chicken feed compared to the political prostitution ring who sold us Bush for eight years and for how many US billions?
Beryl K
Minnesota, USA (Mar 20, '08)

In Pepe Escobar's latest article, Shocked, awed and left to rot [Mar 20], he states: "Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz and co-author Linda Bilmes, in their book The Three Trillion Dollar War: The True Cost of the Iraq Conflict, estimate that by 2017, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan will cost between $1.7 trillion and $2.7 trillion. Republican presidential contender John McCain wants this to last indefinitely as millions of Americans finally realize this avalanche of funds could instead provide them with better public schools, better health insurance and better projects to repair crumbling US infrastructure." If Pepe hasn't read Naomi Klein's The Shock Doctrine, he would do well to do so. We Americans will realize that all of this money spent on Afghanistan and Iraq would have been better spent at home - after our schools and infrastructure have been privatized completely because our federal and state government revenues fail to be able to support those things due to this recession and potential global economic slowdown. Maybe that was the plan all along, for America as well as Iraq.
Michael Brigham
USA (Mar 20, '08)

[Re Shocked, awed and left to rot, Mar 20] As usual Escobar knows not what he is talking about - war is to be sustained, not won. War is the number one moneymaker in the world - all else pales beside it, even sex. The system of war is designed to make money - nothing else; it is backed up by international banks and the powers that be that do not hold punches - repairs cost money, destruction is cheap and the greatest profits for those participants in a war as well as the financiers of a war; war must be sustained if it is to make money. The war in Iraq is going very well for the powers most profiting from it. What is important is that the war be sustained - it must be kept going until it has dried out any profit and then on to the next war. Mr Escobar probably thinks the US "lost" the war in Vietnam, when it was important only to keep the war going. He probably thinks the US and its "allies" are losing the war. Mr Escobar is asleep and living in his impossible, liberal utopia. The war goes on 24 hours a day; it must be kept going for there are immense profits coming out of a war ... it is not a pretty picture and Mr Escobar himself helps sustain that war with his delusions.
Joseph Giramma (Mar 20, '08)

Pallavi Aiyar wasted no time in zooming straight into the mote in China's eye [China and India: Oh to be different, Mar 19]. Meanwhile, let's recall the beam that figuratively sits in India's own eye since the 2002 Gujarat state government-sponsored riots produced nearly 2,000 dead (as reported by Human Rights Watch). There has been no meaningful attempt to prosecute the murderers involved, while Gujarat (under the same government) has become India's economic showpiece. Noting her excitement over Lhasa, could one ask Aiyar to not be so selective in letting go of bygones?
Usman Qazi
San Francisco (Mar 20, '08)

Wonderful article by Pallavi Aiyar - China and India: Oh to be different [Mar 19] - couldn't agree with her more. But I hope she realizes that the diversity that we are so proud of, is maybe because of our faith, Hinduism. Compare our country with our neighbors, especially Pakistan, and you can't but notice the difference. Hinduism doesn't shout that ours is the only way: all paths are valid to reach God, even atheists are welcome in Rama's heaven! Tolerant, inclusive, liberal and democratic, that's Hinduism! As for Mr Shah's letter [Mar 20] on the article, I can see how some people of other faiths can get jealous and churn out abusive letters. "Majority sets the ground rules?" You don't say? How shocking! Can Mr Shah provide us with some examples where minorities set the ground rules? And may I say if he feels that uncomfortable living in India, he is free to leave? Somehow I see him realizing that those faraway mountains maybe are not that smooth. Maybe he would like to go to Iraq or Pakistan, and maybe get blown up for this troubles. Or how about Malaysia where he can be treated like a second-class citizen? It is a fact that abused people like Parsees, Bohras, Jews, Tibetans, etc, found a safe haven in India. Only a self-abusive person would find a problem with it. Is it wrong to give safe haven to persecuted people and let them keep their language and heritage? Before you open your mouth, why don't you think a while, Mr Shah? This is something all Indians should be proud of, not get abusive! If you like you can move to a country like Iraq, where they will force you to lose your faith and culture. If that's your idea of a great country, there's nothing stopping you, please leave! Mr Shah talks about persecuted people, he leaves out Kashmiri Brahmins who had to flee their homes and become refugees in their own country! Ethnic cleansing of people belonging to the majority faith! No other country would have allowed it! Only in India can a minority dream of becoming the leader of the country. Tell me: in which other country is there a foreign born person of a minority faith leading the country? The Prime Minister comes from another minority faith! Until recently, our president was a Muslim! ... In a Hindu country! Only in India! What a great country!
Jayant Patel
Chicago (Mar 20, '08)

India wakes to a Tibetan headache by M K Bhadrakumar [Mar 18] expounds on the perspective I broached recently. A century from now, which group would be happier human beings, the Tibetan diaspora in India or persons in China of Tibetan parent(s), both or with a non-Tibetan spouse? The former would still be culturally distinct but alienated in India; the latter assimilated in China. The former would have “autonomy” due to discrimination; the latter would be products of “cultural genocide”. I would much prefer to be a product of “cultural genocide”, to have, and to be derived from, social inclusion in courtship and marriage - love between a man and a woman. Would Obama regret being a step toward “cultural genocide” of the Kenyans or the bastardizing of the white melting pot? Probably some of his ancestors dreaded his existence, but the dead, even if they once rioted, don’t really kick in their graves. Often the tightest, the most intimate, and the most pervasive straitjacketing that impedes individualism is cultural tradition, not governmental repressive bound by available resources. The Akaka Bill would have given the Hawaiian culture special protective status like that of the American Indians; it could have provided some autonomy for the Hawaiians. The US Senate rejects the Akaka Bill while it cites the “American tradition of assimilation” as the salubrious social objective. Is the rejection of the Akaka Bill “cultural genocide”? It is, and that is why “cultural genocide” is a natural accompaniment to social progress. That is why the US of late is socially progressive. How can human beings congregate at the boundary between respect and love, maximize the former but never transcend into the latter? Once love occurs, so does “cultural genocide”. Practically, in order to achieve assimilation, the means toward “cultural genocide” should be considered, but the objective of “cultural genocide” should not be condemned. The most enfranchised groups, in the US including the German newcomers, become the products of “cultural genocide” the most thoroughly. The term “cultural genocide” should at once be recognized as inflammatory and biased, even though a progressive government should realistically accommodate, with guise and charade, the universality of resistance to assimilation among the elders. How can any third-partner observer, particularly a product of “cultural genocide” as many Americans, object to the social goal of “cultural genocide”, even if one may demur on the specific procedure as ineffective? Lastly, is forced busing in the US “cultural genocide”? In New Kent County, Virginia, 85% of black parents elected to send their children to all-black schools. The US Supreme Court ordered busing while it ruled that the goal of integration, mutual cultural dilution, overrode choice to isolate one’s children to cultural exposure. Busing - riding in a bus for up to ten extra hours a week in order to sit next to someone of a different color or ethnicity for eight hours a day - is far more intrusive than having a non-Tibetan neighbor.
Jeff Church
USA (Mar 20, '08)

I wish to comment on Killing stress for India's best and brightest, by Neeta Lal [Mar20]. It is not only that teenage students fearing [the] worst in the exam results or for their future prospects in life need psychiatric treatment, but [also] that they kill themselves to escape highly competitive India's rapid economic progress. This is also affecting the Indian urbanized middle class who, instead of sitting in the lotus position doing yoga, are lying on the couches of their psychiatrists seeking solutions to their newly acquired, adopted and photocopied Western problems. Their hedonistic private lives expose burgeoning drug abuse that is also copied by the young elite. Commonly known as "namak" (salt), cocaine is popular [with] youth and adults [and] has become an epidemic. They prefer to take cocaine, amphetamines and drink until they fall flat in the streets. Their parents newly acquired wealth and extravagant and ostentatious lifestyles has made the Indian youth sexually promiscuous and it is sure a sign of India sinking in “Western debauchery”. Many have great fear of their future ... as jobs are becoming highly competitive and scarce in the well-paid financial and IT sectors. Indian society is losing its cultural ties as Western influence is intruding and corroding its religious morality and authority. Drugs and ... illicit sex amongst the youth have greater acceptability than ever before and parental authority is diminishing rapidly. So many parents’ high hopes and expectations are shattered when they find suicide notes lying by the side of the dead bodies of their children. At the same time more and more affluent middle class executives are consulting American-style psychiatrists to combat the pressure of modern life. A survey of the psychiatrists in the New Delhi showed a 40% increase in the clients in the last two years. Young Indians who are fortunate enough to find a job - which is almost a miracle - work long hours like robots to meet their huge ambitions. There are many corner shop psychiatrists as well as legal and illegal abortion clinics doing flourishing trade in big cities of India. In particular, there is an ever increasing demand for the clinics to terminate illegitimate pregnancies running rampant in young girls going to schools and colleges.
Saqib Khan
UK (Mar 20, '08)

[Re Malaysia rocked to the economic core, Mar 20] Has Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi learnt any lessons from the setback he and his UMNO party [suffered] in the March elections? He lost to the opposition parties representing ethnic Chinese and Indians and more liberal Malays, Malaysia's rice bowl state of Kedah and the industrial powerhouses of Penang, Perak, and Selangor. This loss of economic muscle allows the opposition not only challenge the stagnant New Economic Policy which favored Muslims across the board in housing, loans, education, so on and on, but heightened the years of discontent among Chinese and Indians and Christians and tribes in east Malaysia. It also allowed liberal Malay opponents of UMNO to form coalitions to challenge the long 50-year night of UMNO rule. As a result in these "rice bowls" discriminatory laws are being undone and a degree of equity and equality before the law is allowed to Malaysia minority races and peoples. The page of politics as it once was is now turned but not forgotten. Mr Abdullah is not brooding much. He has reshuffled his cabinet, and has sacked 36 ministers and replaced them with more reform-minded party loyalists. On one hand, he has learnt a hard lesson; he has heard the vox populi and is responding to the popular will of sorts. Will he dismantle the NEP [National Economic Policy] throughout the country? That remains to be seen, but politics the old way foreshadows strife and division and the stretching of the ethnic glue which holds Malaysia together as a state. On the other hand, the UMNO has reigned for so long that for many in the party any challenge or change in business as usual is a threat which has to be resisted at all costs. The forces of fundamentalism and religious reaction are waiting in the wings to insinuate themselves into the ruling party. Any change in the old formulas of favoring Muslims is a threat, but if the recent elections say one thing it is that despite differences among the races and the tribal peoples, Malaysia voted for a secular government and rejected the appeal for a theocratic state.
Mel Cooper
Singapore (Mar 20, '08)

[Re Sorry, I wasn't pessimistic enough, Mar 19] Martin Hutchinson has nothing to be sorry about, I think. Finer minds than his ran the gamut from A to A-prime when it came to the housing meltdown. Many suggested that they saw the light at the end of the subprime tunnel. But as they approached that light it suddenly appeared fainter and ever far away. At first others had thought that the credit losses had turned the corner, only to find that there was another corner and still another one after that. As the horror story of the subprime scandal unfolds, discussion has shifted from Voltaire's character Dr Pangloss to the ill-fated Trojan princess Cassandra. And as such gloom and doom prevail as the numbers climb higher and higher into the trillions of dollars in the debt outstanding. And what's more, there is still more bad news out there as the US skids into deep recession and a government which seems incapable of coming to terms without, other than through hit and miss. Truth be told, it has become a numbers game, but no one knows the full amount due. Martin Hutchinson deserves two cheers for looking into the meltdown and drawing darker conclusions than his peers.
Jakob Cambria
USA (Mar 19, '08)

I refer to the excellent article, Two-horse race for Pakistan's hot seat [Mar 19], by Syed Saleem Shahzad and wish to comment. I would not call it a "two-horse race", but a dogfight to the end for the notorious and ferocious to win. Benazir Bhutto during her two terms allowed unprecedented opportunism, nepotism, despotism and lethal corruption to reach every corner of Pakistan. Her husband was well known in the country as "Mr 10%". He has always been an opportunist hiding behind the bush ready to pounce, and soon after Bhutto's assassination [last December] emerged enthusiastically and vigorously as the only heir apparent to the throne, lofting her so-called "will" [which] until then [had] never [been] heard of or spoken about. During Bhutto's exile, Zardari was instructed and never allowed to be seen near her and told to keep a far distance away. But he could not wait any longer after the death to claim her throne so unceremoniously. Saleem Shahzad's very informative article is an eye-opener for millions in Pakistan and abroad, though, many never doubted or still doubt Asif Zardari's criminal past and character. This dogfight is going to get dirtier and dirtier with each day, each month and each year - and will never end until the dogs kill each other.
Jalal Rumi
Pakistan (Mar 19, '08)

[Re India awakens to a Tibetan headache, Mar 18] As always, ambassador Bhadrakumar delivers a perceptive - if somewhat tongue-in-cheek - analysis of an important contemporary issue from a point of view rarely seen in the "mainstream media" of Europe and North America. Thanks are due to him for writing, and Asia Times Online for publishing this article, which repays close reading ...
M Henri Day, PhD, MD
Stockholm (Mar 19, '08)

Sorry to sound cynical, but my first thought was, "What prize will the Dalai Lama receive now?" The Pulitzer Prize? An Oscar? You can't give him another Nobel, or another American Congressional gold medal. But perhaps [US President George W] Bush or [German Chancellor Angela] Merkel will want to see him again. Good article, as usual, by Mr Bhadrakumar, India awakens to a Tibetan headache. [Mar 18].
Migrant Worker
Luxembourg (Mar 19, '08)

[Re China and India: Oh to be different, Mar 19] Aiyar's article contains a number of classic examples of double-speak that the Brahmin caste, who have largely ruled India since independence, are wont to repeat particularly to Americans: "India's great political achievement is thus in its having developed mechanisms for negotiating large-scale diversity along with the inescapable corollary of frequent and aggressive disagreement. The guiding and perhaps lone consensus that forms the bedrock of that mechanism is that in a democracy you don't really need to agree - except on the ground rules of how you will disagree."

Real meaning: We [the Brahmins who rule India by right of birth] can use the Indian army, RSS [Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh - a Hindu nationalist organization], tribals and other irregulars to crush the Kashmiris, Sikhs, Naxalites, Muslims, people from Assam or any other minority by saying that they were mandated to do so by the "democratic" government elected by the Hindu majority because this majority sets the ground rules. This means in particular that we can reserve all government jobs for Hindus with impunity(in order to preserve our ancient system of caste inequality and patronage). Another example: "In direct contradistinction to China, India's polity has flourished precisely because of its ability to acknowledge difference. The very survival of India as a country, given the scope of its bewildering diversity, has been dependent on the possibility of dissent."

Real meaning: Look, don't worry about whining from liberals like Arundhati Roy - nobody listens to her anyway. Everything is for sale. "India is a country of 22 official languages and over 200 recorded mother tongues. In this 'Hindu' country, there are more Muslims than in all of Pakistan. The country's cultural inheritance includes fire-worshiping Zorastrians and Torah-reciting Jews. With no single language, ethnicity, religion or food, India is quite simply, implausible; yet marvelously, it isn't. It is a country without a language, without a center, lacking singularity except in being singularly diverse."

Real meaning: We've got great local guys who can guarantee security and keep our minorities under control like Narendra Modi or Bal Thackeray. We don't have to get our hands dirty with this stuff - they make sure that everybody toes the Hindu line or else.
Shah (Mar 19, '08)

[Re India awakens to a Tibetan headache., Mar 18] It is deplorable that M K Bhadrakumar is pointing veiled fingers at the Dalai Lama for the riots happening in Tibet, stopping short of endorsing the official Chinese stance. Where were these "dark hints" he is talking about? We never picked [up] any such hints anywhere - either mainstream or [other] information sources? Or, if he was in exclusive possession of such "dark hints", why didn't he act by informing the Chinese government? He could have saved so many lives! And to add to all this, he makes this very mischievous assertion, very confidently, that Hinduism "ruthlessly decimated" and "removed all traces" of it from "Indian cultural consciousness". What are his sources, and what proof does he have to make such an audacious generalization? Was is not the invading hordes professing fanatical Islam who systematically destroyed all the Buddhist monasteries in northern India and "decimated" the monks to the last man? An example is what happened to Nalanda. So much so that in Medieval and modern South Asian Muslim parlance, a corruption of the word Buddha, "Buth" stands for "idols". True, indeed, that Hindu revivalism competed with Buddhism, and perhaps there was even an instance or two of fanaticism. But to claim that this is what supplanted Buddhism from the vast sub-continent is mischievous in the least and mendacious at worst. And imagine - at one time the "Indian cultural consciousness" held sway over even what is modern Afghanistan, Pakistan, Kashmir and Bangladesh. In fact, these very areas were once thriving centers of Indian Buddhism. That they are now largely Muslim speaks another ... story.
Prabhu Rajagopal
Hyderabad, India (Mar 19, '08)

[Re The worst-case scenario - live, Mar 18] Wow, after the pounding that global markets had taken courtesy of Bear Stearns, the Dow gained? Hope investors aren't deluded into thinking that the Federal Reserve can pull rabbits out of its empty hat to salvage the market or the economy. More likely, Doug Noland's uneasy gut feeling will soon prove prescient as Wall Street turns into a frenzied abattoir, and there'll be nothing the Fed can do to stop the carnage. In the coming months, just about the only thing that could surpass all the financial-market pandemonium would be fireworks in the Persian Gulf.
John Chen
USA (Mar 18, '08)

[Re letters, Mar 18] Folks like the Dalai Lama, Drsubhash Kapila, C Battiaz and Saqib Khan are jumping the gun by quickly denouncing China's "genocide" during the latest riot in Lhasa. The Tibetan government-in-exile is claiming that more than 100 people were killed. From the limited video footage and clips available online we saw Tibetan mobs running amok, violently smashing stores and setting cars on fire. We have also heard from Western journalists that Tibetan mobs were chasing and attacking Han and Hui Chinese civilians. At this point not all the facts are out. I wouldn't be surprised if the majority of the dead turned out to be victims of the Tibetan mobs who were anything but "peaceful".
Juchechosunmanse
Beijing (Mar 18, '08)

[Re Olympic flame burns ominously, Mar 18] In a way some people - like this writer - have expected what has happened these few days in Tibet. It is high time, given the Olympic Games in Beijing in a few months. Any fool can see that the protests were well orchestrated. The result is killing, burning and looting. Local Tibetans and Han alike suffer. For all these, the Dalai Lama and Western politicians call for "restraint", knowing that the protests will go nowhere. For the Dalai Lama and his monks, they have lost religious authority and political power in Tibet. They are reduced to just being fed and daily chanting. What they deem "cultural genocide" is learned by the Han from the Europeans who migrated to America to develop the new world. These critics are also blind to the many temples restored and worshipers flocking to pray there on a daily basis. So the once "insiders" are reluctant to give up and the many "outsiders" are jealous of such a large piece of real estate secured by China on historical ground. China will not give up Tibet, even if the Olympics are called off.
Seung Li (Mar 18, '08)

M K Bhadrakumar is a seasoned diplomat and a keen observer of things Asian. Yet, his India wakes to a Tibetan headache [Mar 18] brings to our awareness how little for him Tibet matters on Asia's political chessboard. This, of course, is not a new theme. In a backhand fashion, he blames the Dalai Lama for wanting to embarrass China for his own particular designs. Which is tantamount to blaming the victims of 49 years of harsh and brutal Chinese rule, and turn Tibetans into second-class Han Chinese. The surprising thing about Bhadrakumar's standpoint is that when it comes to Kashmir he falls flatly on the side of New Delhi in rejecting the Organization of Islamic Conferences, which condemned India's intransigence in resolving a 60-year-old thorn in India-Pakistani relations. What he does show is [that] what is right for India is correct, and what is good for Tibetans is definitely wrong-headed - and an unwillingness to accept Buddhist-like the turn of life's wheel.
Mel Cooper
Singapore (Mar 18, '08)

[Re India wakes to a Tibetan headache, Mar 18] Bhadrakumar is very astute in his observations about Himalayan power politics. The March 10 uprising timed to coincide with the anniversary of the failed Central Intelligence Agency-sponsored uprising in 1959 was obviously methodically planned, organized, financed and executed and coordinated in Dharamsala [in India], whatever the Dalai Lama tells the world that these were a spontaneous reaction to Chinese oppression. He knows he can count at the very least on right-wing neo-conservatives and left-wing Hollywood celebrities like Richard Gere and Mia Farrow to tarnish and bash China months before the start of the Olympic torch relay. All the gullible Western media have to do is swallow the bait, show grainy footages of Chinese police officers beating/shooting these hapless Tibetan monks in saffron robes, who are actually the ones doing most of the killing. They burned and vandalized buildings and poured acid on Han Chinese bystanders. Then the media will report it as "genocide", and the Dalai Lama, basking in [a] radiant glow as saint and liberator, will urge Western leaders to intervene like they did on Kosovo. This is part of a crafted script, and from the timing of the riots to the spreading of violence in three other Chinese provinces, these "peaceful protests" were synchronized and staged. The best case he can hope for was to instigate a "colored " revolution ala people's power, (I know too well of it here) that will attract the sympathy of outside powers and create a violent chain reaction for Tibetans to topple Chinese rule. The worst case is that Beijing will assert control and the uprising will be brutally crushed, but not before generating bad publicity to China's communist leaders, and sabotaging China's hosting of the Olympics. The Chinese will be labelled as butchers, and the Dalai Lama will capitalize on atrocities allegedly committed. The Tibetan independence cause will generate more attention than 100 congressional gold medal ceremonies combined! It is plainly obvious he has not condemned or called for a stop to the violence, instead he used the word "cultural genocide" or "rule of terror", which are inflammatory and irresponsible. The man's words betray his reputation as an agent of peace. I have to credit the Dalai Lama for being a shrewd politician and brilliant media-savvy public relations promoter. In 1959, when he asked for the CIA's help, there was no YouTube or 24-hour newscasting, so his cause did not generate attention. Now, he knows this is the best time to generate as much attention to his cause and smear Beijing and paralyze it in a way that if it acts to harshly, China risks a boycott of the Olympics.
Jake Q Bantug
Cebu, Philippines (Mar 18, '08)

I am an avid reader of Asia Times Online and my only regret is that it closes down on Saturday and Sunday. Never mind. While I don't agree with some of the articles, I do try to get a laugh out of them at least. Let's not get too serious about Spengler, for example, and just enjoy a radically different point of view. I am also relieved by the balanced reporting in ATol of the recent unrest in Tibet. While I am a supporter of China's political position on Tibet, nevertheless I concede there have been some dark episodes resulting in injustices to the Tibetans. The recent one, however, does leave me perplexed as (while we are waiting for more concrete news) the whole world is entirely willing to [assume] the worst and everyone, including the Dalai Lama, is claiming genocide or at least cultural genocide. While Tiananmen is still fresh, and the history of under-reporting from China is a regular practice, I do not see the justification for the hysteria sweeping the world. The Dalai Lama claims up to 100 dead, the videos instead show rioting Tibetans and I daresay the initial reporting seems to be the majority of the dead (10-100) could be people trapped in the riots and, in all likelihood, non-Tibetans. There were reports of gunshots but, in this world of YouTube videos, no real videos have yet surfaced of the army shooting to kill - unlike what happened in Burma [Myanmar] recently. It all seems orchestrated and the media willingly lap it all up. I am more concerned about the predicable reaction from China as it may interpret this as another "attack" on its sovereignty. To be sure, China needs to engage the Tibetans and have a dialogue for a long-term future. But let us not forget that the biggest victims in the past and even now in China have been the Chinese themselves ... Now, as 1.5 billion people rush to get a decent living, let's give them the space to work out their own problems and not treat them as the enemy.
KS
Malaysia (Mar 18, '08)

[Re The peculiar theology of black liberation, Mar 18] Oh Spengler! Do you not realize that US presidential hopeful, Senator Barack Obama, is no less a unifying figure because of the fact that he is the very embodiment of the clash between two irreconcilable cultures: the posture of "black liberation theology" and mainstream American Christianity? This is the stuff of reconciliation that this world so desperately needs. We need reconciliation not only between people who are black and people who are white, but between people who are Muslim and people who are Christian. Reconciliation can only begin with the embodying of "irreconcilable" cultures. And unless we are prepared to enter into the very depths of this embodiment - in the excruciating depths of paradox, of ambiguity and of an uncompromising, yet seemingly unifying, divine mystery too deep to even utter - we will forever remain divided, disillusioned and in a state of perpetual war. Moreover, presumably as a Christian, Spengler should be well aware of how St Paul, in his New Testament letter to the Romans (chapters 9 to 11), attempts to reconcile how the Jews, through their very rejection of Jesus Christ, can still hold a place of pre-eminence in God's pre-ordained plan of salvation vis-a-vis the gentiles. And in his letter to the Ephesians (chapter 2), he states: "But now in Christ Jesus you [gentiles] who were once far off [from the Jews] have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who has made us both one, and has broken down the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his flesh the law of commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby bringing the hostility to an end." How these two monotheistic faiths of Judaism and Christianity can be further reconciled peacefully with Islam stands as perhaps the greatest challenge of this new century. But let us not recoil from these challenges - especially if they all happen to be embodied in a man who could well become the next president of the United States.
Reverend Dr Vincent Zankin
Canberra (Mar 18, '08)

[Re The peculiar theology of black liberation, Mar 18] Spengler is wearying because when it comes to the US his lack of understanding is so broad and so deep that grappling with his thinking is like trying to swim upstream in molasses. For instance, he says Americans have no ethnicity, yet it's his own co-religionists who set the tone by publicly clinging to their ethnicity. Thus Spengler is implicitly talking about his co-religionists when he says, "One finds ethnocentricity only in odd corners of American religious life." But it's silly to think his co-religionists only exist in an odd corner when they've achieved success in many ways and, above all, when that success has enabled them to influence American foreign policy. What Spengler fears is that a different ethnic or racial group may rival his own, which is why he shows his tendentiousness in painting so-called black liberation theology as being somehow weird and unworthy, as if it was any worse than the American fundamentalist Christian theology that played a role in encouraging the invasion of Iraq. But Spengler stumbles on the truth in saying, "Racially-based theology nonetheless is a greased chute to the nether regions." We need only look at how Israel treats the Palestinians.
Harald Hardrada
Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA (Mar 18, '08)

[Re The peculiar theology of black liberation, Mar 18] Professor Vincent Wimbush, of California's Claremont Graduate University, who is an expert on ethnic interpretations of the Bible, says the matter of the historical color of Jesus seems to him a "flat, dead-end issue". [Jesus Christ was] of Mediterranean stock, and it's quite clear he was not white. There is "theologically something quite profound" in the fact that throughout history Europeans have tried to depict Jesus as an idol in their own skin color. It is an idle image of themselves, painting Jesus as something they would like to find aspiring. But not any more in the secular West ... [The] modern version of Christianity is seen globally as a "white man's colonial and imperial religion" which the European looters and barbaric thugs imposed on people "not like them" in order to pretend to the locals that they were civilized Christians and qualified to colonize their lands and rob. Europeans have insidiously misrepresented and misinterpreted Christianity to justify their perverted racial superiority and still do as Spengler wrote, "At best, this is a radically different kind of Christianity than most Americans acknowledge; at worst it is an ethnocentric heresy." It is so ironic that its origin lies in the Middle East - and does it matter if Jesus was born of questionable color according to white Westerner Christians? He was most certainly not white - [so] would that mean that the white Christians will abandon their religion? The white Americans pretend that they have ascended prejudices of skin and racial discrimination, and become civilized, but they are still are perfidiously bothered about Jesus' skin-color, [and whether] he had woolly hair or brown eyes? It's utterly disgraceful and resentful to learn that [the] prophet Jesus' color of skin is still something Christian people debate and give such importance to. Does it matter [if] what he preached came from a white, brown or a black man's mouth as long as he conveyed the message of Allah (God). Really, does it matter? Why are Obama's critics, foes and opponents using Jesus Christ's facial looks to vilify him and stain his civilized campaign? ... Does it matter?
Saqib Khan
UK (Mar 18, '08)

[Re letter from John Chen, Mar 18] "... one can't help but feel that the country would have been better served had the Federal Reserve been headed by the three-man committee of Larry, Curly and Moe." Larry, Curly, Moe = Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld
Lester Ness
Kunming, China (Mar 18, '08)

[Re Forget Spitzer, fire Bernanke, and The dinosaur gold-standard economy, both Mar 15] Inheriting the economic timebomb created by Alan Greenspan's decade-long steroidal monetary policies, Ben Bernanke's actions so far in combating the financial crisis leave much to be desired. Exacerbating inflation aside, in dishing out billions of dollars to bail out his chums at the big banks (whose outsized bonuses were never shared with the people during the bubbling good times), Mr Bernanke shows much contempt for the public trust placed in his office and institution. Looking at the job performances submitted by Messrs Greenspan and Bernanke, one can't help but feel that the country would have been better served had the Federal Reserve been headed by the three-man committee of Larry, Curly and Moe.
John Chen
USA (Mar 17, '08)

[Having] too many of your Western contributors all of similar mindset does not serve your readers. I would suggest you Wiki for yourself the political agendas of your Western guest contributors. You may not like what you find. It would be nice to read more articles by Asian contributors providing Asian perspectives.
Guy Greenwood (Mar 17, '08)

New York governor Eliot Spitzer is history, but hardly forgotten. You can make a case that he was set up by the movers and shakers of America's financial establishment and the US Department of Justice for humbling Wall Street kingpins. But that is another story. Forget Spitzer, fire Bernanke [Mar 15] is not in the cards despite what Chan Akya may think. The US is slipping into a deep recession, and a strength of the Federal Reserve's big enchilada is that as a professor, he wrote a good study on the Great Depression. He knows the pitfalls which could tip over not only America's apple cart, [but] which would bowl over the world's financial markets. Chan Akya is right in saying that the Fed has acted a little too late, but you can lay the fault at the feet of Bernanke. After all, he takes his cues from President George W Bush who is the foremost spokesman of laissez faire capitalism and the failure that it has visited on his country and foreign investors, not to speak of an overall impoverishment of Americans and the setting of its sun as a world power. Chan Akya is quick to take a pop shot at Bernanke, but who would he propose to take his place? He does not say. Surely not Alan Greenspan. So like it or not, Bernanke is the man of the hour and the one to ride out the tsunami of an economic meltdown.
Jakob Cambria
USA (Mar 17, '08)

I began reading Henry Liu's article Long-term effects of the Civil War, The Shape of US Populism, Part 2, with a great deal of fascination. His exposition on American economic history taken from the point of view of populism versus big business is hardly novel, but it bears repeating in today's climate. While I disagree with his assessment that the current subprime "crisis" may lead to a Jacksonian/New Deal type political climate, he does make some interesting points. That being said, he completely lost my respect when he wrote the following: "The majority of Americans continue to be abolitionists in public and pro-slavery in private. It shows up in every debate on social issues even today." While I am not American and don't live there, I have worked with and interacted with literally thousands of Americans over the years from all walks of life, ages, races and socio-economic groups. I visit often. I have many American friends whom I have known for many years. I have yet to find a single one who would be considered anything remotely close to "pro-slavery", even in private. Granted, I don't know any true racist extremists ... but this egregiously false statement reminds me of someone who may have read a lot of history texts, but hasn't done any actual field research. I'm also curious who he thinks are the pro-slavery groups who together constitute the "majority of Americans". The descendants of the Northern forces, who fought a bloody, near-religious crusade to end slavery? Post-1865 immigrants from Europe, Asia and Africa? Mexicans? Perhaps Southern whites whose grandparents or great-grandparents gave up Jim Crow laws. It certainly can't be the large number of people who want to elect Barack Obama as president. And what are the issues in the public debate arena that actually involve discussing the re-introduction of slavery? I am at a literal loss to know what he is talking about. I would encourage Mr Liu to get out of his ivory tower and actually talk to the people whom he researches. It might reduce the number of shockingly inaccurate gaffes that he makes and let the rest of his research stand on its own merits.
AJ
Toronto, Canada (Mar 17, '08)

American Icarus flirted with fire [Mar 13], Mark Perry's fawning love story that clearly showed that he loses all sense of objective reporting when seeing a galaxy of stars on lapels in some tavern, shows how out of touch with reality Perry truly is. His hangover recollections of drinks and anonymous asides by military brass about Admiral William Fallon's "resignation" shows that Perry either doesn't read or chooses to ignore the facts. The Bush/Cheney junta has fired a whole phalanx of officers who had the audacity, mind you, to disagree with the constant war drumming coming from that blood-soaked junta. Nick Turse - now here's a true journalist - did an outstanding story on the ones who got booted from Bushco for having the cahones to point out that Emperor Bush wasn't wearing any clothes in his article, "The Fallen Legion". Like General Shinseki, who was so bold to state the obvious that the US would need an occupation army of several hundred thousand to pacify Iraq. That clashed with the light footprint wanted by then "secretary of war" Donald Rumsfeld and the general was cashiered. Only if Bush had listened, where would the world be today? Anthony Zinni, former Marine Corps general and CIC [Commander in Chief] of the US Central Command-Middle East, was called to duty to be a special envoy to the Middle East. Except the good general made the mistake of disagreeing with the Bush/Cheney junta about going to war in Iraq and presto, he was shown the door. Remember General Peter Pace? He had the audacity to point out that US troops should stop any war crimes and arrest the perps, much to the chagrin of the administration, and he was given the boot. And let's not forget Richard Clarke, Bush's former chief advisor on terrorism on the National Security Council. Clarke tried to explain to Bush that there was an impending action by al-Qaeda, but was told to concentrate on getting Saddam Hussein. When Clarke sent Bush a memo stating that there was no connection between al-Qaeda and Saddam, he got bounced. The list goes on and on, but one doesn't have to get blasted on 12-year-old Scotch at some local dive to hear the story, nor worry about naming names, it's all available online. But, that would require some actual investigative work, like say a journalist might do. Mr Perry's attempts at journalism should put him in line for a job at the New York Times, right next to William Kristal.
Greg Bacon
Ava, Montana, USA (Mar 17, '08)

[Re Should Islam be blamed for 'barbaric' acts?, Mar 11] In Spengler's earlier columns, I found plenty of things to disagree with. But I certainly admire his doggedness to dig out the skeletons in the closet and expose the darker sides of issues under discussion - mostly in religious topics. This time his posing the politically incorrect question ".. Are such barbaric acts a residue of traditional society that persist despite Islam, or because of it? .." [Mar 11 ] is laudable. His insight and penetrating analysis is simply admirable. [The] presence of ugly practices in world religions throughout human history is nothing new. Take the case of "Sati" when Hindu widows were burnt on the funeral pyre of their dead husbands - barbaric and monstrous crime sanctioned by "priests" of the times. But then, Hindu reformers of the day were also its severest critics who succeeded in eliminating such dreaded practices with the help of British rulers in the 19th century. There exist many customs in today's Islamic world, some which can be considered simply unacceptable to civilized norms. [The] majority of Muslims are simply blind to their existence and nothing is being done to eradicate them. For the most part, accepting the infallibility of the Koran, literal interpretation of texts and treating Prophet Mohammed as the Exemplar among mankind have prevented [Muslims] from doing so. Selective quotations from Islamic holy books and glossing over many of its weaknesses are additional reasons. It is an irony that such a mindset is not shed even in their adopted lands by many Muslims despite a high degree of rule of law, justice and protection by the state [being] extended to all. Therefore the question posed by Spengler is worth pondering over. I deeply applaud the editorial policy of ATol to provide space for critics of America bashers, sympathetic leftists, anti-Israeli writers and the usual professional letter writers. Many in this category prefer to live in the West, and extol supposed superior virtues of their faith and then denounce the "decadence" of the West. So I hope you will encourage a few more Spenglers to write and force serious examination of all bigoted religious views. They are urgently needed.
Kam
Ottawa, Canada (Mar 17, '08)

Why is Asia Times not giving any coverage to the brutal suppression and cultural genocide that the Chinese are inflicting on the hapless Tibetan nation? Drsubhash Kapila (Mar 17, '08)

Please see today's edition. - ATol

Do not forget to speak about what is happening in Tibet. They are fighting for their freedom. Hong Kong and Chinese people need to know the truth. Thank you for your compassion, and respect [for] your profession and its duty.
C Battiaz (Mar 17, '08)

The ancient name of Tibet is Us Tsang, which means "central and pure". But for Beijing, [Tibet] is impure, ungraceful, violent and fast turning into another Tiananmen Square. During the 1989 Tiananmen revolt, Deng Xiaoping [gave the order] to "clear the square before sunset", ruthlessly killing hundreds of young demonstrators. Today, it is claimed that over 100 people have been brutally killed in the unrest following protests by Tibetans against Chinese repressive rule. Although it was Mao [Zedong] who brutally invaded Tibet in 1950, only 20 years ago China launched its most brutal clampdown on the dissidents under current President Hu Jintao who furthered his career by unleashing barbarities that killed over 200 demonstrators. [The] Dalai Lama has rightly described the clashes and killing of the innocents as "manifestation of the deep-rooted resentment of the Tibetan people". How many more Tibetans will be killed before the Chinese leadership takes [out] its earplugs ... and hears [the] international outcry against destructive brutality [against] Tibetans. China is already finding, to its distaste, that the Olympic Games are a double-edge sword and it would not like the games jeopardized by a semi-boycott by the leading competing nations. Dissent within China is gaining momentum, as I wrote in my last letter, and it has become imperative that the Chinese government ... realize that [the] totalitarian control practiced under Mao is no longer possible, tolerable [or] practicable in more devolved market these days. Chinese authorities have to respect [the] human rights, human conscience and dignity of its people [as well as] its religious minorities and other peoples whom they consider as aliens to be shot at. Tibetans must be treated with respect and given status somewhat similar to Hong Kong's and allowed to govern itself. Finally, I should say it to Seung Li [letters, Mar 14], will Tibetan athletes have a choice to refuse participating in the Olympics?
Saqib Khan
UK (Mar 17, '08)

President George W Bush's reading of a labored speech on the ills of the US economy before a high powdered audience of financiers and economists in New York threw some doubt on Dmitry Shlapentokh's [comment] US enters 'checkbook war' with China [Mar15]. Coupled with Mr Bush's grim picture is the run on a prominent investment bank Bear Stearns which the Federal Bank of New York had to prime pump with a ready loan of US$2 billion through Bear's clearinghouse JP Morgan to rescue it from failure. Bear has a good balance sheet, but like all big bracket banks is short on ready cash to pay its clients who want to withdraw their money. (Remember Northern Rock?) The refloating of Bear's ability to tap a new nappe of liquidity spares the hovering specter of a domino effect on America's banking industry, and ultimately triggering panic worldwide since the once mighty US dollar reigns supreme as the world's money. So the US mint can churn out more and more dollars which will further cheapen it (and hit, say, China where it hurts in exports and investments) but it will take a greater toll on the US. The obvious truth is that under Bush leadership, the US has lost the glow of a superpower and is now wearing the tattered mantle of a declining power similar to the UK after World War II. Who will replace the US? That's not easy to say. But Harvard's Niall Ferguson had an op-ed piece in a recent edition of the Financial Times of London. In it he likened Mr Bush's America to Ottoman the old sick man of Europe. And the world's sick old man today is indeed the United States. Overall, Mr Bush's presidency has proved disastrous for his country.
Mel Cooper
Singapore (Mar 17, '08)

The article by Fong Tak-ho, 'Terror' attack a warning shot for Beijing, [Mar 13] has many interesting points. [He writes], "Some rights groups have cautioned that China's warnings of a series of separatist threats could be part of a deliberate campaign aimed at silencing all voices of dissent ahead of the Olympics". Fong could have named these "rights groups" as their organizations deserve recognition. Moreover, China should make an international "patent" out of silencing dissent simply by issuing warnings of their threats. Many other countries would love to apply such a recipe. Finally, the word terror within two apostrophes in the article heading suggests that an attempt to blow up an air plane in flight does not constitute a real terror unless the plane is actually blown up.
Seung Li (Mar 14, '08)

[Re Big test for Taiwan prediction market, Mar 14] Given the large poll lead that Kuomintang presidential candidate Ma Yin-jeou currently enjoys over rival candidate Frank Hsieh from the Democratic Progressive Party, it may seem a foregone conclusion that Ma will be the next Taiwan president. However, followers of Taiwanese politics will caution that it ain't over'‘til the fat lady sings; and right now, the fat lady seems to be hiding from professional Southeast Asian assassins rumored to have found their way into Taiwan, with their rifle scopes aimed squarely at Ma. If this sounds absurd, recall the last presidential election when a bullet gracing current president Chen Sui-bien helped him win a closely-contested campaign. (A blogger at the time summed up his sentiment by cleverly dubbing the episode "Cheaty Cheaty Bien Bien".) Don't look now, but the curtain may be rising on yet another presidential election soap opera on the island, and the first actor to emerge likely won't be the operatic dame.
John Chen
USA (Mar 14, '08)

Kaveh Afrasiabi's otherwise excellent article Israel raises the ante against Iran [Mar 14] somehow ignores the role of "Christian Zionists" in the US.
Lester Ness (Mar 14, '08)

In his [Mar 13] letter, Daniel McCarthy alleged that the PRC [China] "has repeatedly stated its clear intentions of becoming the regional hegemon and in so turning Japan, Korea and Southeast Asia into vassal states". This is preposterous. When and how has the PRC proclaimed [this]? As usual, McCarthy is making up stuff as he goes, just like his ludicrous claim last year about an alleged map in Beijing showing the PRC's intention to invade and take over Kazakhstan. Show me the proof, McCarthy. The other things that McCarthy mentioned, namely reclaiming Taiwan province, reiterating territorial claim over various islands and islets in the South China Sea and developing a blue water navy, etc ... are factual though, and there is nothing wrong with any of these. It's funny that a US national like McCarthy is accusing the PRC of wanting to be a regional hegemon. The US is the global hegemon, in case he doesn't know. The PRC owes no explanation to the US or anybody. If anything, it is the US that owes the world an explanation as to what it plans to do with its mighty military. Which country is the US planning to invade next?
Juchechosunmanse
Beijing (Mar 14, '08)

It is interesting that your vile article about Obama [Obama's women reveal his secret, Feb 26] is signed "Spengler". Does your author not have the courage to identify him or herself? Maybe you should call him Goebbels instead of Spengler. What gutless trash.
A Republican McCain supporter (Mar 14, '08)

A facetious tone is palpable in While China marches, the US guesses, by Law Siu-lan, March 13. While the US does not guess, many Americans have to pretend to guess in order to avoid the invidious honor of depicting the reality, particularly across the Taiwan Strait. If the US really guesses, Ronald Reagan would be kicking in his grave. Did he leave the world any legacy? Has the concept of "peace through strength" not become a truism on both sides of the Pacific? Truly ludicrous is, "The US hopes to gain clear knowledge about the People's Liberation Army's real intentions in proactively building up its muscle in recent years. The US military is worried that China's military buildup already far exceeds its need for reunification with Taiwan ..." If the mainland side had already achieved such lopsided power, why are there still so many boilerplate articles on the supposedly teetering military balance across the Taiwan Strait? Does one expect any police department to send out only three officers to contain two armed suspects? To avoid violence, a whole SWAT team is sent for just two armed suspects. Why? Ronald would be smiling. Peace through strength is particularly apropos for two reasons: China is integrated with the world in trade and Taiwan is an island economically extremely vulnerable. Brute force on Taiwan is therefore both insufficient (economically suicidal for China due to global consumer outrage) and unnecessary, as the mainland can profoundly affect the island's economy without initiating bloodshed. Lopsided military advantage over Taiwan is therefore the essential prerequisite to successful browbeating of Taiwan to draw it to the negotiation table. Taiwan has no counter to this design. This is the elephant in the room. The reality makes boilerplate articles on the Taiwan issue too obviously jejune; the truth, too politically incorrect. Before the Iraq imbroglio, most agreed that the US should be the world's policeman, and its military budget and possession and fielding of weaponry should be a rightful exemption from the norm. Diplomatically and laically, how can any country, including China, be faulted for having an actual military budget a third that of the USA's in percentage of GNP, even if it is declared as one-fifth? Isn’t a military budget of 2-3% of GNP well within international norms even excluding the US? Technologically, how can any guided missiles be "pointing" at any entity? When mainland China has 10,000 guided missiles with range of several hundred miles, can one still write boilerplate articles on military balance across the Taiwan Strait? Can one still state that the guided missiles are "pointing" at Taiwan? How can anyone reasonably intelligent and objective not understand that China having the capability to destroy Taiwan is a natural and inalterable consequence of the Nationalists having lost all but a tiny island 100 miles from the Chinese mainland? The key is to induce it to not use that capability; economic integration has been a part of that key. This seems to be sufficient for peace, but will not lead to Taiwan independence, as Taiwan is an island without energy, economically abjectly vulnerable.
Jeff Church
USA (Mar 14, '08)

Good article by G H Peiris about the ongoing conflict in Sri Lanka [Sri Lanka's Tigers in crisis, Mar 14]. I believe that the LTTE doesn't represent the Tamil interests in Sri Lanka. The LTTE has become a terrorist organization first and foremost. The LTTE resorts to killing whenever somebody disagrees with it. At the same time it must be known that the whole Sri Lankan Tamil issue started after the Sinhala majority in Sri Lanka started treating Tamils there as second-class citizens. But so much blood has flowed and so many lives have been lost by now. Everybody in this issue are losers as of now. Sri Lankan Tamils continue to suffer. Sri Lanka as a country continues to suffer with ongoing war. Sri Lankan Sinhalese continue to suffer due to uncertainty. As of now, the main obstacle to peace is the LTTE. Here is a series of actions that must take place for Sri Lanka to move forward. It is in the interests of the world community to see the LTTE defeated because [it] has perfected terrorism on many fronts. A number of terrorist organizations seem to be learning these tricks from the LTTE. In short, what the LTTE represents is a clear and present danger to pretty much all civilized societies on Earth.

The LTTE must be militarily defeated and if possible eliminated. But Sri Lanka should take care to limit civilian casualties and suffering. I don't believe anybody can reason with the LTTE. Also, as long the LTTE remains a force, the voice of the moderate Tamils in Sri Lanka will continue to be suppressed and mute. It is in the interests of Tamils to see the LTTE defeated because due to it Tamils lost the moral high ground. Without a moral high ground they stand to lose further more. Obviously it is in Sri Lanka’s interests to see the LTTE eliminated. It is also in India's interests to see the LTTE gone from the scene, because with the LTTE India will continue to fight fire, in terms of seeing Tamils suffering and refugees flowing to India and a destabilized Sri Lanka. It is in India's interests to see an economically vibrant Sri Lanka.

Once the LTTE is defeated, all parties should empower moderate Tamils to take leadership of Tamils. War torn areas should be repaired which will require help from world community.

A separate country for Tamils in Sri Lanka is not viable [nor] necessary, as long as they get equal rights and protection in Sri Lanka. But anything less than a separate country will need to be looked at including autonomy in Tamil areas. Once the LTTE is gone from the scene, the onus will be mainly on Sri Lanka including its civil society to jumpstart the healing process with Tamils and integrate them with Sri Lanka.

India has a big role in this, but mainly as a facilitator of the above activities.
Haridas Ramakrishnan
California (Mar 14, '08)

[Re American Icarus flirted with fire, Mar 13] One can't help but wonder if, in the midst of this terminally Machiavellian American administration, William Fallon's supposed insubordination, intransigence and press maneuvers weren't all by design of the White House. The resulting confusing signals about Iran that have come out of Washington over the past year might have been by design ... in which case, unlike Mark Perry's claims, Admiral Fallon may very well have been following orders quite astutely.
R Davoodi (Mar 13, '08)

The one other straw in the wind to watch after the resignation of Admiral William Fallon [Fallon falls: Iran should worry, by Gareth Porter, Mar 12] is the resignation of Ms Condoleezza Rice following Vice President Dick Cheney's return to America from his forthcoming tour of the Middle East.
TutuG (Mar 13, '08)

[Re American Icarus flirted with fire, Mar 13] In railing against one of our truest remaining patriots, Admiral William Fallon, Mark Perry loses the plot amidst his vitriolic jealousy and rage. By speaking with Esquire, Fallon knew well enough that he'd be dismissed. He did so nonetheless because, similar to not an insignificant number of others in the Pentagon and the military chain of command, Fallon saw that the truly treasonous are those wildly corrupt civilian leaders at the very top of the US government who are abusing the US military for imminently disastrous "policies" abroad. Unlike Perry, Fallon had the unique access to how the sausage is made, and considered it his patriotic and constitutional duty to do something about it for the sake of the US republic. Fallon's move thus served as a wake-up call to the rest of the uniformed US military to exhibit similar courage, as George W Bush, Dick Cheney and their cabal of hidden advisors/influences are clinically insane, and are willing to risk global stability to save their own hides.
DJ
USA (Mar 13, '08)

If Thomas Barnett's Esquire article was embarrassingly overblown, so was Mark Perry's article, American Icarus flirted with fire [Mar 13] . From the embarrassingly transparent description of his "Leatherneck Lounge" encounter, to his grossly oversimplified description of a modern US naval officer, Perry's personal vision of the US military is strikingly romanticized. It should be clear to anyone who reads the news that the modern American military has become highly politicized. The opinions of military officers carry a lot of weight in US society, and the George W Bush administration has exploited that fact by seeking out and publicizing the opinions of officers who will say what they want the public to hear. Fallon's problem is that he was too honest to be drawn into that game - especially on the subject of Iran. The excuse for getting rid of him may well have been Barnett's article, but it wasn't the reason. [Fallon] had become extremely unpopular in Washington long before that. Mark Perry's problem is that he can't differentiate between reasons and rationalizations.
Andrew Langford
USA (Mar 13, '08)

[Re Should Islam be blamed for 'barbaric' acts?, Mar 11] Spengler needs to do more research. Even minimal knowledge of world history would show him that "barbaric actions" (meaning "cruel", not "un-Hellenic", it seems) are common in all times and places, not only amongst Muslims. Spengler's beloved Calvinists call this phenomenon "Total Depravity"; other Christians, "Original Sin".
Lester Ness
Kunming, China (Mar 13, '08)

Serenading North Korea [Mar 13] has a paradoxical sting to it. A musical opening to the North leads to a diplomatic breakthrough of sorts followed by an escalation of tensions or the raising of the ante by Pyongyang while arousing passions and denounced by the US in particular. It is interesting that adjunct professor Lee straightaway mentions the 2005 concert of the South Korean singer Cho Yong-pil. For those who may not recognize his name, Cho is a cultural ambassador of sorts. In the 1990s, his song "Kilamanjaro" did much to break the cultural ice with Japan, and may have contributed for an interest in South Korea by younger Japanese. The nub of Lee's article characterizes some cultural exchanges with North Korea as rewarding bad behavior; [this] is a reference to the February 26, 2008, concert of the New York Philharmonic in Pyongyang. Is that really so? This world-renowned orchestra wouldn't have ventured into North Korea's uncharted waters had not President George W Bush given his caution to the trip. On the other hand, Great Britain sees now the problem in inviting the North Korean National Orchestra to perform in London. Music soothes passions, as the old saw says. Pyongyang sees it as a way of inching towards the outside world. It is an indication that despite the lack of realism in Western diplomacy toward North Korea, Kim Jong-il has no qualms in even inviting Sting to play in Pyongyang. It is an indication in his regime's confidence in foreign relations and in the rising expectations of the large class of cadre which support him and who expect more openness to the outside world.
Jakob Cambria
USA (Mar 13, '08)

[Re A rich free-market legacy - for some, Mar 12] It should be noted by someone that Henry C K Liu presents the "Southern Opinion" position of the Jackson and Lincoln involvement in American financial and slave history. Such opinions can be easily proven 180 degrees away from his conclusions. Therefore, I am perplexed by his current understandings of history ... but if one goes back before the turn of the century, Mr Liu misses some of the fundamental changes in the Republican party that were away from its substantial populist mission. Not to say that Lincoln was a fanatic Abolitionist in a general way of Jackson, who seems to have been a truly fanatic slaver. Thus my concern for Liu's baffling writings in the later half of his article. His implication is that a good politician has to be unwise in handling state affairs (as Abolitionists wanted Lincoln to be, early on in the war) or risk not going down well with some historians. It was Jefferson who first suggested to the nation the "gradual release" of slaves. It was Hamilton and Franklin who first suggested that all slaves be released "on practical grounds" during the revolution. America, having taken a Jefferson course on slavery, could not as easily do what Hamilton-Franklin earlier believed possible: find an easy, fast way out of slavery after being under half a century of (mostly like Jackson) slaver presidents. The simple fact that Abraham Lincoln was against slavery (and unregulated private banking) should be easy to grasp. Lincoln, during his entire life, never said otherwise or, like politicians do today, hinted to "insiders" that he might believe otherwise. He was a good salesman but never a deceiver. He applied his humor, poetry and eloquent powers to subjects he encountered, but I can't see why only consistent complexity should confuse? But, as I say I myself am perplexed and would like an answer if getting one might be arranged.
John Durham
Boise, Idaho USA (Mar 13, '08)

[Re While China marches, the US guesses, Mar 13] I totally agree to the viewpoint of the author that it is ridiculous to ask any country what is its intention for its increase in defense budget. No country will be stupid enough to truly say what its intention is. But, for those who keep on asking for more transparency from China, I will try to enlighten them with the following reason why China is increasing its defense budget:
1. China has as much land mass as the US and therefore, in theory, she should match the defense budget of the US. Foreign media kept on barking that China has exceeded the budget of Japan. How big is Japan compared to China, may I ask? China needs more soldiers to protect its border, whether on land, sea, or air.
2. China is preparing for unification, by force if it is called for. China also has to prepare for the possibility of foreign intervention.
3. China has to protect the sea lanes used in the transport of oil and other materials.
4. China needs to update its antiquated military hardware to catch up with the world.
5. China has to have deterrents to stop other countries from thinking that it is easy to subdue China.
I am not a military mind, but I think what I present is enough for transparency.
Wendy Cai
USA (Mar 13, '08)

[Re While China marches, the US guesses, Mar 13] I cannot agree with writer Law Siu-lan that the US is guessing as to the purpose of China's military buildup. China has repeatedly stated its clear intentions of (i) taking over Taiwan, (ii) making good in its [spurious] sovereignty claim over the entire South China Sea clear to the shores of Malaysia and the Philippines, (iii) becoming the regional hegemon and in so turning Japan, Korea and Southeast Asia into vassal states, and (iv) having the blue water naval capability to protect its supplies of oil from the Middle East and its supplies of metals and other materials from Africa, including precluding access to that oil and those metals/materials by other global consumers. The game that is being played is that US diplomats pretend not to know the purpose of China's military buildup, and China offers such preposterous explanations that they only confirm the conclusions US strategic analysts have already reached.
Daniel McCarthy (Mar 13, '08)

Cindy Siu's Democracy on the dragon's doorstep [Mar 12] requires clarification of what democracy really means. In Taiwan the constitution empowers the president to make judicial appointments to the highest levels. That explains why prosecution against members of the opposition party get expedited and cases against members of the ruling party are delayed or outright suppressed. Witness the present two running candidates: Ma Ying-jeou was tried and acquitted recently. Frank Hsieh's nine cases of corruption are still being "investigated" and deliberately delayed. The wife of President Chen Shui-bian is allowed to defy court appearance on medical grounds for almost a year to face irrefutable evidence of corruption. Recently government offices and funds are used to promote election campaigns of the ruling party. Such is Taiwan's democracy that people extol in ignorance.
Seung Li (Mar 13, '08)

[Re letter from Julian Delasantellis, Mar 7] If you actually read my last comment, you'd notice that not once did I say that subprime loans are not offered to ethnic/racial minorities. That was actually my whole point - that most of the loans made to Hispanic minorities are marketed to them by Hispanic loan officers [because] they are the ones most fluent in Spanish. You can point out all the three-year-old studies you want, just as I can point out a study referred to in realtytimes.com named "Lower Income and Minority Consumers Most Likely to Prefer and Underestimate Risks of Adjustable Rate Mortgages" which points out that lower income and minority customers are just less informed than the middle/upper class on this issue. As far as the loan officers marketing the loans, they will try to strike a deal that puts the most commission in their pockets, so obviously an uninformed borrower (of any race!) is good for the loan officer. If I ask a bank to give me a quarter of a million dollars, I would make darn sure I know the exact stipulations/conditions attached to such a major transaction, as any prudent person would. If I find out that I could have gotten a "better" loan from a company down the street, I don't blame my bank for being racist towards me, I blame myself for not being better informed! And as for your question, most banks/mortgage companies have an automated "decisioning" system. This system decides which program is best for the borrower. Even if the loan officer wanted to put the borrower in a subprime loan, if the system says the borrower qualifies for prime, then the loan officer must offer the customer a prime loan. This automated filter is not secretly racist, it simply determines which program would be best for the borrower based on the non-race related information put in by the underwriter. My main point here is that salespeople prey on the uninformed, regardless of race/ethnicity.
Dana Parker (Mar 12, '08)

I wish to comment on Musharraf faces bench's fury, [Mar 12], by Amir Mir. Only the Americans are keen that Musharraf stays in power as its strong ally in the war against terror. Recent suicide bombings in Lahore and Rawalpindi with massive loss of innocent life and property point to an ugly and sinister plot to create a situation that would emphasize the need for Musharraf to stay on as the best candidate to do the job for the US. The two rival political parties, though, have agreed to form a coalition government, but their rhetoric remains at odds and undecided about [Musharraf's] future. Last week, Pakistan's senior generals expressed their loyalty to Musharraf; this annoyed and alarmed many leading Pakistani politicians. There is no doubt that Musharraf will be facing the last battle for his survival in the coming two or three months. He is hated more than ever before in the country. If he is not impeached, he would possibly fall victim of a foreign assassination plot to let democracy take over in Pakistan. It is, however, certain that if the sacked chief justice and 63 other judges are reinstated, they would question his legitimacy as president. They were about to bar his re-election as president while he was still army chief and would once again throw a legal challenge to his legitimacy in power. As the two main parties are committed in the restoration of ... [the] judiciary, Musharraf's [future] hangs by the neck on a high thin wire. I listened to his recent speech in Multan where he lectured his audience on the many fine points of plumbing and I would advise him to take it up as a profession after being sacked from his job.
Saqib Khan
UK (Mar 12, '08)

[Re Big bang or chaos: What's Israel up to?, Mar 12] Ramzy Baroud may be right. Israel and its unconditional supporter the United States in trying to crush Hamas and collectively punish Palestinians living in Gaza [for] bringing Hamas to power through the ballot box and not the gun, are sending a message to the Islamic Republic of Iran that should it overstep the mark, this is what is in store for it. This sounds simplistic. The Iranian mullahs are not the kind to be frightened by such displays of military might, which is directed towards a people who are woefully short of sophisticated weaponry to fight back on a level playing field. Israel may have mixed designs, but one thing is certain, it is true to the Zionist ideology, be it the carrot of Chaim Weitzman or the stick of Vladimir Jabotinsky, to fill the empty space from the Mediterranean to the Jordan River with Jewish settlers. The six-day war left Israel with millions of Palestinians under its control, and control it exercises with an iron-fisted rule and a settlement policy which will reduce any Palestinian entity to an island chain of land which won't make a Palestinian state viable. So history and the long war against Palestinians do play a part in Israel's military incursions in Gaza. To lose sight of that misreads the legacy of the Zionist past.
Mel Cooper
Singapore (Mar 12, '08)

Edward J Lincoln's analysis US can fast exit from bad times [Mar 11] needs to consider the fact that the US is a credit nation with negative savings, Japan wasn't that when it experienced its spiral. Furthermore, more and more experts are saying peak oil has arrived and as we know global warming's adverse effects are becoming more adverse annually. Japan's deflation didn't have these downsides. Furthermore Japan's strength is its status as a major export nation. Someone sent me the Central Intelligence Agency figures for the estimated current account figures. The United States is at the bottom, and Japan second from the top. The nation third from the top was Germany, another export powerhouse, which also had a major costly enterprise to absorb, namely East Germany. Unlike Germany and Japan, the US has exported its major manufacturing abroad. There is of course also the foreign war efforts tugging the US down. And these costs will rise. Already over 299,000 soldiers have sought medical aid, which is not a cheap exercise in and of itself let alone the costs in Iraq. The other issue is that we are in an era of deleveraging of OTC [over the counter] derivatives, which are implanted throughout the US system. The Japanese didn't have anything quite like this combination to deal with.
May Sage
USA (Mar 12, '08)

Democracy on the dragon's doorstep, by Cindy Sui [Mar 12] seems to place nearly exclusive emphasis on the structural component of democracy. Even when the author broaches personal freedom and meritocracy as natural accompaniments to democracy, she neglects to state the most essential social (interpersonal) component of democracy: the unyielding respect for differences in opinion, with interpersonal cordiality. Certainly, the two components are mutually supportive. For example, every gracious post-election concession speech that extols diversity of opinions cultivates within a society the social component of democracy. If there is no election, there is no gracious concession speech; if the social component of democracy fails to mature, elections would not achieve democracy. Equally significant, I believe, in a pre-democratic stage, a high level of social development per se also betokens the social component of democracy, even with more subdued manifestation - witness Hong Kong. To enhance the chance of economic development paving the road to social development, the West should engage China. Moreover, the social component of democracy is the one that takes the longest time to cultivate. For most of human history, the structural component of democracy had been elusive, but ever since the late 20th century, working models of the structural component of democracy exist galore and beckon for attention. Succinctly, democracy has been "on the dragon's doorstep" for decades, but Taiwan has been, and will continue to be, a part of the dragon. While the author speaks of greater flexibility from the mainland side, one should consider what greater flexibility the mainland needs and what greater flexibility it can afford, even for the adjunct of more fecund goodwill in Taiwan. First, the mainland side is currently in a strategic rout over Taiwan; reunification is almost certain. The mainland will be able to profoundly affect Taiwan's economy without much cost or fanfare. In order to make long-term investments in Taiwan, many in the business community now insist on a more comprehensive link with the mainland; in the future, with ever-increasing uncertainty over energy supply to the island, with the mainland's selective and measured browbeating with words alone, the business community will insist on the settlement of the sovereignty issue. Considering all aspects, political, military and economic, the mainland's ace card is and will continue to be, for decades to come, the ability to profoundly affect Taiwan without initiating bloodshed. It just keeps abrading while it develops comprehensively. Such is Taiwan's fate as dictated by its geography in particular. Within the annals of human history, the winner in a civil war rules the loser. Mainland China will be far too strong, and Taiwan will be far too feeble, vulnerable and irresolute, for the contrary to evolve. The alleged necessary great costs of reunification are all but a figment of the imagination. To say the least, the US cannot promote business confidence in Taiwan. Second, the unrealistic and ingenuous gestures by the recent Taiwan leadership foretold Beijing that, if it gives Taiwan any political room, it will use that room to expand and assert itself, so the mainland has no choice but to smother Taiwan politically, with ease and certainty.
Jeff Church
USA (Mar 12, '08)

I have long felt bad for the Iranian people and their being forced to live under the undemocratic rule of the mullahs. However, I'm beginning to think differently after reading Farangis Najibullah's article In Iran, fashion as protest [Mar 10]. I have long been a believer in the statement "It is better to die on your feet than live on your knees," however, the Iranian people seem to have a new concept: "Better to not die on your feet but live on your knees with stylish shoes." Thankfully, George Washington and his fellow American patriots knew that undemocratic rule needed to be confronted with force and not fashion or Americans would still be subjects of the queen. So I would tell the mullahs to rule harshly over their subjects because they don't deserve freedom and besides they can always make themselves feel better by buying a new pair of boots.
Dennis O'Connell
USA (Mar 11, '08)

Although there is much debate about the author of the rousing saying "It's better to die upon your feet than to live upon your knees," it is generally said to have originated with the Cuban hero of independence Jose Marti, and was later made famous by Mexican freedom fighter Emiliano Zapata (1879-1919) during the Mexican Revolution of 1910. Over the years, the slogan has been misattributed to the ancient Greek dramatist Aeschylus and Argentine revolutionary Che Guevara, among others. No available source indicates the phrase was penned by Washington or any American patriot of the same era. - ATol

[Re US can fast exit from bad times, Mar 10] While Edward J Lincoln's analysis enlivens the spirit, there exist other factors that point to a more protracted and painful economic downturn. One, the global "war on terror" continuing to drain valuable resources from domestic infrastructure projects that can add real value to the economy. Two, an increasingly shaky middle class, without whose support the climb out of the current mess will be considerably more arduous. Three, capital flight to emerging markets. Many will no doubt point an accusatory finger at China and India for items two and three above. But an honest observer of events will conclude that the Chinese and Indians never pointed a gun at multinational corporations to force the outsourcing of jobs. Those companies did what they had to do to cut costs and pad profits. And the suggestion that China is a currency manipulator largely reeks of mephitic hypocrisy. In the world of a dominant fiat currency in which we live, the biggest currency manipulator is the issuer of the fiat money. Time will tell how long the impending recession will last, but there is a silver lining to this unpleasant episode. During the past decade or two, Americans have latched onto some rather louche notions, chief among them the idea that you can get something for nothing. Hopefully, by the end of the recession we'll have reacquainted ourselves with the belief in earnest hard work, which along with the fabled Yankee ingenuity had helped make the US the most powerful nation in the world today and likely for at least another half century.
John Chen
USA (Mar 11, '08)

In relation to US can fast exit from bad times, [Mar 10] by Edward J Lincoln: The one point that appears to be overlooked in this article is that Japan was not embroiled in a hellishly expensive war at the time it was recovering from its financial crisis.
Lindsay Cooper
Australia (Mar 11, '08)

Michael Klare's article The fancy guns are trained on China, [Mar 8], is grounded in Jane Fonda-esque wishful thinking and ignores basic realities such as China's clearly stated goal of taking Taiwan, including by force, if the opportunity should present itself, and China's clearly stated threats against the United States. Those threats include a newspaper article by a Chinese People's Liberation Army colonel suggesting that the US should not defend Taiwan unless it was willing to trade Los Angeles for Taiwan; a clear suggestion of a nuclear strike against the US in any Taiwan conflict. And then there have been articles in China's military publications concluding that China's only real chance to take Taiwan in the foreseeable future is to first immobilize US Pacific forces with an unannounced Pearl Harbor-style attack. Articles suggest that such a surprise attack will only succeed if it is nuclear in nature. I am forced to wonder if such writings are inadvertently omitted from the reading that Professor Klare requires of his peace and world-security students.
Daniel McCarthy (Mar 11, '08)

I have long thought Chan Akya sounds like an old retired opinion page writer from the Wall Street Journal. Now comes his Europe-bashing Euro-trash, [Mar 11] article that has been written a thousand times on the pages of the Financial Times and the WSJ over the course of the last 20 years with hardly a modernizing angle at all - "Europe to collapse tomorrow" is the essence of the rant. Living between Europe and the US for the last four years, it is easy for me to see what the neo-liberals hate about Europe: the EU's socialized economic system really works. To the extent that some of Europe's banks are in trouble it is because they have followed the US neo-liberal economic model, including just enough deregulation of their banks (except Italy) to allow them to get up to their waists, if not their eyeballs, in US subprime derivatives. Chan Akya needs to spend some time in Sweden studying market socialism, the most successful economic model in the world so far. And I would certainly like to have a large bet (in euros) with him on which economy, the US's or the EU's, will be least impacted by the current economic downturn.
David Sheegog
Paoli, Oklahoma, USA (Mar 11, '08)

Gareth Porter's article on Admiral William Fallon [An admiral takes on the White House, Mar 11] gives a much needed shot of credibility to the crumbling American military. While Fallon is an example of common-sense sanity in the high command, the article brings up disturbing questions. Since the [US] constitution is unequivocal in delegating supreme command of the military to the executive branch, the contrarian position of Fallon and other commanders towards a military campaign against Iran comes dangerously close to mutiny. It takes decades for republics to wither away and die. History shows that the coup de grace occurs when the military no longer respects the authority of the civilian government. The Rubicon beckons. The motto of the US Marines Corps under Fallon's command is Semper Fidelis [Always faithful]. Let us hope it does not change to another memorable Latinism: Alea iacta est [The die has been cast].
Jeffrey Bowman
Bogota, Colombia (Mar 11, '08)

Kudos to Peter Pham for his idea-sparking piece [Helping Taiwan help itself, Mar 11]. The People's Republic of China (PRC) should take a page from America's playbook, strengthening and upgrading its military ties with countries like Iran, Cuba and Venezuela, which will, in Pham's words "pay healthy dividends" into the PRC's geopolitical accounts. What the PRC needs to do is to learn how the game is played and beat the US at its own game.
Juchechosunmanse
Beijing (Mar 11, '08)

[Re A new democratic era in Malaysia, Mar 11] By any measure Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi's party emerged a victor in the snap elections he called, the percentage of the popular vote notwithstanding. Yet, he did not win a majority of seats in Parliament. UNMO holds the reins of government as they have for the last half century. It is interesting to observe that Abdullah has increased control on the northeast state of Kelantan, which is so welcoming to the more fundamentalist Muslims. On the other hand, Penang has slipped out of UNMO's net. The real test for Abdullah will be how he will modify the "Bumiputra" policy which discriminates heavily in favor of Malays and Muslims in general, against the Chinese and the Indian and minority races in east Malaysia, and which is the spark of recent anti-government demonstrations calling for equity and equality among the races in multiracial and [multi]cultural Malaysia. Therein lies the struggle for UNMO; for the old guard will fight hard to retain their privileges and thereby risk in splitting UNMO into two or more factions, and thus will there be a new democratic era in Malaysia.
Mel Cooper
Malaysia (Mar 11, '08)

Re [Pakistan's generals come down hard, by Syed Saleem Shahzad on March 8.] Very interesting piece. Do you foresee a civil war in Pakistan? I read your columns in Asia Times Online and they are always well written and informative.
Paul Billings
Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, USA (Mar 10, '08)

Everybody in the region is walking through a minefield. Anything can happen if correct and timely steps are not taken. - Syed Saleem Shahzad (Mar 10, '08)

[Re The fancy guns are trained on China, Mar 8] Scary picture described here, but no [doubt] realistic of what we have to expect from the lunatics running the United States. I watch with joy the ongoing economic collapse of the US since I think it might be the only way to stop this madness. I try to figure out which of the candidates of this "democracy" could have the vision and courage to change course. Hillary Clinton, not sure, since they (the Clinton family) seem to have links to the Bush [family] and different lobbies. Barack Obama possibly. John McCain, no, since he is just a continuation of the disastrous George W Bush policy. On the other hand he (McCain) would accelerate the US economic collapse and maybe we would get rid - once and for all - of the US threat. So, lets vote for McCain.
Manuel de la Torre (Mar 10, '08)

I wish to comment on the letter by Saqib Khan to the articleIran-Iraq ties show US the way [Mar 7], by Kaveh L Afrasiabi. It seems to me that Mr Khan has bought into the bull crap fed into the Sunni minds of the Persian Gulf by the US and Israel that Shi'ites worshipped the hidden Imam, [and that] Shi'ite Islam will start a war for the sake of forcefully converting Sunnis into Shi'ites and confronting the West with the so called "Shi'ite bomb". He should start analyzing why Sunnis have lost the will to stand up to oppressors and occupiers. But we all know Sunnis have always been the oppressors/occupiers in the Muslim world, that is now until the US stepped in.
Asad Abbas Jafri (Mar 10, '08)

Thanks for the Sex in Depth column [When freaky-deaky equals hara-kiri Mar 8]. It's a thousand times more interesting than Spengler's emissions.
Lester Ness (Mar 10, '08)

Re Worthless money - guaranteed! [Mar 8] I like the "under-playing" of the impending, should I say actual, world crises. But what fails to be noticed is the other half of the formula: massive over-extension of credit in the West (the US, UK etc) [equals] massive over production in the east (China). And, of course, no matter how much of the US's (devaluing) dollars they have banked, that storm, also, eventually, cannot be weathered. It was interesting to hear, even in August (via the BBC, I think) that the port of Rotterdam, for example, was so busy that container [ships] had to [stay] idle taxing in the North Atlantic. And in America? Where no one has cash to buy! Wait for a Chinese - an Asian collapse - too. Seven percent growth? The dear, old "paper tiger".
Lewis Deane (Mar 10, '08)

Dear Syed Saleem Shahzad, I read you articles on Asia Times Online with interest. According to the Western press, the Taliban in Afghanistan are financed by the sale of heroin. Do you know how much income the Taliban receive from sale of heroin? If they receive income from heroin, why do they receive - reportedly - income and aid from Iran? Thanks.
John Cole
UK (Mar 10, '08)

The Taliban allow poppy cultivation in regions like Helmand province and accept contributions from the growers to fuel their insurgency. They are not directly involved in poppy cultivation or drug processing. However, warlords like Sirajuddin Haqqani, who is an independent warlord affiliated with the Taliban, requires funds which sometimes come through countries like Iran and China or Pakistan. - Syed Saleem Shahzad (Mar 10, '08)

Suspicions over Singapore jailbreak, [Mar 8], gives a good account with background to the spectacular escape of the Jamaah Islamiyah terrorist Mas Selamat Kastari from a Singaporean detention center on February 27. This serious breach of security has given the police a black eye and has left the government scrambling to recapture him. It has also opened the floodgates of endless speculation by the island republic's bloggers. One says that it is a cover-up; for Mas Salamat died at the hands of the police during a rough interrogation session. Another posits that Singapore's security apparatus had been infiltrated or bought off by the JI - especially since Mas Salamat had never fully recovered from a broken leg from a previous escape attempt ... A third muses that [the ruling government's] internal security had turned [loose] their famous prisoner, and by facilitating his escape, he would lead them to his confederates in a wide net. Still another theory floats the story, which is much more sound, that Mas Salamat has already been spirited out of Singapore by way of the Indonesian island of Bintan off Singapore's coast or in the bottom of a lorry across the causeway to neighboring Malaysia. A darker thought questions the loyalty of some of Singapore's Muslims who may harbor much sympathy with Mas Selamat's cause. Will we ever know the complete truth? That remains to be seen. And lastly, Alex Au is too pessimistic about the United States' revisiting security cooperation with Singapore. It won't. Singapore is too valuable a partner to America in trade and in the "war against terror".
Mel Cooper
Singapore (Mar 10, '08)

Chalmers Johnson, in The ‘rape’ of Okinawa, Mar 4, wonders why Japan tolerates the presence of US troops in its territory. This is just a variant of the question, “Why do East Asians grouse far less about the American military in their backyards, ponds, and airspace, than do a gaggle of shrill Western academics?” The rationale for the American presence in Japan used to be: 1) Check communist expansion (real and imagined), and 2) Prevent the remilitarization of Japan. The former has given way to counterbalancing China in case it takes an aggressive turn. The latter still holds, but now is part of the broader strategy of preventing an East Asian arms race. One or both objectives are embraced in varying degrees by most East Asian nations. Johnson prefers to describe the American arc through modern East Asian history in terms of rapes, barroom brawls, fire bombings, carpet bombings, atomic bombings, and the incalculable death and suffering that Americans unleashed in the past. All true, as half-truths are true. With one eye shut, Johnson naturally finds East Asian attitudes toward the American presence utterly inexplicable. The half-truth that Johnson cannot bear to contemplate is the relative peace, prosperity, and security enjoyed by over one billion East Asians over the past 30 years and more, thanks in part to Pax Americana. That is the reason for his befuddlement.
Geoffrey Sherwood
USA (Mar 7, '08)

Regarding And the band played on, Mar 6, think of the subprime weakening of the Titanic as a global ship in panic. In this sense, we must recognize the global impact of arrogant and inept American leadership, in this particular case steering us toward deregulation, greed, and corruption. But the global Titanic has been weakened by more than financial markets; perils of higher seas brought by global warming, the flames of Jihad are consuming it, and warlike division steers it toward disaster. With the bitter experience of arrogant and incompetent leaders in the US impacting the welfare of world communities, I am wondering about global solutions. George W Bush and his henchmen have brought division and inaction in solving a patently obvious global warming emergency. George W Bush and his friends have ushered in a panoply of deregulation problems regarding subprime loans,enabling greed, and pampering financial marketeers. The harvest has been worldwide financial travail. Bush's war in Iraq has brought more formation of terrorist cells and more widespread instability. His jingoism has fostered arms buildups, adoption of nuclear weapons programs, and higher oil prices. John McCain with his 100-year Iraq war, not to speak of the other wars he mentions, might constitute term three of Bush-like rule. Perhaps we should provide at least a partial vote in American elections to citizens of other nations since narcissistic and inept congressional and executive leaders can cause so much pain to the whole world. Perhaps the caliber of American leaders would improve and their appeal for votes would be of more substance.
Jim
Southern California, USA (Mar 7, '08)

[Re letter from Dana, Mar 6] I never said that subprime mortgages were not marketed and offered to racial and ethnic minorities in the US - quite the opposite. What I did say is that minorities with credit scores and incomes equal or superior to comparable white borrowers were only able to get the high-interest subprime financing. A 2005 study by the National Community Reinvestment Coalition found that, even at equal income levels, minority borrowers were twice as likely as white borrowers to be proffered high interest mortgage financing. Dana, it’s great that you offer so many subprime loans to Hispanics. It’s great that you have Spanish-speaking loan officers - it must make your Spanish only speaking borrowers feel very comfortable - so comfortable that they wouldn’t dream of trying to get a cheaper, standard mortgage at another less culturally sensitive institution. But before you nominate your bank for the Nobel Prize, tell me, was there not one of them that would have qualified for standard, lower interest rate (and lower fee income for your bank) conventional financing? Julian Delasantellis (Mar 7, '08)

The letters regarding Spengler's Obama's women reveal his secret, Feb 26, are quite curious. Spengler does have a hypothesis about Obama's motives that a summary look at his life might support. But I never liked generalizations. It seems that they tend to serve the writer or analyst more than they serve truth. In citing the "pride" words of Obama's wife and Obama's failure to close the bread and put away the butter, Spengler uses the same propaganda tools of a Karl Rove. Michelle Obama, to me, was expressing the same disgust with the two terms of George Bush and the embarrassment he has caused as I would. I believe that at her young age, the embarrassment of Bush seems to span her life. In fact, in saying that I can barely contain my rage in thinking of the eight wasted years of George W Bush.
Jim
Southern California, USA (Mar 7, '08)

Re: Iran-Iraq ties show US the way, Mar 7, I wish to comment on the article by Kaveh L Afrasiabi. Ahmadinejad now boasts that the hidden 12th Imam has given him presidency [with the] single task provoking a “class of civilizations” in which the Muslim world led by Iran, takes on the infidel West led by the United States and defeats it in a slow but prolonged contest that in military jargon sounds like a low-intensity, asymmetrical war. This is becoming increasing obvious as we saw Ahmadinejad’s red carpet treatment in Baghdad - [it was] as if he is the leader of a new super power in the region. He has outwitted and outsmarted the slow-thinking and slow-witted President Bush, and humbled and humiliated him in every diplomatic and nuclear game so far. Iraq is [no longer] a pawn ... on the USA chess table, but [in the past] was a means to an end for the Iranian mullahs who always wanted removal of Saddam Hussein and dreamt of establishing a Shia Iraqi State for its protection and defense. The Iranian mullahs are already claiming that they have almost won by proxy in Iraq and boasting that "the kind of service that the Americans with all their hatred have done to us, no superpower has done anything similar. America destroyed all our enemies in the region. It destroyed the Taliban. It destroyed Saddam Hussein. The Americans got stuck in Iraq and Afghanistan so deep that if they come out alive in one piece, they should thank their god. America presents us with opportunity rather than a threat, not because it intended to but because it miscalculated." Iranian mullahs now hold the whip and can dictate terms and demand things in return. The mullahs have won the real game and bared G W Bush, emperor of the United States of America of all his clothes and options. The emperor [now] walks naked all night in frenzy. It reminded me of the story of the sinking man who would hold on to the smallest branch - or even his enemy's pen - ... to save him from drowning. In Ahmadinejad’s analysis, the rising Islamic "superpower" has decisive advantage over the infidel West. Islam has four times as many young men of fighting age as the West with its aging populations. Hundreds of millions of Muslim "warriors" are keen to become martyrs while the infidel [Western] youths, loving life and fearing death, hate to fight. Islam has four-fifths of the world’s oil reserves and so controls the lifeblood of the infidels. More importantly, the US, the only infidel power still capable of fighting, is hated by most other nations. The mullahs next target in sight and not far [off] is the ... Zionist state of Israel which will be given the option to "Come willingly with us or face the wrath of the Shia rising Crescent." Bush will be gone into oblivion but Ahmadinejad's rising star will haunt him eternally.
Saqib Khan
UK (Mar 7, '08)

[Re Why the dollar is so cheap, Mar7] America's equity markets have contracted severely. Liquidity is drying up fast. The United States is little able to keep up with the extension of its own manufactures and the lack of easy money weighs heavily on the import of cheap goods mainly from China. Thus, we have a classic case of great disruption and impending crisis. As the dollar weakens by design or by the whims of the market place, a new gold rush is taking place as the troy ounce slouched up to a thousand dollars. And the commodity markets generally are a harbor in the coming economic storm. To replace the American dollar by the euro offers great political risks and a great deal of time. Time is one thing the financial [system] and the immediate downturn in commerce have. Hence the rush into copper, iron ore, wheat, corn, so on and so on. Rising prices impinge on the price of feeding a family as basic foods become more expensive. They point to the eroding forces of general impoverishment of the many for the gain of the few. The crisis of the US dollar comes at a time which bodes not well for free trade as duties will perforce demand, first ... in protecting the wealth of a country. The ghost of renewed protectionism will stall trade and bring formerly fruitful transaction to a snail's pace. The smart money may benefit from higher gold prices [and] higher oil prices but the fallout effect spells recession.
Mel Cooper
Singapore (Mar 7, '08)

[Re Sing, o muse, the wrath of Michelle, Mar 4] "Not only did she sell out, but she sold out for mediocre results." Well, most Americans are well below "mediocre" if that's the case. I've enjoyed reading your [Spengler's] research on the Obamas. Since it's so down to earth, I'm sure the shrieks and howls are rising to heaven. Michelle's dilemma is a timeless one. Her problem is that the identity she has assumed has nothing beyond victimhood to define it. A Jewish identity, for example, is entirely possible without an ounce of victimhood: you can embrace it without conflict as you pursue results. Our victimhood is imposed from without. But if you define yourself as a victim, how do you get out of victimhood without losing identity?
Ezra Marsh
Baltimore, USA (Mar 6, '08)

[Re And the band played on, Mar 6] Mr Delasantellis just loves to play the race card in his subprime articles, and while some of what he says may be true, he's for the most part way off the mark. I've been employed by a large bank in the subprime division for three years, in San Diego, California. I have worked with hundreds of loan officers who are out there all getting paid on a commission basis, and many of them need to be fluent in Spanish in order to expand their customer base. Guess who the most fluent Spanish speakers are? That's right, they are the Hispanics themselves! By claiming over and over again the it's the "white suburban devil's" big plan to make life more difficult for "poor, uninformed working-class minorities", he just makes himself sound stupid. I would say that 90% of my bank's loans made to Hispanic minorities are in fact presented to these borrowers by Hispanic loan officers, since they are the ones who speak Spanish! Furthermore, anyone in a commission-based job will always try to maximize his commission, so if the customer agrees to whatever the terms are without doing his/her due diligence, that certainly benefits the loan officer who is making the commission. And finally, the underwriters who end up approving [or] declining these loans have no idea what race the potential borrowers are, as it is always an option not to state your race/ethnicity on the loan application. Let's not forget that every mortgage states the interest rate/payment terms right on the note itself! It's not as if the terms are in fine print on the last page of the document package at closing. I like Mr Delasantellis' articles, they are very informative, but his (what he thinks are) clever, crafty statements that totally trash the middle class white person are getting old and and are simply just inaccurate.
Dana
USA (Mar 6, '08)

I was shocked by the naivete in Chalmers Johnson's article The rape of Okinawa, Mar 5. Mr Johnson seems mystified why there would be US troops in Japan. Any Japanese can provide him with the reason in a single word: China.
Daniel McCarthy (Mar 6, '08)

Let's talk about bombs, Mar 4, the interview of Matt Bunn about Iran's alleged nuclear capacities, is missing a few key ingredients. Mr Bunn is being too humble to not mention his part in the April 2007 "Workshop of the Preventive Defense Project" hosted by Harvard and Stanford universities. That document attempts to lay out the scenarios for the "Day After" a nuclear attack on a US city and even offers up a convenient scapegoat - Iran - and lays out what the US would do to the already in place fall guy - Iran - in their "Plan B" synopsis. The project also gives the warmongering White House the excuse it has been looking for by describing what is, in effect, the declaration of martial law in the US. Yet, in neither his interview nor the project, is there mention of the proverbial 900-pound gorilla sitting in the living room: the Israeli nuclear weapons that have contributed mightily to a destabilized ME [Middle East] for decades. And if Mr Bunn is so adamant about Iran following UN Security Council resolutions, maybe he can show the same enthusiasm for having the Security Council enforce the numerous UN resolutions against Israel, like 242.
PS - Hey Matt, tell Alan Dershowitz hi!
Greg Bacon
Ava, Montana, USA (Mar 6, '08)

[Re HK-Macau bridge planners go for costly option, Mar 5] Mr Liu made a very sound suggestion that this project could be financed using municipal bonds. However, it is my understanding that China [has] been soured by muni bond options because of problems with such bonds earlier. India, by the way, which is promoting the use of such bonds for its JNURM [Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission] program hasn't learned yet that muni bonds are a double-edged sword. China can, however, permit such issues by using mechanisms to facilitate sustainable issuance. It appears that the Chinese aren't aware such mechanisms exist.
May Sage
USA (Mar 5, '08)

[Re Let's talk about bombs, Mar 4] Just read William Bunn interview. Is he some sort of neo-con? He has a funny perception of the fabricated nuclear crisis in Iran. He seems to assume the data from the counterfeit laptop is real. His interpretation of the NPT is funny indeed, as if the Security Council can make changes to an international treaty for each particular country. That is, the rules apply differently to each country based on the US neo-con interpretation. Once the data from the laptop is correctly identified as an Israeli forgery, Mr Bunn's perceptions do not seem reality based. Until then, could Asia Times Online find out what Mr Bunn has been smoking? I am sure it is not legal. An American nuclear bomb expert? What country is the only country to use A-bombs on humans?
Bob Van den Broeck (Mar 5, '08)

Russia lays new tracks in Korean ties, Mar 5, is long on hope and light on history. Professor Petrov is right to look forward to the day when South and North Korea's railroads will hook up with Russia's Trans-Siberian railroad which will transport goods and no doubt passengers toward Central Asia and the European Union. Such a network makes good won and rubles and sense; it would hasten economic development and foster good neighborly relations. Which goes without saying. Yet, the triangulation of Pyongyang and Seoul and Moscow turns on good relations between all three capitals. Seoul and Pyongyang may welcome Russian aid, commerce, military hardware, and perhaps advice, the same cannot be said with a new president in Seoul's Blue House who wants to talk tough with North Korea and pull tighter the South Korean purse strings of generosity which the Sunshine Policy fostered. On the other hand, Petrov speaks of the benefits of Russia's electricity to North Korea especially. Yet, he neglects to say that the North's infrastructure which the Soviet Union helped build is in an extremely poor state. It electric power stations are old and in disrepair. Petrov does not talk of Leonid Breznov's promise to Kim Il-sung of upgrading this system and building light water nuclear reactors to hasten Pyongyang's modernization. Moscow reneged on its promise. President Clinton also promised North Korea light water reactors as a consequence of former president Jimmy Carter's brokered deal with Kim Il-sung which calmed Washington's war fever. Bill Clinton, too, did not live up to his word, nor did his successor George W Bush who inherited Clinton's Korea policy when he was sworn into office and began radically changing it. In consequence, Petrov's optimism does not bear out in today's reality.
Jakob Cambria
USA (Mar 5, '08)

Mr Syed Saleem Shahzad is a competent journalist and his articles are very informative. I want to comment on his article Iran makes its mark in Iraq, Mar 3. Actually, the Iranian president's visit is just symbolic in nature and it will not have any long-lasting effect because it is America which is calling the shots in Iraq. America is a dominant power in Iraq; the Iraqi government invited the Iranian president just to show their degree of independence from the Americans but in reality this visit will not have any long-lasting effect and bring about any concrete change on the ground.
Majid Sharif
Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada (Mar 5, '08)

... I have called Spengler a total moron a half a dozen times and know he "hates" Muslims and is nothing but a shallow late '50s something American living in Florida or California ... but when I read his article about Obama's women reveal his secret, Feb 26, I giggled the whole time that someone finally saw and wrote the obvious. [O]f course Obama hates America, and has no real soul to speak of and of course [an] angry black American would be bringing America down even a notch further ... And of course the alternatives are revolting ... but rather the same old crap than the Obamas ... And I know you will not publish this.
Krischer (Mar 5, '08)

First, I must say I am heartened to note that an update review on letters pro and con [for] Spengler' previous to his latest, Sing, o muse the wrath of Michelle, Mar 3, has now reached 16.5 con and still 2.5 pro. Now a comment about his latest. Must admit I made copies of Spengler's epistle for colleagues in the appropriate academic fields of anthropology, psychology, and others. The following therefore is not a personal appraisal of either Spengler or his latest published epitome regarding Mrs Obama. A distinguished holder of a doctoral degree and a full professor who requested that I use the anonymous of a Dr Pastaneta was quite emphatic in concluding that Spengler must definitely be left-handed and that he must rarely use his right hand except in possibly flipping magazine pages of publications that may include, Playboy, Penthouse, Paris Match or others. In either case, and just for curiosity's sake, is Spengler right-handed or really left-handed?
Armand De Laurell (Mar 4, '08)

I wish to make a brief comment on Spengler’s article, Sing, o muse the wrath of Michelle, Mar 3. Is Spengler jealous of Obama because [of] what he has got, [or what] he has not got? It is no good of him and many American TV hosts and their guest comedians [for] name calling Barack Obama. It will neither help Hillary nor McCain. As Karl Rove, the architect of G W Bush's two electoral victories and a master of dark political arts, said: calling Obama by [his] middle name or with any other adjective would be counter productive. He is an inspiration for millions of Americans but has become a perspiration for Spengler. He has mesmerized not only his supporters but many from the opposite camps and is riding high on their tidal wave. The tidal wave is gaining rapid momentum and could turn into a tsunami of Obama supporters hitting every city [and] town of the USA and shattering Hillary's dream of entering into the White House. She is looking completely unelectable and for this she should blame herself. Obama keeps telling his supporters, "You are the wave, I am riding it." His tidal wave is sweeping Hillary Clinton off her feet and shattering her beautiful dream of living once again in the White House.
Saqib Khan
UK (Mar 4, '08)

I do not know how many midnight candles Spengler burns and how many bottles of whisky he drinks; how many scribbled papers he throws away in a dustbin and how many packets of cigarettes he smokes and how many cups of coffee he drinks [when] writing crap like Obama’s women reveal his secrets, [Feb 26]. He is probably a devil worshipper. He spills hate, death and destruction, blood-letting and bombing innocent people to death. Is he envious of Obama because he has an attractive and intelligent wife?
Jalal Rumi
Pakistan (Mar 4, '08)

[Re TFC goes down on the upside, Feb 29] It is time to praise Mogambo for his prescience. Some time ago he said losses from the derivatives scandal would be a trillion dollars. Finally, the establishment pundits have mentioned trillion-dollar loss! Way to go Guru.
Tom Gerber (Mar 4, '08)

[Re Sing, o muse the wrath of Michelle, Mar 3] See him again, the dowser of insights traversing the desert of American electoral politics, his craggy stick pointing this way and that, now towards the hedge, over there, where that polite but dusky family has taken up residence. He's worried. What could it mean? He's not sure, but at least he can write better than some smiling neighbor woman who waves an ashen hand. Good god, they've taken over entertainment - and now political entertainment, too. But the jaw unclenches when, after sic-filled citations, our man knows for sure that he cracks a better whip when it comes to top-notch prose.
Nonperson
Bangkok (Mar 4, '08)

[Re Sing, o muse the wrath of Michelle, Mar 3] Spengler does a good job in exposing the Obama's hypocrisy, as well as his own. Michelle Obama's 1980s undergraduate thesis makes interesting reading as it honestly expresses the feelings of a young and idealistic, self-conscious member of the black elite. So, Spengler writes, the benevolent Princeton University "gave" Michelle a ticket to success, and Harvard paved the way towards a $400,000 annual salary, but she simply wasn't bright enough to be "partner material" in a big law firm. Given her strong social consciousness, she probably thought "slaving for years" for such a position wasn't worth it. Stressing the point in just how grateful Michelle ought be for everything "liberal universities" and Barack's political cronies - undeservedly - showered an her, he credits the system with her success and blames her "failures" on herself, which left Michelle feeling "hopelessness", "frustration" and "disappointment". It is an old myth of the elite that those on top fairly deserve to be there, and Spengler simultaneously destroys and reaffirms it. Michelle Obama simply isn't First Lady material: She is ungrateful, anti-corporate and entirely anti-American dream. This character profile may actually elicit some hope for those who believe the American dream has turned into a nightmare, or never blindly bought into it anyway, like Michelle Obama herself. The Bush administration has showered Americans with so much hypocrisy and corrupted ideals that now they are ready and willing to demand facts instead of fiction - maybe. It's up to profound journalists like Spengler to further demolish the white-washed facade of America's elites and the political products of its "cosmetic democracy", as John Pilger called it. Whether Obama wins or loses doesn't make much of a difference.
A Lucas (Mar 4, '08)

[Re Dead dollar sketch, Mar 4] The dollar is alive but ailing. Contrary to Chan Akaya's analysis, no other currency now or in the foreseeable future can replace it. And no one really wants to do so lest the pillars of the world's financial system come tumbling down on everyone's head. Markets want stability and even in such parlous economic times as now, they prefer the tried and true unless they see a viable alternative. Which they don't.
Jakob Cambria
USA (Mar 4, '08)

I am shocked by your publication of the article Obama's women reveal his secret, Feb 26. I had expected some minimum standards of journalism and integrity in your publication. Instead you sounded more like a propaganda machine and tabloid newspaper seeking sensationalism. I am dropping out of your website.
Shah Faiez (Mar 3, '08)

The few months left before the Olympics start in Beijing are expected to offer the golden opportunity to criticize and condemn a multitude of things the Chinese people and government do. Despite the "crackdown" on foreign media as Saqib Khan stressed [Letters, Feb 29], hotel rooms are filled and plane tickets are [being] snapped up by people of all nationalities. Those like Mr Khan who love the Tibetan people, would see the Tibetan delegation marching and participating. The Games will come and go. But let us enjoy the sports. Continue your criticisms and air your noble exhortations afterward.
Seung Li (Mar 3, '08)

[Re Hoops and Hurdles for Olympic Media, Feb 28] I don't know exactly what is going on in China except to say that its rapid industrialization must be bringing pain to millions. Much in the manner of industrialization in England during the 18th and 19th centuries when people were torn from the land and crowded into factories to work anything from 12 to 18 hours a day for a low wage. Trade unionists were sometimes killed or transported to Australia for life. We don't have the cold analysis of a Marx or an Engels to examine a country like China nor to look at England again while it undoes its industrialization in pursuit of the money markets and service industries. But what we have are plenty of propagandists with the pot calling the kettle black. So what if Steven Spielberg opts out of the Olympics in Beijing? Is he being critical of his country's wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the Israeli treatment of the Palestinian people? It seems that China must bring democracy to the Sudan as Britain and the US are bringing it to the Middle East. How many Tiananmen Squares has this axis brought about in these countries? Tibet did have a somewhat independent role up until 1948 until the US, during the Cold War, began eyeing it up as possible place to build bases against the new revolutionary Chinese government. Today in London it is widely known and even stated by the government, as a warning, that the average person is seen by surveillance cameras at least 300 times a day. Muslims are being arrested for surfing the Internet and coming across jihad sites, most of it out of curiosity. So it is obvious that the security services are breaking into people's computers, bugging homes and tapping phones. I am not saying the UK is the only country doing this, but reading ATol's articles it seems that the world is preparing itself for some dreadful wars to come. Fear is already gripping the UK and the rest of Europe. A war psychosis is being whipped up by the UK media in constantly showing soldiers on the so-called battlefield. It is saying, in a narrow tunnel-vision manner, that war is good for the young. We are not being given the big picture, like for example ATol's revelation of the new US base Camp Bondsteel in Kosovo or the buildup of US forces in the Philippines. A minor member of the British monarchy gets the opportunity to shoot and kill poverty-stricken Afghans as if he is on the Scottish moors killing pheasant and grouse. Soon he will be back in London to party in the clubs and then be carried out drunk by his police protection team, as is his usual style, going on past history. Meanwhile, he is lauded in a tabloid newspaper which claims he killed 30 Taliban. [Is this] like during the Vietnam War when every civilian killed was marked as Vietcong? The young prince is PR for recruitment to the UK armed forces ... because 20,000 of them resigned last year. His father, Prince Charles, remember, said in 1997 that the handing back of Hong Kong was "the great Chinese takeaway". So all you human and civil rights watchers in the media worrying about the people of China [should] also ask what your country is doing to others.
Wilson John Haire
London (Mar 3, '08)

I was disappointed to see that Asia Times Online would print an unsigned propaganda piece such as Obama's women reveal his secret, Feb 26. This would more correctly have been placed as a paid advertisement, with acknowledgement of financing.
Robert J Molineaux (Mar 3, '08)

I used to enjoy visiting your site for good articles to read but Asia Times Online has lost a lot of credibility with me after reading the ridiculous article Obama's women reveal his secret, Feb 26. The author sounds like some racist from the South. He rants about Obama's hatred of America when there is no solid evidence for such. The real hatred seems to lie with the author himself for Obama!
David T (Mar 3, '08)

[Re Taliban can't stop Korean missionary zeal, Mar 1] The Saemmul Church's flock's religious sensibility runs deep. Its missionaries have the poetry of the simple and pure-hearted. And this can be seen in what some would call the foolhearted engagement of 45 members who went to Afghanistan to bring the glad tidings of Christ to dyed-in-the-wool Afghans. Sunny Lee tells us of what happened to them, but with the Church's 43 members released by the Taliban and two martyrs for Christ, Saemmul clergy are praying for these blind souls who refuse to see in Christ Jesus their Savior. The reverend mister Park En-jo is walking in the well-trodden path of those Cold Warriors of Western churches who prayed for the rollback of communism. At least that will spare the church of more hostages and more martyrs. Yet it is bittersweet irony that one does not see in the Saemmul Church's zeal to go out and preach Christ's word, that they share ... in a pacific way the same mindset of the Taliban who wish to impose religion as they see it.
Jakob Cambria
USA (Mar 3, '08)

[Re Obama's women reveal his secret, Feb 26] There is a big difference between being perhaps disappointed in the direction that your country is taking and believing it can do better things in the world and for its citizenry - and HATING your country. One should be very careful about slinging such psychobabble about anyone, let alone a presidential candidate. Perhaps this quick-trigger accusation (out of the Karl Rove school) based on a few flimsy "quotes" reveals much to us about Spengler and the women who have influenced him.
Jon Balkind (Mar 3, '08)

February Letters

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