Asia Times Online

Letters

Please provide your name or a pen name, and your country of residence. Lengthy letters run the risk of being cut.

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

MARCH 2009

In response to the letter by Seung Li [Mar 30]. Unfortunately, Li has conveniently glossed over the whole point of the Tibetan struggle, while spouting the kind of Chinese Communist Party (CCP) propaganda that only comes from people who are happy to live in a brainwashed state of denial because the truth is too ugly to face. It is true that Europeans (and their cousins in other parts of the world) don't have a leg to stand on as far as preaching morality to others is concerned; however, just because they unleashed unimaginable mass murder on their colonies in the past does not mean that its OK for China to do so today! If everything in Tibet is as great as Li (and the CCP) claim, how come thousands of Tibetans keep risking death each year in crossing the Himalayas into Nepal and India? Why don't we hear the "truth" (as proclaimed by Li and the CCP) in the media - because the CCP only grants access to those media organizations that have completely prostituted themselves to the CCP. The truly shameful aspect of the Tibetan struggle is that Chinese repression occurs with complete and hypocritical Western approval. Asia Times Online itself has highlighted examples in the past of how Western corporations (including big names like Google, Yahoo, Cisco, Rupert Murdoch's infotainment megacorporation, etc) routinely bend over backwards for special favors from the CCP and completely cooperate with it in its repression in return.
Amit Sharma
Cincinnati, OH, USA (Mar 31,'09)

[Re US cries Chinese wolf, Mar 30] David Isenberg makes a good case as far as it goes. China is trading time for space in order to eventually challenge America's military supremacy. The Pentagon's 2009 unclassified version of its annual report "Military Power of the People's Republic of China" points in that direction. You have to examine the character of Beijing's funding of a modernized military on its own terms; relatively speaking, the investment is impressive and the build-up is tilting the balance in East Asia. China has up to now been willing to sacrifice domestic goals to develop and upgrade the capacity of its ground, air, and naval forces. It is unclear in the wake of a severe economic downturn whether China will continue to give up such objectives. Hence the imperative facing China as to what it is still willing to sacrifice for military supremacy. After all, as studies have shown, China's putative enemy is the US. Yet, China's progress is impressive. Now that it is seeking markets for its exports and hunger for raw materials in Africa, Australia, Asia, and Latin America, an expanded navy takes on a sharper profile. Already, its ships patrol the waters off Somalia where pirates roam, in order to defend open sea lanes. It is equally unclear from Isenberg's article as to the state of sophistication of China's political thinking in military strategy. So tactically you can say Washington is crying wolf, but without a good analysis of Beijing's military strategic thinking, his conclusions remain open to question.
Nakamura Junzo
Guam (Mar 31,'09)

In regards to Spengler's latest broadside, The Gods are Stupid, [Mar 30] Often wondered how Spengler could get so many things wrong as a lame fairy tale teller with no fairy godmother to set him straight. His intellectual rock of faith is a compound derivative religion called Christianity. If Spengler were a competent historian, he might celebrate Pope Silvester II who noted for the Tao of life, "philosophy was the only cure". He meant Pagan literature (here I am reminded of Robert Graves and Robert Burns), natural science and Hermetism. Were Spengler to take a foundation course in linguistics he would know the word "devil" and "divinity" grew from the same root, Indo-European devi (goddess) or deva (god). The heads and tails of the same coin of faith. Perhaps Spengler is ready to graduate to LDS, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and as a god one day can rule his own planet.
Doug Baker Oakland, CA
USA (Mar 31,'09)

[Re South Korea on alert , Mar 29] North Korea's launch of a telecommunications satellite is fast approaching. Already South Korea is ramping up its military readiness, and Japan is not far behind. Seoul's destroyer Sejong, outfitted with a US-designed Aegis counter-missile guidance system, is patrolling South Korea's southern-most coast. Press releases coming out of Seoul in the last week have used the same kind of threats against Pyongyang's use of its "dreaded" Taepodong-2 long-range missile to put a satellite in orbit that you ordinarily expect to find in the North Korean newspaper Rodong Sinmun. If the situation was not so serious, you could say it had a touch of a Gilbert and Sullivan operetta to it. If the shoe was on Seoul's foot, North Korea's complaints against such rocketry would appear ludicrous. So where is the problem? However, it is the much-demonized North Korea that is doing it. Thus, danger lurks everywhere, and principally in the hearts and minds of the North Korean leadership, common wisdom indicates. Pyongyang is not testing a weapon, after all. So the drum beating in the press and the patrolling of territorial waters in South Korea and Japan are misleadingly whipping up patriotic feelings. Seoul and Tokyo may put generals and admirals on the war front, but they dare not begin a war with North Korea which they are little prepared for aside from in hasty words and short tempers.
Mel Cooper
Singapore (Mar 30,'09)

[Re Sino-EU ties hijacked by Tibet issue, Mar 26] It is most ironic that while the Europeans were the world's most barbaric colonizers, they cannot resist paying lip service to the Tibet question. Economic development is going on, not plundering. Living standards for Tibetans are rising. The Tibetan language is being taught in schools and religious worship is free. Why don't we hear from individual foreign visitors to Lhasa about how oppressed the Tibetans are instead of the usual bombarding, biased media? A little money and material help keep up the rebellious activity on and off in different parts of western China. But the big picture remains. China should be content that those, who cannot act, talk.
Seung Li (Mar 30,'09)

Dear Editor, I am continuously amazed at the lack of historical knowledge of the area involving the Pakistan/Afghanistan borders, and the suggestion that Pakistan take a greater role in policing the area. Chrysantha Wijeyasingha, as is clear from his letter [Mar 20], doesn't understand that the problem is that the Pashtuns don't even recognize a border, for them it doesn't exist. In addition, if one examines the issue through a geopolitical eye you will find that the Taliban in Afghanistan are a very important arm of Pakistani influence in the region. The US entrenched that when we cuddled up to former president Zia ul-Haq, made freedom fighters out of Islamic extremists, and then walked away after the Soviets left, content to deal with the Taliban for our own special interests. Pakistan has lost more soldiers then any nation in the world in Afghanistan. I think they are sick of it.
Miles Tompkins
Canada (Mar 30,'09)

United States President Barack Obama is eager to focus on the numerous and grave problems facing this country. All well and good. He does not want to dissipate his or the country's energies ruminating on the past, though it is precisely that past which has created the present he so desperately wants resolved. But other nations have faced far graver problems and yet were forced to acknowledge their crimes, precisely because the refrain "never again" was etched into people's souls. Though comparisons with Hitler's Germany are often taken to biased extremes, it is fair to say that the German people in 1945 had much bigger fish to fry than worrying about the fates of the criminals that brought them to their knees. Yet they were forced to submit to the Nuremberg Trials and their many successor events, and,as painful as those were, can anyone deny that justice would have been ill served if they had not occurred? That is precisely why the US, which has long prided itself on its status as the beacon of justice and legality, absolutely must proceed with criminal investigations and prosecutions of the former president George W Bush and former vice president Dick Cheney gang. To simply allow the miscreants to retire and enjoy their ill-gotten gains while they try to revise history, so that this time the Nazis are the persecuted good guys, would be more than an abomination in the eyes of the Lord. It would make a mockery of everything this country has ever pretended to stand for, and simply grease the skids for the complete and utter destruction to come. Obama's plans are ambitious; the massive overhaul of health care, the resurrection of a moribund economy, and the continuation of two disastrous and abortive imperialist misadventures. He may fail in all these things; time will unfailingly tell. But failing to vigorously seek justice for a country that has been spiritually raped by a marauding band of neo-conservative barbarians would be the one failure history will never forgive him for.
Hardy Campbell
Houston TX (Mar 30,'09)

M Wilson in a letter [Mar 24] writes, "Americans, Europeans, Indians, Australians, Canadians, all strive for and celebrate the idea of their vibrant multicultural societies (many on ground only recently taken from indigenous peoples either slaughtered, relocated, or both.) Yet for China, the West demands separatism and racial cleansing of Han Chinese from the province of Tibet!" I suggest that one should not place all these societies in one category. The US today does not strive for or celebrate "vibrant multiculturalism" but explicitly and progressively strives for and celebrates assimilation at any notable stage. Indeed, for an economically advanced society, with a highly developed tertiary sector, "vibrant multiculturalism" is an oxymoron. ... Jeff Church
USA (Mar 30,'09)

[Re Sino-EU ties hijacked by Tibet issue, Mar 27] The Spanish conquest of Peru is what comes to my mind when I read Jian Junbo's essay. One can readily recognize the practices of racism, colonialism, and forced assimilation of outside culture following the conquest of Tibet. It seems to me that Jian Junbo's essay and assorted governmental propaganda concerning Tibet are patently contradictory for a nation that stands for anti-colonialism.
Ken Dinger
USA (Mar 30,'09)

Donald Emmerson's article Indonesia's Obama, Washington's Indonesia [Mar 25] was surprisingly superficial, given his commentarial stature. When he writes, "[a]gain and again in this city [Jakarta]", he implies he has been spending time of late in said city, yet beyond the choice of background color for the incumbent president's campaign advertisements, Emmerson says little. How could he miss the television spots from a rival party (Gerindra) shamelessly featuring Obama to evoke national pride, not to mention the banners congratulating the then-president elect in Kuningan, the economic heart of Indonesia, seeking to associate another party with Obama's image? Less telling but still discouraging is his claim that "Singapore is only slightly more than an hour by air from Jakarta". I have made this flight many times; it is invariably described by the pilot as closer to two hours [1:35]. The discrepancy is certainly pedantic, and the error may just reflect lazy writing. But when an academic offers an argument weakened by the absence of data abundantly evident even to the layman who just happens to be on the ground, one has to wonder just how much his seemingly authoritative statements correspond to reality.
Miles H Chewley (Mar 30,'09)

[Re Sino-EU ties hijacked by Tibet issue, Mar 26] Tibet is the thorn in the Chinese dragon's paw. Beijing's less than benign rule in the Tibet Autonomous Region, and its forceful policies of subordinating Tibetan culture, institutions and traditions to grossly brutal Sinification has raised red flags of resistance among the Tibetan people within and outside China. Graphic accounts in the media of China's heavy handedness in governing Tibet has moved foreign governments, regional bodies and international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to express solidarity with Tibet. Beijing considers this interference in its internal affairs. Now the European Union parliament has joined the battle. Its resolution has not settled well in China, as Jian Junbo's comments attest. He has not gone so far as to condemn the EU as "splitist", a favorite Chinese word to characterize any thing or idea or movement which Beijing perceives as a threat to its territorial integrity. Sixty years of Chinese rule in Tibet has not won the "hearts and minds" of the Tibetan people, and China's aggressive campaign against the Dalai Lama has not won it any friends. China can be charming one minute when things are going its way but impossible the next when it does not. And Tibet is the litmus test of when it does not. By caving into Chinese pressure, South Africa's denying the Nobel Peace Prize laureate the Dalai Lama a visa, has tarnished Pretoria's reputation domestically and abroad. The EU's resolution is a simple appeal to get negotiations between the Dalai Lama and Beijing back on track. This mild wish is causing China's "tempest in its teapot". Is the EU unaware that China's President Hu Jintao once ruled Tibet with an iron hand, and any relaxation of Beijing's maximalist stand on Tibet brings a loss of face to him? Beijing may huff, Beijing may puff, but Tibet is like the brick house that the big bad wolf could never blow down. And ultimately China's tack toward Tibet will fail in the long run.
Nakamura Junzo
Guam (Mar 27,'09)

I was interested to learn in Jian Junbo's Sino-EU ties hijacked by Tibet issue [Mar 26] that concern for human rights in Tibet constitutes a projection of European values. Given that the many Tibetans have themselves made requests such as "Please don't enact policies that cause large numbers of us to die," or "Please don't engage in systematic strategies to destroy our language, religion, and culture," one might think these would constitute European and Tibetan values at the very least. Given that Junbo apparently considers Tibet part of China, would that not make these Chinese values by extension? It is patently obvious to the objective observer that what Junbo describes as a projection of European values actually indicates expressing any concern or criticism of China's putative internal affairs. But regarding China's treatment of Tibet and Tibetans as an "internal affair" is to grant that Tibet was not a sovereign nation prior to 1949. That may be China's position, but it is hardly the consensus of the international community or the United Nations.
Barnaby Thieme (Mar 27,'09)

I had intended to debunk the simplicity of Spengler 's earlier rantings about Iranian prostitution in his piece Sex, drugs and Islam [Feb 24]. I checked various authentic sources that monitor statistics on prostitution and Iran was nowhere close to what Spengler claimed and there were several other countries that figured more prominently, even though women are being exploited in Iranian cities like Qom. In his pioneering book Prostitution and Prejudice: The Jewish Fight Against White Slavery, Jewish historian Edward J Bristow revealed some interesting facts that suggest Israel is the closer to being the center of world prostitution than Iran.
Rehan Ahmed
Chicago (Mar 27,'09)

I find it amazing that anyone in American government or the FIRE (finance, insurance, real estate) industries today can face the cameras, journalists, even the American people, without blushing. If they can face them at all. Even the most elementary of questions seem to turn into rhetorical jousting matches, smoke and mirrors, worn-out platitudes, and the kind of pseudo-technical mumbo-jumbo offered up by economists of nearly all stripes and fancy investing newsletters claiming that they can guarantee (most of the time) a phenomenal return if we just subscribe to their latest market wizardry (anywhere to the tune of $47 to $2,500, and probably higher. I just don't have the right econometrics). The corruption is so blatant it's laughable. If it were not seriously terrorizing, yes, terrorizing so many people around the world. Our predatory wars, our economic policies, the general disregard for the rule of law and international treaties, the adolescent self-absorption in the myth of American supremacy (destiny, exceptionalism, freedoms, etc) all stink to high heaven and are so patently self-serving that they don't even deserve a place in a decent conversation, except for the fact that this is the conversation we should be having. The absolute disdain with which we (meaning you, our "elected" representatives, our employees, as well as us, the electorate, for our political lassitude) treat the world defies description. And yet, with a little help from our "friends", whether they be Saudis, Chinese, English, Israeli, or even better, the used tie salesman from France (who recently managed to somehow get the French Senate to approve France's membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization), we have managed to do just that. What we want and do is just, no matter the consequences. It's simply shameful. ...
Steve Church (Mar 27,'09)

[Re 'Killing season' opens in the Afghan hills, Mar 26] So in-bed with the army "journalist" Smucker reminds us of former US president John F Kennedy's address to West Point cadets in 1962, when he advised them to prepare for a war "new in its intensity, ancient in its origin - war by guerrillas, subversives, insurgents, assassins, war by ambush instead of by combat, by infiltration instead of aggression, seeking victory by eroding and exhausting the enemy". Ah ha ... Nothing new under the sun, isn't it? So one could have thought, well, the writer is conscious that you cannot bash a whole people forever, eh? But no: Smucker smugs into full propagandist gear, we are told of the sad situation of poor US commanders having to contend with idiotic soldiers from the Afghan army not playing proper fodder and not doing what they are told, and more stuff in the "we are above these lowlies" vein. The whole thing is so disheartening. Apparently adding one and one is too much for some thick heads, particularly when they have a silly pretense to superiority. Can't the "in-bedder" see that fighting invaders has always been a rallying cause to those who've been invaded, and that unless you massacre them all, like in the old days (well, not so old), the invader's position is untenable in the long term? No lessons from history? No? Doesn't he know that a sure sign of madness is doing again and again something stupid? But well, some people never learn. Against stupidity the gods do contend in vain.
G Bittar
Switzerland (Mar 27,'09)

[Re Angered cricket fans add poll twist, Mar 25] If the Indians cannot ensure protection to visiting teams, who is going to believe that Pakistan can? The relocation of the Twenty20 tournament [to South Africa] is also very sad news for Pakistan’s future in international cricket. Pakistani cricket's future lies in being able to play in foreign lands. Pakistan's interior minister let his country down very badly in letting the terrorists of Lahore get away free in broad daylight. Pakistan's security services seemed to behave like onlookers during the whole attack.
Ram G (Mar 26,'09)

[Re Chinese interests caught in drone threat", Mar 24] Quetta is under 700 kilometers from the port of Gwadar, in Pakistan's Balochistan. So is China crying wolf? We're dealing with the rumor that the Barack Obama administration is preparing to use drones to ferret out Taliban leader Mullah Omar, who is "rumored to be based" in that sparsely populated province which spills into Afghanistan. If US drones are put into action there, the theater of their attacks would be far from the mining and port activities that the Chinese are engaged in. There is no use denying that the drones will increase unrest, but the province is hardly a haven of peace. Syed Fazl-e-Haider does bring to our attention that "bandits" have spared Chinese workers and projects from raids, killings and plunder. Which point to the weakness of Pakistani security. As for the pipeline which will run along the Karakoram highway, a good look at the map shows that the bifurcation of the highway from the Great Trunk Road is in its early stages. Fazl-e-Haider nonetheless has provided good background material on the Chinese presence in Balochistan.
Mel Cooper
Singapore (Mar 26,'09)

In response to the letter by M Wilson (March 24). Since Wilson has taken it on himself to expose everybody else's hypocrisy and defend Chinese repression of Tibet, he may want to think about the following hypocritical contradictions in the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) arguments: 1.) In the racial cleansing going on in Tibet, the Han Chinese are the perpetrators, not the victims - why else would thousands of Tibetans risk death every year in trying to escape to Nepal or India. 2.) If the Dalai Lama was conniving with the US Central Intelligence Agency to hurt China, how come he has always been so utterly ignored by everyone (other than Hollywood celebrities). 3.) The CCP, under the great leadership of Chairman Mao Zedong, caused the deaths of at least 20 million Chinese during the Great Leap Forward and dozens of millions more in other smaller programs that followed later on - if this is how they treat their own people, can you imagine what they must be doing to the Tibetans, and is it any wonder that the Tibetans want to be free from the CCP!
Amit Sharma
Cincinnati, OH, USA (Mar 26,'09)

Of all former US president George W Bush's sins (and we will be discovering new ones for the rest of this century), one of the most egregious was his lack of honesty about things that should have changed the way Americans live from day to day. The September 11, 2001, attack, if it really was the clarion call to arms for struggle between good and evil that Bush claimed it was, should have meant that Americans required real sacrifices, if for no other than reason than to finance an open-ended checkbook conflict. But instead of asking for his country to save a dime here, or drive a little less there, instead, he made mindless consumerism a patriotic philosophy. The more we spent, the better, he claimed, just to show "those terrorists" that they couldn't change the way we lived. As if endless, global war was no more taxing on one's wallet than buying Girl Scout cookies from the precocious lass next door. And Americans went along for the delusional ride. But now that train is hanging over the precipice, suspended between a grievously damaged railway and the awaiting chasm below, while conductor Bush is happily writing his memoirs telling us what a job he did. OK, but Bush was what we deserved, the fitting architect of imperial America's demise. ...
Hardy Campbell
Houston TX (Mar 26,'09)

Pepe Escobar in his article Liquid war: Welcome to Pipelineistan[Mar 25] tries to convince us that the United States' evil intentions will be undone by Eastern powers. However, the first point to recognize is that Eurasia only has 7% of the world's oil reserves. Escobar writes that China reacted swiftly to what they saw as "reptilian encroachment of the West on the oil and gas lands of Central Asia". Azerbaijan, where the oil for the BTC [Baku-Tblisi-Ceyhan] pipeline is coming from, is less than 1,000 miles [1,609 kilometers] from Istanbul and 1,700 from Rome. It is more than 4,000 miles from Beijing, so I guess being a reptile is in the eye of the beholder or in this case the cartographer. US companies only own 14% of the BTC pipeline, with the vast majority owned by the countries involved and European oil companies. The BTC pipeline was closed by the Kurdish rebel group PKK on August 6, 2008, two days before the Georgian war, it re-opened on August 14. His view that countries as diverse as China, India and Russia will work together in a seamless unity to frustrate the Western oil interests has no basis in reality.
Dennis O'Connell
USA (Mar 26,'09)

[Re Why the US can't bully Iran, Mar 24] Even though Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei seemingly dismissed out of hand US President Barack Obama's "Narwaz" greetings and wishes for open dialogue with the Islamic Republic of Iran, it is significant, as many observers point out, that it was not President Mahmud Ahmadinejad who replied. So dismissive as Khamenei's words are, we are seeing good old-fashioned veiled bargaining going on. A dialogue has been established between Tehran and Washington. Iran has every reason to question Obama's good intentions, given the George W Bush administration's policies. It is leery of America's new approach since the top man in the US Department of State handling Iranian affairs is Dennis Ross, who proudly wears his hardliner credentials. Yet even with Tehran as estranged as it is with Washington, and despite Washington's complete alienation from Tehran, at its worst, when conditions suited it, the two still did "business" with each other. In Trita Parsi's Treacherous Alliances good footwork was done to detail the Ronald Reagan administration's dealings during the "Iran Contra" years. Today, Obama is reshuffling the diplomatic cards, and calling for openness in US-Iranian relations. His words may fail to persuade Iran, but if we think of its as a "business transaction", the Khamenei response is a way of feeling out the other side. And now, it is up to Obama to "sweeten the pot", to enlarge the breech in Bush's cul de sac strategy towards Tehran. As noted in Indonesia's Obama, Washington's Indonesia [Mar 24], Indonesia has Obama fever, out of nostalgia. There is much to repair in Washington's relations with Jakarta. Donald Emmerson does not deal much with the widespread appeal of militant Islam in Indonesia. Indonesians are wary of China. No one has forgot the coup of 1965.
Mel Cooper
Singapore (Mar 25,'09)

[Re Why the US can't bully Iran, Mar 24] This author [Shahir Shahidsaless] has certainly gotten "inside my head" on this matter! It is something that I have been preaching since my two-year sojourn in Khuzestan province, immediately before the shah's departure. My work involved that same male age group that sent Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and his [US Central Intelligence Agency] CIA-trained intelligence agency SAVAK on their way; and since I had an interest in my host country, I came to know the nature of the Iranian people quite well. So the abominable stupidity of the Americans in their attitude toward this perfectly logical (but long overdue) revolution made me shake my head. What sort of "super", "democratic" society lacks the intelligence to see that walking among its peers swinging a club will give it only global blowback in the end? But in 31 years of observing American "diplomacy" in action, my naivete has passed and I have come to see that, despite General Eisenhower's farewell warning, the US has fallen into the clutches of a "military/industrial complex", from which escape will be very difficult. As one of my Iranian students once said to me, in late 1978: "The American people need a revolution just like ours."
Keith E Leal USA (Mar 25,'09)

[Re Assigning the blame, Mar 24] Martin Hutchinson's attempt to whitewash Wall Street is just another example of the deluded mindset that "government is always to blame, business is always good". He conveniently ignores how the historical policies he rails against were set at the bidding of Wall Street bankers. The repeal of Glass-Steagall, and the passage of the Commodity Futures Modernization Act were done by government, but at the behest of Wall Street. Blaming government always sounds best when one denies how, and in whose interest, government policy is set. While we are at it, let us note what else Hutchinson ignores when he explains our economic troubles. Let us note how the trillion dollar yearly military-industrial Goliath has deformed our economy, sucking resources away from civilian education, infrastructure, and production. Let us note how overseas expansion in support of global corporations has led to our current situation by the following: One, propping up unpopular but pliant governments in return for their support for the petrodollar, cheap exports, and cheap labor. Two, creating our trade deficit by overseas occupations and race-to-the bottom outsourcing. Three, necessitating a fiscal deficit financed by petrodollars to pay for our overseas militarism and protection racket. Four, enriching an elite few who parley part of their gains in order to even further empower themselves, to all our detriment .
cwg2enha (Mar 25,'09)

[Re China unruffled over North Korean launch , Mar 23] Antoaneta Bezlova gives a good account of China's serene composure faced with the fast approaching date of North Korea's launch of a communication satellite. Beijing has wrenched assurances from Pyongyang of its good intentions during North Korean Prime Minister Kim Yong-ll's five-day state visit. Bezlova's finger is on the pulse, as was Chinese military analyst Dai Xu in his analysis of North Korea's harsher and more militant line during the last few weeks. He rightfully labelled it a "display of muscle". Pyongyang usually flexes its muscle and rhetoric during the annual joint US-South Korean military exercises. This year, Seoul has displayed its own show of muscle, adding another obstacle to the resumption of the six-party talks. As usual, North Korea's stance is a many times repeated stratagem to engage the US in talks; Washington remains unimpressed. China knows North Korea will live up to the promises that it made. In Pakistan's peace deals offer US a pointer [Mar 23] Syed Saleem Shahzad offers the US advice on the value of its "display of muscle" in the tribal areas of Pakistan. Boiled down to the essentials, we see in Pakistan the old British Raj policy of buying off peace with rambunctious tribes or insurgents to gain time to weaken and defeat them later. It is problematic given the weakened civilian society in today's Pakistan and will only end in blowback.
Mel Cooper
Singapore (Mar 24,'09)

[Re China keeps Tibetan chaos at bay, Mar 13] Americans, Europeans, Indians, Australians, Canadians, all strive for and celebrate the idea of their vibrant multicultural societies (many on ground only recently taken from indigenous peoples either slaughtered, relocated, or both.) Yet for China, the West demands separatism and racial cleansing of Han Chinese from the province of Tibet! The crux of the Tibet issue for China is that it caught the Dalai Lama playing footsie with the Central Intelligence Agency. China reacted in a way the US would surely have had it found Alaska's governor staging a revolt with KGB arms and training so that the USSR could exert its influence in Alaska! Would one even consider asking the US to then have talks with governor Sarah Palin?
M Wilson
USA (Mar 24,'09)

[Re Bonus-free knuckleheads , Mar 20] If all things were equal, Chan Akya's analysis would have merit. But all things are not equal in today's turbulent global markets and recession. With extravagant allusion to the ghost of Joseph Stalin dominating the latest Group of 20 (G-20) meeting, this article muddies the waters of the current economic crisis. Its dismissive conclusion, in fact, that central governments are "ham handling in the private sector" remains a marginal sentiment. Clear sightedness is called for. The economy is not in self correction. Much can be made of Adam Smith's invisible hand and benign control of financial markets. Alas, that is not the condition of the spirit of the times. Let's look at the example of General Electric (GE), a pre-eminent blue-chip stock. GE has fallen on hard times today. Why? Well, the cat is out of the bag: management, with the spirit of the times, put 82% of its holdings into the mortgage sector. As we know, GE is a well-diversified company, but the small financial branch ensured big and rapid profits. Its holdings are now lumped in the "toxic assets baskets", and it has cut dividends, seen a greyish bottom line, and sent management scurrying to save GE from its past schemes of fattening its purse and making its stockholders happy. Were there less-than-lax regulatory oversight, GE might not find itself in the pickle it is in today. Today the private sector is in no way, shape, or form capable of pulling the rabbit out of the economic or financial hat for the world. We are seeing the renaissance of Keynesian economics to staunch the hemorrhaging and right the course of a capitalism which for too long has fallen under the wing of the financial wizards of, say, Wall Street ... Central governments are the only ones with the wherewithal and machinery to revive a declining private sector and restore health to the markets.
Nakamura Junzo
Guam (Mar 21,'09)

[Re Twelve steps to a new grand strategy, Mar 20] Thomas P M Barnett is evidently one of those people who think that life is cheap in Asia and that if half a million Iraqis die in the course of his chess game, it's somehow "worth it". Throw him from the Tarpeian rock! Along with a butt-load of George W Bush/ Bill Clinton administration courtiers and sycophants. I want my country, the USA, to join the list of harmless former great powers, like Mongolia or Spain.
Zhu Bajie (Mar 21,'09)

A middle path opens up to Nepal [Mar 19] was a very good article, that was very well written. I have read Dhruba Adhikary's other articles in Asia Times Online and had already become a fan. I would like to thank both ATol and Dhruba Adhikary for this story.
Madan Acharya
South Africa (Mar 21,'09)

I am a regular reader of Asia Times Online - especially the articles about Nepal by Dhruba Adhikary. The recent one, A middle path opens up to Nepal [Mar 19] was very interesting. To read an article from one of the senior journalists of Nepal is an honor. His article gives good information about the current situation in Nepal which is especially useful for someone like me living overseas. Thank you.
Ramesh Thapa
Florida (Mar 21,'09)

It is high time for the United States to acknowledge to itself what has been a commonplace understanding in the Muslim world; the United States of America is at war with Islam. That President Barack Obama has decided to make a not-unmeaningful gesture towards Islam's most vociferous proponent, the Islamic Republic of Iran (note that even Saudi Arabia does not proclaim itself an Islamic anything), is a tepid step at negotiation in a war of cultures, ideas and history. It is not, as many of the lunatic evangelical right would have us believe, a clash between Judeo-Christian theology and the religion of Muhammed. Indeed, Christianity probably has more in common with Islam than with Judaism, which, unlike Islam, categorically rejects even the mention of Jesus. But it serves the eschatological yearnings of the frustrated wannabe rapturees to make this a religious conflict with apocalyptic overtones, when in truth the conflict is more visceral. ... Hardy Campbell
Houston TX (Mar 21,'09)

[Re US spills Afghan war into Pakistan, Mar 19] On one hand, Pakistan realizes that al-Qaeda, the Taliban and jihadi terror groups are sheltered on its soil with the full consent of the government. On the other hand, Pakistan is offended when the North Atlantic Treaty Organization is forced to bring this war onto Pakistan's territory. Pakistan cannot have it both ways. Either rid the land of these terror organizations or face the consequences of the war being fought on Pakistani soil. The stakes of winning or losing are too high for the participants (and thereby the world in general) to be affected by the double standards of the Pakistani government.
Chrysantha Wijeyasingha
Clinton, USA (Mar 20,'09)

[Re Shawn W Crispin's Cracks appear in Lee's mantle, Mar 19] The global recession has hit Singapore hard, no doubt. It is testing the People's Action Party's (PAP) mettle. PAP has made the city-state what it is today. In spite of the severity of the crisis, causing a reduction in economic activity, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, seconded by his father Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew and Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong, will weather the fallout of a class A economic storm. PAP's mantle shows signs of small cracks, but the PAP has been able to overcome muted popular discontent and spurts of renewed energy among small opposition parties. As the government and dominant ruling party, it can and does use whatever means to keep Singapore on course through thick and thin. Opposition candidate James Gomez's analysis of the "fragility" of the Central Provident Fund may be right, but to relieve the stress of economic demands, no one but the PAP has deep enough pockets for "cash handouts to mitigate criticism". And in these parlous times, as Beijing is willing to do to buy social peace, money talks. On the other hand, PAP's worst fear is that during the next general elections, the Worker's Party or another party will add a deputy or two or three to the opposition in parliament.
Mel Cooper
Singapore (Mar 20,'09)

In Burn Balochistan, burn [Mar 19], Pepe Escobar has summarized well the strategic and ethical stakes which are at play in a region which is still, unfortunately for its hapless inhabitants, the chessboard of a great game. We can be grateful to him for reminding Asia Times Online readers that despite the newspeak that has taken hold of US politics and corporate media (since long, very long), there is still something called evil ... and occupying with brute force a foreign country, whatever the occupiers manage to spin, has always been a source of evil in history.
Jivasattha
Buddhayatana (Mar 20,'09)

[Re Free markets are not rational, Mar 19] Catalyzed by greed, capitalism, when left to its own devices, will ineluctably lead human societies to maximum chaos. Thank you, Aetius Romulous, for making that statement with flair and concinnity. How sad that it required a "thermal nuclear financial meltdown" for us to learn the truth. But how even sadder that, from "tulip craze" to "leverage frenzy", the same mistake will inevitably be repeated by posterity, when another learned man will pen this essay, to decry humans for all their foibles and follies.
John Chen
USA (Mar 20,'09)

[Re High five: Messages from North Korea, Mar 18] As April approaches, the symbol significance of North Korea's launch of a telecommunications satellite becomes more apparent. Kim Myong Chol, the "unofficial spokesman", has added his voice to the many articles on the importance of the event that have appeared in Asia Times Online. North Korea's advances in rocketry and its brash entrance into the world's nuclear club are worn like badges of honor, and cannot be denied. Mr Kim's article captures that. He has issued a warning that any attempt to shoot down Pyongyang's missile delivering the satellite, is an act of war. His boasts of North Korea's economic advances on the road to becoming another Asian tiger are simply a vain manner of speaking, albeit a cause for his country's pride. Saying this, to me, the crux of Kim's words is a message for the US, which it has engaged with, with some success. He raises the matter of ending the dormant state of the Korea War, which we know as the 1953 Armistice Agreement. Is he suggesting a new Geneva Conference, which could prove fruitful as it could be the venue for two-, four-, and six-power talks at the same time. Could this be the catalyst to resolving the nuclear standoff, for the signing of a formal peace treaty, the resolution of economic and diplomatic issues, and the easing of the current instability on a divided Korean peninsula?
Mel Cooper
Singapore (Mar 19,'09)

Scylla and Charybdis were two Greek mythological monsters. Intrepid sailors like Ulysses would try to navigate the straits that the duo bestraddled, only to succumb to the ravenous appetites of one or the other. For the hero of Homer's Odyssey, only the beneficence of the whimsical gods saved him to fight another day. Alas, America, caught between the Scylla of bankrupt capitalism and the Charybdis of discredited socialism, cannot count on such divine salvation. Hubris, the penalty afflicted on all who think themselves masters of the universe, is being meted out for a painful reason. Obviously, for a country with institutionalized Alzheimer's disease, a simple country thrashing of epic proportions will not suffice. Forgetting even recent economic calamities, like the inflationary 1970s, the S&L scandals of the 1980s, the meltdown of 1987, the dot.com bubble and the most recent collapse, as we most certainly will, merits this nation of positive thinkers an apocalyptic, if not cosmic, disaster. Indeed, what approaches will destroy America as we once knew it. One of the primary reasons for the destruction that could be avoided but won't is the hostile attitude towards socialism, a bogey man drummed into every Cold War American's head. The cousin of communism, the midwife of atheism and the death of democratic freedoms were some of socialism's better attributes per the McCarthyite mentality that long survived its cynical namesake. That America had already adopted proto-socialist policies through adoption of social security, postal services, farm subsidies, corporate tax breaks and the like never occurred to the average red-hating Joe. Coupled with this was the incessant drumbeat of the Republican Party about how "bad" the government was that paid out unemployment benefits or helped the needy and it would just be better for everyone of government to allow the GOP's friends, corporate America, to use the "Free Hand" of the market do its wonderful, invisible magic. Of course, we all see the wreckage left behind by the squabbling, rudderless Republicans, whose mantra finds the same number of believers as international proletarianism found in the ex-Soviet Union. Americans are looking for answers from the government, but the Cold War propaganda keeps getting in the way, allowing buzzwords like "socialized medicine" and "re-distribution of wealth" to keep them from embracing the inevitable socialization of the state. American capitalism as it once was is dead, permanently and forever, the penalty exacted by those Olympian gods who simply cannot believe the numerous lessons that have gone unlearned. "Very well," they say. "If it needs to be burned down completely, so that the taste of ashes remains in your amnesiac mouths, so be it." Every day that we resist the inevitable, the harder and more lasting the pain. Instead of taking over the banks and Detroit, US President Barack Obama and his well-meaning clueless capitalists will continue to throw worthless money after worthless money, for all purposes, mini-Neros throwing kindling on the burning Rome. But even full-blown nationalization, when it comes, will come too late. The Chinese will by then have given up on us, abandoned the dollar, adopted the gold standard and bought Taiwan for a pittance. The Russians will have missiles in Cuba, the Iranians will have their nukes, and the price of oil will skyrocket, while we gnash our teeth at the idea of the people having control of corporations instead of exploiting and destroying the middle class. Living in the Empire of Alzheimer's is not easy when you have a memory and sense of history. Maybe they're the lucky ones.
Hardy Campbell
Houston, Texas
USA (Mar 19,'09)

[Re The not-so-safe haven, Mar 17] The predicament facing America can be easily solved by embarking on a massive sales of military armaments.The full potential of these sales has not been fully utilized and I am sure we are going to start seeing more arms sales by America to virtually any countries perceived as friendly.The Barack Obama administration recently gave the green light to Boeing to supply India with eight P-8i long-range Maritime surveillance planes, a US$2.1 billion contract. There are many countries eagerly wanting to purchase arms, such as Japan, Arab countries,Indonesia and all this adds up to lots of billions. So America will be saved by these sales - but this will make the world a more dangerous place to live in.
Daryl Tan
Malaysia (Mar 18,'09)

[Re Unlikely bedfellows in Afghanistan, Mar 17] Politics is a game of unlikely bedfellows, you may say. There is, it seems, agreement between the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) that something has to be done to stabilize the mess that is the war in Afghanistan. A new security arrangement in Central Asia, as Dr K L Afrasiabi sees it, will go a long way to limiting the fallout of a resurgent Taliban war against the weak central authority in Kabul. Unless the SCO is willing to commit troops, the forthcoming meeting may well have to support the Barack Obama administration's tack of peeling layers of "Taliban" groups to weaken the remnants of Mullah Omar's Pakistan-based insurgency. As the Americans, the Europeans, and Russians know, an insurgency ultimately ends up at a conference table. So in the end the key lies in a political arrangement. Let's look at the situation on the ground: Prime Minister Karzai holds at best a third of Afghanistan; corruption notwithstanding, his "country's GDP" is around $9 billion, hardly a princely sum to sustain an army, a police force, and revive a moribund economy. So, if NATO and the SCO want to weaken the Taliban, they are going to have to win back the "loyalty" with money and arms and political advantages of old war dogs like Gulbuddin Hekmatyar and Jalaluddin Haqqani, who were recipients of former US president Ronald Reagan's largesse to defeat the Russians in Afghanistan. Not only that, the political map will have to be redrawn, and more troops from NATO and perhaps the SCO are sorely needed, as well as a need for China to dig deep into its pockets to revive and expand a sad Afghan economy. That goes the same for Russia and Iran. This alas will not lead to a centralized state authority, but to a pattern more in line with Afghan history and customs. For a powerful Afghan central authority to emerge, NATO, the US, and the SCO would have to commit to at least a half century of presence in Afghanistan. An unacceptable condition, it would appear.
Mel Cooper
Singapore (Mar 18,'09)

[Re Pakistan takes a turn to the right, Mar 16] Once again, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) has lived up to its reputation. As usual, on March 15 MQM stood with the ruling clique. This time too, Punjab was the victim of its racially charged attacks. They hoped to create a rift between Punjab and other provinces, like when they tried to stoke racial tensions over the desecration of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto's shrine. Predictably, the MQM's unsubstantiated accusations were followed by empty threats to quit the alliance. By now, everyone and their grandmother knows, if not within the same hour, MQM would retract the hollow threats within 24 hours; as MQM's lust for ministries always trumps its so-called principals. Just like MQM supremo Altaf Bhai, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman too specializes in opportunistic politics. He also desperately tried to marginalize the lawyers' movement. It's hard to speculate on their true intentions or to say who their public relations advisors are, but somehow these gentlemen always manage to line themselves with the rulers and on the wrong side of history. On a separate note; I would dare to give the latest round of political standoff to President Asif Ali Zardari. He forced the lawyers' movement to conclude without giving an inch to the resolution of the Punjab crisis. A belligerent Punjab governor, Salman Taseer, is still in the driving seat, and no heads have rolled over the flagrant misuse of state power ... Even worse, it's anyone's guess what the state is of the Supreme Court that Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry will inherit and if there are any strings attached to his restoration.
Adnan Gill
Los Angeles (Mar 18,'09)

[Re Vietnam bauxite plan opens pit of concern, Mar 16] I am very sure that Duy Hoang's position will be very much different if US aluminum firm Alcoa was the one getting the aluminum deal. He would praise it as a boost for Vietnam's economy and would not be at all irritated that Americans would be stationed and worked there. It is sad to see that lots of Asians have a deep-rooted colonial mentality and totally ignore the evil things done to their countries before. Read history so you will be enlightened!
Wendy Cai
USA (Mar 17,'09)

[Re Is the Israel lobby running scared?, Mar 16] There is an infection in the United States that seriously threatens its survival. That infection is the Israel lobby. Our standing in the world has been grievously damaged by the lobby's influence on our foreign policy, and its part in getting us into damaging wars. Its members have had a similarly unhappy effect on our economy. All for the intended benefit of a foreign nation. Remember George Washington's advice about avoiding foreign entanglements.
Robert Adelbert
United States (Mar 17,'09)

[Re Is the Israel lobby running scared?, Mar 16] Sorry to say but "l'affaire Freeman", as Robert Dreyfuss chooses to call it, is not the "Israel lobby's Waterloo". If the eye runs down the list of the usual suspects who worked to force the withdrawal of ambassador Charles Freeman's name from the post of chairman of the National Intelligence Council (NIC), the clout that these individuals exercise in the White House, Congress and major US press rather suggests that the Israel lobby's steel fist is well-oiled and has not lost the power of its punch. The lobby's weak link is going to become more visible when Israeli prime minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud Party has cobbled together a coalition government with Avigdor Lieberman's Yisrael Beiteinu party. With Netanyahu as prime minister and Lieberman as foreign minister, the probability of a more energetic diplomatic, military and political campaign against Iran looms large. Sami Moubayed quotes Amos Yadlin, chief of Israeli intelligence in A wary Arab world eyes Iran's elections, Mar 16] saying that "Iran has crossed the technological threshold" in its nuclear technology - so the new Israeli government will push for military action against Tehran, something which former president George W Bush refused to sanction when the Ehud Olmert government sought a green light to bomb Iran's nuclear facilities. A more hawkish Jerusalem will not only pour more oil on the fires in the Middle East; it will run contrary to the Barack Obama administration's "opening diplomatic moves" there. Obama's US will not sanction Israel's military designs. Were Israel to call on its friends and allies in America's "Israel lobby", it would certainly meet defeat. Washington is not in the mood for a third war in Asia, and the very support that Israel enjoys among Americans would evaporate quickly. Finally, the "Israel lobby" would suffer damage that would takes years to recover from.
Nakamura Junzo
Guam (Mar 17,'09)

In response to the letter by Seung Li (March 16): Unfortunately, Li has missed the whole point of the Tibetan struggle, while parroting the typical propaganda peddled by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Tibetans don't really care about whether or not they are materially better off under Chinese rule - they simply do not wish to be ruled by outsiders. Imagine if some foreign empire (say the US) decided to liberate the Chinese people from the dictatorial rule of the CCP, and poured in a lot of money into the region (allegedly, as told to me by a friend I know who worked at a certain factory). Would the Chinese be grateful, or would they resent foreign domination? Besides, if the CCP has made everything so picture-perfect in Tibet then how come every year thousands of Tibetans risk death in crossing the Himalayas into Nepal and India? There are now far more Tibetans in neighboring countries than in Tibet itself. There is only one possible way to describe what China is doing to Tibet: cultural genocide (with physical genocide as a punishment for resistance). And China is able to get away with this because of complete and hypocritical support from the West. As I mentioned in another letter, the Western and Chinese economies desperately need to prop each other up since they are both pursuing fundamentally unsustainable policies: In America's case, they are living beyond their means and spending far more than they earn; In China's case they have set up their entire economy around the defunct principles of government-subsidized mass-production and export (ie, nobody can possibly do profitable business with China so nobody can ever pay them what they owe!). Due to this severe mutual dependence the Western countries and China have essentially morphed together into the same corporate-capitalist-communist entity, and the rest of the world is trapped between them just like the bulk of the animals in George Orwell's classic Animal Farm. As for Tibet: money talks - everything else (including the Tibetans) is dispensable.
Amit Sharma
Cincinnati, OH, USA (Mar 17,'09)

[Re Justice on Comedy Central and Danger of the bully pulpit, Mar 17]The recent brouhaha over the popular "fake news" Daily Show ridiculing the financial news network CNBC has exposed some sad but revealing aspects of not just the collapse of world capitalism but also the sad state of affairs in American journalism. Simply by juxtaposing previous pronouncements from such sage financial gurus as Jim Cramer, Jon Stewart exposed the entire US media for the fraudulent, huckstering, pimping propaganda mouthpieces that they are. When a contrite and humbled Cramer appeared on the Daily Show to take his public flogging, video recordings of his previous slimey stock manipulations made his protestations of newly found religion as believable as his network's slogan "In Cramer We Trust". Many of his fellow shameless shills, especially those on the right, had expressed indignation that a mere "comedian" could have any serious thoughts on their august and lofty profession. That their ad hominem arguments failed to address any of the truths laid bare by that most vicious of naked emperor pointers, the video camera, said volumes of where their journalistic priorities lay. But "Cramer vs Cramer" is a hard act to refute for the sighted. Better to shoot the messenger because he is, after all, "just" a messenger, than to admit you are bare-bottomed naked for all the world to see. In fact, Stewart's outrage was not directed at any one individual or even single network, but the entire industry that has sold its soul to the devil many times over, all the while insisting it just wants what's good for the Average Joe. But in keeping with my iconoclastic contract, I will pillorize Average Joe for allowing himself to be beguiled, swindled, manipulated and seduced by the corporate svengalis that dazzle them with the promise of easy riches and no-worry debt. When will Americans realize that neither their government, their corporations or their media have their interest at heart? How many Enrons, Katrinas, 9/11s, Iraqs, Gonzalezgates, etc, do they need to get the message? If a guy gets on TV and acts like a clown while he makes stock picks, how sympathetic am I supposed to be when the joke turns out to be on you? Where is the personal responsibility and accountability that "independent" Americans are so eager to demand of their leaders? Seems like when everyone's on "Easy Street", there's no squawking, but the witch hunts begin when "Easy Street" is inundated by overflowing sewers. But everything flowing from those sewers is of our own making, and it smells pretty foul now. Maybe that's because all those chickens are coming home to roost.
Hardy Campbell
Houston TX (Mar 17,'09)

When I read India frets over Obama's Chinamania [March 14] by M K Bhadrakumar, it occurred to me that perhaps many mainland Chinese have the same impression as many Indians. The author writes: "It is debatable whether the US is to be held responsible if such a weird idea [US containment of China] got into the head of the Indians in the first instance. It was plain to see that the US and China were fast developing a relationship of independence and that there was no question of the US confronting China or vice versa". Indeed, one may ask at what level of US trade deficit with China and amount of Chinese holdings of US debt can one still entertain the idea of "containment"? First, one has to define "containment". It implies a set of restrictions; the crux is whether such restrictions are explicitly diplomatic or implicitly ideological. If there really is a "containment policy", it is the former. In diplomatic parlance, Taiwan and Tibet are both parts of the People's Republic of China. The relevance of "containment" is therefore exaggerated since China can stay within this containment and still achieve the assimilation of the Tibetan region and reunification with Taiwan. For the mainland Chinese, I believe they need some level of humility to appreciate their side's strategically won position. For Tibet, there is the recurrent sociological phenomenon of assimilation. For Taiwan, there is the ocean that exposes Taiwan to accumulating pressure without the need to initiate any actual force. In the USA, there is the good common sense for the promotion of global peace and prosperity, and the acquiescence to the existence of the vast country of China. The requisite humility stems from a China that is still development socially and politically, and is still undesirable in many ways to some in the Tibetan region, Taiwan, and the USA; some ardent antipathy there is unavoidable and indicative of China's current inadequacy. While fencing out one's legitimate pale, one also seeks self-improvement.
Jeff Church
USA (Mar 17,'09)

[Re The not-so-safe haven , Mar 16] It would appear that even W Joseph Stroupe has a way to go before he is willing "to come fully to grips with the stark truth" over "the predicament facing the US dollar". Stroupe says "Like it or not, the US dollar still constitutes the de facto central framework of the present global financial order - the dollar is its fundamental support structure, much like the steel framework that supported the Twin Towers in New York." Like the steel framework of the Twin Towers, the dollar framework of the international monetary system is gone (melted down in China?). Does Mr Stroupe really believe that the American people, already impoverished by decades of predatory rule by its financial elite, would stand passively out of the way while the rest of the world collects its debts? Even if the phenomenal passivity of the US public remained, how would the repossession be accomplished? All those empty container ships returning from US ports wouldn't be enough to scrape clean what remains of this country's once abundant natural resources and anything else that could be disassembled and carted away. The US may be $1 trillion or so in hock to China but that's no excuse to keep throwing good money after bad like Europe and Japan did when former US president Richard Nixon acknowledged US bankruptcy in 1973 and dared the world to do something about it. I have no idea how much it is all worth but unlike the rest of the world China appears to be in a position to get something out of its deadbeat debtor. In blatant violation of the time-honored principles of imperialism, the US financial elite decided to buy from rather than sell to its colonies. So it equipped China with the factories to make everything that used to require expensive, profit-sapping labor. More important, it provided the Chinese people with the skills to run those factories and make them produce something else if China decides she wants something besides plasma TVs. Seize the factories! Like [Cuban leader Fidel] Castro, you could offer to pay for them at values declared on the previous year's corporate income tax forms. The real American government isn't going to like that of course. But that government couldn't even pull off a successful invasion of a tiny country 90 miles from its shores. As far as the American people are concerned, as long as Chinese owners treat them no worse than their own ruling class has treated them, they are unlikely to care who owns what. Who knows? China might even be able to kid the kidders. Offer to buy the factories and their distribution channels at ‘full value'. If they are not for sale at under $1 trillion someone is not bargaining in good faith. Perhaps the members of the American kleptocracy who get a little slice of China's $1 trillion US dollars will actually believe the money is worth something. ...
Steven Lesh (Mar 17,'09)

[Re Pakistan takes a turn to the right, Mar 16]Dear Syed Saleem Shahzad, great article - it was controlled and thoughtful, and I couldn't detect the least bit of bias. As an American, I can't figure out how the United States keeps getting it so wrong in Pakistan, as well as other parts of the world. When the United States goes so far in meddling in other national governments, not to mention democracies such as Pakistan, I feel we are only serving to hurt our own agenda in the long term. The best example I can think of is what happened in Iran. What similarities and differences do you see between the current "right turn" in Pakistan to the religious fundamentalist movement that took place in Iran in 1979? If Pakistan does take a right turn for the good, then how will this political change affect the growing Taliban extremism in Pakistan? What if the Pakistani people feel they are too moderate to tolerate Muslim extremism? Shouldn't they do something to stop extremism on their own before its too late?
Eric Storm (Mar 17,'09)

Pakistan is actually a country with right-wing leanings. The whole Pakistani establishment thinks in those terms. American pressure has actually forced Pakistan to go in the opposite direction and that's what messed everything up. - Syed Saleem Shahzad

[Re The not-so-safe haven , Mar 16] There is a saying: If you are already in a hole, stop digging. There is another saying popularly attributed to Albert Einstein: insanity is doing the same thing, but expecting a different result. Alas, economists are no physicists. For the love of God, I cannot fathom how getting into more debt is a solution to the current economic crisis, which started when people got into too much debt in the first place. Paradoxically, the solution is called a "stimulus" package. Judging by the looks of the people facing foreclosure, they are anything but stimulating. As the Mogambo Guru would say, "We're doomed!"
SK Wong
Singapore (Mar 17,'09)

After reading Pentagon tempted by North Korean launch [Mar 13], one is tempted to utter a cry of "get thee behind me Satan!" The article has the flavor of a potboiler political thriller. Let the Pentagon's strategic thinkers - left unnamed - put their toys back in the attic. They know full well the capabilities and proven record of US heat-seeking Tomahawk missiles. And now, the same warlike fever has gripped the Japanese defense establishment. Yet, these "thinkers" are pushing for confrontation with North Korea. What challenge has Pyongyang thrown down? North Korea did not break any international laws by announcing that in early April it is going to launch a telecommunication satellite. It will be carried by a rocket. The technology differs scarcely from that which China, the US, Russia or France use. And what's more, the North Korean rocket will not violate any surrounding country's territorial integrity. Which leads us to suggest that anything that Pyongyang does sets the salivary glands of recalcitrant cold warriors to flow, as one notes in Donald Kirk's article. These practicers of the art of war are aching in the extreme, in one way or the other, to provoke North Korea. If they want to play tin soldiers, let them play John Frankenheimer's Seven Days in May, to blow off steam!
Mel Cooper
Singapore (Mar 16,'09)

[Re China keeps Tibetan chaos at bay, Mar 12] In response to the Dalai Lama's claim that Tibet is a "living hell", people should study and recount the conditions when he was spiritual and political head there. The Tibetans were in rags and did not own any land on which they toiled. There were no paved roads, no bridges, no railways, no airport, no schools and no university for the locals. Now they have all these in addition to housing, color TVs and cell phones. What has been done? China needed to bring in Han Chinese to help the difficult development and poured in a tremendous amount of money every year. In the early 1960s a lot of technicians were recruited from factories all over China to be sent there. The requirements were that they must be young and single and not the only sons in the families, because the conditions in Tibet were harsh and they might encounter some militant elements. Even the soldiers sent there were admonished to be tolerant and not respond to small incidents. All these facts were told to me by a friend who worked in a factory in China at the time. All the tourists who had been there recently could verify that many temples have been restored or renovated and worshipers were openly prostrating in their rituals. And there is no religious freedom? One can also verify that government posts and local party membership are filled with Tibetans. So where is the "living hell"? The world's "public opinion" is molded by the exiled group headed by the Dalai Lama and outside sympathizers and agitators. The latter controls much of the world's media. A good example is the shameful, distorted coverage of last year's riot in the Tibetan capital. Need one say more?
Seung Li (Mar 16,'09)

Plutocrats are not, despite the name, citizens of what was until recently our solar system's ninth planet. Nor do they reside in the realm of the Greek god Pluto (which Christians decided should be called Hades). They are the wealthy, ruling class that has manipulated, controlled, cajoled, bribed and terrorized American governments and the US populace since we decided democratic plutocrat sounded better than royal plutocrat. They have been most adept at using the soundbites and rhetoric of populism to create an anti-populist electorate. They have squeezed the middle class to the brink of extinction in this country ... They have created uncertainty, fear and apprehension by perpetrating false-flag covert operations which still go unrecognized by the myth swallowers of middle America. They have destroyed the manufacturing base, the financial feedstock, and the very fiber of comfortable delusion that was all America had left. They have used the media to be their shameless cheerleaders, dazzling and beguiling a poorly educated, apathetic and consumerist audience with bread and circuses. They have fabricated wars and ideological conflicts to stoke the fires of their never-fail, feel-good narcotic of red, white and blue patriotism to make blood a colorful contrast to the gold they have sucked away by the metric tonne. They have ensured that this country falls further and further into de facto Third World status. They have guaranteed our membership in the ex-empires fraternity. So, one must ask, who are these villains? Are they the megarich, the Bill Gates of the world? If only it were so easy to identify the malefactors. No, the illuminati that bedazzle us with their wealth and luxury are merely the "front men," themselves walking Potemkin villages to delude the masses into thinking it can happen to them. Only if we see occasional successes will we forego our righteous indignation at the injustices and inequities around us, because, after all, the rich have a hard time being righteously indignant about anything, don't they? But from time to time those chimeras serve as the foil of the real plutocratic class, and make easy targets in revolution and social upheaval. Regardless of the next American Revolution (now no longer an "if" but "when" and "what form"), the real ruling class will emerge relatively unscathed, having tossed a bone or two to the starving, vengeful dogs. Then out of the ashes will arise a truncated, weakened quasi-America, even easier to exploit than before. Will Detroit and New York become part of Canada? Will Texas and northern Mexico reconstitute their old pre-Alamo confederation? California as an overseas province of China may not be so far-fetched. In any case, the mini-Americas that emerge will each have their own dominating plutocratic class that will re-tool their old weapons of divide and conquer. The hidden plutocrat will always prosper, as they have long ago abandoned any notion of nationalist, religious or ideological devotion. They may be the only truly free people on earth.
Hardy Campbell
Houston TX USA (Mar 16,'09)

M K Bhadrakumar's recent article India frets over Obama's Chinamania [Mar 14] was excellent. However, there was one misconception, which was not actually created by the author but a sort of accepted truth that everyone keeps repeating to each other. This is that China's surplus (that the US is hoping will finance US borrowing for their economic recovery stimulus) is actually largely virtual - it exists mainly on paper, just like everything else in modern, American-style economics. China would indeed have a terrific surplus if only the US paid what it owed, but the US is borrowing (from China) to pay China! Meanwhile, the Chinese are lending American money that they don't have (because America can't pay them) so that the US can keep spending, because how else would China sell what it produces. This is the kind of cuckoo mathematics in which two plus two is not just five, but rather five billion. America and China desperately need each other because together they are playing a huge scam on the rest of the world. Using the kind of Arthur Anderson accounting that made Enron (in the US) and Satyam (in India) appear like rock-solid profitable companies - when in fact they were completely hollow loss-making machines - the US and China have built up tremendous virtual economic numbers, which they can exploit to bully their way around in other markets and throw the entire fundamentals of economics out of whack. So now, thanks to these two countries together violating every basic rule of common sense (including the first law of thermodynamics, which basically implies that you cannot get something out of nothing), the entire global economic system is starting to resemble the kind of wacko economics practiced by the character Milo Minderbinder in the Joseph Heller book Catch-22!
Amit Sharma
Cincinnati, OH, USA (Mar 16,'09)

[Re Wen puts US honor on the debt line, Mar 13 and Before the stampede, Mar 12]. Chinese Premiere Wen Jiabao's practice of (geo)political taichi aside, it’s difficult to envision China not suffering a substantial loss on its foreign exchange reserve when the dollar eventually devalues. One potential consolation prize, however, is that if dollar hegemony did indeed crumble in the wake of the current global crisis, the yuan could conceivably play a pillar role in the replacement of international financial architecture. Also in regards to India frets over US's Chinamania [Mar 13]: National Hockey League legend Wayne Gretzky, when once asked why he was such a great player, offered this interesting insight: "I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it is." Looking at the reactive nature of India’s foreign policies during the last decade, one can not help but feel that the Indian government could benefit immensely from having among its ranks the sagacious voice of M K Bhadrakumar.
John Chen
USA (Mar 16,'09)

[Re Work makes a comeback, Mar 12] Dear Julian Delasantellis, I have read your commentary on the plight of the elderly in this new depression. Your description of the baby boomers as a pack of fools headed for well deserved slaughter does not make for pleasant reading. I wonder if they will in fact hold still for such passive slaughter? For myself, and I am a boomer, I would much rather fall in battle taking with me whoever is so insulting as to presume to such language. The real need of the current age is for anger, discipline, planning and a determined ruthlessness to set things right. The real problem is that there is no organization, no plan, no direction, and no determination to set these problems right. Let me suggest that a program of swiftly eliminating the debt created in this debacle be undertaken. Failing institutions should be sent into bankruptcy: the bonds defaulted, the stocks to the trash bin and the executives to the jails or cemeteries. The trillions marked for supporting toxic assets should be used for basic income support through some resurrection of the guaranteed annual income or negative income tax. New banks should be chartered to replace the old and manufacturing institutions of the old order which are no longer viable also sent into bankruptcy without hesitation or apology or toleration of dissent. Most important of course is a new government which will undertake such a program with whatever degree of determination needed to complete it. Something with no commitment to democracy, capitalism or socialism but to a ruthless pragmatism which will tolerate no dissent and a willingness to turn the world into a abattoir as necessary to obtain victory. After all, as you have pointed out there is not much time and surely death in battle is a better prospect than death by decrepitude. And it will surely give all younger generations something to think of while indulging in the depths of their contempt.
James Wood

[Re Obama and his magic lamp, Mar 9] There are lots of things that could be said about this article. But one thing is very clear, it is undeniably and intentionally biased against Turkey. I'm not talking about the part discussing that the Turkish government is a "stalking-horse" of extremism, because there is lots of opinion on this issue. I'm talking about economics, which is not a very subjective issue. Let me first remind you that this article ended with the statement: "The best advice I can give to residents of those countries is: live somewhere else." And now let's look at an article published in Forbes magazine (Forbes, Why Turkey Is More Resilient Than Most, Asli Aydintasbas, March 12): "How good a shape are the Turkish banks in? Bad credits currently account for only 3% to 4% of bank loans. While Washington is negotiating nationalizing Citigroup, Turkish banks (Denizbank, Ziraat, Akbank, Garanti and others) are announcing profits for 2008. Banks will be affected by the general slowdown of the economy and the global liquidity shortage, but not in a ruinous manner." Still not convinced? Then look no further than the endorsement of Turkish financial banks from the most prominent recession prophet du jour, New York University professor and Forbes columnist Nouriel Roubini, dubbed "Dr Doom" for foreshadowing the current crisis almost two years ago, who said in a recent interview in Business New Europe, "I don't expect a full-fledged crisis in Turkey, but it's going to be a rough year ... I don't expect a real financial crisis in Turkey like the one they experienced in 2001 - the banks are in much better shape, much better regulation of the financial system, the fiscal position is sounder."
O Murat (Mar 13,'09)

[China keeps Tibetan chaos at bay, Mar 13] The Dalai Lama has called China's oppressive rule over Tibet a "living hell". His remarks are uncharacteristic for a man who is the picture of moderation. It was a mournful cry from the heart. Today, however, he has recovered his evenness of mind, in an interview with al-Jazeera, he said, "China must hold talks on the future of Tibet based on trust if the Chinese leadership wants to achieve what it calls a 'harmonious society'." China has missed many opportunities on its part since the return of Deng Xiaoping to power. Beijing has failed in its policy to force its Han imprint on Tibet and win the "hearts and minds" of Tibetans. Were it not for the uprising in Tibet and neighboring areas with large Tibetan minorities months before the opening of the Summer Olympic Games in Beijing, China would have been loath to palaver with the Dalai Lama's representatives, thereby lessening the effects of a severe loss of face before the world's public opinion. Nothing came of these talks. There is little reason to suggest that China will exhibit a modicum of flexibility on the matter of Tibet. After all, President Hu Jintao before ascending to the highest office in China was Community Party chief for the Autonomous Region of Tibet; in that capacity, Tibet suffered much repression.
Mel Cooper
Singapore (Mar 13,'09)

In the article Taliban set to burn the Reichstag? [Mar 13], Pepe Escobar perpetuates the absurd myth that Afghanistan is the "Graveyard of Empires". Mr Escobar goes further in this silly story tale by stating "Cynics in Brussels bet that those at the NATO [North Atlantic Treaty Organization] round table know deep inside that this weaponized arm of Western arrogance doesn't stand a chance in the long run against built-for-war mujahideen who defeated everyone from Alexander the Great onwards." This is a ludicrous conclusion. First, during Alexander's time (circa 300 bc), unlike the modern world, ancient militaries used the cutting edge of military technology to win a war. If Alexander had weapons of mass destruction, common sense would dictate that Alexander would have used them. Other than Alexander the Great, Pepe Escobar fails to mention any other ancient empire that was defeated in the battle fields of Afghanistan. In modern times, the main reasons why the mujahideen won against the USSR was that they got full support from the US. Secondly, the USSR did not use weapons of mass destruction, even though the USSR had a vast and varied collection of these weapons. By not factoring the full military power of the modern superpowers, Mr Escobar creates a myth for the reader that the mujahideen is so "super human" that they can even survive a full-scale attack using weapons of mass destruction that range from nuclear and hydrogen bombs, nerve gas etc. As for the mujahideen being "built for war", that goes for well-trained militaries, accompanied by secret agencies, covert operations to weapons of mass destruction that go with them. If the NATO forces decide to use such weapons on a massive scale, please illuminate me on how the mujahideen would have a chance to win if the opposing force decided to use these "Armageddon" weapons? The most classic example is the defeat of the Empire of Japan when the US used only two medium-sized nuclear bombs during World War II. If weapons of mass destruction are never to be used, then why is the world so worried that Iran or any other nation gets the technology to build such weapons? I can be sure those weapons were not built for fancy display, but to be used in warfare.
Chrysantha Wijeyasingha
Clinton, USA (Mar 13,'09)

[Re A dangerous balance, Mar 13] The scion of a famous Chinese revolutionary family, Henry C K Liu is undoubtedly doing his forebears proud. Very much a revolutionary in his own right (with the pen), Mr Liu offers us ideas that, although slightly ahead of their time in the West, deserve careful analysis by the Chinese leadership. Standing at an important historical crossroads, China will do well to remember that while fresh sets of demands, both internal and external, will be placed on the nation as the world changes, the quiddity of humanity and the essence of nature have remained constant through time. As such, the Middle Kingdom has the great advantage of being able to draw on thousands of years of time-tested wisdom to meet and solve any challenge that may lie ahead. As for a more concrete roadmap to help guide the country’s forward progress, Chinese leaders could do much worse than carefully study Mr Henry C K Liu’s proposals.
John Chen
USA (Mar 13,'09)

[Re Ahmadinejad really is the man in charge , Mar 10] Shahir Shahidsaless' comment on how really powerful Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad does grab attention and is perhaps valuable, but ... one learns to be weary of these kinds of sensational writings, all the more so when the author concludes with entertaining gossip of unknown provenance such as, "Ahmadinejad's is quoted as having said: 'He [Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei] thinks that I am his president, but I am Imam Zaman's president.'" Another good one from Tehran's bazaar?
G Bittar, PhD Sc (Mar 12,'09)

[Re Spy's retreat a win for the Israel lobby, Mar 11] The withdrawal of ambassador Charles Freeman's nomination as chairman of US president Barack Obama's National Intelligence Council, makes one wonder if US Middle East policy will ever free itself from the barnacles that Israel has "permanently" attached to America's intelligence agencies and ship of state. Mr Freeman has not walked away quietly; he is blaming his removal on the Israeli lobby and its friends in Washington. The former ambassador claims that they have distorted his record because he is open to a fresh approach to the Israel/Palestine question. As Daniel Luban and Jim Lobe notably point out, the nomination was torpedoed for Mr Freeman's ties to Saudi Arabia. In any case, in some influential circles, he had a bad odor. New York Senator Charles "Chuck" Schumer has taken credit on the airwaves for being the point man on his removal. Since all politics is local as the late US politician Tip O'Neil famously said, let's look at the why's and wherefore's of Mr Schumer's concerns and his influence in the White House. The New York senator is from Brooklyn which he represented when he sat in the House of Representatives. Brooklyn is the home of Jewish nationalism and religious observance. It was in Brooklyn that the now outlawed Israeli Kach political party was born. In the occupied territories, a large percentage of religious Jews from Brooklyn are occupying illegal settlements on the occupied Palestinian west bank. On one hand, Mr Schumer owes his seat in the Senate to the monies and the influence of New York's Jewish lobby. He himself is Jewish which plays a role in his opposition to Mr Freeman. And of course, Washington's unstinting support in the past of the state of Israel cannot go without mention. Yet, past policies weigh like a ball and chain on Mr Obama's options if he is truly wanting to redirect American policy in the Middle East. He has little room for maneuver with elected officials like Mr Schumer.
Nakamura Junzo
Guam (Mar 12,'09)

The apparent nervous breakdown of the entire fabric of American society will soon be followed by complete psychosis. This is perhaps apt. The little known documentary The Corporation made a convincing thesis that corporations behave in the same illusory, egocentric and sociopathic manner that a psychotic individual would. This modus operandi ... was positively mandatory for companies in a Darwinian survival mode, relying on indifference to the greater social good in order to enhance the bottom line and successfully compete with the other reservoir dogs. Some may argue that the US has been acting in such a manner for years, especially during the lamentable George W Bush administration, when the "My Way or the Highway" Doctrine demanded capitulation to America's imperialist agenda. But Bush was merely running his corporation in the same psychotic manner that US companies have been taught is essential for survival. His neo-conservative world view determined that a narrow, heavily biased perspective of what was good for America may or may not be good for the world , but so what? What did the US owe the rest of the planet, anyway? Dog vs dog was the new world order of the day, and the US was the top dog. But the top dog's bark would prove worse (and whinier) than its bite. ... Alas, there is no padded room for the soon-to-be psychotic Uncle Sam, not even a bridge overpass he can huddle under for warmth and shelter. Rehabilitation will be long and difficult, with the danger of relapse all too real. But the real damage to America has not been its money problems, dire as those are. Without this correction, America will sink ever deeper into the mire of its own making, until it drowns for good. But it will require us as a nation to read the words that defined our myth and turn them into reality. To paraphrase the Depression era plea for charity, "Brother, can you spare a soul?"
Hardy Campbell
Houston TX USA (Mar 12,'09)

China's renegade patriot faces backlash [Mar 10], by Wu Zhong, tells one side of the story. It is true that Beijing insisted on the voluntary return of the two bronze heads, but denied any part of the sabotage engineered by Cai Mingchao. It is also true that many Chinese nationals condemned the sabotage on the Internet as being shameful. This writer submits, though, that there were also thousands of Chinese who took pleasure in the auction being foiled. And the reason is clear. The Chinese premier already made it a point to avoid visiting France in his European trip due to French President Nicolas Sarkozy's embrace of the [Tibetan spiritual leader in-exile] Dalai Lama. The owner of the two bronze heads added oil to fire by suggesting an exchange of the heads with handing Tibet over to the Dalai Lama. It is naive to think that there is not a vast silent majority smiling approvingly on the sideline, be it "progress" or not.
Seung Li (Mar 11,'09)

[Re Trade-off season on Afghanistan begins, Mar 10] In a broad sense is "trade-off" a synonym for diplomacy? Ambassador MK Bhadrakumar in his contributions to Asia Times Online keeps refining his analysis on the US-Russia-Iran nexus. He continually examines the minute shifts in the patterns of geopolitical phases in the complex relations among these three countries. US President Barack Obama has publicly admitted that the US and North Atlantic Treaty Organization alone cannot prevail in the war against the Taliban in Afghanistan now. As he reshapes America's foreign policy, it is sound judgment to look toward opening a hand to Tehran and towards smoothing Moscow's ruffled feathers, which the George W Bush administration set on end with its intention of positioning missiles in Poland. If Bhadrakumar is correct in his reading of the flux in US relations with Russia and Iran - that Moscow holds the upper hand in a "trade-off" with Washington - then it is hoped that Obama and company understand that Russia's southern flank shares a border with Iran and that despite a 20-year absence in Afghanistan, Central Asia is of a centuries-long strategic interest to the nation. In a like manner, it is useful to stress that in Russia's southern flank lies vital energy resources as well as essential military installations and weapons proving grounds. The economic recession notwithstanding, for the moment Russia has a strong hand in negotiating with the US.
Nakamura Junzo
Guam (Mar 11,'09)

I was glad that the article A futile search for 'moderate' Taliban [Mar 10] by Walid Phares noted that "moderate" Taliban are a myth. US President Barack Obama's plan to talk to them and the inevitable failure of this strategy was well stated in the article. These talks would also reveal to our enemies - the jihadis or the radical Islamic terrorists - that we have a leader that actually believes in the fairytale of "talking" terrorists out of doing what they plan to do. There is something that [former Israeli prime minister] Golda Meir said once that sums up the impossibility of a diplomatic solution with the Taliban: "I despise my enemies for killing my children, but I despise them even more for causing me to kill their children."
Chrysantha Wijeyasingha
Clinton, USA (Mar 11,'09)

[Re Obama and his magic lamp, Mar 9] Spengler is always a delight to read. May I posit that the foray into Iraq drove the price of crude oil from $32 a barrel (the day that former president George W Bush chose to announce "mission accomplished") to a $147 high and that this transferred an enormous amount of wealth to the United States' enemies (Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez, Iran and Russia spring very easily to mind). At one level, the president was defending the US, but at another he was apparently feeding his enemies. I then find myself with President Barack Obama and his outstretched hand, a much more peaceful world (for now) and an oil price languishing down at $50. It seems clear that the US's national interest is aligned to keeping a lid on things and sheathing its iron fist in a velvet glove.
Aly-Khan Satchu (Mar 10,'09)

[Re Geithner's folly, Mar 9] You have to admit that the Barack Obama administration is stubborn when it comes to rescuing the big bracket banks. United States Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner is going his own way, which seems to disregard current wisdom. As the major financial press has noted the Obama rescue plan projected an unemployment rate of 8.1% for all of 2008, that figure has already been met, and it is more likely that the rate will climb to 10% or possibly higher. It is time for Obama and his team of economic and financial advisors to come up with a more robust program of action. At a time when even defenders of Milton Friedman's free-market economics in the upper ranks of the Republican Party are calling for temporary nationalization of banks, the US president - more out of conviction than fear of partisan protest - resists this course of action. In the end, by hook or by crook, his administration will be forced to embrace this solution. It may come as a result of the G-20 meeting in London in April. One thing is for sure, Obama has to act more swiftly and more boldly on the banks.
Nakamura Junzo
Guam (Mar 10,'09)

[Re US, Iran seek to stop Afghan narco-traffic, Mar 9] Many, many thanks for your great illuminating articles, Kaveh L Afrasiabi. You are always right on the money, amazing.
Faraneh Farokh
LA (Mar 10,'09)

I wonder how a country that has the attention span of day-old lasagna and the memory of a brain-dead paramecium can ever expect to avoid a recurring future of money bubble, toil and trouble. Especially if it insists on idolizing those who embodied the essence of their financial demise. The blame game is the most popular reality TV show in Washington today, with the parroting pundits of pusillanimity vying for the title of "most polarizing". Alan Greenspan, the former Federal Reserve chairmen and Ben Bernanke, the current, the former Treasury secretary Henry Paulson, and the former president George W Bush all make convincing targets for their delusional approach to economics. But who is kidding who? [Film director] Oliver Stone said recently that he had people coming up to him years after his film Wall Street was released, telling him how they worshipped Gordon Gecko and made him their role model. This despite Gecko's ignominious fall and arrest. Doesn't this sentiment really reveal who the villains are? Greed has been promoted as the most patriotic virtue possible, the personalization of imperialist expansion in the capitalist world. The key term that everyone seems to be avoiding these days is "systemic collapse". What system? The banking system? The Wall Street system? Yes, all those failed spectacularly, but more fundamentally, it's the capitalist system that has failed.
Hardy Campbell
Houston TX (Mar 10,'09)

[Re Washington's guilty sermonizers, Mar 9] Doug Noland in this week's commentary offers a couple of very significant observations: "The sellers of CDS (and various credit insurance) have resorted to shorting equities in a desperate attempt to hedge escalating losses. This has likely placed additional pressure on sickly equities markets - and it goes without saying that it is especially damaging to market confidence." President Barack Obama's all-time-high approval rating notwithstanding, it is important to keep in mind that confidence is difficult to build up, but easily frayed. Watching the market indexes drift lower and lower day after day with the concomitant evaporation of trillions of dollars in retirement savings likely isn't a healthy prescription for inspiring confidence among the citizenry. Worse, an erosion of confidence in the president may well have a negative impact on the success of his future domestic and foreign policies. While Wall Street no doubt deserves a comeuppance for its ignominious role in bringing down the global economy, more decisive action by the White House is, in my opinion, overdue to, if not fix the battered financial market just yet, at least stem the sector's painful hemorrhaging.
John Chen
USA (Mar 10,'09)

[Re No work and no play ..., Mar 6] A most interesting statement about sportsmen from Chan Akya, "Being fabulously wealthy and all too often cheating their way to achievement ... ". It could very well be applied to US national politicians, US investment bankers, US brokers and US CEOs. The national pastime in the US appears to be, "cheat your way to success".
Ron Mepwith
USA (Mar 9,'09)

Reading Taliban force a China switch [Mar 5], by Peter Lee, one feels that China has bitten off more than it can chew in Pakistan. The country's economy has almost collapsed and its secret agency uses terrorists to do its job. The government is now facing the rise of the Taliban and al-Qaeda in Pakistani society and a military that is not pleased with its US-backers. Pakistan has been China's key ally in containing India and playing a supporting role in South Asia. Now China is finding its ally is faltering, with the government's control over large parts of Pakistan slipping to the Taliban and the al-Qaeda. Yes, China has over committed itself, and this will become more apparent during the coming spring war when more and more of Pakistan's land becomes part of the battlefield.
Chrysantha Wijeyasingha
Clinton, USA (Mar 9,'09)

The war clouds of words are becoming thicker and more dense between Pyongyang and Seoul. And while North Korea fills the air with threats [Mar 6] offers background material, it doesn't give word on the outcome of the meeting of senior military staff representing the United Nations Command and North Korea, which was held last week at the border. The war of words between South and North Korea is "distinctly unhelpful". It is not unreasonable to suggest that South Korea's president Lee Myung-bak's aggressive policy towards the North increasingly, and unintentionally, reveals his fear that Washington will come to a practical compromise which will make him lose face.
Mel Cooper
Singapore (Mar 9,'09)

[Re Nepal raises brows with envoy postings, Feb 25] As noted in the article, Sukhdev Shah (nominee to be Nepal's ambassador to the US), has been away from Nepal for over 30 years. Since the people's movement in 1990, Nepal has gone downhill and thousands have lost their lives in insurgencies. Children born during the movements in 1990 will now be 19 years old. All their lives these young citizens of Nepal have seen violence, deaths, darkness and fear. Nepal is not the same as 30 years ago. And the reality of Nepal can not be understood just by reading its headline news. To represent the nation as an ambassador, the nominee at least needs to know what he is representing.
Chanda Upadhaya
Canada (Mar 9,'09)

Ramzy Baroud, in Was Hamas the work of the Israeli Mossad?, Mar 5), has asked a rhetorical question. Since the Beirut US Marine base bombing in 1983, the US has contracted out their Middle East intelligence work to Mossad; a policy which started from 1979 after the fall of the Shah of Iran and the embassy hostage saga. Mossad's priority naturally is to look after the interest of Israel first. This colors the presentation of their "findings" to their pay master - the US administration. ... For this kind of financial support, they got "irrefutable" intelligence of Iraqi WMDs [weapons of mass destruction] and now they are supplying similar data on Iran!
TutuG
UK (Mar 6,'09)

[Re Gandhi's glasses and a rabbit's head, Mar 5] There is little that Sreeram Chaulia can do about the sanctity of private property in the US and France. However, through negotiations and patience the looted Chinese bronze fountainheads and Gandhi's spectacles will return to China and India. The dramatic spotlighting of these two cultural "momenti mori" are proving an embarrassment to auction houses. In China's case covert bidding from Beijing to reclaim the two bronzes which the Yves St Laurent estate put up for public bidding, whose bid bought the items, and then refused to pay, served as a warning to others who try to sell ill-gotten cultural gains of the past. For India, who will bid for Gandhi's eyeglasses, the amount paid will reclaim a "sacred" artifact of India's founder. In broader perspective, the return of stolen relics or artifacts has gained in prominence. Look at Yale University's handing back to Native American tribes the bones of their ancestors. Or the return to Italy by New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art of Italian art bought illegally. ... Naturally, these examples are the tip of the iceberg of stolen cultural patrimony, a "crime" which is alas in the common weave of the cloth of conquerors through recorded history. Yet at rare moments, through shame and persistence, the weapons of the "weak" can prevail.
Nakamura Junzo
Guam (Mar 6,'09)

[Re Gandhi's glasses and a rabbit's head, Mar 5] This article is a sad indictment of India's apathy to regain the very best of her culture. None of Mahatma Gandhi's few, and I mean few, articles that he possessed were not considered central to India's independence and the unique formula that Mahatma Gandhi offered for independence. These personal items should have been taken as national treasures of the Indian state the moment the Mahatma passed away. The very fact that it is an issue in 2009 is scandalous. As far as the Chinese statues, they were stolen. The few belongings of the "Father of India" is currently under auction and may go to some foreigner. ...This is especially sad since it was the fault of the Indian officials who should have procured the Mahatma's items. Again, shame on India.
Chrysantha Wijeyasingha
Clinton, USA (Mar 6,'09)

It has been a rather long time since I read in your excellent journal an article by Henry C K Liu. Is he on vacation or something? His contributions are always missed.
M de la Torre PhD
Sweden (Mar 5,'09)

Please see today's article, The song stays the same, which is the first of a new series: Obama, change and China - ATol

Richard M Bennett's story, A reality check on Iran and the 'bomb' [Feb 28], comes across as being neutral, but it is just a repeat of the "echo chamber" that was used to launch the war against Iraq. Bennett fails to mention that currently Iran has only enriched uranium to the 4% level, which is a far cry from the 93% needed for a nuke. And that going from 4% enrichment to 93% is an exponential step, not a linear one. The "echo chamber" is being ramped up for this next war against another "existential" enemy of Israel, Iran, by the likes of the "United Against Nuclear Iran". And by stories being leaked that Iran is smuggling "yellowcake" out of the Congo. Where have we heard this kind of line before? Bennett fails to mention the leading cause of unrest in the Middle East, Israel's possession of over 200 nukes and its treatment of Palestinians. Americans have been brainwashed many times that Iran is some type of Islamic head case, lead by "mad mullahs" who have scores of devoted followers. If that is true, then how can one ignore that their head ayatollah said that having or making nuclear weapons is a big no-no?
Greg Bacon
Ava, Missouri (Mar 5,'09)

[Re Pakistan's militants ready for more, Mar 4] Ever since I began reading Asia Times Online, in the past several years I found Mr Syed Saleem Shahzad's columns very informative and insightful. Other reputable writers have made similar observations on the political health of Pakistan and Afghanistan, but he is bold, candid and critical in his reporting. I wonder if it is because he loves his country but has turned disillusioned and bitter because politicians, generals and religious fanatics have driven it into its present state of misery? Until better times in the future, I suggest he write under a pseudonym and not publish his photo as you did in your online paper last time.
Kamath
Canada (Mar 5,'09)

[Re Pakistan's militants ready for more, Mar 4] Dear Syed Saleem Shahzad, I am an avid reader of Asia Times Online. I must congratulate you on the quality of your reports which I find to be the best source of factual reporting on events in South Asia. I am always pleased to open up ATol and see a new article written by you.
Lachlan Watts
Melbourne, Australia (Mar 5,'09)

Iran could learn something from North Korea when it comes to missile technology, but Peter J Brown's Iran eases Pyongyang's launch [Mar 4] appears to put the cart before the horse. Pyongyang has been ahead of the curve in developing and improving advances in rocketry; if one looks at the record, one of its earliest clients was Egypt and later Pakistan. Brown's two-part contribution is peppered with the voice of analysts, the military, and scientists, yet it suffers from a longer historical view, and in a way, reinforces the former US president George W Bush's branding of North Korea and Iran as "axis of evil" states. The reader at one point feels that Brown's depiction of Pyongyang's announced launch of a telecommunication satellite borders on the apocalyptic, with its voiceover from an American naval officer ready for all-out war if the Taepodong 2 missile carrying the Kwangmyongsong 2 satellite is launched. Has he forgotten that US's existential fear is that North Korea has nuclear weapons and might respond manu militari to parry an invitation to a war? The way to deal with North Korea is through negotiations and a strong political will to settle tensions, not through a revival of the Cold War. ... Foot-dragging by the US or its South Korean and Japanese allies feed the anger of North Korea, which sees itself as a proud heir to a 5,000 year-old civilization and defender of its independence ... It is time to dispel the stigma of dealing with Pyongyang on an equal footing; it is also time to prick the bubble of Cold War phobias and come to grips with imaginative and concrete solutions of welcoming Pyongyang as an equal to any settlement which deals with its nuclear and advanced rocketry programs. But Brown's articles do not allow for this contingency and turn up the flame of confrontation with North Korea. A more level-headed approach is called for.
Mel Cooper
Singapore (Mar 5,'09)

[Re Pakistan's militants ready for more, Mar 4] The terrorist attack in Lahore on March 3 not only targeted the lives of the Sri Lankan cricket team but also the internal stability of Pakistan and its credibility as a viable state. The pictures coming out of international TV remind me of Hollywood cowboy movies when cowboys took whole towns hostage and then walked away with smoking guns. It shocked me profoundly and I felt so ashamed that this nuclear power [Pakistan] was so inept at providing safety to its own people and to the Sri Lankan cricketers touring Pakistan despite all risks. Despite assurances given by the prime minister that the Sri Lankan team would be provided foolproof security during their tour; it failed miserably to do so. I blame the government of Pakistan and in particular Interior Minister Rehman Malik for his abject failure to ensure the safety of the team and for the loss of eight brave eight police officers who were neither adequately equipped or trained for this kind of horrendous emergency ... If Rehman Malik has any decency, he must resign from his post along with the governor of Punjab and senior police officers responsible for the protection for citizens of Lahore and foreign guests. I also blame President Asif Ali Zardari for his "kitchen-sink politics", and believing that he could "fix" anyone who dared challenge his authority and position.
Saqib Khan
UK (Mar 5,'09)

[Re Protectionism a dirty ASEAN word, Mar 2] It still baffles me that even after the turmoil of 1997-8 in Southeast Asia during the financial crisis that we still have government leaders that advocate "anti-protectionist" and radical free-market policies that do not adequately regulate corporations and stock markets. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations' leaders (who largely represent Southeast Asia's elites, not the working masses) still want to believe that Southeast Asian countries can survive with export-oriented economies that are completely dependent on the fluctuations of global markets, including the crisis-ridden US market. Southeast Asian countries would be better off investing in public education, health, clean-energy technology, and sustainable agriculture and localized food systems; forcing corporations to respect workers and not destroy the environment; and preventing out-of-control speculation and gambling in stock markets. The economics departments of the University of Chicago, Harvard, Stanford, etc ... have done a good job of brainwashing many Southeast Asian elites into believing that greed and the pursuit of profits on a multinational, macroeconomic scale would bring about great prosperity that would trickle down from the super-rich class to everyone else. Many of them continue to believe this, despite evidence that the gap between rich and poor has widened to shameful levels from the Philippines to Indonesia to Vietnam to Cambodia. Free-market capitalism provides an ideological justification for human greed, resulting in worsening inequality, poverty, and degradation. Local, national, and international Southeast Asian social justice movements provide hope for bringing about the "change that we need" in our region of the world.
Gugurang
Manila, Philippines (Mar 4,'09)

[Re Outhouse politics, Mar 3] A concerted campaign is afoot to undermine US President Barack Obama's stimulus program. It is taking the shape of a "coup" by the very elements who abhor the idea of nationalizing "assets", albeit temporarily, in order to cleanse them of toxic holdings, during the most dire economic downturn in the US and the world since the end of World War II. It needs little persuasion to join this boycott by the very parties who contributed slavishly and untiringly to expand the housing bubble which blew up in our faces. Americans, as Julian Delasantellis points out, have short historical memories; they tend to look over examples of Washington's seizing national assets. So long steeped in the myth that the government should stay out of business' and the financial industry's way, they have come to believe that the liberal economic system functions very well without government interference, even though they full well know that capitalism favors the private sector through direct subsidies or favorable tax breaks. Delasantellis and Nouriel Roubini are right to underscore the weaknesses in Obama's stimulus package when it comes to the banks. Although US Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner is a smooth tactician, the Treasury's plans to rescue to banks are bound to failure as long as the federal government shies away from a serious housecleaning of the financial industry's bad practices and sorry mismanagement. Roubini has called it right; he is no-nonsense in his approach; his Cassandra-like pronouncements have so far fallen on deaf ears. It is hoped that Obama or someone in Washington is willing to listen to him, and to take his advice. So far, Washington is intent on repeating the pitiful example of Japan. A more rapid and robust approach is sorely needed, and only that will turn banks around because the taxpayer's dollar however briefly owns them and will restore them to good, practical dollars and sense.
Nakamura Junzo
Guam (Mar 4,'09)

As much as US President Barack Obama wants to paint himself as the "Great Changer", he may be too much a creature of his culture to be anything more than the "Great Tinkerer". As this latest blow to US-style capitalism has attempted to teach him, there is no throwing-money-at-the-problem solution, the age-old American answer to every challenge. The reason is simply because money is the problem. It's like trying to dam a flood coming from one direction with a counter-flood from the other; you will still wind up to your ying yang in H2O. Until Obama has a serious talk about the failure of American exceptionalism we will be merely preparing kindling for the next conflagration. Humility, the pie served by the gods to chastened mortals, needs to be served in large bowls to every citizen. The idea that we are God's chosen ones needs to be dispelled. Our religious devotion to America's rightful place in the sun needs to be disabused forever. The arrogance with which we have routinely alienated our friends and enemies alike needs to become a thing of the past. And the past itself needs to be spoken of honestly and forthrightly, without mythological sugarcoating and propagandistic bombast. The last eight years, with its wanton and flagrant abuses of every ideal and principle this country has ever held dear, needs to be investigated thoroughly and conclusively, and all its criminal malefactors brought to tardy justice, regardless of how lofty a title they once held. The system of greed-driven free-market capitalism needs to be overhauled and transformed so that not only are markets unable to become gigantic Ponzi schemes to enrich the few again, but also for the political system that has become addicted to corporate lucre to return to its disinterested devotion to the public weal. War as a routine and dominant form of US diplomacy needs to be shackled and subdued once more, for this beast has consumed our souls as well as our finances. The idea that Americans can loot and pillage the planet disproportionate to our percentage of the global population needs to be junked. The notion that consumption is equal to patriotism and that the world serves America at our behest needs to be banished. The dream of red, white and blue, Anglo-Saxon democracy from sea to shining sea requires a wake up call; people all over love freedom, to be sure, but they will define it in vastly different ways from corn farmers in Iowa or pulpit-bashing preachers in Alabama. The concept that people resent occupation on by other countries needs to be appreciated and understood, regardless of the nobility painting the occupation. The terror held in many American hearts at the ideas of socialism and wealth-equity needs to be dispelled. Our ambivalence to education needs to undergo a sea change in emphasis and discipline. Our sincerity in helping those less fortunate needs to become more than mindless chatter on Sunday morning. I would love to see Obama stand before the American people and say these things, as disruptive to the collective zeitgeist as they would be. These are revolutionary, gut-wrenching proposals, to be sure, that would require a paradigm shift the likes history has never witnessed. It is problematic that America can make a late change of this magnitude or scope, but then how many would have predicted Obama as president even a year ago?
Hardy Campbell
Houston TX USA (Mar 4,'09)

Dear Editor, Apropos the article, Cricket attack makes a shift in Pakistan[Mar 3] by Syed Saleem Shahzad, I once again appreciate the prompt reporting and excellent analysis. But I would treat the views of the former chief of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency, Hamid Gul, with extreme caution. This attack was clearly by Pakistani terrorists of the same ilk that attacked Mumbai, Indian Parliament, the Akshardham Temple, etc. Their aim in this attack was to kidnap the Sri Lankan cricket team and then negotiate release of some militants or other such concession from Pakistan establishment. By blaming the Indian spy agency RAW [Research and Analysis Wing] as a knee-jerk reaction, Hamid Gul is playing an old trick. What this will do is turn the focus away from the real perpetrators, giving them respite. This approach could then start or escalate covert and then maybe overt war between the two countries. This will destabilize Pakistan faster then anything else. This is also the aim of al-Qaeda, the Taliban and all other outfits like LeT [Lashkar-e-Toiba], etc. ... Once Pakistan destabilizes it will turn into something that no one has seen before, not in Afghanistan or even in Somalia.
D Bhardwaj
Chicago (Mar 4,'09)

I was really confused after reading Sreeram Chaulia's article Power play behind Bangladesh's mutiny [Mar 2], but not because of the fact that the article aimed to put blame of this massacre on "Islamists" without any proof. No, it is not because of that. Indian media and "researchers" like Sreeram play this blame game much too often. ... The article says " ... the two-day running battle between the BDR [Bangladesh Rifles] and the Bangladesh army ... "; there was absolutely no battle between army and the BDR. The BDR mutineers killed and massacred officers without the army's intervention as Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina convinced it not to interfere as that might endanger the lives of people stuck inside the BDR compound. Sreeram did not just stop there. The writer accused "some army officer" of conducting this heinous massacre without any proof. None of the reports in Bangladesh indicate any such thing. It does indicate this was planned. Sreeram Chaulia's article is full of accusations. But absolutely none of the accusations are backed up by a shred of evidence. This article is an attempt to incriminate anyone who opposes Indian influence in Bangladesh and makes no attempt to shed any light on truth.
Mir
Minnesota, USA (Mar 4,'09)

Mir's claim that the army did not engage in clashes with BDR is totally spurious. Let me direct readers to the BBC, which clearly says that the "mutiny by the border force was crushed by the army". How can the army crush a mutiny if it stood by and did not interfere? There's confirmation from eyewitnesses saying there was "crossfire between the army and the BDR". Secondly, outside Dhaka, reports abound of direct clashes between the army and the BDR mutineers. Mir can read the report in London's Daily Telegraph, which says "skirmishes between the BDR and the army were reported from Lalmonihat and Panchghar near the Bengal border, where the fighting is like between sworn enemies". Mir claims that I say in the article that "some army officer" conducted this heinous massacre. I only said "hints are emerging" and never stated this with certainty. If one makes a common-sense calculation, it will be clear that thousands of BDR rank and file could never have organized a coordinated revolt in so many towns across the country without their own officers' complicity. And, as a matter of fact, BDR officers are officers from the regular army. They are not recruited separately. I am betting there will be a purge within the regular army soon and this will be related to the investigations of the mutiny. - Sreeram Sundar Chaulia (Mar 4,'09)

The comments in Wu Zhong's A revolutionary rallying cry for students [Mar 2] on the Chinese graduate employment situation are not helpful or fair. The worldwide financial tsunami has caused many university graduates to lose their jobs and new graduates are unable to find jobs not only in China but also in many Western nations. The Chinese government's urging of graduates to go to the countryside is but one small way among many to try and alleviate the situation. Besides, talent is also required there. There is no need to make fun of Mao Zedong's cry for Chinese to find work in the countryside. As to restructuring university programs according to national needs, others could again criticize it on the grounds of blunting personal aspiration and freedom of learning, but it would be more helpful to think hard and suggest ways to tide over the difficult situation - which is not self-inflicted.
Seung Li (Mar 3,'09)

[Re North Korea warned of missile fall-out, Mar 2] Pyongyang called for urgent talks with the United Nations (UN) Command at Panmunjom last week. On Monday, as this article notes, senior generals from both sides met for the first time in six years at the 38th parallel to discuss a relaxation of tensions on the Korean Peninsula. Many things are in play here. One, Pyongyang has announced that it is preparing to launch the telecommunication satellite Kwangmyungsung No 2, on a long-range ballistic missile Taepodong 2; two, scheduled joint US-South Korean military exercises; and three, the complete collapse of dialogue between Seoul and Pyongyang, owing to South Korea's President Lee Myung-bak's scrapping of the Sunshine policy. Saying this, the majority of Pyongyang watchers seem to have lost sight of the fact that North Korea has a heightened sense of vulnerability, and an acute awareness of the past Korean war. In this war the initial thrust of the UN troops pushed to the Yalu River and there was utter devastation of North Korea in the early months of the war before, with the help of China's volunteers, the UN forces were rapidly pushed back below the 38th parallel. This past is the motivation for Pyongyang's call for a meeting with the UN command. The root of the seemingly "hostile", ideologically charged rhetoric and apparent "aggressiveness" that the North exhibits lies precisely in the memory of the carnage that it suffered 59 years ago. On the other hand, Seoul's heated rhetoric has revived the embers of South Korea's first president Syngman Rhee's desire to invade the North. Little wonder Pyongyang called for a meeting of senior military officers at Panmunjom; it is an opening to calm heated passions and cool warlike tempers. It is at Washington's peril, as representing the UN command, that it ignores the historical background of the continued instability on the divided Korean Peninsula.
Mel Cooper
Singapore (Mar 3,'09)

[Re Backstage at the theater of 'terror', Feb 26] There is no stye in "The Roving Eye" of Pepe Escobar. This nation (the USA) cannot put "hope" on hold in these most precarious times. Obama needs no replay of global policy from the same old George W Bush gang like [Defense Secretary Robert ] Gates, [special envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan Richard] Holbrooke, and [Centcom Commander General David] Petraeus; this is retro-foul play, playing out the same imperialistic policies, again. Somebody has to get real here and find [US President Barack] Obama credible, intelligent advice; the advisor he needs - and there is none better for this hour than the brilliance of Pepe Escobar. But how to get him there from here - from Asia Times Online to the White House - there's the rub.
Beryl K Gullsgate
Minnesota, USA (Mar 2,'09)

[Re A reality check on Iran and the 'bomb' , Feb 28] Dear Editor, One explanation of [UK Minister of Justice] Jack Straw's decision that the public should not know of the British cabinet's discussions preceding the Iraq war is that politicians everywhere are becoming more concerned that they may, in future, be held to account for apparent war crimes ... This concern for future justice may also explain why, though our government made public the US Attorney General's advice on the legality of the Iraq War, they have refused to make public advice on the legality of whether the apparently even more dubious bombing of Yugoslavia was lawful or criminal ... Many things happened in Kosovo under our [the UK's] occupation, such as the numerous massacres of civilians, the ethnic cleansing of 350,000; the kidnap of tens of thousands of schoolgirls (and boys) and their sale to Western brothels and the kidnap and dissection of at least 1,300 Serbian teens and their sale, in bits, to our hospitals ... It is unfortunate and almost inexplicable that these atrocities, some of them at least matching any act of Adolf Hitler, have gone essentially unreported by our media. Meanwhile, many innocent people, like the popular moderate Bosnian Muslim politician Fikret Abdic, whose only "crimes" were to support the survival of a multicultural state and to oppose the press gangs of al-Qaeda - then our convenient allies - languishes in jail.
Neil Craig
Glasgow (Mar 2,'09)

[Re Pyongyang plays the puppet master, Feb 28] North Korea's Kim Jong-il is no Geppetto, and US President Barack Obama and his team are no Pinocchios. It is a fanciful notion that Pyongyang is pulling and jerking Washington this way and that. The plain truth is that in order to afford maximum support to a common approach toward Pyongyang, the US has to have agreement among the parties at the six-power talks. This is clearly lacking since Japan and South Korea refuse to follow Washington's lead. An alternative would be direct talks and negotiations with North Korea, which for multiple reasons the US rejects out of hand. With this lack of consensus, it stands to reason that in his speech in the House of Representatives, Obama spoke of attainable goals. The American president is a prudent man; he will not stake out a position, say in the matter of North Korea, where there is a lack of harmony among interested parties. On the other hand, he is willing to keep channels open to the North so that Washington will not have another rude awakening, as it did from Pyongyang's testing of a nuclear bomb.
Mel Cooper
Singapore (Mar 2,'09)

In China closes the door on Tibet [Feb 26], by Kent Ewing, he states, "So far, the Chinese leadership has been content to wait for the Dalai Lama's death while swarming the region with Han Chinese, who have brought with them modern infrastructure, education, the Chinese legal system and impressive, if ill-distributed, economic growth. All these advances, leaders reckoned, would be received with due gratitude and appreciation." First, will such a policy of recognition of the eventuality of the death of the Dalai Lama, coercive mutual cultural dilution and bringing modernity to the Tibetan region be effective? Second, in what way would it be effective? Would "gratitude" or "appreciation" be necessary toward peaceful assimilation, specifically? I think the former is affirmative: in a few generations such policy will be effective toward assimilation. One should compare such policy with forced busing [the practice of attempting to integrate schools by assigning students to schools based primarily on race] in the USA, against the choice of 85% of black parents. Isn't forced busing a barefaced infringement of the freedom of association? Isn't the freedom of association, to choose with whom one associates, a part of civil rights? Certainly, but assimilation is rightly the overriding national objective. Second, while minority "gratitude" is not relevant, "appreciation" will be palpable and seminal ... He continues: "But China will never truly bring Tibet into the fold of the nation unless it stops trying to win over Tibetans by beating down their protests, emptying their monasteries and smothering their cultural traditions." I ask if the USA will ever bring black Americans into its fold as it forced black children to mix with white children by busing, as in so doing it still does not respect their cultural uniqueness. For the Hawaiians, why did the US Senate, citing the "American tradition of assimilation", reject the Akaka Bill, which would have given the Hawaiians greater cultural autonomy? Would the USA ever bring the Hawaiians into its fold by extending the "American tradition of assimilation"? Which country, China or the USA, really has the greater "tradition of assimilation"?
Jeff Church
USA (Mar 2,'09)

Dear Editor, Upon a glance over the modern history of political blunders, one observation stands out: absolute power blinds absolutely! For example, take dictators like former Pakistan president Pervez Musharraf and Iraq's Saddam Hussein, or fascists like Adolf Hitler and Slobodan Milosevic, all of them were blind-sided when they thought they had consolidated absolute power. The only explanation of the sudden death of their political eminence is that such people must live in a state that disconnects them from reality. Perhaps, a "yes-man" induced blindness cloaks the public's intolerance for their shenanigans. By all accounts, Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari too has surrounded himself with a small circle of courtiers, none of whom can see the mood on the street. By appointing governors, he too has tried to maximize his power. Unless the Zardari presidency has new tricks up its sleeves, it is primed to become yet another statistic of historical blunders.
Adnan Gill
Los Angeles (Mar 2,'09)

[Re Running on empty, Feb 28] I strongly feel that such articles emphasizing the purchase of gold should at least have a "disclaimer" in that the possible origins of gold should be emphasized. Corporations involved in mineral loot or the financial (indirect) backing of criminal gangs, organizations or militias involved in "territorial violence" should not be allowed to benefit from the predicted "gold craze" - the readers should at least be conscious of these possible effects. On the other hand, I don't know what's being done by the banks with my savings, and what's being done with my pension - I guess indirectly, in that respect, we all might have some blood on our hands. naga_p
Holland (Mar 2,'09)

Dear Editors, Thank you for the theoretically rich yet insightful piece on connection between axis of evil and the new terminology that demonizes Iran From axis of evil to clenched fists[Feb 28]. As someone who reads Asia Times Online every day, I am sometimes amazed at your ability to keep up so admirably with the challenge of publishing so many great articles on world affairs that are fresh and original. Keep it up.
Tim Bowen (Mar 2,'09)

February Letters

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