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Letters

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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.

[Re Deaf frogs and the Pied Piper, Sep 30] The markets tanked yesterday [Monday], and remained edgy and volatile ahead of the [Sep 29] US Congress vote on the unpopular US$700 billion bailout of Wall Street ... Yet Treasury Secretary and former CEO of Goldman Sachs [Henry Paulson] - the pied piper of the US - hopes he can lead them out of the mess he shares a good deal of responsibility for creating. Time is of the essence and any strategy is worth trying to save a seemingly chastened capitalism. Today we hear that the bailout is "socialism for the rich, capitalism for the poor". The question remains as to which brand of "socialism" we are talking about. Is it the socialism influenced by followers of Karl Marx that we see among Social Democrats in Europe? Or is it the modified version of Leninism with liberal economic features that we find in Beijing? ...
Nakamura Junzo
Guam (Sep 30, '08)

Please allow me to voice my frustration over the much publicized promiscuous behavior Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari displayed during his recent meeting with American Vice-Presidential hopeful Sarah Palin. If his personal remarks, unbecoming of a head of state, were not embarrassing enough for the Pakistani community in America, most of us are even more dumbfounded by the spin his party is using in his defense; for example, claiming that these kind of comments are considered compliments in America. I have lived in the US for some 20 years and during the last couple of decades have learned a thing or two about American culture, so when I say the following, I speak from personal experience:
a) Well over 50% of Americans consider themselves to be morally conservative. The party of Sarah Palin, the Republicans, pride themselves to be a party of social and moral conservatives.
b) Had I ever passed such comments, at work or in business, I would have been fired from my job, or at least sued for sexual harassment.
c) Have we already forgotten the price president Bill Clinton had to pay for his promiscuous behavior? He was impeached for it!
I would have never asked the following, had Mr Zardari's apologists not put up such a morally bankrupt defense for his embarrassing antics. How would we, and especially Mr Zardari's apologists, have reacted if a foreign dignitary passed similarly chauvinistic remarks against a female leader of Pakistan?
Adnan Gill
Los Angeles, USA (Sep 30, '08)

[Re Deaf frogs and the Pied Piper, Sep 30] Chan, let me get this right, according to your logic, if my bank went bankrupt from reckless investment behavior due to hubris and excess greed stemming from abundant deposits, I should blame myself and my fellow depositors for having given the bank too much business? While Asian countries no doubt need to improve their economic system(s), it doesn't take a frog's IQ to see that the free-wheeling US capitalist model needs a cathartic overhaul, not in an effort to generate better future returns for foreign capital, but to protect the American people's basic livelihoods. (Critiquing the faulty American system, by the way, doesn't equate to a desire for wholesale abandonment of free-market practices or for reversion to pure socialism.) That European banks are suffering wider losses than their American counterparts does not signal a failure of regulation, but rather points to a need for better policies. As mentioned in the article, "[European banks] have it worse due to lower capital bases supporting more speculative asset categories, as well as the lack of regulatory oversight that follows the absence of mark-to-market accounting." That, to me, indicates a glaring deficit in effective regulatory measures in Europe as well. Yes, market capitalism works, but only under responsible governmental guidance, lest the tragedy unfolding before our eyes be replayed again and again.
John Chen
USA (Sep 30, '08)

I really enjoyed Muhammad Cohen's column about vice presidential choices here in the US, The wrong vice [Sep 30]. I know some people from Alaska and they say [Republican vice presidential candidate] Sarah Palin is actually pretty tough. Our mainstream media really doesn't like [Republican presidential candidate] John McCain or Palin, whom they like to portray as a ditzy cheerleader. But she really earned the nickname, 'Sarah Barracuda', as the tough point guard who led her school basketball team to win the state championship. Obviously she does not have experience in foreign affairs; she is the governor of Alaska. Up until last week, I knew as many foreign leaders as she did! But recent TV interviews were not designed to get to know Sarah, but just to "get" her and get rid of her. Some of the questions were trick questions and traps; and while her answers may have sounded unlettered, she did not fall into the traps. I have seen her on a few cable news shows and she is a lot more impressive in that format. Maybe [Democratic vice presidential candidate] Joe Biden will put the last nails in the coffin at the debate on Thursday, but I know he is not underestimating her, at least not in public!
Bob Snyder (Sep 30, '08)

[Re Cower before the great Mr P, Sep 27] The great Mogambo is not the only one shocked. Can we survive the "Paulson Payoff" to his financial manipulator friends?
Tom Gerber
USA (Sep 29, '08)

[Re Nothing succeeds like succession, Sep 26] Scott Thomas Bruce has put his finger on the current standoff between North Korea and the administration of US President George W Bush. He has cut through the smokescreen of convoluted moralistic arguments to get to the heart of the problem. To some Pyongyang may seem like an onion; you peel off an opaque skin only to find another as cloudy. Settlement of the nuclear issue is vital, yet the Bush administration is at war with itself on the matter. Pyongyang in everything it has done is signaling president Bush that it is ready to normalize relations, but the president in spite of his letter to Kim Jong-il is unable to conduct a foreign policy based on reality rather than high moral tone ...
Mel Cooper
Singapore (Sep 29, '08)

[Re Al-Qaeda's opportunity to hurt the US, Sep 26] ... All the news indicates there is no need for any attacks on the US as it is already on its knees. If there is an attack one may want to consider it a "false-flag" operation. Americans should start reading Dmitry Orlov, and learn lessons from Russia's collapse.
May Sage
USA (Sep 29, '08)

I read with interest the article A dangerous obsession [Sep 26]. I have seen the documentary - Obsession - and while I think it has a pro-Israel tilt, much of what the documentary says is in my opinion true. I was concerned that the article spent no time examining the veracity of the charges leveled by the film, and instead obsessed about who was behind the production.
Barry L Smail (Sep 29, '08)

I read E pluribus hokum or When the gamblers bail out the casino [Sep 23] with some dread, but must agree wholeheartedly with the contents of this feature, except for the line about [Russian Prime Minister Vladimir] Putin: "Where, oh where, is America's Vladimir Putin, who will drive out the oligarchs who have stolen the country's treasure and debased its currency? ..." I wish to correct that. Not all oil oligarchs have been driven out. One still owns the Chelsea Football Club in England.
Tam Yeng Siang
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (Sep 26, '08)

I thought the story, The lonely death of Cycle Maung Maung [Sep 24], was pretty weird. Is this news? Is this entertainment? Is it commentary? Seems to me like a folktale meant to teach little children to show reverence to monks. Sheesh. If the monks can do kung fu, then I'll revere them. Otherwise, they're just poor guys in robes. If a monk sat on a bench in any major international city, people would treat him no better than a homeless person. But if he protests in some Asian city, then he's supposed to be a beacon of democracy. No. Monks are appreciated when they shelter orphans or lepers. But most of them don't have much education. They aren't sophisticated enough to understand the hypocrisy of the West. Cycle Maung Maung was probably no more sophisticated than the monks. I don't see why taking one side or the other in Myanmar is anybody's business, except the Myanmar people's.
Bao Dinh Nguyen
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam (Sep 26, '08)

The article took no side, it simply told a story that illumines the situation in Myanmar and the way the local people see things. That's good journalism. - ATol

[Re Damascus fears deviation on peace road, Sep 25] Damascus has every reason to fear that Israel will back out of indirect talks ... Premier-in-waiting, the Kadima Party's Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, has been asked to form a new government, and if she doesn't elections will ensue. Livni has already called upon Benjamin Netanyahu from her old Likud party to join her in forming a unity government - a move that would shift her reliance onto splinter religious groups and lead to the formation of a Kadima-led government with support from Israeli hawks. Should Likud answer her call, Syria is right to question Israel's seriousness in pursuing peace talks ... Besides the obvious demands that Netanyahu would put forth in joining a "national front" government, he might also ask for the portfolio of foreign affairs, and we know his views on dealing with Syria and Palestinians. Linkage with Likud may rekindle the hard-line ideological training that Livni had in Likud's Betar youth movement, which is much influenced by the hard-right wing of Irgun, the underground Jewish militia. Livni's own father was an Irgun chief operations officer and fought against the British and the Arabs. Irgun's right-wing ideology has seriously influenced Likud, and Livni's view of the world, which is one of Israel remaining on a permanent and aggressive war footing. Israel, in addition, is in a state of moral crisis, and so Livni will need a big broom to sweep away years of corruption, misdemeanors, and sex scandals in high places and particularly in her own Kadima Party. Thus, Damascus is erring on the side of caution and low expectations ...
Mel Cooper
Singapore (Sep 26, '08)

The American people have had a glimpse of the horror wrought by the subprime mortgage meltdown ... They may not know what the drying up of liquidity means, nor what to do about it, but Congress has a model to deal with the indigestible US$700 billion bailout for irresponsible Wall Street Banks, the semi-private Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and the greedy AIG. They have a clear model of the Chrysler bailout in the late 1970s, which at the time cost the taxpayer billions, but then [US] president Jimmy Carter insisted that Chrysler issue equity warrants to the government, which guaranteed government supervision and control and ensured the automobile maker paid off its debt to the American people. For those with a longer memory, Chrysler's Lee Iacocca announced that he would clean up his company's mess and pay himself but a single US dollar a year in salary, thereby transforming himself into a folk hero of sorts. The company did return to solvency, and what's more, the government made a profit to the tune of $400 mllion. Today, alas, in US President George W Bush, the less than forthright Hank Paulson at the Treasury, and Ben Bernanke at the Fed, we do not see much public spiritedness other than wishing to bail out friends in high finance and on the much scorned Wall Street. Congress, however, is in a position to strike while the iron is hot, to seize control, reimpose regulation, and help cleanse the system of toxic bonds and mortgages. We hear a lot about lack of liquidity, but that is not true, look at Warren Buffet's $5 billion purchase of Goldman Sachs preferred stock. There is a lot of money out there, but the money has no confidence in Wall Street, so these wealthy companies are sticking it to the American people to bail out the financial markets. One can only hope that Congress will not only crack the whip but also endeavor to educate a complacent American public about economic well-being and encourage personal savings.
Nakamura Junzo
Guam (Sep 26, '08)

[Re Iran plays up its peacemaker role, Sep 24] Did anyone notice what the director of the CIA, General Michael Hayden, said on September 16 before the Los Angeles World Affairs Council? Referring to Iran, he said: "We assessed that the nuclear weapons program had not resumed as of mid-2007, a conclusion that subsequent intelligence still supports." He further explained, "But because the materials and expertise are so prevalent and have perfectly legitimate applications, the very fact that someone is interested in nuclear, chemical or biological technology is not enough to prove they are interested in weapons. A WMD [weapons of mass destruction] program fundamentally centers on political intent. Iran will have the scientific, technical and industrial capacity to produce nuclear weapons eventually. The question is not capability, but intent." As [Kaveh] Afrasiabi so ably points out in his article, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in its reports for the last two years and most recently has said, "The agency has been able to continue to verify the non-diversion of declared nuclear materials in Iran. Iran has provided the agency with access to declared nuclear materials and has provided the required nuclear material accounting reports in connection with declared nuclear materials and activities. All nuclear materials at fuel enrichment plant (FEP) as well as all installed cascades remain under agency containment and surveillance." All the aforementioned should be part of the public record and debate before ignorant voices are heard leading to misperceptions about Iran which are reaching a crescendo. The questions to be asked, over and over again, is why do we need the lies and distortions, and why the outrageous accusations? ... Whose purpose is being served? As it is certainly not the national interests of the United States. Why is no one calling for an American interest section in Tehran, staffed with our best Farsi-speaking diplomats? And why not, for a change, try to engage Iran in unconditional negotiations based on dignity and justice?
Fariborz S Fatemi
Former Professional Staff Member
House Foreign Affairs Committee
Senate Foreign Relations Committee
Virginia, US (Sep 26, '08)

I seldom read the Spengler collective's contributions, but, by chance, I read E pluribus hokum or When the gamblers bail out the casino [Sep 23]. This economic critique was really quite exceptional. Using the writer's imagery, the casino must eventually fail, since bailing out the casino doesn't fix the problem, and so America must eventually fail. With financial collapse, one can probably assume military collapse. And eventually, collapse of the entire American system. What then? It's time to plan out a post-failure America. Will America become a socialist state? Will America split up into smaller regional experimental nation-states? How will America continue to function without a working financial system? What deal will America have to make with the devil to continue functioning? I remember some theoretical noodling about America's decline several years ago at one of the Davos conferences. Well, gentlemen, it's time to plan for the real thing. Any ideas? I thought I would be dead and gone before America's inevitable collapse. What a surprise! Kudos to Spengler for a thought-provoking article.
Jonathan
UK (Sep 25, '08)

The collapse of the financial system is not an unfortunate byproduct of deregulation; it was a cold and calculated criminal enterprise. The conspirators even had a dry run here in Chicago in 2001. Close to 1,500 people lost much of their life savings when Superior Bank of Chicago went bankrupt with a billion dollars in deposits. The bank sold bonds secured by subprime mortgages. The idea was to sell loans, collect commissions, and then walk away when the loans defaulted and let the bank fail. The mafia calls this technique a bust out. In 2002 when this scheme was rolled out nationally, all 50 attorneys general pleaded with the George W Bush administration to stop the predatory lending practices they knew would lead to the collapse we see today. Instead of helping, in 2003 Bush invoked a clause from the 1863 National Bank Act nullifying all state predatory lending laws. The [Office of the Comptroller of the Currency] OCC also created new rules that prevented states from enforcing any of their own consumer protection laws against national banks. Following the money, Henry Paulson resigned as CEO of Goldman Sachs to become Treasury Secretary in 2006, having amassed a personal net worth of US$700 million during his 32-year tenure at the bank. Goldman Sachs appears to be the only financial company to profit from the subprime crises. Kate Kelly’s Wall Street Journal article of December 14, 2007 explains how while Goldman Sachs was trading [collateralized debt obligations] CDOs, they were also betting so heavily against them that when they failed, the profit they made more than offset the losses ... Treasury Secretary Paulson's game is to put taxpayers on the hook for this theft. This is not a $700 billion bailout. Globally there are $600 trillion in world liabilities, plus more than $400 trillion derivatives. We must let Wall Street fend for itself and go after the personal assets of the people behind this bust out of our treasury ...
John Morgan
Arlington Heights, Illinois
US (Sep 25, '08)

[Re A reason to bring US troops home, Sep 24] Doug Bandow may have reason on his side but his arguments hold little water when it comes to Korean and Japanese geopolitical realities. Japan has no official standing army, and the American written Japanese constitution - also known as the "Peace Constitution" - puts Japan permanently under America's protection. As for North Korea, Bandow nurtures the illusion that it will collapse sooner than later, and as such, there is little reason to maintain US troops levels at present levels. His reading of tensions on the divided peninsula is superficial as long as Pyongyang's nuclear development remains in question. Today, it has ordered that the UN observers at its nuclear facility leave the country, and is preparing to start up its reactor. So in its standoff with Washington, which North Korea says has reneged on a promise to remove it from the US list of terrorist nations after it turned over 18,000 pages of documents on its nuclear program, Pyongyang has again engaged a tense, nervous diplomatic game of stud poker. Thus, it strikes me that it is the wrong time to float the balloon of troop reduction and eventual withdraw. Realistically, for South Korea, and I dare say North Korea and China, the presence of America's military in Japan is welcome given Tokyo's militarist past, while its bases in South Korea ... assure Seoul that it will be protected from invasion by the North.
Mel Cooper
Singapore (Sep 25, '08)

Either Kaveh Afrasiabi, Iran Plays up its Peacemaker Role[Sep 24], is an inveterate optimist or a master of subtle irony. I can find evidence for both perspectives in his article. Only a Pollyanna personality comfortably ensconced on an Olympus of optimism could characterize the international perspective on Iran as one which would allow that nation to be "basking in the glory of [its] improving image as a conflict mediator ... ". Obviously, the torrent of incendiary rhetoric directed against "the West" ... ; the delicate approach taken by the current Iranian regime towards it's minorities; the support of Hezbollah's efforts to create a parallel government in Lebanon ... ; the somewhat less than candid posture taken on nuclear efforts; ... and the provocative deployment and test launching of ballistic missiles all constitute firm evidence of a disciplined, measured, responsible, objective government - one perfectly positioned to serve as an impartial "conflict mediator". On the other hand, when Afrasiabi writes, " ... despite adopting a non-confrontational discourse and speaking the language of post-hegemony and global peace", I assume he intends to be ironic and Orwellian ("war is peace") ... Yes, Iran is in a position to "mediate conflicts", but only by dint of its meddlesome interference in its neighbors' affairs and its divisive posturing in the international arena. That, oil and it's location in a volatile but strategically crucial region are what makes it a "player" in the region and a necessary (but odious) participant in any effort to achieve regional conflict resolution.
Keith Comess (Sep 25, '08)

Just writing to congratulate ATol for the high quality of its contributors. I am specially impressed by Henry C K Liu; concerning economic matters he is "the man", with all due respect to The Mogambo Guru.
Manuel de la Torre

During the high Middle Ages, members of the nobility fought each other usually for land and gold but often just for the sake of fighting. Usually the armored knights would not be killed in battle but were captured and held for huge ransoms, extorted from their subjects by other knights. Famous examples are King Richard of England ("the Lionheart", ransomed twice), and John II, King of France, each captured after needless battles, lost due to their own stupidity. Often the ransom included giving huge chunks of their territory to the enemy. The unarmored infantry and attendant troops, not worth ransom, were usually massacred on the spot. While prisoners, the nobles were treated with every courtesy and consideration, being called "brother" by their battlefield enemies and made fully at home. The epoch was sung and praised as a wondrous time for high deeds of valor by their troubadours. Nobody considered the multiple disasters caused to all others by their incompetence: war, ruin, famine, disease, ignorance and the black death that destroyed half the population. "Ransom us" cried the kings, "or the kingdom is ruined!" But they had already ruined it, had they not? Very exceptionally, King John stayed a guest at the English court for 25 years because his son Charles refused to pay ransom (which was to surrender half the kingdom to the English). France recovered and eventually won the Hundred Years' War. In modern times the new nobility of Wall Street and corporation barons engage in needless battles (mergers and acquisitions that for the most part have gone bad, the globalization and outsourcing frenzy), wreck their own companies (some recent examples are Enron, GM, Ford, and now Wall Street giants), and then demand bailouts from their subjects (taxpayers) extorted by other barons (lobbyists, Congress) who have expectations of similar rewards when it's their turn. They receive wonderful treatment ("golden parachutes") while their infantry (all those below VP ranks) are massacred (unemployed, lose pension plans). The epoch is sung and praised as a wondrous time for high deeds of finance and "freedom" by their troubadours in the media. Nobody considers the multiple disasters caused to all others by their incompetence ... "Ransom us" cry today's barons, "or the economy is ruined!" But they have already ruined it, have they not? Is there a Charles today to ensure that John does not return to the kingdom and complete its ruin? Nobility and especially royalty "learn nothing and forget nothing". History's corrective action has been revolutions, usually violent ones that often make things worse in the short term.
Kali Kadzaraki
Houston, Texas (Sep 25, '08)

[Re China struggles to cap milk crisis, Sep 23] It is inexcusable after last year's much publicized scandal with melamine in pet foods that we [China] still have a systemic problem with the same toxin in food for human consumption. The obvious failure is that the penalties are not severe enough. This encourages criminal behavior, as the current mild or ineffective penalties are an acceptable cost to continue doing business. Legislation should be immediately introduced that mandates a 10 to 30 year jail sentence for adulterating food. This includes adulteration with unapproved chemicals and overdosing livestock and fisheries with antibiotics. The responsibility for regulatory compliance must extend to manufacturers and distributors of restricted chemicals and industrial feedstock materials. They should be fully aware of whom they are selling to and their customers' possible end use for the products. For example, the sale of melamine powder or its byproducts has no discernible legitimate usage in a diary farm or a diary products factory. This should have raised alarms in the manufacturer's sales office and in the inventory control department and automatically triggered reports to management and to government watchdog agencies ...
Kelvin Mok (Sep 24, '08)

[Re Too big to fail versus moral hazard , Sep 22] Given the financial meltdown we all seem to be in, my reaction to the number of letters to the editor referencing Mr Liu's epic exposition as to what has produced "the runaway freight train", is merely to congratulate him for a studious and detailed train ride with appropriate stops along the way ... As he observantly put it: "It is not possible that amid such clear signs of impending trouble that those in charge of billions of dollars of other people's money, supported by high-priced research, were caught off guard. Criminal dishonesty with dereliction of fiduciary duty is difficult to deny." Kudos to ATol as usual for always including Mr Liu's incisive commentaries.
Armand De Laurell (Sep 24, '08)

[Re The gloves are off in Pakistan, Sep 22] We Americans have the worst president in our history, and, with one exception (Ron Paul), nobody in Congress to stand up to Bush/Cheney. We who believe America should mind its own business were hoping Ron Paul could be elected president, but the "power elite" made sure that didn't happen.
Anthony Powell (Sep 24, '08)

[Former chairman of the Federal Reserve] Alan Greenspan [once] called the markets a demonstration in "irrational exuberance". He was right, but did little to correct their course or enforce even lax controls. Martin Hutchinson has given us the long view of markets in The wrong rescues, which is welcome ... The US houses of Congress are debating a bailout for which US Secretary of the Treasury Hank Paulson has asked for $700 billion, with a blank check for him or his successor to do what they deem necessary to stop the financial bloodletting. This amounts in essence to business as usual, but Congress is in no mood to let him do so. The subprime mortgage meltdown has already buried Reaganomics and swept away Wall Street's ways of doing business. Congress will to a degree or other re-impose not only regulations but control of unfettered financial markets. Nonetheless if Congress needs a model to clean up the mess, of course it could look back to the early days of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal almost 80 years ago, which it shall; however, there is a more current example and that is Sweden which in the 1990s had a similar meltdown but moved quickly to deal with shaky banks with dodgy practices. Stockholm did not shy away from a treatment of tough love, but took control of the banks, regulated and applied strict controls over them. And in a relatively short period of time, after selling assets and correcting lopsided balance sheets, it even made a profit for the taxpayer who had to foot the bill for the financial community's bad ways of doing business. Eventually, the government got out of the banking business, but kept regulatory control over the industry. The banks were chastened, and are more careful in toeing the line of good conduct in banking. Let's hope that America will find a satisfactory solution to the current crisis, one which doesn't reward, as Paulson envisions, his Wall Street cronies, but one that strengthens not only the US but global markets as well.
Nakamura Junzo
Guam (Sep 24, '08)

[ReUlulations for Obama across the globe, Sep 22]
Dear Kent Ewing,
You, your wife and tribespeople can ululate all you want, but it won't put Obama in office and may in fact alienate many US citizens. In spite of what you want to believe, large majorities do not support Obama, which will become sufficiently evident after our election day. You praise Obama to the sky and disrespect his very worthy opponents, who are at least as a capable as he and better suited for leadership here ... Instead of telling us what to do here in the US, perhaps you should instead work at reversing the setbacks in democracy that have occurred in Hong Kong since the Chinese takeover, if you would be actually permitted to do such a thing.
George M (Sep 24, '08)

One of Spengler's suggestions in the first paragraph of E pluribus hokum or, The gamblers bail out the casino [Sep 22] is so preposterous it should have been edited out. The very notion of letting Chinese, the Saudis or any foreign bank assume huge American debts by purchasing US banks will only "outsource" the final pillar of our economy and leave it the grips of foreign (mostly nationalized) banks. Leaving the average American with ... a foreign master instead of our local one, our corrupt government. It is bad enough that our own government by buying out these troubled institutions has assumed their debt and let them become part of our government. This puts us, through the nationalizing of our institutions, on the road to becoming a full-blown socialist nation. No thank you, Mr Spengler.
Chrysantha Wijeyasingha
Clinton, USA (Sep 23, '08)

[Re E pluribus hokum or, The gamblers bail out the casino, Sep 22] I did not bother opening Spengler's latest article upon a quick review of ATol earlier in the day today. The sheer weight of irony (or of expected duplicity) of reading his rant against "oligarchs" in the article's brief description had me beside myself. To expect this demonstrably neoconservative writer to somehow oppose the tacit interests of the ruling "elite" in Wall Street and the City of London is like expecting Mrs Sarah Palin to recite Thucydides from heart.
R. Davoodi
Tehran (Sep 23, '08)

[Re E pluribus hokum or, The gamblers bail out the casino, Sep 22]
Spengler has it right this time. Paulson's payoff to his financial manipulator friends is all wrong. Go Spengler, go.
Tom Gerber
USA (Sep 23, '08)

It is a pleasure to read the detailed and thought provoking articles on the economy by Spengler, Henry C K Liu, Julian Delasantellis and Doug Noland. The quality of the journalism Asia Times Online publishes is tough to match. Given the enormity of the economic issue with its portentous implications for international stability (and my own pocketbook), I wonder if ATol might induce its financial contributors to participate in an online forum on this topic. It would be most interesting to read an exchange of ideas amongst these experts.
Keith Comess (Sep 23, '08)

Ululations for Obama across the globe [Sep 22] by Kent Ewing hits the nail on the head. Obama embodies the hope the rest of world has in the United States. The rest of the world is in fear of another war president and vice president. The likelihood of [vice presidential hopeful Sarah Palin], who just got her first passport last year, becoming president of the world's foremost superpower sends fear all over the world. Americans don't realize the misery they inflict on the rest on the world in pursuit of their interests … Sarah Palin is the female version of the general who shouted "wahoo", while sitting on the atomic bomb as it dropped from the bomb bay in the movie Dr Strangelove. If McCain and Palin are elected, all I can say is that the American people deserve them.
Scarlet Pimple
Malaysia (Sep 23, '08)

Given the recent turmoil in world financial markets, it is hardly surprising that, from the rubble, an army of economic pundits has arisen, replete with historical parallels and a cookbook of remedies for the mess. Being of a cynical disposition, I favor those pundits who reinforce my own certainties that perfidy, greed, speculation, lack of regulatory oversight and failed government policies are at fault for the current debacle. I also like Armageddon scenarios with last-minute salvation offered by "obvious" and certain solutions, and it's the Armageddon aspects of the commentary, US at a turning point [Sep 20] by Max Fraad Wolff, that I find so appealing. For example, he writes, "This is now a national disaster for the United States." In my own search for historical precedents and guidance through … the current economic situation, I looked to John Kenneth Galbraith, as a "giant" in the field. He identified five salient weaknesses of the 1920s economy that appear to me to be strangely evocative of the current financial crises.

1). Gross inequalities in income distribution, with a tiny fraction of the population owning the vast majority of the wealth. The level of CEO compensation nicely illustrates this point.

2). Flawed corporate structure, one in which, "American enterprise in the twenties had opened its hospitable arms to an exceptional number of promoters, grafters, swindlers, impostors and frauds." The analogy to the present is perhaps to hedge fund managers, short-sellers, leveraged traders, purveyors of derivatives and "subprime" mortgages and real estate speculators, some of whom appear to share these characteristics.

3). Bad banking structure, enabled, in part, by Congress rescinding Depression-era legislation separating commercial from investment banks and by allowing unregulated investment activity on a large scale. Other components extend to failure of the SEC to regulate mortgage instruments, "naked" short selling, and government-mandated requirements for the use of "fair value accounting". I'm sure there are others.

4). "Dubious" state of foreign balance. Now (in a reverse of the situation in the 1920s), the US is the chief borrower nation, with the preponderance of debt held by foreign governments (chiefly Asian and increasingly Middle Eastern).

5). The poor state of economic intelligence. In the present crisis, I take "intelligence" to mean "smarts", rather than access to accurate and timely data. It might also be taken to mean "responsibility". An example of lack of "smarts" might be E Stanley O'Neal of Merrill Lynch who blandly asserted his lack of understanding of "derivatives" as an excuse for his firm's demise, while allowing their purchase and sale. Dick Fuld of Lehman is a nice illustration of lack of responsibility. His activities destroyed a perfectly good firm, yet, he still serves as Lehman CEO.

Yes, it seems obvious that regulation will be required as, left to their own devices, the "masters of the universe" will continue to refine and evolve their penchant for making lots of money by devising new financial instruments which will lie outside the latest regulatory umbrella. Yes, people will live beyond their means if given the option and easy credit is an enabler - this all seems to be part of human nature. Yes, it's a mess. However, it is unlikely to be "a national disaster for the United States". It's just business.
Keith Comess (Sep 22, '08)

I miss the wise and accurate comments of Henry C K Liu concerning the ongoing world economic crisis. If I remember correctly he predicted well in advance the occurrence of hyperinflation. In view of the latest developments, it seems that he has been completely right.
Manuel de la Torre (Sep 22, '08)

[Re The saga of the rebel princess, Sep 19] On behalf of my wife and myself, who grew up listening on the radio to Asmahan (Princess Amal At-Trash) and her brother Farid, we want to thank Sami Moubayed for his reporting on the 30-episode television series relating the life of the princess, who outside the Arab world remains largely unknown. Although her death remains shrouded in mystery, her wonderful voice still resounds.
Mel Cooper
Singapore (Sep 22, '08)

After this week (following approval by Congress), the American people will bear the debt of its speculators and investment banks for generations, and the whole country will bear the debt of the world. President Bush and Henry Paulson may seem to have officially committed America to its death spiral in a universe that is adjusting itself rapidly to a "post-America" world. Sadly, the American people do not realize that their passivity and acquiesce, their indifference and disinterest, and their blind obedience to political and religious leaders and to the regulated and controlled American media, have finally destroyed what is left of the constitution, democracy and whatever else the government hasn't already destroyed in the past eight years. Politically and socially, Americans are offered no political candidates of reason, common sense, or honesty ... The American people have forfeited democracy in favor of a future variant of national socialism commanded by a military-transnational cartel. The world awaits its misdirected anger and revenge. Tragically but not surprisingly, Americans are witnessing one of the most significant and pivotal events in their country's history and barely realize or understand it.
Michael T Bucci
Maine, USA (Sep 22, '08)

[Re Cairo cool to Tehran's clinch, Sep 17] The establishment of relations between Cairo and Tehran is not only good for both countries, but also for the whole Middle East, including Israel in the long run. But as long as Iran insists on calling late Egyptian president Anwar Sadat a traitor, there is no hope of that happening ... The King Abdullah plan for a permanent peace in the Middle East is the best solution to the whole problem, including Islamic international terrorism and much more. The security of Israel rests on that noble plan made by a noble king.
Luan Adam Isufi (Sep 22, '08)

This is only a very quick note to say that a friend recommended Asia Times Online to me today. I am incredibly impressed with both the coverage and analysis of financial news and have made it one of my home pages when I log on in the morning.
Andrew Waldie
Toronto, Canada (Sep 22, '08)

[Re Tinsel politics return in India, Sep 19] Congrats for publishing a great article on the phenomenon of Chiranjeevi! This is the first good critical review of his coming to politics. One mistake in the article is that Chiru (as fans know him) is mistakenly called a "Bollywood" actor. He is actually a "Tollywood" star (Tolly stands for Telugu language).
SNR Reddy
Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India (Sep 19, '08)

We have corrected the error - ATol

[Re Tinsel politics return in India, Sep 19] Folks, great coverage of Chiranjeevi. But I think Sreeram Chaulia has been too uncharitable towards the great actor's ability to win the upcoming elections in Andhra. The comparison with NTR is correct, but Chiranjeevi is a modern day megastar and no one can stop his victory march in politics.
Vikramarka Kumar (Sep 19, '08)

[Re Tinsel politics return in India, Sep 19] ... Sreeram Chaulia has correctly stated that parties in India lack ideology and unique appeal. Chiranjeevi's Praja Rajyam party may or may not win the elections in Andhra Pradesh, but Chaulia has shown the bankruptcy of ideas prevailing in Indian politics. Very well done and congratulations to Chaulia for exposing the horrible condition of politics in India.
P Kumar
Visakhapatnam, India. (Sep 19, '08)

The article Tinsel politics return in India [Sep 19] is too pessimistic about Tollywood megastar Chiranjeevi's chances in politics. Although intellectuals are critical about Chiru, he is the box office king in Tollywood and he will also rout the existing political parties in elections. Chiranjeevi is like a tornado who will reform India's politics and clean up the mess. The author of this article is unable to see that Chiru is a fresh wind who has massive voter support.
Hima Bindu
Edison, New Jersey (Sep 19, '08)

Mr Delasantallis' Ben first, economy last brings to mind a short but prophetic news item dated February 14, 2008, headlined New York governor warns of a financial tsunami. It reports New York Governor Eliot Spitzer's testimony to the US Congress warning that bond and credit woes afflicting Wall Street could turn into a damaging "financial tsunami" ... Within three weeks of his testimony Governor Spitzer acquired the title of "Client No 9" in an investigation into an international house of pleasure which was operating in Washington, Paris, London, and Tel Aviv. Within a week he was forced to resign as governor. Makes one wonder if Dr Ben and a few members of the Federal Reserve also had their own numbers.
Armand De Laurell (Sep 19, '08)

[Re Rocking the subprime house of cards, Mar 6 and Bottom of the class, Sep 17] Contrast these articles and other ATol financial reporting with a popular CNBC personality's shrill proclamation in July that the bottom of Dow had then been reached. (With the public bombarded daily by mainstream-media nonsense like that, no wonder this country is in the fine mess it currently finds itself.) Without question Asia Times Online is the best available source of economic and (geo) political analyses out there, both online and in print. And you know what the second best thing is about ATol? It's free.
John Chen
USA (Sep 19, '08)

[Re China's imploding US ally, Sep 17] The work begun by [AIG founder] Cornelius Starr and carried forward by Hank Greenberg and the Starr Foundation to build stronger relations between China and the US, will fortunately outlast the foundering of AIG itself. What began in the Shanghai Bund so many decades ago stands as both remarkable history and a reminder that China and the US have much to gain by true cooperation.
William E Cooper
Distinguished University Professor
and President Emeritus
University of Richmond (Sep 18, '08)

[Re Pyongyang defies all odds, Sep 17] Pyongyang has been defying all odds for the last 16 years, and it looks as though it will continue to do so now and in the future. As Andrei Lankov points out, the world is flooded with rumors about Kim Jong-il's state of health, and speculation has and continues to run wild. Even to the point where the South Korean prime minister has ordered officials to not unnecessarily disclose intelligence on what's happening in North Korea, and here's the rub, out of fear of "provoking" Pyongyang. To do what? We have to ask. Invade? Implode? Seoul's belated concern raises more questions about its own intelligence, and President Lee Myung-bak's hardly friendly policy towards North Korea. As Lankov cogently suggests, revolution is out of the question in Pyongyang … Nor is any palace coup in the offing, for that matter. The opaqueness of North Korea has not allowed word to leak out about the possible successor to Kim Jong-il. But although no declared candidate is being groomed by his father, as Kim was for leadership, it doesn't logically follow that a map of succession in the case of incapacitation or death has not been drawn up, especially in the highly structured society that is North Korea. The guessing will go on until the curtain is raised on the media's daily soap opera on the fate of Kim Jong-il and North Korea. And speaking finally of defying all odds, Pyongyang is testing a highly sophisticated motor in its quest for rocket mastery for peaceful and defensive reasons. That should cause more concern. Are we dealing with known unknowns or unknown knowns?
Mel Cooper
Singapore (Sep 18, '08)

Nepal-India ties enter the Prachanda era ' [Sep 16] covers several aspects of the thorny relations between the two countries. However, transforming the image of Prachanda, the erstwhile, dreaded leader of the rebellious Maoists, into a harbinger of peace within the country, and the embodiment of friendliness with neighboring nations, is a Herculean task. Given the track record of the Maoist outfit there is little reason to be confident that its leadership will succeed in promoting Nepal's national interests vis-a-vis its relations with its nuclear neighbor ... The article is an objective presentation of the entire gamut of issues which have plagued the close neighbors - whose relations have always been characterized by ambivalence. Bilateral relations between Nepal and India need to be reviewed and reoriented for each nation's benefit. Dhruba Adhikary is right to point out that if the monarchy could be consigned to the pages of history, why can't the unequal treaties be scrapped and there be a new beginning? Only in the days ahead will we know if the Maoist leadership can truly escape the India trap.
Madhab Khanal
Seattle (Sep 18, '08)

[Re Fed's misplaced fulcrum, Sep 16] Give Martin Hutchinson a 5-cent cigar! He at least has the courage to point out the obvious: the Fed has little or no statutory authority to keep investment banks in line. With safeguards such as the Glass Stegall Act - a Great Depression-era law that separated commercial and investment banking - thrown to the four winds, the market has been living a "hippy" lifestyle, using leveraged, arcane debt instruments which have left it reeling today ... The imminent collapse of AIG, and the unwillingness of banks like J P Morgan Chase or "the cash cow" Goldman Sachs to thrown good money after bad to rescue it, underscores the bleak fact that no one in the Bush administration or on Wall Street knows what AIG's or for that matter what any debt ridden bank's assets are worth. Meaning there is no transparency or clarity of monetary purpose, and without these no one can be sure of investments and a brighter future. If that is not disturbing enough, should AIG go belly up, it will drag down Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, which are insured by that once-powerful insurance company. So the Fed may very well have to step in to assume more debt, which will strain the US economy even more ...
Nakamura Junzo
Guam (Sep 17, '08)

"Corruption in the name of Culture" [Sep 16] by Wu Zhong, brings to mind the universal truth that there are always business people ready to cooperate with local officials and engage in "worthwhile" projects which line the pockets of both groups. The "abandoning" of Marxist dogma is not complete as the author alleges, as the "supremacy of economics" still holds. A more accurate description of the ongoing "cultural renaissance" is needed to educate the public and to temper the continuing Western cultural invasion. Look, many Christian churches have sprung up in Shenzhen, even though Jesus never "hung out" there.
Seung Li (Sep 17, '08)

[Re Lehman and the end of the era of leverage, Sep 16]
A thoughtful essay by Spengler, and a couple of points that warrant further elaboration. Firstly, the notion that the current financial crisis is rooted in the savings glut from Europe and Asia sounds rather dubious. To be sure, the existence of excess money per se did not cause the nightmare unfolding before our eyes; rather, it was the irresponsible management of that money - the proliferation of Ponzi-style financial engineering - that brought about the catastrophe. If, for example, the US government had not at the outset loosened financial regulations but instead directed the capital to more useful venues such as manufacturing, a likely alternative outcome would have entailed creation of jobs, a massive increase in exports, and a healthy budget surplus instead of a monstrous deficit. (The only problem is that ramping up the manufacturing base would have required a great deal more time, a scenario that the moneyed elites, in their mad rush for instant gratification, likely would not have tolerated.) In the article, Spengler also offered that: "The failure of Lehman and Bear Stearns does not reflect the breakdown of a particular kind of corporate culture," but the story today really is not about what Lehman and Bear did or did not do. Yes, there's more than one way to conduct business and more than one path to failure, but when the entire financial system is in utter disarray, one can state with near certitude that a systemic problem lies at the core of the unbridled capitalism practiced over the last 10 years. During that time, not only did the government not put in place policies to better utilize and regulate financial capital, agencies such as the Federal Reserve actually enabled the formation of serial bubbles. When Europe and Asia invested their hard-earned savings in this country, a great deal of trust no doubt accompanied the financial investment. That trust, sadly, was wantonly betrayed by the US government and its appointed regulators. Moving forward, therefore, any serious proposal to repair the broken global economy must first re-evaluate the exemplary American economic system, regardless of the different demographic subplots in various countries.
John Chen
USA (Sep 16, '08)

[Re Lehman and the end of the era of leverage, Sep 16] ... Spengler blames it all on "a sudden break in the chain of expectations between the present and the future, rather than the particular breakdown of a corporate culture". At present the man in the Lexus and today's hockey mom in the mini-van are thinking somebody must have walked away with billions to either the south of France, or to the state where the big guys on Wall Street have many relatives.
Armand De Laurell (Sep 16, '08)

Perhaps Spengler's long and probably insightful article(s) on the problems bedeviling the US financial sector can be most briefly (and pithily) summarized by this observation on the topic of "recurrent speculative orgies" which was made in 1961 by John Kenneth Galbraith: "Above all, it is evident that the capacity of the financial community for ignoring evidence of accumulating trouble, even of wishing devoutly that it might go unmentioned, is as great as ever." It appears that a new generation will be able to enjoy learning at first hand what their elders sorrowfully discovered (and forgot, as we eventually will, of course): there's no such thing as a free lunch, at least for the average Joe.
Keith Comess (Sep 16, '08)

I have some difficulty with Richard Thortun's letter on Iraq, Iran, and Afghanistan [Sep 15]. He stated: "Instead of mounting Iraqi military pressure on the Iranian border, the United States has acquiesced in Iran's support of anti-regime elements in Iraq." I'm not sure what he means, as the government/regime is Shia controlled, and has enjoyed good relations with Iran although they are not joined at the hip as the mainstream press always perceives. The US, with the help of the Saudis, has used the "surge" to gain favor with the Sunnis. This was a trick of the Ottoman, the British, and now the US to downgrade a fifth column of Shias. The "surge" may have worked in Anbar, but the war is far from over. In addition, he said, "it is Iran that sends guerrillas into Afghanistan against us". I'm not sure where he gets this from. I have difficulty seeing the remnants of the Northern Alliance and particularly the Taliban having anything to do with Iranian Shia; however the relative calm along the eastern border of Iran is due to the massive Iranian reconstruction aid that is often recognized by Karzai. Iran has nothing to gain from instability along its eastern border. It comes down to this, US interests in the Middle East have a pathological fear and will do anything to upset it, and that is the fear that Arabs and Iran will ally, based on their strategic and economic interests.
Miles Tompkins
Antigonish, NS
Canada (Sep 16, '08)

The letter by Professor Richard C Thornton, Professor of History and International Affairs, George Washington University [Sep 15] really confused me. Even though I re-read the letter several times looking for sarcasm or underlying witticisms, nothing of the sort came. The learned professor actually said "we are on the verge of victory in Iraq"! He also said that Iran was sending guerrillas to fight against us in Afghanistan. Also that we should apply direct military pressure (war?). Whew! I'm glad that my children didn't get their degrees from that university. Ken Moreau
New Orleans, Louisiana (Sep 16, '08)

Grave Illness or stroke of genius? [Sep 12] and 'Dear Leader, get well soon' [Sep 12] swirl in a wind of critical theory which has more to do with wishful thinking than actual facts. The tone is whimsical or ironic or sarcastic, but the message is clear that without Kim Jong-il, lyrics from that old Tin Pan Alley song [Some of these days] form on the intelligence community's and foreign offices' lips: "Some of these days, you're gonna miss ... some of these days you're gonna feel so lonely". Call it sentimentality or good old fashioned nostalgia, but Kim is a known, but hardly cozy teddy bear in dealing with North Korea and the denuclearization of a divided Korean Peninsula. The wrinkle in all the flurry about what has happened to him, and why he wasn't at the 60th birthday of North Korea pales before the more than general ignorance and neglect of the Kims' Korea. Let me cite two books of recent vintage: Bertil Lintner's Great leader, dear leader and Bradley Martin's North Korea & the Kim dynasty which both open windows on the role of the core cadre and the party under the two Kims' leadership. Everything is in place for a transition without too many waves were the Dear Leader to journey to the other side of the mountain. Change there is in North Korea, but change with the guidance of a steady hand. For those who bask in the fancies of a North Korea on the brink of collapse, read the spook who writes under the name of James Church; his maverick Inspector Oh takes us on a roller-coaster ride of suspense in A death in the Koryo and Hidden Moon. Any which way you try to come to grips with the Kim dynasty riddle, one thing you come away with in reading good scholarship and pulp fiction, is that seasoned cadre will ensure the stability of the North Korean state.
Mel Cooper Singapore (Sep 15, '08)

Allow me to say that ATol articles are unique in knowledge and depth, but let me nonetheless give your wonderful readers a little respite from serious readings and be fired by these spiritual lines I read from your letter writer Writhing Cinders. The words instantly took me to a higher place. Let your readers share it with me for a while.

The 1960s' for me is the best decade of the world. It was perhaps 1961 when I saw my soul. I dreamt her so true - months, even days ahead even in variegated hues of her apparel. She was the most unsophisticated beauty ever born: the most precious ornament of the world whom Solom had only wondered. She could make the world beautiful for seven billion people to live in peace, love, prosperity and happiness. Psychologically ruined by environments: penury parted me from my soul in perennial wilderness. One glimpse; my eyes yearn for forty seven years and await the moment when I dissolve eternally onto my immortal connection.

Soni Mahiwal Chenaby
Pakistan (Sep 15, '08)

... We are on the verge of victory in Iraq and we must take the remaining steps to ensure the successful emergence of a stable, prosperous ally in the Middle East. But the opposite is the case in Afghanistan. The circumstances in and around that country have all changed, making a continuation of a Western presence increasingly costly. There is an even more threatening prospect. Afghanistan could escalate into a Vietnam-like quagmire. A major escalation there could easily be matched by a corresponding escalation by Iran, the Russians through the 'stans', and even the Pakistanis themselves. Strategically, the only reason to deploy power to Afghanistan and Iraq was to apply pressure on Iran. Of course, it was necessary to stabilize positions in both places, but there was the rub. As the Iraqi commitment became greater the Afghani position became more tenuous. Today, not only does the Afghan government barely govern beyond the streets of Kabul, but also popular sentiment, to the extent that it can be charted, has turned against it. Moreover, the fall of Pervez Musharraf in Pakistan means that logistical access to the Afghan battlefield becomes more difficult and, worse, any new Pakistan government is likely to be much more reluctant to cooperate with the United States. US leverage on Iran's eastern border will be greatly diminished in coming weeks. Frankly, from Iran's perspective, the United States has failed to exert available leverage against it on either front. Instead of mounting Iraqi military pressure on the Iranian border, the United States has acquiesced in Iran's support of anti-regime elements in Iraq. Instead of mounting pressure from Afghanistan, we have directed our efforts toward an ultimately fruitless chase of militants in the mountains. It is Iran that sends guerrillas into Afghanistan against us. Any serious effort to bring about change in Iran would have incorporated these steps, possibly including the promotion of an anti-regime guerrilla struggle among Iran's many minorities. If we seriously desire a change in Iran's orientation, that change will not come about by verbal harangues, UN sanctions, or even veiled military threats. It will come only when we have convinced the Iranians that it is in their interest to change their position and that can only occur through the application of actual military pressure, combined with a diplomatic demarche which offers to remove real military threats on both borders in return for a change in regime policy. If we have neither the wit nor the will to activate the pincer against Iran, then we should cut our losses.
Richard C Thornton
Professor of History and International Affairs
George Washington University
Washington DC (Sep 15, '08)

[Re How Obama lost the election, Sep 2]
What I admire most about Republicans today is their ability to repeat untruths in such a confident way that the public believes them, and that they walk in lockstep in talking points without a dissenting point of view among them. I personally enjoy differing opinions, intelligent debate and opposing perspectives, because they often lead to the best solutions. Unfortunately they don’t often lead to the best strategy for winning an election. The Democrats' respect for individualism and their innate kindness are easily used against them time and again by Republican Rovian tactics. In a Rovian world, truth becomes fiction, lies become truth, honor becomes cowardlice and pigs look great in lipstick. Spengler said that he felt melancholy in the air when Obama spoke, while I felt sickened while watching the Republicans hiding Bush, so they would not be associated with the man they led us to believe four years ago would solve all of our problems. I asked myself why all of these people would look so happy while being easily led down the same path again and off of the same cliff. How is it that I would hear such warmth and genuineness in Obama’s speech, but Spengler felt it was unconvincing? How silly of me to think that Obama’s promise to spend money here at home on education, eliminating our dependence on foreign oil, and healthcare for our citizens was superior to us spending billions of dollars on a trumped up war in Iraq that was irrationally conceived, poorly planned and unwinable. I am dumbfounded at Spengler making fun of the soldiers who support Obama and actually served in Iraq and Afghanistan. I thought it was the Republicans who shout the loudest about supporting our troops. Those soldiers have lived among the people there and understand their need for nation-building. Spengler belittles these veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan who wish that Bush had sent professionals in agriculture, medicine, and engineering to help rebuild the country. How is it that Spengler is as shortsighted as the Bush administration in dismissing the Iraqi people's need for infrastructure and peace in order to rebuild their nation? We’ve witnessed the result of thinking we could destroy a country and walk away. Does he believe, like the Bush administration, that the Iraqis can pull themselves out of an 18th century, third world economy into a democratically run, 21st century economy in a couple of years? Really, who is the naive one here? The most disturbing part of his article is his thinly-veiled racism and fear-mongering. Michelle Obama is a stereotypical angry black woman who controls Obama. Of course it is Sarah Palin who we see holding the M-16 assault weapon. According to Spengler, It is Michelle Obama’s anger that has destroyed Obama’s chances to become president and if left unchecked would destroy our country. Again, I believe it was Sarah Palin who wanted to limit free speech by removing certain books from the library in Alaska and when the librarian refused, she fired her. I could really be losing my mind now, but I think if we weigh which would be more harmful to our country, destroying our constitutional right to free speech or an angry black woman (if this were true and I don’t believe it is), I think you know the answer. After slandering Michelle, he makes a pathetic attempt to psychoanalyze Obama’s childhood. Of course, two of our most popular presidents, Reagan and Clinton, were children of alcoholics. Where was the concern about happy childhoods when these men ran for president? Could it be they were white, so it isn’t as big a concern? Now for the real scary part; Obama’s father was from Kenya. Now we get to the hilarious last few paragraphs. McCain is a maverick for picking Palin. I don’t even think Carl Rove could spin this one into existence. Palin was a sell-out to the far right religious extremists’ wing of the party. Maverick and sell-out are now synonymous in the Carl Rove dictionary and Spengler has drunk the kool-aid. As George Bush attempted but failed to say, Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.
Connie White Betz , PhD
California (Sep 15, '08)

Some of your writers - particularly comment and op-ed writers, are nuts. I love your publication, but cannot fathom how you allow some of these conspiracy-theorists and partisan hacks to spew their ilk. The comment I just read by Mohammed Cohen [Seven years on, three big 9/11 lies [Sep 10] is glaring in that it excludes seven years of debate on the subject while trying to be authoritative. He literally misses every point and counter-point that has been offered by every side and instead creates his own tale, ignoring the politics, bureaucracy, intelligence difficulties/operations, priorities, etc that helped create 9/11. Did he even read the 9/11 commission's report? I'm so glad he is not a US diplomat anymore.
Ian McDougal (Sep 12, '08)

If Russia is "drawing deeply into [it's] collective historical memory as a power in the Caucasus and the Black Sea", so is Turkey, as M K Bhadrakumar skillfully reminds us in Russia and Turkey tango in the Black Sea [Sep 11]. As a member of NATO and a long suffering suitor knocking for admittance to the European Union, Ankara is looking eastwards in a geography in which its influence still obtains. Ambassador Bhadrakumar has already in the past weeks alerted ATol readers of Turkey's move as a wild card in a zone where China and Russia hold sway in Central Asia, among the former Turkic republics of the former Soviet Union in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. Now, he is showing the realism of the Erdogan government in assessing the resurgence of Moscow in the Black Sea and in the Caucasus, in a way which would benefit Turkey and its traditional role there. Mr Bhadrakumar resumes it all in two words, "entente cordiale", which brings to mind the agreement whereby tsarist Russia, imperial Britain, and Third Republic France sought to isolate post-Bismarckian Germany. This time, Ankara has realistically seen its historical vocation in the region, and has joined Moscow in isolating Turkey's ally the United States. If anyone needs proof of Turkey's serious intentions, he has but to look at the historic burying of the hatchet with Armenia. After a century of bitter feeling over the massacre of millions of Armenians living for centuries in Turkey, Turkish President Abdullah Gul visited Yerevan. Turkey is striking the diplomatic iron while it is hot. It has everything to gain by fence mending in its own backyard at this critical aligning of events on land and sea, and little to lose.
Nakamura Junzo
Guam (Sep 12, '08)

[Re What Sondhi really wants for Thailand, Sep 9] In ATol's interview with Mr Sondhi [Limthongkul] he claimed to be the savior of the Thai monarchy and the Thai people, and that he knows everything the Thai people want. I doubt very much what he said, and believe he just has a personal score to settle with [former prime minister] Thaksin Shinawatra. Besides, he does not have the political machinery to change the political landscape of Thailand. Sondhi is just talking, promoting his satellite TV business through the rally and PAD [People's Alliance for Democracy] protests to destroy the Thai way of life. Look at the consequences: tourists are not coming, foreign businesses are not coming, and the protests are making a mockery of the Thai government and Thai people by hijacking the seat of the government. Whatever he stands for will not result in benefits for the Thai people. Sondhi should stop blaming Thaksin, [former prime minister] Samak Sundaravej, or the next PM for his problems - both personal and financial. Khun Gary (Sep 12, '08)

The article Civilians caught in Sri Lanka's 'clean war'[Sep 10] does not fully highlight the true intentions of the Sinhala majority and their government; the subjugation of the minority Tamils. Tamils have been unfairly treated by the Sinhalese majority for over 50 years. The Tamils have not only lost a lot of youth but also their land through government colonization (of Sinhalese in Tamil areas). In the late 1970s, the Tamil youth, unable to bear these discriminatory policies (by the Sinhala dominated governments), took up arms and the liberation struggle became a violent ethnic civil war. The Tamil liberation movement established parity with the Sinhala forces in the late 1990s, and began to administer areas under their control. This led to the 2002 ceasefire agreement between the Tamil Tigers and the Sinhala government. In the name of fighting post 9/11 global terrorism, US policy in Sri Lanka unfairly supported the majority Sinhalese against the Tamils. However, US policy took a beating when the Sinhalese government [snubbed US policy] and became a proxy to Iran and China. India - craving attention - began to provide financial and military aid to the Sinhalese. In turn Indian businesses began to gobble up lucrative business deals, in the guise of business development zones, mostly in Tamil areas but without the consent of the Tamils. It is no secret that the Sinhalese forces administer Tamil areas under their control as Nazi concentration camps. Tamils have to get special military-issued identity cards to live in lands they own in Tamil areas. Even worse, paramilitary forces allied with the Sinhala government have now been accused of rape, abduction, kidnappings and disappearances. Indian leaders and the international community have yet to understand the dynamics of the Tamil liberation struggle - the Tamils will struggle till the Tamils feel secure and have the freedom to live in peace in their land ... When will the international community wake up and realize that the Tamils are being unfairly victimized?
Siva Sivalogan
Dedham, Mass (Sep 12, '08)

The Chicago School's long descent
Economist Milton Friedman famously said, "There is no such thing as a free lunch." But free lunches are what today's American economy is all about. Therefore, it is against the true long-term interests of business to support a Friedman Center that degrades economic thought into ideological rhetoric, not real analysis. - Michael Hudson (Click to read the full letter)

Mullah Abdul Jalil is modest. And reasonable from his perspective. Any student of guerrilla warfare knows that terror strikes fear and obedience in the hearts of the people, to gain their obedience and keep them in line. So, it is a bit thick to hear the good mullah speak of running a war according to a Taliban's code of good conduct. He slights the importance of the Afghan people's anger and frustration in Kandahar against NATO troops. If anything, the Kandahari clans use the people's anger to marshal support for their cause in spite of the fact that these very same people suffered under the primitive rule of the Taliban before they were overthrown. The rising civilian death toll caused by the way NATO is prosecuting the war against the fundamentalists is a powerful reason why now the Kandahari prefer the devil they know. Nonetheless, the fight is circumscribed to a patch of Afghanistan close to Pakistan which offers sanctuary to the Taliban, it has to be pointed out. What's more, the Taliban are not in a position to overthrown the government in Kabul nor chase the undermanned NATO forces. Syed Saleem Shahzad's Secrets of the Taliban's success [Sep 11] offers us a glimpse into the thinking of a "good" Taliban but events on the ground in Kandahar prove otherwise.
Nakamura Junzo
Guam (Sep 11, '08)

The temperature data for August 2008 has been released by NASA and it shows that mean monthly surface temperature on Earth in August was 14.38 Centigrade compared with 14.77 C in August of 2007 - a cooling of 0.39 degrees. To make sure that the August temperature was not a freak occurrence we may compare one year moving averages. This average for September 2007 to August 2008 was 14.53 C and the same average one year earlier was 14.73 C - a cooling of 0.23 Centigrade degrees. Had these same differences been in the other direction there would have been alarming press releases from the IPCC [Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change] that the global warming is at the tipping point and spinning out of control all because we are emitting carbon dioxide by using fossil fuels. But, sadly for the global warmists, no matter how you look at the temperature data, they do not present any evidence of global warming. In fact, they show a clear cooling trend in spite of the fact that greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels are at their highest levels in history.
Cha-am Jamal
Thailand (Sep 11, '08)

In US warned over raids in Pakistan [Sep 10], Gareth Porter makes the case for not taking any action in Pakistan as it may destabilize the government. However if that is true why is the US spending billions in Afghanistan trying to stop the resurgence of the Taliban and al-Qaeda, when just a few miles away in Pakistan they have rebuilt their power base with either the assistance of the Pakistani ISI or its willful blindness to the growing Islamist movements. In this past Sunday's New York Times magazine there was an excellent article by Dexter Filkins, Right at the Edge, about Pakistan's relationship with the Taliban. In the article a former Pakistani official tells Filkins that Pakistan is playing a double game with the US in order to get billions of dollars in US aid. I can see why Pakistan is playing this game but I fail to understand why the US is. Pakistan has been extremely anti-American for more than 40 years, and those who remember the year 1979 will recall the burning of the US embassy in Pakistan. Pakistan blames all its failures in their wars with India on the United States. Even now the leadership in Pakistan view all their actions through the prism of its relationship with India. One day Pakistan will fall to the Taliban and on that day the leadership of Pakistan, both military and civilian, will be thinking about India. There is also the possibility that the Pakistani leaders have looked at the growing modern global economy and realized the only product they have to sell is terror and they want to be both a buyer and a seller in the growing globalization of terror.
Dennis O'Connell
USA (Sep 10, '08)

[Re Seeing doubles in Dear Leader's no-show, Sep 10] Here we go again! It's tea reading time for North Korea hands. Dear Leader Kim Jong-il was noted for his absence on the 60th anniversary of the founding of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK, more commonly known as North Korea). The rumor mills are spinning at a vertiginous speed; he's already dead, say some; no, he's physically incapacitated, say others; you're wrong, he's losing his grip on power as it shifts to his brother-in-law Chang Sung-taek and eldest son Kim Jong-nam, says a third voice. The Associated Press quotes the ubiquitous unnamed sources in Washington who, sifting through sensitive intelligence material, too sensitive to withstand the light of public disclosure, tilt one way or the other as to Kim Jong-il's whereabout or his health. It is worth noting that we have heard this buzz and media hype before, and what's even more important to underscore, Western intelligence has a sorry record in knowing what's really going on in the DPRK. The rumor mongers are not forearmed with humility to simply say that they simply have not the foggiest as to why Kim skipped the 60th anniversary of his country's birth. Takahashi Kosuke has the presence of mind to recall to Western attention the importance of the number 60 in Confucian influenced cultures: it's the beginning of a new life cycle! And as such, so is Kim's non-appearance in public.
Melville Cooper (Sep 10, '08)

Before reading Dhruba Adhikary's For Prachanda, a tale of two cities [Sep 5], I, like many Nepalis, was blaming the Nepali goverment for not maintaining the Koshi Dam, which when it collapsed [on August 19] caused disastrous floods in Nepal and India. But as mentioned, the 1954 Koshi Agreement makes India responsible for the operation, protection and maintinence of it, as it enjoys the benefits and Nepal ends up buying electricity from India. Also, an influx of 25,000 Indians to Nepal after the collapse was never mentioned by the Indian authorities who were prompt in blaming Nepal for the damage. The number may increase soon and as learnt in the past, these people will never go back to India and will eventually dissolve in the mobs of Madhesh, Nepal. About the prime minister's visit to China, there is no hard-and-fast rule that the first visit should be to India. He did the right thing by making his first visit to China, I respect that move from the prime minister and in no way should he be justifying it to the Indian government. Thanks to Mr Adhikary for his insight on the situation for all those living away from Nepal.
Dr Anamika
Perth, Australia (Sep 10, '08)

Regarding Kent Ewing's article China's Paralympic possibilities [Sep 8], I spend a reasonable amount of time in China with my wife, Xiaosui, and I fully concur with Ewing. However, the 'West' cannot rest on its laurels. There is still a way to go. As a person with a disability I know too well that there is still a level of prejudice in the 'West'. It is understandable in any society. A well person cannot relate to an unwell person. That is fundamental to human nature. Any advances made go against a profound and elemental lack of empathy. I applaud the advances made in any society and understand that any further progress will come through quiet persistence. The Paralympics are a chance to show the world that while the body may have a disability the mind is still strong and with the right attitude great things can be achieved.
Graeme Mills
Australia (Sep 9, '08)

M K Bhadrakumar makes a reasonable argument in Hindu gods spike Chinese dragon, that India missed an opportunity to speak straightforwardly with China in Vienna about New Delhi's nuclear aspirations. He thinks that regional talks would go a long way in quieting Beijing's fears. That however was not the way it turned out when the issue of the "waiver" came up. India got the waiver from the Nuclear Suppliers' Group (NSG) no thanks to the Chinese, yet rather than enjoy its diplomatic coup it chose to heat up the rhetoric against what it sees as duplicitous manoeuvring by its neighbor. But the waiver allows India to have its cake and eat it too, without signing either the Non-Proliferation Treaty nor the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. It may be a bit too early to see if India's stroke of good luck is a sign of ''divine intervention''. The geopolitical pawns on the chessboard in South and Central Asia are such that although India might think that it has scored a victory over China, events in the region may still show that India aligning its commercial nuclear policy with Washington's may lead to it having to resort to castling its king, as Beijing closes ranks with Islamabad and marshals its fellow members in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization to isolate New Delhi. So the gods may smile on India for now, but what the gods give, they can easily take away.
Nakamura Junzo
Guam (Sep 9,'08)

The views expressed by Dhruba Adhikary in For Prachanda, a tale of two cities [Sep 5] are analytical and informative. In my opinion, the progress made by the recent visit of the newly elected Nepali PM to China was lost through his apologetic remarks to India for not visiting there first. This duality by the PM is not supportive or beneficial to the nation's larger causes and only creates unnecessary doubts among friendly nations. It would be far better and more mature if the PM had not used such weak-minded and surrendering words; instead, he should have collected his courage for facing India during his forthcoming visit.
Pant,Dibakar
St Paul, Minnesota, USA (Sep 9,'08)

[Re What Sondhi really wants for Thailand, Sep 8] As usual, a smart, smart, insight piece.
M. Murtaugh
Phuket, Thailand (Sep 9,'08)

Dear Shawn, I enjoy reading your articles, and when I saw that you had interviewed Sondhi Limthongkul in What Sondhi really wants for Thailand [Sep 8], I was looking forward to getting an insight into what is going on with the PAD [People's Alliance for Democracy]. Alas the "interview" did not go any deeper than giving Sondhi free rein to express generalized platitudes, and lacked any follow up questioning to specific topics that could have enlightened readers as to what "new politics" might mean. For example, you asked him "Should the military have a role in appointing the people who are appointed to a "new politics" parliament?" His answer was "no". Then a change of topic. But the fundamental question of who does he envisage will have the power to appoint the majority of members of parliament was not asked. Is he envisaging that an elitist group controlled by the PAD is to be the arbiter of who should wield this power of appointment? As for questions regarding the financing of the PAD and the coordinating of its protests, the answers given were ... an insult to the intelligence of readers. But the answers were left with no follow-through. Why? This group is obviously well financed and well organized to the point that it is far more sophisticated than most Thai businesses. As for the statement "Everything is being financed by ASTV - it is footing most of the bills," one does not need a lot of experience in business to appreciate that this is nonsense. The PAD campaign would be costing bucket loads of cash each day, and would require sophisticated cash flow management to be sustained this far. Was your interview subject to restrictions? Can we look forward to a more enlightening insight into the PAD? I have no desire to express any opinion as to what is right or wrong for Thailand, but I for one am keen to understand what is going on. The interview does offend the intelligence of readers and, with respect, is not up to your usual standard of journalism. I appreciate that Thai culture avoids confrontation, and that interviewing a Thai politician will require a different approach than interviewing a Western politician, but even allowing for cultural differences, the interview was simply a vehicle for giving the interviewee an uncritical free platform to promote his message.
Lachlan Watts (Sep 9,'08)

[Re All square, Sep 6] Lipstick Pitbull? Power-pop Palin? Let the colorful sobriquets fly! Not only is this presidential election historic and polarizing, it also is proving to be rather entertaining. In the next two months, Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin will need to be every bit a lean, mean, campaign machine to have a decent shot at entering the White House, that is, provided she doesn't overly galvanize the Democratic base with her noisy bark and can convince the independents and Hillary Democrats that there is a lot more substance behind her scanty resume. On the other hand, if more gloomy data emerge as the economy heads for the dumps, it ultimately may not matter all that much how good a song and dance Pitbull Palin can pitch.
John Chen
USA (Sep 8,'08)

Pepe Escobar's recent dispatch from St. Paul All square, [Sep 6] describes an America beyond belief. Just when we think America must have reached the bottom of the abyss, it just sinks deeper. The Bush years have been a fantastic display of incompetence, corruption, immorality, lies, and ignorance. Surely now is the time to excise those festering, gangrenous Republicans. But Mr Escobar tells us that two bumbling Republican nincompoops, [John] McCain and [Sarah] Palin, have a chance of winning the presidential elections this year. It takes one's breath away! Are there no American voters with any brains left in that country? A friend once said to me, "America has more than its share of bright lights and dim bulbs." But, from what I've seen over the last several years, America is now in pitch darkness. Is there no safety release that the rest of us can pull to jettison America into outer space? We don't need al-Qaeda to terrorize them, we just need to get rid of the US; send it off to a different planet, so we can finally get some peace on Earth.
Jonathan
UK (Sep 8,'08)

Chan Akya seems to forget that US presidential elections have prescribed characteristics and limits. They are after all a popularity contest where candidates have yet to win the confidence of voters, and where the voters are momentarily seized by a communal sense of independence to choose a man for the highest office of the land. The electorate is so swayed by partisan and parochial interests as to be unreliable, and furthermore their enthusiasm for political causes of import such as Chan suggests in Triangulating an Asian conflict, Sep 6, makes them lose sight of objectives. Conflated rhetoric and high mindedness play a large role. And so non-Americans watch bewildered at the mayhem, high jinx and college fraternity rituals of pure Americana where everything is enveloped in the red, white, and blue, and frequent praise is given to the Almighty and mom and the proverbial apple pie; in brief, they are celebrating themselves. At such times, everything is reduced to very local issues which hit the pocket book or guarantee the right to bear arms or have a baby or simply strum the chords of patriotism. It is the closest thing to a carnival, yet the stakes are high. Thus foreign issues, unless they are imminently threatening the nation, take a back seat, even the disastrous war in Iraq of which the US public now strongly disapproves. This phenomenon is therefore hardly surprising the more especially since the trend in the US media tilts towards glamour and celebrity and the frivolous owing to the growing blot of red ink at the bottom of balance sheets. In consequence, coverage of foreign affairs has greatly decreased in the last quarter-century. And this trend is not going to be reversed. The American public is largely unschooled in the things of the wider world, yet on the other hand, believes that America is a universal model for others to follow. We may shake our heads at this display of naivete, but it is what it is. And it is very doubtful that the media in all its forms will discuss serious matters in the way Chan sincerely hopes. That doesn't sell advertising nor make the balance sheet turn a deep, dark India black.
Nakamura Junzo
Guam (Sep 8,'08)

Bravo, Dmitry Shlapentokh for your excellent article The failure of two empires! I only want to add that while neither Procopius nor Tacitus are particularly in fashion, they are never out of fashion, either. They always have their readers, and a subterranean but constant influence. The same will undoubtedly be true of Solzhenitsyn and Gulag Archipelago.
Lester Ness
Kunming, China (Sep 5, '08)

[Re False notes for the Grand Old Party, Sep 3] Obama's much clamored change has come: it is [Sarah] Palin. She looks down-to-earth, effective, efficient, determined and a visionary leader. She is a devoted mother and loving wife. McCain's right choice would brighten Republican chances if they [weren't following in] the dastardly footprints of Bush ... McCain's respect for the softer gender ... proves age, experience and vision.
Joseph P Moses
New York (Sep 5, '08)

Thanks for your excellent news coverage of the East. Really great stuff, and very hard to find Stateside. One finds increasingly that the US corporate media is little more than a shill and mouthpiece for the powers of the day here. Thank goodness for open Internet; we'll see how long it lasts. Thanks and keep up the good show!
Todd (Sep 5, '08)

Just wanted to write a quick note to say hello, and thanks. Thailand teeters on the brink [Sep 3] is one of the better articles I've read on the current situation in Thailand in a long time. I live here/there and I find it quite difficult to keep on the news. The section on "hardline ties" I found particularly interesting as this was definitely news to me. A lot of the major news sources are just cutting and pasting their previous articles on Thailand and not putting in enough new information. I've been directed to the Asia Times Online website a few times and have found the articles to be informative and interesting.
Craig (Sep 4, '08)

[Re Developing China with sovereign credit , Sep 4] Thank you, Dr [Henry C ] K Liu. Well said. This prescription applies, however, not only to China but all other predominantly exporting economies. Canada being a case in point. Canada exports over 50% of it's oil and gas to the US and gets paid in fiat dollars. It makes no sense to me that Canada, a net exporting oil nation should receive US dollars for its oil and gas. In other words Canada is subsidizing the US at it's own expense. Surprise, surprise. It is about time for Canada to get paid in Canadian dollars and it is about time for all other commodity-exporting nations to be paid for their resources in their own currencies or the currency of their choice - euros, rubles, dinar, renminbi, yen ...
Vivien Martin
Toronto, Canada (Sep 4, '08)

[Re A sting in Pakistan's al-Qaeda mission, Sep 4] The stealth raid of US forces from Pakistan into South Waziristan and the shots fired at Pakistan's Prime Minister Yousuf Gilani on the highway to Islamabad give much cotton of worry to thread. Despite the truce of Ramadan, fighting in Pakistan has not quietened down. In fact, it has, it seems, encouraged the Islamic militants. They see it as a sign of weakness, if not dithering, as to which course of action to follow. More sticks? More carrots? Washington's incursion has left civil dead in its wake, but it brought it booty in prisoners, whose worth in information remains unknown. As Pakistan rushes from one crisis to the other, its military remains deeply divided, and many ranking officers have a foot in each camp, thereby hedging bets. America's role is seen as an effort which is a little too late in trying to capture Osama bin Laden and his confederation; rumor has it that it had another purpose: a boost and a surge to John McCain's run for the presidency.
Nakamura Junzo
Guam (Sep 4, '08)

[Re False notes for the Grand Old Party , Sep 3] Revelations are made about the pregnancy of the teenage daughter of Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin. Her supporters are all up in arms about media "meddling" and demand, quite rightly, that this be treated as a private family matter. One wonders if this treatment is the same as they propose for all other families not of their political color. In fact, are they not the ones who wish to impose by full force of law, their fanatical versions of "family values" on all others? A few years ago, then-Florida governor Jeb Bush (younger brother to the one still in the White House), asked for "compassion and understanding" for his elder daughter Nicole, who was in court for repeat drug offenses. She was sent to "therapy and counseling". Did he and his ilk have the same compassion and understanding for other people's daughters and sons, whose name is not Bush, and who fill our prisons for the same drug offenses instead of being sent to "counseling"? One wonders if supporters of candidate Palin, advertised waving a gun and mouthing the magic words "conservative" and "family values" missed the key word "hypocrisy". Or do we simply accept the usual dictum from such people: "the rules is for you guys, not for me".
Kali Kadzaraki
Texas, USA (Sep 3, '08)

[Re How Obama lost the election, Sept 3] Do you suppose Spengler will have enough confidence in his pontification to offer to eat his words when Obama wins? I will gladly furnish the catsup, mustard, pepper or any other condiments he desires.
Ron Mepwith (Sep 3, '08)

[Re False notes for the Grand Old Party , Sep 3] I believe the [presidential campaign] for John McCain has ended before it started by selecting Sarah Palin as his running mate for the vice presidency. The choice was unconvincing, unimaginative, controversial and based on wining votes of ... women, far-right [voters], fundamentalist Christians ... and supporters of Hillary Clinton. How could McCain have picked a woman said to be of strong Christian faith who under her nose and roof allowed her unmarried daughter to ... get pregnant? Has she never heard of "chastity belt"? McCain should stop preaching family values and morality to others. He has shown that he is probably the most selfish man in the US by choosing Sarah Palin as his running mate for the second most powerful post in the US. ... I am of the opinion that the best thing that John McCain could now do is to surrender to Barack Obama and retire from politics.
Saqib Khan
UK (Sep 3, '08)

[Re Russia remains a Black Sea power, Aug 30] As usual, the type of perceptive, dispassionate analysis of the reality behind the spin that we are accustomed to seeing from Ambassador Bhadrakumar's pen. What is being recorded here is one stage in the process of returning to a multipolar world in which the writ of one particular country's leadership no longer constitutes a fiat to be obeyed by all. Let us hope, despite the evidence of this last decade, that wisdom and prudence will prevail, even in Washington, allowing it to take place with as little bloodshed as possible ...
M Henri Day, PhD, MD
Stockholm (Sep 2, '08)

In Russia remains a Black Sea power [Aug 30], M K Bhadrakumar writes, "Washington's fury stems from the realization that its game plan to eventually eliminate Russia's historical role as a 'Black Sea power' has been rendered a pipe dream." I'm sorry, but this is way too rational a rationale for the Bush administration. Look to Revelations and Daniel in the Bible if you want to understand US Middle East policy, perhaps to the Book of Enoch as well. Hal Lindsay's oeuvre, too, would enlighten you in unexpected ways.
Lester Ness
Kunming, China (Sep 2, '08)

[Re Russia remains a Black Sea power, Aug 30] M K Bhadrakumar's eye hasn't a need to plumb one's soul to see the lay of the land. It looks at reality in the face and at the facts straightaway. He makes a good case for Russia's rapid response to Georgia's attack on South Ossetia. Not only does he coolly document how Russian President Medvedev has marshaled his allies in supporting him, even though the support is lukewarm. In that, he has scored a point, and returned the ball into US President Bush's court. To say that Georgian President Saakashivili didn't think through the consequences of his little war is stating the obvious. It brought Moscow back with a vengeance into the southern Caucuses and the Black Sea, where before Russia fumed in frustration but didn't act on its grievances. Bhadrakumar cites chapter and verse in his brief which is damning for Bush and his allies. It astounds the mind that in Foggy Bottom or Whitehall or the Quai d'Orsay, no one saw what was coming when Georgia tripped Russia's wire. Former Russian president Putin had warned Bush and NATO leaders in Bucharest were they to go ahead with a forward policy which would ultimately encircle Russia. As a result, Georgia is under siege, Russia controls the Black Sea, and Bush and Saakashavili have egg on their face. What's more they can do very little to restore an antebellum climate. In sum, Russian scored, and won the match. Nakamura Junzo
Guam (Sep 2, '08)

This is the kind of in-depth synoptic analysis that I look forward to from ATol. On reading Delasantellis' Rebranding 9/11 [Aug 30], the "war on terror" begins to look more and more like the product of American geopolitical opportunism rather than a credible Islamist threat. ... The "war on terror" will eventually be seen for what it truly is: an all-too-convenient American construct used to simultaneously justify resource imperialism (ie, to plunder foreign oil) and domestic money-driven political support for Zionism. ...
Jose R Pardinas, PhD
San Diego (Sep 2, '08)

After the starvation diet of US media on world affairs I would simply like to express my utter joy at the discovery of Asia Times. Thank you all.
Elspeth Ham (Sep 2, '08)

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