|
|
|
|
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.
August 2010
Wonderland myths are spun out of whole cloth in order to bolster American's
self-image. These fairy tales have become the sine qua non of the US
media, constantly one-upping each other in promoting lies and quasi-truths.
So my pricking of just one of those ephemeral balloons carries little risk of
any Wonderlander pausing to reflect on the wisdom of destroying countries as a
way of promoting democracy and freedom or questioning how their past prosperity
was founded on the crushed skeletons of Third Worlders. But the tale of George
W Bush's "victorious" surge in Iraq merits special attention, as it represents
the way Americans rationalize their crimes, justify their sins and whitewash
their lies. Much has been made of our "valiant" troops stemming the tide of
jihadist mayhem in Iraq with their martial ardor, allowing feeble but rooted
democracy to make halting progress.
Bush's vision of the surge as being just what the nation-building doctor
ordered to reverse the course of a losing war was widely praised, even
grudgingly by his Democratic opponents. What unmitigated hogwash! Here's the
truth, Wonderlanders:
The laissez faire free market capitalist Bush quelled the unstoppable Iraqi
liberation movement not with more guns and grunts on the ground but by
negotiating with "terrorists" and making compromises, sweetheart deals and
surrendering power in key districts with the very jihadists he swore would
"never win." In effect, he acknowledged that they had won, and brokered a
face-saving deal. His troops stopped being cowboys shooting everything in sight
and got into the protection racket, not unlike those other erstwhile defenders
of laissez faire capitalism, the mob. The Pentagon's puppets cajoled, made
bargains, divided and conquered with favors, bribes, feigned threats and
favoritism, to become passive power brokers amongst all of the competing
factions maneuvering for political space in the soon-to-be-(theoretically)-
American-less Iraqi "democracy."
The surge translated into a surge of non-military dollars used for kickbacks,
fakework contracts, and campaign funds, just the kind of domestic chicanery the
Bush mob was so well known for here in Texas. But the myth of the surge serves
to reinforce the testosterone-deprived Wonderlander male into thinking they're
still relevant in the rapidly de-Americanizing universe. And Obama can surge
all he wants in Afghanistan; the Taliban eat surges for breakfast.
Hardy Campbell
Houston, United States (Aug 31, '10)
[Re Allen Quicke,
obituary, Aug 18] Words cannot adequately describe how much we're all
indebted to Allen Quicke for having created and nurtured a publication that
stands above the rest by seeking to inform and educate its readership rather
than to confuse and mislead with disinformation. May you rest in peace, Allen;
your life positively impacted many others.
John Chen
United States (Aug 31, '10)
[Re The great
chess game of the Middle East, Aug 26] Confusion reigns in the Middle
East. The appointment of a new Israeli chief of staff has more to do with the
"existential threat" Hamas represents than fear of Iran. Thanks to Israel's
heavy handedness, Turkey has tipped America's apple cart. Now the region is
thrown open to many players with different and differing agendas.
Never before has the US been in a weak posture in the Middle East. US President
Barack Obama's attempt to solve the Israeli Palestinian nut will fail owing to
Israeli intransigeance, although it may satisfy the Jewish vote in America's by
elections. US policy is in tatters which allows more room for Russia and France
and gives more play to Arab states to have a larger say.
Iran is more a bugaboo to stampede naive US law makers into bolstering Israel's
loss of prestige and power.
Abraham Bin Yiju
Palermo, Italy (Aug 30, '10)
[Re Allen Quicke,
obituary, Aug 19] Asia Times Online is undoubtedly one of the best
online newspapers and I am very proud to be part of it every once in a while.
Allen Quicke, whom I met once in Hua Hun in 2003, gave me the chance to be part
of the ATol back in 2001 and I will always be grateful for this. Over the years
working with the ATol has been fun and very efficient. Judging by the steadily
increasing readership, Allen was doing a great job. My thoughts are with him.
Axel Berkofsky
Florence, Italy (Aug 30, '10)
On August 29, the 5th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina's illegal immigration to
the United States of Wonderland was commemorated with a full spectrum dominance
of human emotions; bitterness, regret, remembrance, thanks, hope, charity and
good ol' Nawlins (that's "Big Easy" in non-Cajun lingo) joie d' vivre.
But the music, food and solemnity cannot mask the central tragedy of America;
that like most of the crises of the last 10 years, the one in Louisiana was
caused by government corruption, complacency and willful neglect, rather than
some "unforeseen" event.
The levees that should have been designed to withstand such an event failed,
but not because Mother Nature unleashed an unprecedented fury of Biblical
proportions. No, they failed because the Army Corps of Engineers, just like the
government's Minerals Management Service dalliance with BP or the SEC's cozy
fraternity with Wall Street, caved in to contractor demands to loosen this
vital requirement or ignore that design stipulation, making the levee system
that finally was constructed doomed to fail in even a relatively modest storm
(despite all the self-serving Monster Hurricane propaganda).
It's the second oldest game in town (the first brothels were doubtless built by
corner-shaving cave-contractors), and one made easy with endless money to bribe
inspectors, regulators and politicians to bend, massage and distort this or
that rule. But it would be naive to suggest that this is limited to the public
sector; "private" industry malfeasance may be even more pervasive. Perhaps the
greatest tragedy in Wonderland is how systemic and deep rooted this legacy of
acquiescence to contractor's demands has become. It's the inevitable result of
the dogmatic mantra of the free enterprise/democracy/freedom loon-tune tyrants
who demand that the invisible hand of the market be allowed to put money into
the regulators' pockets so they can look the other way and let the contractors
supplying the (fill in the blank) collateralized derivatives/blowout preventer
stacks/levees/military hardware do whatever they want to maximize profits.
The capitalist myth about self-regulating markets should have been exposed long
ago as the lie-sham it is, but no, in Wonderland, multiple-times burned means
infinite-times willing to get burned anew.
The siren song of Me-Get-Rich has beguiled Americans into ignoring how their
own government actively conspires against their best interests on a daily
basis, allowing big corporations and greedy congressmen to rape the country
blind and then hold up its raped citizens by their ankles so they can pay for
the rapists' inconvenience with whatever loose change they may still have in
their empty pockets. By now, Wonderlanders are so used to seeing the world
topsy turvy that this Depression looks like a Clintonian boom. No Wonder.
Hardy Campbell
United States (Aug 30, '10)
[Re Humiliation, the North
Korean way, Aug 25] The North Korean team is lucky that they were not
executed in a public ceremony. What really strikes me is how some people call
this barbaric humiliation a "public humbling of self". But even more striking
is how this dictatorial act of humiliating a team is compared with to free
exercise of the press.
In America we can say whatever we want, whenever we want, and we criticize our
leaders by screaming our lungs out if necessary. Our press is free to write
about what they want, when they want and it is a sacred principle. Our first
amendment protects offensive speech. For a person who aggrandizes a failed,
starving state such as North Korea is very difficult to understand the concepts
of freedom of the press and freedom of speech.
Developed countries do not respond to some "little Napoleon" or some scum like
the vermin that runs North Korea to his whim. In addition, the American public
could care less about soccer, so no hearings were hold to humiliate the members
of the national team. In fact, the press was very positive about its
performance given the little relevance of that sport in our soil.
Ysais Martinez
United States (Aug 27, '10)
[Re Kim snubs Carter as
realities intrude, Aug 26] Weighing what goes on in North Korea is not
easy. At times it is as though you're looking at your own reflection in the
mirror of your mind. Such is the case in former United States President Jimmy
Carter's "private" visit of mercy. His coming to Pyongyang for the release of
Aijalon Mahli Gomes would not have happened for at least two reasons: one, Kim
Jong-il's request of Carter, who is well thought of in North Korea; and two,
the approval of US President Barack Obama.
The front page of the Financial Times prominently featured a photo of Carter
standing next to Kim Yong-nam, president of the Supreme People's Assembly. This
well-placed picture should alert us in the West that something more is afoot in
US-North Koreans relations than an act of mercy. Kim Jong-il did not "snub"
Carter. His unannounced trip to Beijing probably has more to do with working
out a scenario of North Korea's return to the six-party talks and perhaps a
secret meeting with American high-ranking diplomats to calm the choppy waters
stirred up by the joint US-South Korean propaganda war.
It should be obvious now that China has little to say about Kim Jong-il's
succession and more to act like a venue that Warsaw was when the US and China
engaged in talks in the 1960s.
Nakamura Junzo
Guam (Aug 27, '10)
If an alien from another galaxy decided to tune into Asia Times Online letters
section, they would conclude two things:
1. Earthlings have different opinions.
2. North Korea must be one of the largest countries on the planet.
Whereas the first seems self-evident and would not be subject to debate , the
second assumption would require some geography, some history and then a
convoluted explanation of human proclivities to make mountains out of muons in
order to refute the alien misconception.
The extraordinary attention paid to the Hermit Kingdom by the media and the
Great Powers is reflected in these letters, which debate the politics and
psychology of the struggle to make Kim Jong-il's socialist paradise act like
the two-bit, wrecked economy we say it is. That one of the poorest and smallest
nations on this third rock from the sun merits such attention, allegedly over
nuclear weapons and sunken boats, would seem to these intelligent visitors a
logical conundrum.
Lacking knowledge of how things work here on Terra, a helpful human might
suggest that it serves a multitude of interests to have a constant threat
hanging over heads, but ideally not too large a threat. The analogy we would
make might involve simmering pots, in which we case we would need to explain
how keeping things to just below a boil keeps things from spilling over and
turning serious, whereas lots of steam and bubbles serve to generate new
defense contracts and congressional appropriations.
Even though the manufacturing of an imaginary al-Qaeda phantom-menace serves
the purpose of an eternal bogeyman without borders, there still exits a
fondness for commie loons with nukes amongst the Pentagon's Cold Warriors.
North Korea serves everyone's purposes just fine, thank you very much, so there
is no likelihood of the "threat" going away soon.
The alien would no doubt be puzzled, and we be hard pressed to explain how fear
is routinely used for some humans to profit at a majority's expense. The alien
would depart, justifiably perplexed at how humans frame their lives around
variations of North Korea in their everyday lives, from TV scare ads on heart
disease and erectile dysfunction to diminished sex appeal for baldies to fear
mongering on neighborhood mosques.
As he speeds away into the universe, I don't have the courage to tell him that
his race would make a perfect fear-foil for Fox News next time he returns.
Hardy Campbell
United States (Aug 27, '10)
[Re Humiliation, the North
Korean way, Aug 25] National football (soccer) teams at the World Cup
embody the hopes and aspirations of their countries. The collapse of the DPRK
team's defense during the second half of the game with a strong Portuguese side
was a rout; Portugal easily scored seven goals. And if North Korean players had
any hope of a win like that in 1996 against Italy, the 1962 champions, that
dream was never to be.
Kay Seok describes the public self-criticism of the North Korean 11 on their
return to Pyongyang. Six hours of a public humbling of self in order to explain
failure to live up to the ambitions of a nation in the international arena is
punishment enough without further consequences.
One is tempted to think of the consequences of the United States team going
down to such a defeat.
There would of course be no public trial in a stadium. The Americans' poor
performance would be unmercifully tried in the media. There would be endless
parsing of the defense, and the faults of the players. Sport writers in print,
on television or radio would pillory them. Bloggers would rake them over the
coals in condescending piety. Nakamura Junzo Guam
(Aug 26, '10)
[Re Reason to pause,
Aug 23] When it comes to writing about Islam, Spengler regurgitates a lot that
he has written a few years back. And going by the recent article, it is evident
that he is stuck with the same old pet philosophers and that any new endeavor
to widen the horizon on the subject he writes is seriously lacking.
While this is all too familiar for many knowledgeable readers of AToI, for
those who see Spengler's writing in awe, I wonder what conclusion they should
reach when he writes "Pagan society worships itself, its blood and its land" in
the context of conflict in Middle East, as he labors along to link Islam to
paganism.
Harris Hr (Aug 26, '10)
[Re Carter linked to
Pyongyang mission, Aug 24] Aijalon Mahli Gomes, the US citizen
condemned to hard labor in North Korea, underwent recently a medical
examination under the watchful eye of the Swiss embassy, which represents
United States interests in North Korea. Gomes is being well treated, it seems.
Is the medical visit a prelude to his being freed? It is hard to say. Let's not
forget Kim Jong-il turned over the two female journalists also sentenced to a
long term of hard labor to Bill Clinton as a gesture of goodwill. US President
Barack Obama reciprocated by hardening his policy towards Pyongyang through
economic sanctions, military exercises, and a war of words. So you have to
wonder why North Korea would now want to release Gomes without a thaw in
America's cold war against North Korea?
Nakamura Junzo Guam (Aug 25, '10)
[Re Reason to pause,
Aug 23] "Reilly argues that Western civilization, is founded on reason, whereas
normative Islam embraces irrationality." - Spengler's Book Review What a
bunch of crap! "Western" and "Islamic" civilizations are Siamese twins, not
only identical but unable to escape one another! Anyone who thinks "Western"
civilization is especially rational has not watched 10 minutes of TV in the US.
(I recommend TBN or Fox for examples.) Probably they've slept through the
entire Bush administration, like Rip Van Winkel! Spengler calling Islam (or
anyone) irrational is the pot calling the kettle black! Keep him nonetheless.
Indians, Southeast Asians and Chinese people need to know just how ignorant and
bigoted "educated" Westerners can be. I'm sure he'd shoot you all in ditches
next to the Muslim's ditch. Lester Ness
Kunming, China (Aug 25, '10)
[Re Bushehr: Iran's
strike against sanctions, Aug 23] Another first-rate political analysis
by Kaveh Afrasiabi: As usual, Afrasiabi commands our attention to the various
subtle geopolitical aspects that are often ignored in other similar articles.
His point about Putin is well-taken, as is his criticism of Iran's
one-dimensional military doctrine that gives the article a more hawkish
demeanor.
Tim Bowen
Toronto, Canada (Aug 24, '10)
[Re Reason to pause,
Aug 23] The articles regarding Asia written by your correspondents are superb,
yet you have this rabid, Islam-hating writer Spengler who only provides
half-truths about Islam. Related to the book review is his article regarding
wife-beating.
Without going into great detail, the limits on "beating" are explained in the
secondary sources (Hadith), which state that the wife should only be "beaten"
using a miswak, which is a stick akin to a half-sized toothbrush, and
has the same role. So, he can't poke her eye with it or stick it up her
nostril; the effect of "beating" is not physical, but psychological, and is
dependent upon the husband being an upright Muslim.
Is this rule abused by some husbands? Absolutely, but then these Muslim
husbands are acting no differently than Spengler by selectively using scripture
to justify their own ends. Anti-Spengler (Aug
24, '10)
[Re Rising China tests the
waters, Aug 19] China has long declared that legitimate passage through
South China Sea will be unhindered. USS Impeccable was not an innocent
legitimate passage. Let the claimant countries show evidences that these
islands belong to them. They can't! To involve other ASEAN countries which are
not on this issue will be a waste of their time.
Settlement of the issue bilaterally will facilitate the ease in negotiations as
each claimant country has their own needs and negotiations will not be dragged
on by one or two trouble makers which have other ulterior motives. One does not
need to be a military analyst to understand that a naval exercise practising
rescue operations does not require the use of a nuclear aircraft carrier. Wendy
Cai
United States (Aug 20, '10)
Re No rush to pride,
Aug 19] Recently it was revealed that China has already taken second place in
the world by GDP (behind the USA) replacing Japan. The author asked: ''When
will China's GDP surpass that of the US?'' and then says, ''The answer
primarily depends on the method of accounting…''
This is very essential! Let us elaborate on the accounting. We shall see that
if services in China and the USA are valued equally, then China’s GDP is
already surpassing that of United States.
The Gross Domestic Product of a country is the single most important measure of
macroeconomic performance. Countries can use their GDP to justify different
quotas, like energy consumption.
GDP is defined as the market value of all final goods and services produced
domestically in a single year. It is important to notice that the GDP of a
given country depend very much on the price of services in this country.
At present, the US Gross Domestic Product is evaluated at about 14 trillion
dollars (not adjusted for inflation). More precisely, the World Bank gives the
number 14,256,300 million; see
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(nominal)).
While prices of some goods, like cars, computers and TV sets are similar all
over the world, prices of services differ very much from country to country. In
Western Europe, Japan and the US services are very expensive. In other places,
like many Asian and African countries, services can be very cheap. In the same
way, wages in Western Europe, Japan and the US are higher compared to the rest
of the world.
The federal minimum wage in the United States is US$7.25 per hour, which makes
about $15,000 per year. Let us compare this to China. Recently, the city of
Beijing has decided to raise its minimum wage by 20%, to 960 Yuan ($140) a
month, which is about $1,700 per year. Other cities in China most likely will
follow soon. Even with this raise though, wages in China are still about ten
times lower than wages in the US.
Correspondingly, services in China are about 10 times cheaper. For example, a
simple haircut in China is in the vicinity of $1.5 (although prices vary in
different places from 50 cents to $3). Medical cost and lawyer compensations in
China are about 10 times cheaper too.
Possibly many services in the US are of better quality and more valuable than
in China, but may be not ten times better. After all, a haircut is a just a
haircut all over the world.
It is easy to see that the difference in service prices contributes to the
difference in GDP. In 2009, the service sector in the US contributed about 77%
to its GDP. This means the service sector was responsible for approximately
$10.9 trillion dollars of US GDP. Thus the rest of the GDP is about $3.3
trillion.
If we assume that services in China and the USA are equally valuable, of equal
quality, then we have to assume that in order to compare US and China services
we have to rescale the amount $10.9 trillion - divide it by 10. We arrive at
the number $1.09 trillion.
Thus the adjusted US GDP becomes 1.09 + 3.3 = 4.39 trillion dollars.
According to the World Bank, China's GDP in 2009 was about $4.9 trillion, which
is bigger.
Mladen Bonev,
Economist and political analyst, Bulgaria (Aug 20,
'10)
[Re Dr Keynes
killed the patient, Aug 18] The free marketeers simply won't admit
mistakes. Dr Keynes did not kill the patient, but the non-thinking adepts of
Milton Friedman and the Austrian Friedrich Hayek. The attentive ear will pick
up the gnashing of teeth and endless tears of the free marketeers that given
time the market is always right and will heal itself. This ostrich attitude
defies the laws of gravity and the deep recession they threw the world into.
The problem was in the US, a too cautious dosage of Dr Keynes medicine. And
today we see the results in a sluggish recovery. And now what do we hear from
those free marketeers who landed us into this mess, the same old nostrums which
benefit them and penalize everyone else. In one day they destroyed the Rome of
capitalism and expect that in incanting the old hoary prayers it would restore
it the next.
Nakamura Junzo
Guam (Aug 19, '10)
Mediocrity, a sage once said, is the legacy of greatness (okay, the sage was
me). Oh, how Wonderlanders would welcome mediocrity these days. Virtually
everything Wonderlanders touch these days results in fiascoes, debacles and
boondoggles. Subdue a small Third World nation barely out of the stone age?
Impossible! Catch one tall turbaned "terrorist" after 10 years of futile
pursuit? Laughable! Reform a banking system designed to destroy whole sectors
of the US economy? Ridiculous! Educate your children to add or subtract or
write a coherent sentence? Are you joking? Keep your industry here to preserve
your middle class? Only a commie would suggest such foolishness!
Like Alice in her own saner and rational Wonderland, I observe things on a
regular basis that hardcore fiction writers would be hard-pressed to pen
without flinching. Politicians (all too often Texan and Republican) standing
before a TV camera and warning of "terrorist baby" sleeper cells, bailed-out
bankers claiming theirs is a divinely inspired profession, economists pumping
and dumping fake value stocks with Cheshire-cat sincerity, scams, ripoffs and
con jobs portrayed by the media as sound investments, bottomless-pit corruption
hidden behind patriotic smoke. In a land where stupidity, incompetence,
conformity, moral blindness and idiocy are valued above else, the future is
clearly written. Too bad most of its citizens are too illiterate to know what
that says.
Hardy Campbell
United States (Aug 19, '10)
[Re Ain't no sunshine in
Lee's smile, Aug 18] The recently announced "unification tax" is the
latest step in the campaign of Lee Myung-bek, South Korea's president, to cede
no ground to North Korea. Lee's program is simple enough: he wants to
"bulldoze" the North to kingdom come. The "unification tax" is also an
expression of triumphalism that he is succeeding - and that the not so distant
collapse of North Korea will favor his plan to reunify the divided peninsula.
In this, he is ably assisted by the US Obama administration in a four-level
confrontation strategy to push Pyongyang to the brink through repeated military
exercises close to North Korea waters; strong economic sanctions; diplomatic
ploys; and finally through renewed and reinvigorated propaganda warfare. Lee is
riding the crest of a wave which he hopes will crown him as Korea's unifier.
His appetite for fame is such that failure for him is not Korean.
Nakamura Junzo
Guam (Aug 18, '10)
[Re Bizarre bedfellows
rally to Afghanistan, Aug 17] "There is no meaningful anti-war
movement", this article states in reference to the Afghanistan war. Of course
there is no anti-war movement against the Afghanistan war. The public learned
from the Iraq war that protesting is a joke. The British public learned that if
they had a protest of 100,000 people, the news would give the protest a minute
or two of coverage.The American public learned that if they had a protest of
50,000 people, the news would report it as a protest of 5,000 people.
In America, a big anti-war protest was going to begin. In order to keep people
away from the protest, a local TV station showed a biker gang with fires
blazing and motorcycles revving on the news and claimed these rough-looking
hooligans were at the protest site. The intent was to scare the average person
away from the war protest. The TV station made no mention of where the police
were, or why the police were not doing anything about the thugs.
This writer attended an anti-war protest. After the protest as people were
leaving, the police came to all the cars and stopped them because they said "a
man with a gun was running around". There was no man with a gun. It was a
psychological operation to scare the anti-war protesters into thinking they
could be shot if they attended anti war demonstrations. At another American
protest the police shot the protesters with rubber bullets and threw BB
(pellet-carrying) grenades at them without provocation. The police attacked the
protesters to stop the demonstration and to teach them to never demonstrate
again. The American public got the message. Protest the war and the TV will lie
about everything you do, and your own police will shoot you with rubber bullets
and throw BB grenades at you. Even if they permanently maim or kill you.
Woodrow Gillian
United States (Aug 18, '10)
[Re Why don't
Americans like Muslims, Aug 16] "What Americans observe, in part as a
result of exposure to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, is that Islam has
produced a large number of individuals enraged enough to blow themselves up to
kill Americans as well as each other." - Spengler
On the other hand, pseudo-Spengler, Muslims observe, as a result of exposures
to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, that America has produced a large number
of individuals vain and bigoted enough to slaughter Muslims by the million -
not unlike the Vietnam War, where US vanity and bigotry killed millions as
well.
Lester Ness, Vietnam Veteran
Kunming China (Aug 18, '10)
[Re Why don't
Americans like Muslims?, Aug 16] I have just read Spengler’s latest
article (on Muslims). Why do you allow a man who is clearly a racist write for
your site? He also makes very little sense: eg ''Obama is the
Islamophile-in-Chief''?? Ask a Muslim living in Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan or
Pakistan if they think Obama loves them. I mean ... really. Paul Kindlon
(Aug 17, '10)
[Re Why don't
Americans like Muslims?, Aug 16] Contrary to the views of some
long-time letter writers, I strongly support AToL maintaining Spengler’s
column. Just as Kim Myong Chol provides a useful look at the perspective of the
North Korean absolute monarchy, so Spengler provides valuable insight into how
crass imperial greed and adherence to delirious Biblical heresies have warped
the minds of a large part of the Anglo-American oligarchy.
Spengler has stated in the past that one of his primary goals is to promote
Christian-Jewish understanding. By "understanding" he seems to mean a frenzied
Judeo-Protestant fundamentalism according to which Muslims resisting foreign
control are but mindless barbarians to be exterminated. According to this view,
the US military should stop beating around the bush with vacuous talk about
"stability" and "democratization" when it is slaughtering Muslims.
Such dissonance between words and acts only emboldens the desert savages! Like
the increasing numbers of IDF soldiers marching forward with the blessings of
Lebensrum-obsessed rabbis, the US troops need to dust off the old Templar garb,
raise the bloody cross, and be done with it! And yet what holds them back is
the handwringing of Washington pansies.
Surely the American oligarchs could not be decadent warmongering psychopaths!
After all, they are indifferent to feminism, homosexuality and mass Third World
immigration! What wimps! No war brides ... that explains those stubborn Arabs!
And do not worry, because however badly the Anglo-Saxon and Israeli schemes
fare in the Middle East, a latter-day Prestor John will lead a vast army of
Chinese evangelicals westward to save them! Dear AToL readers, there are few
with the stamina to pump out such delirium on a regular basis. Spengler is
irreplaceable.
Jonathan Song (Aug 17, '10)
[Re Why don't
Americans like Muslims?, Aug 16] This is an excellent piece by Spengler
and I would add the following to this article: There is a lot of hypocrisy on
the subject of Islam in the United States. The practice is very different to
the theory in the Western Hemisphere. The overwhelming majority of Muslims in
the United States couldn't care less about radical religious beliefs. They have
secular leanings and prefer success and progress to tradition. In fact, Muslim
Americans have integrated more to our society than - let's say - Muslims in
Sweden and Northern Europe for that matter, where they segregate themselves in
"ghettos". Places that you would never believe exist in such feminized,
progressive nations. How come that Muslims in America are way more successful,
better educated, and richer than Muslims in Norther Europe? America offers more
opportunities for integration and an economic model where their businesses
thrive. Not only Americans couldn't care less about foreign policy and learning
another language, we also don't give a rats' behind about this whole Muslim
thing. If it was not because of the press, we would not even notice an Islamic
presence in America.
I believe that the American and Western press - liberal and conservative - are
the ones obsessed with the subject of Islam and Muslims. Americans rarely leave
this country to move somewhere else, we distrust the government, we stick to
our guns, traditions, and religion, and we live and let live. If there is an
anti-Muslim sentiment somewhere, thank the press for it. They just can't
exploit enough the sensibility of the subject of Muslims in America. The people
could care less, the media is making a living off it.
Ysais A Martinez
United States (Aug 17, '10)
[Re Why don't
Americans like Muslims?, Aug 16] The short answer is because Muslims
don't like Americans. Here is a list of people demonized and despised by those
loveable Americans as exemplified by our very own Mr Spengler and Mr Martinez:
all black Africans, all Native Americans, all Chinese, every one in the
southern hemisphere (except for white Australians and some farmers in Zimbabwe
and diamond miners in South Africa), every one south of the Rio Grande, every
one east of a longitudinal line in Central Europe where people begin to develop
distinctly eastern Asiatic features.
Of course Germans, Italians, Spaniards, Slavs, southern Europeans were not much
liked at one time or the other. We also know for sure, at least according to
the Anti-Defamation League's Abraham Foxman, that anti-semitism is on the rise
again, for the umpteenth time. I, of course, am heart-broken and won't be able
to sleep knowing that Americans don't like me very much.
Idi Xamin
Central African Republic (Aug 17, '10)
Obama's Mona Lisa
Smile, Aug 13] As usual M K Bhadrakumar provides a gem on the subject.
However, there are some points that need some clarification. First, the Obama
administration won't attack Iran, nor will Israel. As an American I can tell
you that another conflict with yet another Middle East country will be highly
unpopular and be heavily criticized by the American public. The two existing
conflicts in which the country is actively involved have been a failure and the
people are sick of wars without any results. As of now, most Americans don't
know why we are in Afghanistan or Iraq, our own government does not know who is
our friend or who is our enemy, which results in civilian casualties. There is
not accountability for these wars, thus they are operating on an unlimited
budget.
Second, politicians usually care more about being re-elected than making the
will of the people who elected them. The president of the United States has two
decisive elections coming up. The first one in November, when many Democratic
senators and representatives will lose their jobs, and the presidential
elections in 2012. The presidential elections will be mostly focused on
domestic issues such as the economy, unemployment, and education - most
Americans don't care about foreign policy. Obama is a clever politician from
Chicago. I am absolutely sure that he won't risk political capital at this
stage of his presidency.
So Iran can sleep in peace. Israel is a puppet of the United States so they
won't attack anybody unless the US president says so. Third and finally, it
takes more than the reset button to heal the relations between the US and
Russia. George W Bush severely damaged that diplomatic tie by supporting the
unilateral Kosovo independence, fueling the so-called color revolutions in
former Soviet republics, and with the US recklessness in its foreign policy
south of Russia. Now the Obama administration will have to deal with a bitter
Russia eager to aid Iran in its nuclear aspirations.
Ysais Martinez
United States (Aug 16, '10)
[Re Austerity
fails policy test, Aug 11] History certainly offers success stories of
deficit spending that ultimately led to economic recoveries and even
prosperity. However, in the absence of sound fiscal policies to productively
utilize the funds, more misdirected stimulus money today will only lead to a
bigger mess tomorrow. (While providing federal aid to local governments and to
the unemployed may constitute a good fiscal policy, injecting massive liquidity
to prop up the rickety housing market is not.) The United States has not shown
fiscal responsibility for far too long; that trend, sadly, looks to continue.
John Chen
United States (Aug 16, '10)
Wonderlanders are obsessed with the word "free". They justify their wars as
fights for "freedom". They praise and adore "free markets". They're suckers for
commercials promising "free" merchandise (when they buy "X" amount of something
else). They insist on every country having "free" elections. Our national
anthem's last sentence proudly proclaims ours as a land of the "free".
But should anyone in Wonderland attempt to exercise that "freedom" and travel
to Cuba to lounge on Copacabana Beach or sip Bacardis with the Castro brothers,
they would find that "freedom" removed post-haste. Or try driving without a
seat belt or car insurance and see how "free" you really are. And forget about
being "free" to smoke marijuana, or being "free" to marry someone of your same
gender or a whole host of other things that are none of anyone's business.
Lest I be accused of ignoring the "real freedoms" that do exist, let me
enumerate some. Wall Street bankers are free to rig the system and then
mercilessly fleece the taxpayer with congressional blessing. Presidents and
politicians are free to lie and distort the truth in order to wreck countries
and maim and kill thousands. People are free to ignore facts and listen to
neo-con hatemongers spin stories out of thin air. Freedom's double-edged sword
has one blade promising a fantasy world of unlimited happiness and
self-fulfillment, while its opposite side is tinged red with the bloody reality
of rationalized murder, unrestrained financial skullduggery and mangled truth.
I'll let you choose which side America has decided to decapitate its future
with.
Hardy Campbell
United States (Aug 16, '10)
[Re: 2010 vs. 2007, and The perils
of false bottoms, Aug 9]. As Pimco honcho Mohamed El-Erian opined
today, there really isn’t a whole lot more that can be done to further boost
the sagging economy by the Federal Reserve, which is caught between the
proverbial rock and a hard place in implementing policy measures. In retrospect
(though ATol writers at the time warned of this exact outcome), the biggest
mistake made by the Obama administration was not allowing the stock and housing
markets to fall to levels more reflective of true economic conditions before
jumping in with both feet in March, 2009 to engineer a rescue. Now, nearly one
trillion stimulus dollars later, the economy is headed back to square one, a
stark reality that really should trammel the Fed’s customary alacrity in doling
out quantitative easing. With economic unpleasantness all around and no viable
solution in sight, it well may be time to reserve a spot in the Fabulous
Mogambo Bunker.
John Chen
USA (Aug 11, '10)
[Re 'The beautiful coat' wears a bit thin,
Aug 10] Dr. Jian Junbo tries to paint a happy face on a serious incident. South
Korea has more to lose than China should Beijing cut trade with the ROK.
Current military exercises in the NLL are a strong indication of how far South
Korea's president is willing to go to provoke North Korea into committing a war
like incident. In fact his recent shuffling of his cabinet should tell us that
his forward policy to the North remains unchanged. He has after all retained
his hard line minister who is a proponent with a no hold policy towards the
DPRK, in his post. It would do good to remind "Asia Times Online" readers the
strong ties that bind China to North Korea. They are not necessarily cultural
but political and have more to do with the Communist Party's survival against
Imperial Japan in northeast China.
Nakamura Junzo
Guam (Aug 11, '10)
[Re India draws a
line over Kashmir, Aug 9] Glad to know that you are covering the
Kashmir conflict. Historical facts are there and can not be altered. But the
need of the hour is to reach out to the people of Kashmir, who are the real
sufferers of the long pending conflict. It is true that India and Pakistan have
been trying to set the matters right and come up with a solution of the
problem, but it is equally true that for last 60 years or so, no one is
thinking of the Kashmiri people.
Successive local governments of Jammu and Kashmir are nothing but a means of
utilizing the money sent by the union government ( in the form of economic
packages and other aid) for their own interests. The past two months have seen
50 deaths on the streets of Kashmir, mostly young boys. All these deaths were
the result of indiscriminate firing by security forces on unarmed protesters.
In fact the very first protest erupted as anger against the unprovoked killing
of a student by the security forces.
While the cycle of killings and firing on mobs goes on, mainstream leaders of
Kashmir and the people at the helm of affairs in New Delhi are busy talking in
absurdities. It is of no use to talk in New Delhi about a solution to the
Kashmir problem. In fact, separatist leaders in Kashmir may be motivated to
talk to New Delhi only if India shows some kind of change in its hardline
policy. Steps could include the revocation of the Armed Forces Special Powers
Act and the removal of security forces from the cities and towns.
Lolabi Shakir
Srinagar, India (Aug 10, '10)
[Re Terror list conundrum
over North Korea, Aug 6] Donald Kirk again repeats his story about the
naval battle of Daecheong, claiming that most of the North Korean crew was
killed.
The battle was caused when a NK 215 ton Soju/Osa-I missile boat sailed into
South Korean waters, it was warned several times to turn around and when it
continued moving south warning shots were fired, it then fired on a South
Korean ship. The North Koreans lost the battle and returned north. The boat has
a crew of around 45 and reports of their causalities range from one to 10, so
even the worst case has less than a quarter of the boat's crew killed, not more
than half. As to whether North Korea should be on the terror list, the answer
is they should but also the list in meaningless. The US in the last couple of
months has begun to quietly go after North Korean illegal bank accounts around
the world, and it is working.
Kim Jong-il is a one-trick pony and his game of being crazy to get aid is no
longer working. He probably thought he would sink the Cheonan and South
Korea would return to giving him billions in aid. However the opposite happened
and South Korean cut all trade but Kaesong Industrial Park which will cost
North Korea about US$300 million to $500 million in trade, a massive amount to
its economy.
North Korea's new plan is to agree to return to the six party talks in return
for lifting economic pressure against them, and the talks will drag on for a
few years and North Korea will not have to give up their nuclear weapons. The
game has been going on for 16 years and anyone with half a brain knows it a
joke. Will the Obama administration agree to return to the six party talks? I
would say the odds are about 50/50, which squares with my concept about half a
brain.
If the US continues to economically squeeze North Korea, I still don't believe
North Korea will agree to give up its nuclear weapons. Then the question is
what will a malignant narcissist who is very close to death will do next. Kim
Jong-il himself is probably not sure what he will do, and will the North Korean
elite go down in flames with him if that is his decision.
China will do nothing to pressure North Korea because they are terrified of a
North Korean collapse - and not because of refugees, but because they fear the
Chinese people seeing the fall of a communist government and then the vast
improvement in the lives of the North Korean people.
The Chinese Communist Party is afraid the Chinese people will question their
right to rule. There is no chance that Japan and South Korea will join a
Chinese alliance against the US. China is not looking for friends or allies
they want vassals that cower at their at their feet and I don't think Japan or
South Korea see's that as a great future.
Dennis O'Connell
United States (Aug 9, '10)
[Re Iran gains as
Arabs' Obama hopes sink, August 7] Little surprise for me here and it
may well reflect the world-wide opinion of the Obama administration. Obviously
the poll ratings for President Barack Obama across the US would be dominated by
domestic issues and generally speaking, most US citizens care nothing about
foreign policy.
For the rest of the world however, where many previously held high expectations
of an improved, equitable and forward looking US foreign policy, we can only
conclude we have seen a new band leader elected but he has been saddled and
bogged down with the same tired old advisory orchestra, playing the same old
failed and failing foreign policy tunes. Nothing much really changes over the
decades does it?. We continue to live in hope.
Ian C Purdie
Sydney, Australia (Aug 9, '10)
[Re Lines blur in
Lebanon's ranks, Aug 6] Hezbollah is one of Israel's bug-a-boos, no
doubt about it. The quality of Israeli intelligence is blindsided by that
obsession. As the political reshaping of Lebanon continues to take place,
Hezbollah takes its rightful place in the landscape of political and
confessional parties. Israel is obsessed by the guiding hand of Iran in
Lebanese affairs. Before it was Syria. Tomorrow who knows?
There is disputed territory on the Israeli-Lebanon border. Israel is slow in
solving the matter for it would imply a broader settlement of outstanding
issues since the 1948 war. So the area remains a trip wire.
Time is no longer on Israel's side. The longer it refuses to settle borders
with its Arab neighbors and deal with Gaza and a two state solution, the more
not only its moral but its political and military authority is weakening. As
such, refusing to deal with its own problems, Israel looks for others to blame.
Abraham Bin Yiju
Palermo, Italy (Aug 9, '10)
[Re Pakistan: Relief
operations flounder, Aug 5] Pakistanis have always risen to the
occasion and donated generously in cash and kind to alleviate the miseries of
fellow countrymen in times of natural disaster and calamity. October 2005 was
probably the most shining example, when Mansehra and Muzzafarabad were
literally flooded with not only all kinds of provisions, foods, medicine, tents
and shelters but also by the young volunteers, including doctors and paramedics
who came in hordes from places as far as Karachi. People did it again in 2009
for the IDPs [internally displaced people] of Swat, Buner and Bajaur and
donated generously and most willingly.
Surprisingly that spirit is not visible now in spite of repeated appeals by the
government and ministers, especially when the present floods are the worst
floods in the history of Pakistan. Why is then the nation so indifferent and
unresponsive? From my interaction with the general public, I find it to be a
case of a trust deficit. The political governments - federal as well provincial
- do not enjoy the confidence of the people, who think the money they donate
will not reach the people it is meant for. Like it or not, they still want the
army to handle the distribution of funds, commodities, and other supplies.
Isn't it sad? Col Riaz Jafri (Retd)
Rawalpindi, Pakistan (Aug 9, '10)
[Re 'Take pen, forget
character' , Aug 4] We are warned that young people today are
forgetting how to write Chinese characters, thanks to text messaging and word
processing.
The evidence? First, two newspaper polls found that 80% say they have problems
writing characters. This is suggestive, but does not indicate whether or not
there has been a decline. What percentage of writers had problems writing
characters 10 years ago, 20 years ago, 30 years ago?
Second, an Education Ministry poll reported that 60% of teachers say writing
standards have declined. But educators always say that students these days are
not as good as they used to be. This has been going on the US at least since
1874, when Harvard instituted a remedial writing course in response to
complaints of faculty about students' lack of writing competence.
There may very well be a genuine decline in the ability to write characters,
but let's make sure before starting on expensive and time-consuming new
programs. In addition, writing technology may be stimulating better reading
ability and higher quality writing. All this needs to be investigated
scientifically.
Stephen Krashen, PhD
United States (Aug 9, '10)
[Re A daring departure from
Deng, Aug 5] United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gave
China a dose of its own medicine by bringing up the Spratly and Paracel Islands
matter at the gathering of Asian foreign ministers in Hanoi. In one calculated
move, she took China by surprise, and suddenly it is conducting or planning
maneuvers in the South China Sea to stake out a claim that is a Han mare nostrum.
By concentrating its forces and resources there, Beijing has provided the Obama
administration with a margin of play to carry out more naval and air exercises
by its South Korean ally along the NLL dangerously close to North Korea. The US
has once again thrown its martial glove into the East Asian arena and is
playing a dangerous game.
Mel Cooper Singapore (Aug 5, '10)
[Re A daring departure from
Deng, Aug 5] Deng's principle assumed that there is first the
acknowledgement that the disputed areas belong to China. Following this, there
is the willingness of China to allow joint development. Now that some Southeast
Asian countries start to occupy these islands and at the same time
internationalize it to bring US into the picture, China has no other recourse
but to announce these as its core national interest. Appeasement does not work
with these neighbors and conflicts cannot be ruled out.
Wendy Cai United States (Aug 5, '10)
[Re West will
endure, Aug 3] I enjoyed reading Martin Hutchinson's article. Most
certainly the West will endure. But European Civilization will decline, along
with American Civilization, Chinese Civilization, Indian Civilization, et al.
The reason has nothing to do with the faults or merits of any of these formerly
self-contained civilizations. It's purely technological. The Internet, still in
its infancy, has brought a Global Village into being and the civilizational
adjectives of European, American, Chinese, Indian, et al are rapidly becoming
irrelevant.
Francis Chow
Quebec, Canada (Aug 4, '10)
[Re History drags on Japan
and South Korea, Aug 3] South Korea, you can say, began trying to deal
with its questionable past with Imperial Japan in the last years of the 20th
century, delving into the past of political, military, and chaebol leaders
who one way or the other had collaborated with the Japanese. An oft-quoted
example is the slain prime minister Park Jung-hi who fought for the Japan's
Kwantung army against Korean guerrillas in Manchukuo and was personally awarded
a medal by the puppet emperor Pui Yu. General Park belonged to a group of
soldiers who fought for the Japanese and whom the US recruited to form the ROK
army.
A quick scan of other high ranking officers reveals a sordid past of
collaboration without the slightest regret or apology. The same story can be
told for the political elite. The US brought in Syngman Rhee, who spent 37
years in exile in the US, to give cover to their hand-picked candidates who
served well the Japan to control South Korea politically. The businessmen who
served the Japanese needed no push to serve the new American masters.
Zoom forward to the days of the late prime minister Roh Moo-hyun, who raised
the need to examine the collaborationist past of the ROK elite. He earned
nothing but their scorn and accusations of malfeasance. It is not a stretch to
see his suicide as a squaring of accounts for South Korea's unwillingness to
'fess up to an ugly past of collaboration with its former colonial master.
Nakamura Junzo
Guam (Aug 4, '10)
[Love Lee, love him not,
Aug 2] Aidan Foster-Carter makes a good point about South Korean president Lee
Myung-bak which the international media has quietly forgotten. When Lee wore a
corporate suit, he was known as "Bulldozer". As president, he transferred his
business practices to politics with mixed results. But politics is not
business, and whether he succeeds at the polls depends upon how much he can
overwhelm and cower less-than-enthusiastic voters.
Nakamura Junzo
Guam (Aug 3, '10)
[Re Ysais Martinez's letter, Jul 30] With reference to
Murder on the Khyber Pass Express, Asia Times Online, Jul 26, Ysais
Martinez wrote, "The White House is doing great efforts to minimize the
situation, however this leak can change the course of the war, the future of a
region and the loss of thousands of lives of both Americans and Afghans." If
the White House et al cared anything about human life, American or Afghan, they
would have pulled every single American out already. Bush started this war out
of fundamentalist fantasy. Obama keeps it going from vanity.
Lester Ness
China (Aug 3, '10)
[Re Col Riaz Jafri (Retd)'s letter, Aug 2] While I would agree that David
Cameron's statements were ill-advised and undiplomatic, there is truth to his
words. The British will pull out of Afghanistan within a few years, their
economic woes will see to that. The Pakistanis should keep in mind that any
leverage Pakistan has over Britain will then disappear. Britain is already
looking to the future, it's economy comes first, and where that is concerned,
countries like India are the future, not Pakistan. Col Jafri would better spend
his time building up Pakistan's economy instead of making threats. Also think
about unpleasant consequences to Pakistanis in Britain were another terrorist
attack in the UK traced back to Pakistan. Pakistan is not a very popular
country in the West.
Paul Vincent
Sharjah, United Arab Emirates (Aug 3, '10)
[Re Murder on the
Khyber Pass Express, Jul 26] I made a comment on another website that
''The informants in Afghanistan'' (who the Americans are so concerned about in
the Wikileaks data) are exactly like the traitors in France who collaborated
with the Nazis in WWII. They are being treasonous to their own fellow citizens
who are fighting to extricate an occupying army from their country." Well ...
this little blurb brought on a torrent of indignant Americans who lambasted me
with foul-smelling expletives and other derogatory names. And not just a few
... the overwhelming majority of Americans cannot understand the viewpoint of
anything other than what is put out by the Pentagon and US media. Wikileaks
will have to keep putting out masses of data to even make a dent in the mindset
of these ill advised people. Ken Moreau
United States (Aug 2, '10)
The United States participated in the rise of people like Saddam Hussein to
take out the vibrant Iraqi Communist Party, and of the Saudi financier Osama
bin Laden to take down the communist Afghan regime. The latter was only
possible with a highly compliant and subsidized [Pakistan intelligence agency]
ISI through Zia et al, who awakened a small extremist group from within and in
Afghanistan as well. When the Taliban , with ISI and US dollars, entered Kabul
on 27 September 1996, the US state welcomed the development with the hope that
the new rulers might bring stability to the region despite the fact that they
were murderers. Any tyrant will do as long as he is our tyrant.
Formed in 1994 under the tutelage of the ISI/US and General Naseerullah Khan
(Pakistan's Interior Minister), the Taliban comprises southern Pashtun tribes
who are united by a vision of a society under Wahhabism, which preaches Islam
based on its interpretation of the Quran without the benefit of the centuries
of dissection of the complexities of the tradition. The ISI will only go so
far. A defeat in the tribal areas would mean the emergence of an "independent"
Pashtun Islamic "state" and against Pakistan interests. The only way Pakistan
will loosen its hold on these policies is if its regional concerns are met.
With Afghanistan this means recognition by its government and US that the
Durrand Line is Pakistan's legitimate border and that all counterinsurgency
operations on the Pakistani side are the exclusive right of the army. With
India it means resolution of Kashmir. The two are interlinked. Pakistan and the
Taliban and the ISI are very aware of what was in the Wikileaks ... long before
it was released. I doubt if there is anything in there that they didn't know.
We can only hope the leak will change the course of the war. It took the
Pentagon Papers for Americans to realize that Vietnam was at war with China for
only 1,000 years. Perhaps now we will realize that ISI will use whatever it
takes to digest Pashtun nationalism. Once that is in the bag it will be just
like old times with the ISI and the Taliban again.
Miles Tompkins
Canada (Aug 2, '10)
[Re The (war) games go on,
Jul 30] If past history is a guide, the United States will pacify its South
Korean ally. President Truman modified slightly the unreasonable demands of
Syngman Rhee. President Obama will do likewise with Lee Myung-bak. He cannot
but go along with Lee's desire to teach North Korea a lesson after the sinking
of the Cheonan. In fact, with Washington's help a bigger than life
propaganda campaign was orchestrated culminating in a US defeat in the UN
Security Council to blame North Korea for the attack on the South Korean
corvette. It would be difficult for the US to disengage now even if it means
angering China.
Nakamura Junzo
Guam (Aug 2, '10)
A statesman would not have castigated Pakistan the way loud-mouthed British
Prime Minister David Cameron did (and that too on Indian soil in public) even
behind the closed doors. But, of course that applies only to a statesman!
Obviously, his utterances, which were to cajole the Indians with an eye on
billion pound future business prospects, especially the sale of fighter
aircraft to the IAF, have been very rightly condemned by all segments of
Pakistani society. People expected [Pakistani President Asif] Zardari to cancel
his forthcoming official visit to UK in protest, but I suppose it is too late
at this stage as all preparations for the visit have already been made.
However, the least Zardari can do now is to convey the true feelings of every
Pakistani in unambiguous words to the Brit in his meeting with him. The
immature Cameron must be told clearly to observe the diplomatic norms during
his future utterances at home and abroad, or else it could provoke some very
unpleasant repercussions for the UK. Enough is enough.
Col Riaz Jafri (Retd)
Rawalpindi, Pakistan (Aug 2, '10)
July Letters
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
All material on this
website is copyright and may not be republished in any form without written
permission.
Copyright 1999 - 2010 Asia Times Online
(Holdings), Ltd.
|
|
Head
Office: Unit B, 16/F, Li Dong Building, No. 9 Li Yuen Street East,
Central, Hong Kong
Thailand Bureau:
11/13 Petchkasem Road, Hua Hin, Prachuab Kirikhan, Thailand 77110
|
|
|
|
